Commodore USA:my side of the story!

[CritAnime]

This is Barry we are talking about. Only he could set a "independent fancentric" site up then change the rules as he starts getting negative feedback. There has been a lot of backlash at the heavy handed way he has handled some of the questions and queries within the last few months. I suppose this is just his way of trying to bring what he perceives to be order to the site.

His house his rules as he often says. If it keeps the majority of CUSA stuff over there, which in the last few weeks we have seen little to no activity except in the already established threads, then rock on I say.

[CritAnime]

Actually that's part of my point. Once the site becomes limited to just specific topics, then those who wish to abide by the new rules -would not- stay over there.

To me anyway, the notion of a community site like AW/A.org is that the technical discussions take place, but you also keep the interested parties on your site by -having- those other forums available as well.

Hyperion has previously done something similar with their own customer forums, but they already have the established alternative sites of Amigaworld, AmigaOrg, and Amigans for other discussion beyond the scope of a customer site.

So, I ask you...does this serve to keep people on their community site or drive them elsewhere to post outside of the new defined scope?

#6

I agree with you. I have had not much sleep in the last 48hr so my mind is a little squiffy lol. But what I was aiming at was keeping the CUSA hardware and SW stuff confined to their site and if people want to discuss classics/ng then that brings them over to a.org and aw.net I gues thats what I was trying to say. Sorry No 6

[CritAnime]

One thing to keep in mind is that @terminills started the community site and it did have a wider scope given Tim's interests as a promoter and supporter of many things.
I see the same change as you do, and agree it is obviously his right to do so and perhaps long term will benefit his plans.
But still...how hard is it to have a company section and "everything else". Anything less smacks of a controlled environment for the fans.

#6

I ran a forum myself and I know that it's not hard to moderate sections, so long as you have the moderators to do it, so that certain things remain in certain sections and so forth. However from what I have seen there is only a handful of mods and then I have not seen any of them really enforcing anything other than Leo and Barry. Which means it's pretty much a single sided show.

like you I saw that it was certainly a site that had primary focus on CUSA but also allowed for discussion for classic and so forth at the start. But the current environment is one of a engineered community. Where anything that doesn't correspond with the plan that Barry has is either instantly locked or deleted outright without warning or explanation.

At the end of the day it's now Barry's place. I think the initial perspective of the site that terminills had is now long gone. It's a marketing vehicle for CUSA and engineered in a way that anyone who is prone to impulse buying without too much research will see only good things about them without seeing the flip side.

Nothing wrong with it but I just don't agree with it. Again sorry if some of this seems rushed or a little lacking in explanation but no sleep makes me very dull lol.

[CritAnime]

From what I can gather the online details are not accurate. If someone logs in it registers them on the list. If someone looks at a thread it registers them as looking at it on the top of the thread page. However both are offset by atleast half an hour. So oif someone navigates away from the page it will still show them as viewing the thread. Much like is someone navigates away from the site it will still show them as been active. The only sure fire way to drop from the list is to log out.

I know this as I have registered there in the past but then got banned almost the same day. Their active list for guests is probably way, way, way off. Because it does the same for guests.

[CritAnime]

I am not saying either which way. Just pointing out that the user and guest list, along with the who's lookin at a thread thing, are way too offset to get an acurate reading of how many people are visiting the site. I would imagine it was an oversight initially, they are using joomla which is great as a CMS but makes a crap forum device, of the forum plugin. But as you say it gives a good impression of the overall traffic to the site.
 
What ever the inital intent of the site you can see from rcent activity that it nows been engineered towards a advertising vehicle. After all he owns the domain name and the server.

[CritAnime]

I did one make a list of their products, both existing and "future" models, but for the life in me I can't find it. So I will try and list it all again.
 
Pheonix - This was one if the initial models announced when CUSA first started. This later became the first Vic Pro.
 
Iviticus - This again was an early model that was intended for release. This was canceled (http://gizmodo.com/5554750/commodore-invictus-keyboard+computer-specs-bests-the-asus-eee-keyboard)
 
Amigo - This was yet another announced (http://www.amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=552048&postcount=1) system but was never shown or released.
 
C64x - Released and shown a lot. This has seen several revisions including standard, pro, extreme and supreme. Including a barebones system, just the case, and now announced clear and black cases (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/2-welcome-mat/15395-update?lang=en#15395) which were renounced by Barry. Gurrent model comes with an i7 processor.
 
Vic Slim - Initially two versions of the slim were produced. A pro version, this was the pheonix, and a less powerful black slim version. The silver (pheonix) vic was replaced by the current slim and the original slim was dropped completely. It has had a couple of hardware revisions. These computers are pre-built computers. However CUSA has access to the "barebones" case. At time of writing a "clearence" barebones (the old slim model) is available with a Atom D525 1.8GHz processor where as the current barebones comes with Intel Atom D2700 2.13GHz.
 
Vic Mini - This was origionally the same case as the Amiga Mini (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/en/component/content/article/3-newsflash/80-commodore-vic-mini) but in black and no laser etched Amiga sign. However this was replaced with the current Mini which is a rebadged ZOTAC ZBOX Giga ID70 Plus (http://www.zotac.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage_images-SRW.tpl&product_id=414&category_id=153&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=100275&lang=en&vmcchk=1&Itemid=100275). No barebone is available as this is a simple rebadge with the same specs. It is priced at $999.
 
Amiga Mini - Current model is either a Streacom F4 or Wesena Minit ITX2 (http://www.wesena.co.uk/product.php/5/2/itx2). It has a laser etched Amiga sign on the front along with stick on Commodore branding. Initially only available in silver it was revised when the Vic Mini was replaced with the Zotac box. Now you can get it in black or sliver also with or without Amiga branding. Initially only one hardware setup was available which was an i7 with 16gb ram. Only the HDD was cusomizable and these were a traditional 1tb HDD, 300gb SDD or 600gb SDD. it was described as the sportscar of the computer world. However these were revised after numerous complaints about pricing ($2740) to include i3 and i5 processors and RAM selection. All systems include NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 430 GPU with 1GB DDR3. These have been linked to Zotac motherboards. A barebones model is available in both black or silver and with or without etching. hints of yet another hardware revision has been mentioned also (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/27-commodore-usa/15473-amiga-mio?lang=en#15477)
 
Amiga Mio - this was recently announced (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/2-welcome-mat/15395-update?lang=en#15395) in Barry's big update. However it's been revealed that it actually the current Vic Mini (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/27-commodore-usa/15473-amiga-mio?lang=en#15477). This change in name is to apparently make it easier identify and place it in the current product linup and is now the entry CUSA Amiga. No news on pricing has been announced.
 
Amiga 1000x - Hinted at a while back in a news article on commodore-amiga.org (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/en/component/content/article/3-newsflash/78-a1000x) this box, which was a photoshopped image from an original Amiga 100 box, was shown around several sites. It turned out to be a Wesena E5 (http://www.wesena.co.uk/product.php/7/3/e5) case and Iton Bluetooth keyboard (Read my post http://amiga.org/forums/showpost.php?p=683802&postcount=73). However a recent update from barry shows a pre-prdouction case with etched Amiga logo (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/27-commodore-usa/15452-commodore-amiga-1000x-minus-the-keyboard-garage-and-custom-keyboard?lang=en#15452). Initially though several possible cases have been shown over the last year and a half including Kama T series and Origen S series. Pricing has been hinted at starting from $2495 (http://www.commodore-amiga.org/forum/5-commodore-amiga-hardware-wishlist-/10991-cusa-commodore-amiga-concept-designs?limit=15&start=240&lang=en#13166). No specs have been announced.
 
Amiga 2000x and 3000x - Several possible cases have been shown over the last year and a half including Kama T series and Origen S series. No other news has been mentioned other than they could be expensive.
 
Amiga 500x - This was initially suspected to be the current Vic pro. However no further info came from this. Seems to be a dead project.
 
Now I lost my original list with all this on. So I had to piece it together from my own posts and what I could remember. If anyone can remember anything else then please let me know and we could update this.
 
@number6
I know you have a nose for info. If you can rememebr anything then please let me know. Also it shows how they constantly change their minds about hardware.