Help needed with programming Amiga development forum

[Cammy]

Hello everyone. Many of the remaining Amiga programmers and other creative people are in need of a new Amiga project development forum so we can work on new software, games and hardware for all Amiga systems and keep the scene alive.

We only need one person who can program PHP to help us set up the forum. We have hosting already, we just need a forum that has no or minimal CSS and is compatible and renders properly with IBrowse and AWeb.

Please help us, you will finally see more Amiga development if we have a new forum for it.

Using an existing forum isn't an option and has been discussed countless times in the past. Please try to understand, this topic isn't a debate, just a call for help.

Thank you.

[Cammy]

We reinvent the wheel when the old wheel gets too rusty to use anymore.

[Cammy]

Like I already said, this isn't up for debate, we just need help with this. You're welcome to join the forum when it's ready, and see how much more gets done there than what gets done on UtilityBase or any other Amiga forum.

I'm not trying to split the community apart, there's nothing to be afraid of. Can you just trust me that this will be a good thing for anyone still using Amiga systems.

[Cammy]

The rusty wheel is clearly ibrowse and aweb!

I have offered several times to help in the past, even started a forum that was 80% amiga browser friendly and was prepared to fix up the rest of the way to bring it to a usable state.
You mostly ignored me or gave vague answers.

Good luck with that!

I never ignored you, I was still hoping you wanted to help us out but it's very hard to talk to you. I can never tell if you're angry with me or not, like at the moment it seems like you are.

Does this mean you no longer want to help out? I'm on IRC every day if you ever want to clear something up with me, I don't think there was any need to join in against me here.

[Cammy]

Wow, thank you, johnklos. I think we might have to take you up on your offer for hosting those services for us, I don't know if our previous offer for hosting the forum exists any more though, so we may need hosting for that too.

[Cammy]

We really only need one person with the capacity to understand the bigger picture to help us out. I'm sorry but I don't think anything I say could persuade you to open your mind enough to accept that we need change.

While all the forums have their own problems, I won't pick on them. What I will ask you is how productive do you think they have been? How successful is the Amiga software market at the moment? Which forum is dedicated to fixing this problem and creating a little organisation and unity, listening to the real Amiga users and adapting to their needs? Where can we go to discuss new ideas without the fear of being shot down by negative thinking, hurtful people who only want to stop anyone else from succeeding where perhaps they failed or didn't have the courage to try in the first place? Where is the Amiga E forum? Where is the forum where programmers can easily request music for their games and get responses from the most suitable musicians? Where do we discuss character development and graphic design for these games? Where are the forum administrators that actually use Amigas and can sympathize with the productive users and filter out the trouble makers? Where do we work together on projects like new legal Workbench distributions and package management?

You might see this move as "splittism" but I see it as a new hope. You must understand how many people have biases towards and against various Amiga forums. A new forum, a fresh start with a real purpose could be our best shot of getting something done for once. If we don't try anything, the Amiga scene will continue to stagnate.

[Cammy]

Thanks for your helpful contribution, keep up the good work.

[Cammy]

I'm sorry but although BBSs are cool, it's not really what we need. We'd like a forum that works well in regular modern browsers but also renders fine in Amiga browsers, like AmigaWorld or Amiga.org through the proxy. We intend on it being a very serious, friendly and helpful development-only forum. The forum will cater to all Amiga flavours, be they 68k/OS3, OS4, MorphOS, Aros, Natami or MiniMig. We already have a mailing list of programmers who will be invited to join the forum once it starts, and several of us already have projects underway that we're desperate to start discussing with other Amiga developers, away from any public chat forum where threads go off-topic and devolve into nothing. We will keep an eye on all the projects and assign the right people to the right job, helping under-appreciated ideas get the attention they deserve.

We may be passionate about the Amiga and hopeful that we can build a more organised and informed community while helping to generate more of a market for Amiga software through digital distribution, but we're not deluded. No one plans on competing with any other OS or games system, we simply want to provide our own kind with the privileges that users of other systems enjoy.

We want to pull ourselves out of this state of suspended animation and get on with things. Think of current Amiga sites as like a pub or a social club where you can discuss things with your mates and check up and comment on the latest news and gossip. Our forum would be more like a college where we can learn and work together away from the speculation, gossip and fighting.

People complain that too much is announced and not enough delivered. A lot of the time it's because people with these ideas need to tell somebody about it for some positive encouragement, but nearly all they ever receive on these forums is negative criticism, which dampens their spirits so much they abandon the project and nothing ever comes of it. A lot of creative people are sensitive and emotional, and they would rather not post on a forum ever again if they only expect to have their ideas shot down.

No one who supports the Amiga scene would be hurt by the creation of this forum. What the community lacks is organisation and leadership. It's time to work together as a team and stop fighting amongst ourselves. With this forum we hope to provide all creative Amiga people the perfect place to share their ideas with other like-minded, helpful people and give them the encouragement they need to complete these projects in cooperation.

No one is forced to leave the forums they already frequent just to join one new forum. We have bookmarks and password managers to help us these days, even in the old Amiga browsers.

[Cammy]

>
Is this thread what all the fuss is about!? ...

Why go searching for a reason for this non-existent "fuss"? I never mentioned having a problem with UtilityBase.

I prefer to write software that is usable for various Amiga systems, including 3.0/3.1. I've seen your posts in the past insisting on people to use 3.5/3.9 but many people still use 3.0/3.1 on their lower-end Amigas, which is what I was aiming that particular application at.

It seems that you're determined to go against this idea, which is a shame since you are one of the few programmers left in the Amiga scene. It's just sad that you don't want to be part of a bigger, better team. I could give you a LOT of reasons why UtilityBase is unsuitable, outdated, unmaintained, neglected and underused, but for most of us it's very obvious and I feel explaining to someone who has already made up their mind would be in vain.

[Cammy]

Can the moderators please lock this thread before it gets completely out of hand. Now with people digging up dirt on me and throwing around wild accusations this is only going to give those spiteful people on moobunny and other circles more crap to gossip about, and I really don't want to have to deal with another wave of hatred from this community for only trying to help.