A-EON Technology Acquires Amiga.org

[OlafS3]

Tax write off. I'm not sure what that really means in this case? Amiga.org bills have to be paid whoever owns the website.

TrevorD

Here in Germany you can reduce profit (and thus taxes) when you buy something company-related (f.e. a new computer, software, something for the office, new machines), the only question is if you can do it immediately the full sum or parts of the sum in a couple of years). I assume that it is the same where you live and I also assume that a-eon is a company.

[OlafS3]

@haywire

who does own morphos site?

a strange comparation... we talk about a site covering all platforms and not a specific site that only covers one platform

[OlafS3]

A-EON Technology is a Limited Company with lots of costs so far and products still in production but these are not yet available and not yet generating revenue. So yes any donations towards Amiga.org running costs are gratefully received.  However in return A-EON will invest in the website and work to make Amiga.org the premier Amiga community site.


@itix

My A1200 has a Radeon 9250 and 3.9.  I find here the best forum to talk about RTG and similar upgrades.

We have a phrase here "Wer zahlt schafft an" that means who pays decides but it is also the opposite "who decides pays". If I have no say and no influence because it is owned by company who defines all rules why paying for it?

[OlafS3]

Perhaps because you are owner of this site? ;-)

If there is need for a forum I would think about to setup a new forum. I would need moderators of course because it would be too much work for me.

[OlafS3]

@itix

And of course, I enjoy my hobby

@olafs3

amiga.org is a longstanding part of the Amiga community so ultimately it's the users that decide.

Yes they do

And it is a domain that can be easily found when former amiga-users search. A good selling platform for you

[OlafS3]

Seriously guys, we are open to suggestions on the forums structure. We want to encourage a wide range of "Amiga" interests.  Personally I would like to have a developer forum with users sharing coding tips and helping each other with problems. I don't see that much on here.  The German forum A1K.org is a good template for the forums on this site.

Open to the rules too and what moderators do?

[OlafS3]

Yes of course.  We are reviewing this right now, so any suggestions users have please feed them back to us during this review.

You can only discuss if we know your rules. Up to now even controversy or minority views were tolerated. We have already seen the opposite here now, perhaps not official but by a moderator who thinks to act in the sense of the new owners. Will it be as tolerant here in future as it was in the past?

[OlafS3]

Out of curiosity;

Is that the sum of the purchase of this site, or does it also include the running cost of the site?

If its "just the purchase" that is covered in the tax return, then the donations can be attributed to the "running cost"?

Either way; donations is a voulenteery thing, but transparency on the issue will obviously ease minds.

Overall comments; Trevors Blog about what Aeon, Amigakit and their associates are doing, planning and dreaming about has been from my point of view been quite refreshing.
Even small comments about development status is very good to see. Update(s) about hardware/software that might have been expected to be finished by X date, but due to "complexity" or whatever reason is delayed is helpful.
Ofcourse there is a limit to how often and much a few people can keep the info flow going when they have their hands full with developing a buissniss.

The point is; keep doing what you have been done so far. Keep the info flow coming, be it thru the blog or assosiated forum(s).

both, the running costs immediately reduce taxes, bigger investments must be splitted over f.e. five years (depends on tax laws)

[OlafS3]

We try to be as transparent as possible as long as there is no commercial disadvantage.  A few years ago we discussed the concept of Trevor's Blog and since it's inception he has used it to keep everyone informed of our ongoing projects as well as his own personal activities.  I am sure now Amiga.org will feature in it far more prominently going forward.

As far as tax is concerned, Amiga.org is regarded as a Company Asset and the purchase cost is not written off against tax unfortunately.

Is A-eon not a company?

[OlafS3]

You don't get user feedback by hiding in developer forum, yes its nice to have place you can go ask questions and get answers, Amigans.net has tags you can use when posting questions that will format source code correct.

The problem whit utilitybase and amigacoding is that developers go there to ask questions, once they know the answers there is no point going there.

All the developers are in their own forums anyway.

The Amiga wiki pages that Hyperion has spent time setting up is better source for developer information, things are better explained then what you can get from a few posts in a forum, and there is example code, there so you don't need to go looking for it.

for user feedback you need a user forum. Or you have a specific product forum

[OlafS3]

We try to be as transparent as possible as long as there is no commercial disadvantage.  A few years ago we discussed the concept of Trevor's Blog and since it's inception he has used it to keep everyone informed of our ongoing projects as well as his own personal activities.  I am sure now Amiga.org will feature in it far more prominently going forward.

As far as tax is concerned, Amiga.org is regarded as a Company Asset and the purchase cost is not written off against tax unfortunately.

What I do not like on other forums is that moderators are like gods. They ban people how they like and if you say something you can be banned too. No transparency, often it seems like they do what they want, if f.e. two persons are discussing one person is banned and the other not (and both are equal guilty) without any justification. Amiga.org has TOS too but they were much more tolerant than most other sites (expecially those from the NG community). Now here are the same moderators than on those sites, that I have the fear that the moderation here will be the same than there is hopefully understandable.

[OlafS3]

@Olafs3

Yes it is a Limited Company, so running costs can be put against tax but the purchase costs are an asset, so different tax rules apply to them.

Ok, must be specific. Here in Germany laws are different

[OlafS3]

@Duce

I would like to upgrade the Amiga.org web hosting in the nearer future, probably bringing it in house.  I have been really busy recently with development of AMIStore and setting up the associated servers, so once AMIStore is out and finished I will turn my attention to Amiga.org.  I just don't have many hours left in the day at the moment

@Olafs3 @duce

There is a place for general discussion and Amiga.org has had a lot of off-topic subjects over the last few years, but it will be nice to encourage more in-depth Amiga specific topics- maybe with tutorials and series of articles around themes of topics throughout the year.

I view Amiga.org as the potential for becoming a modern digital magazine for the Amiga community.

User orientated Tutorials might have a chance, there are many good programs with no informations left. Regarding programming tutorials I fear there are not enough people starting to learn programming. Those who are still left are experienced and do not need such informations. At best they have specific questions, like specific problems with MUI/Zune/Reaction or a problem with certain libraries.

In my own distribution I have f.e. Wildfire, Real3D, Ignition, SoundFX and so on. If you look for user orientated tutorials in the web nothing.

[OlafS3]

I do not see the moderation on other sites as always fair and balanced. And if the same people that moderate there also moderate this site they will do it the same way. Or do you think different?

[OlafS3]

@Olafs3

We are in the process of talking to all the moderators.

My personal opinion is that on the rare occasion that a moderator has to step in and edit a post, they should reference the section of the Amiga.org Rules to clearly explain publically what part of the post has broken the rules.

Most people want to have fun discussing the computer platform that they have enjoyment from without having to get into conflicts with other users.

We all know that this has not been the case at Amiga.org recently and there are a *very* *small* minority of users who want to push their ideas, promote their "Amiga" platform by making statements not backed up by fact and also they will re-iterate inflamatory statements which are likely to get a reaction from other users, essentially to create friction on the thread (stir up trouble).  A moderator will then need to step in an diffuse the situation and point the thread back on track.  In extreme cases, maybe even close the thread or take other formal actions.

So I see it as consistent but fair moderation.

BTW: in future, if a moderator needs to apply the rules to one of my posts, I will welcome that and apologise for my infringement of the rules.  We are all human and can make mistakes.

"backed up by fact"

If somebody says that certain hardware is not competitive regarding price as a example it is backed by facts. Would that be accepted as a view or censored because not the new majority view? As I wrote moderation here was much more tolerant here than on sites like amigaworld and that has to do with the moderators. If you put in the same people here than there (what is the case obviously) then you get the same results, a kind of amigaworld 2.0. When that is your goal then it is ok, you own it but that is not what most users here wanted otherwise they would have posted on amigaworld and not here. You understand what I mean?

Here was a different group of users with different interests and views