Whatever Happened To The Real Amiga Community.

[Boot_WB]

Now I enjoy a good debate/argument but my brother just emailed me to tell me that he and a number of his friends (their all PC users by the way) have been looking in on this site lately and they are all of the opinion now that our so called Amiga community is nothing more than a bunch of "sad retards who seem hell bent on destroying themselves from within"...

Don't know about you but I think they may have a point... or do they just not understand the Amiga Community as it is today...

@Franko's brother

"This is a local shop for local people. There's nothing for you here!"

[gertsy]

For me a community is a group that has common interests. I fit therefore I am.
What anyone gets out of something is what they put in.
“Sad and old?” I don't necessarily think the two go together just as “young and bitter” don’t.  We are talking about a community that has in common a home computer system, yeah. Not a life or death political agenda.
I like Amiga Org cause its relaxed and fun. People still help each other. And Franko makes me laugh out loud.
In simple terms.  "Don't sweat it, it's a freebie!"

[Karlos]

Never understood why people have a problem with "off topic" threads and chit chat, thought we were all here because we share a common interest? Who cares what we talk about. Remember, if you don't like what you see, don't read it. Simple

I completely agree. I think complaints of the form "there's too much discussion of " underlines a serious misunderstanding of what sites like amiga.org exist for.

This site is for the Amiga community. What makes a community? People. And oddly enough, people do not want to sit and talk about the same subject area day in and day out.

This site has a broad range of forums from highly Amiga-specific for discussing software, hardware, development, audio and video down through more general areas of discussion involving other systems, right through to the coffee house where any subject is catered for.

The fact that we seem to talk more about non-amiga stuff simply reflects the fact that not that much is happening in the Amiga world at large. Sure there are interesting developments and plenty of threads on each one.

Important note to the disenfranchised:

If anybody feels that the existing forums are too full of "useless" threads, they can create their own specialist mini-forums right here on the site and even be in charge (within limits) of what goes on within them and who is allowed to view and participate.

They are called social groups and can be found under the community section. So, stop complaining and create your own discussion group today!

[Franko]

@ Cammy

First thing you need to do is get the crazy idea out of your head that no one likes you. That couldn't be further from the truth, so put that notion aside. Sure you can't expect to get on with everyone on a forum, it's just like the real world all sorts of people from all walks of life with different ideas and beliefs. I mean we don't speak to everyone we pass by in life and then think that person doesn't like me because they didn't stop to say hello.

In the short time I've been here I already know there are quite a number of members who don't like me for my style of posting and thats fine by me as I  don't expect everyone to understand me or enjoy what I have to say, each to their own I say and I respect that.

I've only ever once really considered giving up the Amiga and that was way back around 88 when I used my old A500s to run a business and make a living from. At the start I thought it was great, I was being paid for something I enjoyed doing but after the first year it became all too serious meeting deadlines and working to meet clients expectations. It had no longer become fun and was just another job.

When I finally realized that I was taking things too seriously and the Amiga had no longer become a fun thing to use, then the best decision I ever made was to shut up shop and go back to using the Amiga for fun & pleasure. I have no regrets about doing so and if I hadn't I would most likely had gone over to the world of PCs which by that time were becoming the obvious way for a business to go.

I reckon what I am trying to say is, yes it's fine to take what you do on the Amiga seriously but don't let it get to the point where you take it so serious that it becomes a chore and is no longer a fun or enjoyable thing to do. Take it from me and my own personal experience, as big a fanatic as I am of the Amiga if I were to let things become too serious again then my days with the Amiga would be over.

So while we wait for someone to post the latest titbit of Amiga news or for fellow members to ask for help with an Amiga related problem, then as others here have said join in the fun & the off topic stuff and heck even the slight disagreements we have, as quite often these days their is not enough new Amiga subjects for us all to talk about each day.

We are a community and being such not everything we have to say has to be Amiga related there should also be time to idly chat about anything and everything but the most important thing is taking part, having fun and enjoying every aspect of what is the quite unique and wonderful world of that they call "The Amiga Community"...

[Digiman]

My current fascination with the Amiga community stems from the fact that it is the only M68K based system that is not only not dead, but is alive and continuing to see new developments in hardware and software.

Hmm I think people watching the Atari ST Coldfire project might disagree with you on that one....

[Digiman]

Well personally I do agree with what some people have said about fighting being more important than offering support to people trying to do amazing things [in their own small scale way]. I notice there are some members who never participate in anything positive, always post negative trolling comments. One of those members was even banned (but sadly unbanned too soon IMO) and it sours a great experience.

Some of you I know from various forums elsewhere and I find said people very friendly and helpful on those forums (and on here too obviously) but I can see where some of you are coming from.

Whether I am only interested in Commodore manufactured products from 85 to 94 or other things is neither here nor there, I won't question your ideology of what Amiga is and I expect you to respect my definition of what Amiga computing is/isn't to me personally.

[Mike_Amiga]

I believe the Amiga community all died in freak accidents involving getting on with their lives, that or a pile of Ubuntu boxes fell out of the sky and killed them all?

[Cammy]

I don't have a problem with people having off-topic threads, that's not what I intended to allude to. It's just because of so many of those threads that the less active Amiga-related topics get bumped out of the New Posts list or the front page and a lot of people miss out on them. Again, I'm not complaining, just trying to figure out why things seem to have gone downhill or slowing down lately.

I'm sorry if I take this Amiga stuff seriously, I don't have much else in my life. It's important to me, and I've wanted for years to make new software and games for Amiga systems. It's been my dream for so long, and holding onto that dream is the only thing that keeps me going.

[Franko]

@ Cammy

Nothing wrong with having a dream...

But as I say join in the fun a bit more, it's quite simply a case of not enough new Amiga related topics going about just now to interest everyone. I  get accused of living here these days but I'm quite happy with that, hence the reason for my silly polls and stuff it's just for the sake of chatting with folk who all have the same interest at heart and if there's nothing specifically Amiga to chat about why not throw in something silly and fun just to get folks chatting instead of just staring...

[Fester]

..."sad retards..."

Ha! No problem.

[motrucker]

One of "our" problems is that there just is not much new (finished) that we can actually use.
There are still a good number of Amiga users in the area I live, who seem to go for a mix of the classic hardware and emulators. A few of these users, including me, still use the classic Amiga to get work done! We (I) use a mix of ImageFX, Lightwave, DPaint on the Amiga with Photoshop, PaintShop Pro etc. on Windows (or the Mac). While the posts don't reflect this right now, I think the same situation is more or less true throughout the entire community.
Although I use the classic hardware most, I have to admit to using an emulator at times. The emulator I use has to have a real Amiga OS installed to work (as well as a real classic Amiga ROM image) so it feels like a classic Amiga in many respects, just faster.
On this site, even though there is some discord at times, I find that if a problem arises, and a post for help is put up here, there is always plenty of help.
I think that this willingness to help other Amiga users is truly telling about the real condition of our community. Am I wrong? I don't believe so.
This has long been one the Amiga community's strong points.

[whabang]

One thing I can sympathize with is that there is a lot of off-topic crap going on outside the coffee house. As it is now, CH is only a pale shadow of it's former self, and there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on in the main forum.

[Franko]

Quick message to the Brother-In-Law & your cronies... :p

Hi Davie...

No reply to my email I sent you this morning, hope you and your PCs chums have read this thread, thats the difference bro we have fun and enjoy ourselves here and don't need to head of to your forums just to try and slag you miserable gits off. Are PC forums you visit really so boring that you have to spy on the Amiga forums to find something interesting...

Ah well, see you on chrimbo day, don't forget to bring your boxing gloves this year...

Cheers

Frank

(PS:I bet you'll still be wanting to muck around on me old miggies as usual, it's ok I won't tell your PC chums... :lol:)

[bloodline]

One thing I can sympathize with is that there is a lot of off-topic crap going on outside the coffee house. As it is now, CH is only a pale shadow of it's former self, and there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on in the main forum.

Coffee House doesn't show up on main page anymore so it no longer serves us hot topics. Any forum that doesn't show on the main page is basically dead to the causal visitor.

Mor often than not I'll quickly check the front page on my iPhone between meetings and see if anything grabs my fancy.

[Karlos]

One thing I can sympathize with is that there is a lot of off-topic crap going on outside the coffee house. As it is now, CH is only a pale shadow of it's former self, and there's all kinds of crazy stuff going on in the main forum.

I think that's partially because the CH topics don't show up on the front page any more. There were valid reasons for that change (SEO for one, I imagine), but it does seem to have made them a bit forgotten about.

There's a link on the front page to the "latest coffee house posts", but I guess it might be a bit nicer if the most recent top 10 coffee house threads appeared in their own block under the "Recent Threads" section.

[Wayne]

Coffee House doesn't show up on main page anymore so it no longer serves us hot topics. Any forum that doesn't show on the main page is basically dead to the causal visitor.

Mor often than not I'll quickly check the front page on my iPhone between meetings and see if anything grabs my fancy.

Humorously (not the fake BS word "funnily" you ill-bret brits!), the Coffee House forums -- also known as the "DMZ" were created way back when because of people bitching and whining about off-topic posts on the forums.

So, it's a case of can't win.  Those who want the CH forums don't use them, and those who don't use them bitch about off-topic posts.

The major problem I think -- now as an outsider -- is that everyone takes themselves too damned seriously for what is -- in no uncertain terms -- a hobby for what is now widely considered a "toy computer".

If everyone would just chill out and relax, we'd all have a much better time of it.

Wayne