The story..
A couple years ago there was simbo who was the resident hardware guru on Atari forum. Fair play to the guy, he tried to help people, though in the end, his posts just became very abusive especially towards myself, and others couldn't make heads or tails of what he was talking about. I had pretty much quit the forum at the time as couldn't be bothered with the abuse from him anymore.
Dal brought me on board to "clean up" the simbos posts and restore the forum to something sane and understandable. Most of the "technical posts" were basically deleted, to which I spent much time doing so. A lot of the time his posts were just being ignored totally, or some flame wars which I painfully shifted through and deleted.
Things were fine for a while afterwards. I posted a lot of my work as did others. Though over time, more hardware gurus appeared basically spamming the forum with nonsense and basically disputing anything I posted. Over the past year I just posted less and less as I, like others, just had enough of lame comments.
Don't get me wrong, I have had a lot of support from the community and have had a lot of praise for my work and research. Though unfortunately, time has shown that no matter what I say or do, someone will disagree or voice their opinions on things they seemingly know nothing about, and it has become very old now. I'm sure they think they are helping somehow, but opinions against my hard work, well, that's not helping, its just being a dick. Then people who seem to go out of their way to disprove what I have said or done. I mean seriously ?! Why not help support efforts rather than trying to disprove them?
Its not down to 1 person, or even several people (well maybe so to a point) its more a "death by 1,000 cuts" over time. There comes a point where I have to ask myself "why do I bother". This has been ongoing for 2 years now (maybe even longer) though I just don't see the forum as a friendly place any longer. At least not for use hardcore hardware guru's. I mean gritting my teeth on a daily basis in not fun and I really can be doing without it.
I am far from alone with that thought as others don't bother much any more either. People can see I do not post much day by day, and haven't for over a year now. After a few 100 thoughts of why do I bother" plus my girlfriend basically saying "I don't know why you bother" more lately, then its clear its just time to simply not bother.
Over the past 12 months, I read post after post which annoys the hell out of me. Either disputing my work or findings, or just re-circulating "fiction" such as the "BAD DMA CHIP". I mean every couple of weeks a new post appeared about it. I gave up out of pure frustration to convince people that the chip is not 100% faulty 100% of the time. Those threads made me very angry and still do months later. Of course people still think they need a 001 DMA, its cast in stone for 20 years. No use trying to dispute history.
But it's not just 1 particular thread or person even. Week after week for basically a whole year, a post or thread would annoy me to the point I would be fuming mad for the rest of the week. I would finally calm down and read the next post which annoys the hell out of me. I mean , weekends I spend with my girlfriend and basically spend it being mad about peoples lame posts and this isn't fair on her for one thing. Herself is not very well so neither of us need all this BS each week. I do not live with her, and can only see her weekends, and I am tired of being in a bad mood all the weekends I spend with her because of lame ass idiots all the time.
I took a break from the forum for some weeks (maybe months, cant remember) not long ago, after the last lame ass reply to one of my posts, and come back to post again, and again, just get stupid replies to my posts. It lasted the whole of 2 days before I thought to myself that is it basically pointless saying anything at all now. People are so convinced they are in the right, well, If everyone is happy to have a forum full of nonsense then so be it. A lot of people I am sure will be glad I will no longer be posting my nonsense on there. Win win then really isn't it.
I spend huge amounts of my time researching and testing things and when people "dispute" it, I mean, where is their research on it all ? Its like, one person never has a problem with their PSU, its worked fine for 30 years, what I am saying about re-capping the PSU is mandatory, its just nonsense. Well, it amazes me that "their ONE machine" counts for every machine ever produced in the world ever. Erm, WTF ? Are you high ?? oh sorry, maybe 2 people with 2 machines said that.. I forget..
People never "personally" had a problem, and totally dismiss that maybe, just MAYBE, I might actually have seen a issue they have not. I mean I have a stack of 50 PSU's here, none of them will power a STE for very long before they basically give the "black screen of death". Recapping isn't something I just "made up" one morning where "experts" seem to think I did. I mean come on, 30 year old caps... Even a 2 year old could figure that out, and yet people still claim its not required.
Even after publishing a massive page on PSU's people still "find it all very hard to believe". I posted real captures from my scope, lots of readings and tests and results. Then for some unknown reason, I decided to make up the whole thing, I mean, to what ends ?! To sell some re-cap kits for my store for like a £1 profit ?! Sure I make a small profit on items, I flaming well deserve a coke after all the work I did.
It would be far more "profitable" for me to not bother running a website, doing all this research and manufacturing and designing countless items. So anyone thinks I make up everything to get sales, well , your a total dick. In fact what little profits I do make go back into future projects. If someone thinks otherwise, then send me £10,000 a year and I will close my shop. That is what I spent this past year on Atari related parts easily. If I charged for my time I would be a millionaire by now. Feel free to send me that sum of cash while your at it!
Similar in recent days, I found some time ago that Parity simms can cause issues. Of course, "nobody" has had that issue, so I made the whole thing up it seems. I just woke up one morning, decided "parity simms are evil" and nobody is even willing to entertain the possibility that I might actually be telling the truth. The attitude of "oh no this can't happen its rubbish" has just gone on for long enough. Everyone else is "right" and I am wrong. Well I know I am not wrong as I did the work. We both can't be right cant we ?! Oh dear we have a problem don't we..and on it goes..
I had seen issues with parity simms several months ago while testing simms for my webstore. I kept a eye on this issue and did not make it "official" until recently. The last batch I did, they all had a random bit errors at a random times, generally within a hour. I removed the parity chip and it worked fine for several hours. I repeated the same over 40 simms and all behaved exactly the same way. Blame it on bad sockets if you like, but a lot of simms were swapped several times back and forth to rule it out. The conclusion is that Parity simms can and DO cause bit errors.
But of course, resident experts disagree, its nonsense, never happened to them, don't know anyone who ever had a issue. Well lucky them. This unfortunately isn't definitive proof that there isn't a problem. Such people can't see past their own ignorance it seems. People even seem to follow my around forums to disprove or go against what I say, I mean, what's the point ?! The "anti exxos" movement seems to be growing all the time it seems.. Rinse and repeat, DMA, PSU, RAM, ROM, over and over week after week, well enough is enough.
Its not even a discussion anymore, its just disagreeing with things I say. Very few help with the research, I do pretty much all the work myself, then post my findings where then people want to "get involved" and "discuses it", well to late! I did the work, there are my results, if you don't like it and goes against what you believe is true, then tough shit.
Threads to me seem to be more like "lets discusses what exxos did to see if its actually true or not". Like WTF ? I didn't make the whole thing up just for fun. Why do people want to even discuses it anyway ? works been done and dusted. Its just a load of hype by people who just want to talk about stuff they know nothing about and almost never do any real work! Amazes me how much people can talk for endless hours about opinions and speculation on basically anything, well good for you. how about get a scope and do some real work for a change.
Another problem is when I try to help people on the forum. The guy asking the question gets confused as hell, can't make heads or tails of anything. Yes, that's because people have no idea what they are talking about thats why nothing makes sense.
99% of people email direct and a few emails and problems are generally solved. Can't say the same on the forum. 50+ posts later, and people are more confused than they was before they asked for help. Not saying every post is like that, though it seems to be a trend because of the hardware guru wannabes. I sit there just thinking WTF are these people talking about. This or that makes no sense at all. Or "no no NO!!" that is simply not true.. It never ends.
Overall, I just can't be a part of such nonsense any longer. Its like technical kindergarten all the time. I am tired of peoples "opinions" on stuff , mostly based out outdated information which doesn't hold much merit in recent years. Nobody seems to put any real effort into actual work, just all talk and speculation and opinions. If that's what people want, then fair enough, not my thing.
I have my sanity to think of and I really can't be bothered anymore to post stuff or discuses stuff with people who seem to have no idea about anything. I have been saying for the past year that the forum should be called "miss-facts.com" as it would be more suited to what's actually posted.
I can't clean that mess up! not without deleting and banned half the current members on the forum. Even if I tried to "correct" everyone, it would just turn into a all out war with people. Experience has shown on other forums in the past, if people want to believe the world is flat, then let them.
99% of my work is discussed via email with people I respect and people who understand and help with my work. Such people also are tired of the "attitude" on the forums. Emails get stuff done faster without the BS! The side effect here is, all this information is "lost" from public view. Though its not like it holds any value anyway. So no big deal. People can always do their own research and talk about it all on the forum until the end of time without my intervention.
Everyone seems to want to live in the past and re-cycle outdated information and ignore my work done in recent times. Well so be it. I setup my site with my findings, people can read it or not. I don't care. My site has all the raw information there unpolluted by opinions and nonsense. If people don't like it, press the X and move on.
Its the sad truth on pretty much all forums. You get the idiots, you get the trolls, you get people who just want to cause trouble. Thats life. Though it does not mean I have to be a part of it. If it was more 10% idiots, its easier to ignore. Though when the figure is a lot higher, just no point. I would rather spend my time helping people who ask for my help and want to support my efforts than people who just bitch and complain everything every step of the way.
I used to be a part of a lot of forums in the past, not just Atari ones. I got tired of all the BS back then just like I have now. I've had people slag me off, call me all the names under the sun. I've had people even steal my ideas and credit them as their own. I've had people even taken out patents on my work and even when I try to help people I just get flamed down.
Unlike lots of others, my work is physical work I have done personally. Facts and figures, nothing is my opinion about anything which others only seem to like as "facts". If thats how you want to roll, then you are free to do so. I just won't be a part of it any longer.
Others have suggested I start my own forum and just stick to people who give valuable input. Really a "invite only" type forum. Though while I think that is a plausible idea, I really don't want to create myself more work in running a forum. New forums are generally short lived, and I have run forums myself in the past. Really its a bit "late in the day" to start such things when a lot of projects are coming to a close now anyway.
Such discussions are generally stored in my email. All my emails date back to around 2002. I have probably every single email on my PC. Easy to search for information if I need to look back. Sure don't have to look though pages of nonsense to get the information I need. Most of my work is published on my site, such as booster research. So the "grit" is published online for the future should anyone want to look back on my work.
I have already posted my "forum time" will be limited due to myself having RSI in my fingers. It has become painful to type and mixed with with "painful to read posts". Well, This is the end of it now. I'm not going to "discuses" things any longer with people who already made their minds up that what I say is wrong. No thanks.
So have I quit totally ? Well not at all. I may still lurk around from time to time on forums, but its just far from enjoyable to be a part of them anymore :( . I will continue to help people who email me, and I will continue to work on things on my website and of course post information on my blog for those who want to support my efforts.
