Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion

Rockbox forums (and some developers): has it become a 'nerd supremacy'?

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zenji:
I heard Jaron Lanier today on the radio program The Philosopher's Zone.

I have to say my experiences with this forum were echoed by him perfectly.

He talks about the idea of  'a nerd supremacy' - how people who have knowledge (about in particular, technology) that puts them in a privileged position, can become arrogant, superior, aloof and stop listening.

I hesitated to put my last post on this forum because I expected the same as I got last time: exactly what I just described.

I think Lanier describes this phenomenon well in this fascinating interview (in the first minute):
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/philosopherszone/

I also feel the same as this guy, in an Amazon review of Lanier's latest book:

"As I flipped through the book, the point that resonated most loudly to me was the impact `anonymity' has had on our virtual world (and maybe the real world as well). I can remember visiting a chat room that was dedicated to "Books and Literature" in 2000 or 2001. As a librarian I was naturally drawn to a space that I thought would be filled with others like me who had a love of the written word and for good books. Did that assumption back fire? You bet! What I found was a chat area filled with virtual people who wanted to chat about anything but books and literature. If I were to post a question about what people were reading or what they thought of a given book I was torn (virtually) from limb to limb. Having served in the military I have a pretty good operational understanding of foul language, and I'm pretty good at throwing the words around when necessary. However, that this language would be used in that particular venue by people who could remain anonymous was a shock. I'm pretty certain that most of the visitors to that website hadn't read a book in years and had no problem violating the most basic rules of civility."

SOURCE: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307269647?ie=UTF8&tag=randohouseinc-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307269647

When I posted my last suggestion, I already knew I'd  probably just be attacked. I almost felt fear as I TRIED one last time to communicate humanly with (some of) you. Anyone who dares to suggest something is attacked. And the attacks, like the one in response to my post about firmware, even eventually take on the 'flavour' of accusations of disloyalty - like a classic 'regime'.

You can claim all you like guys (some of you) that you are just talking about 'posting procedure' and the rest of it. LOOK HONESTLY! Alot of what you are doing is based on pure EGO - the psychology and emotion of arrogance, superiority and territory. It's sad, actually. Such a great little piece of tech you've created, but the human side of it has clearly become SFU !

I think some people in this group should take a strong look at themselves: their attitudes and their humanity.

I suggest also that someone have a look at the statistics of participation in these forums and even in rockbox development in general: I'd be willing to wager money that enthusiasm is strong intially but then quickly trails off, with many people never coming back.

[I wouldn't be surprised if slowly over time Rockbox stops getting downloaded...Not listening to USERS -> good suggestions aren' t included + disliked features are kept > it starts getting lukewarm reviews and then bad reviews ("not worth the trouble...developers are unresponsive..."") -> people can't be bothered.

Sure! People shouldn't 'complain' - because it's FREE! (That age-old reasoning heard MOST despicably from bad charities, but also in groups like this too.) But you've also WASTED all that work, too.

***

Well, hope you're all (some of you) are having FUN in your bedrooms...!

Time will tell.

____________________________
PS If you read my previous posts you will see I have no particularly deep commitment or emotional ties with this group that would make me say all the above out of some personal agenda of trying to prove something. I'm just someone who wandered into this 'place' and therefore sees it with the fresh eyes of the outsider. And it is 'NASTY' ! Psychologically SFU !

What a waste!

saratoga:
I'm not reading that, but I'm guessing you're annoyed that no one wanted to implement those features you kept requesting.  I'm sorry you're annoyed, but complaining about the project isn't really going to motivate people to do thing for you. 

AlexP:
Put simply - features only get in if developers want them, not users (or at least if developers are ambivalent and someone does the work).  Features rarely if ever get removed, but they certainly won't be if any developers use them.

Rockbox is primarily written by the developers for the developers.  Of course we are happy if other people use and like Rockbox, and are willing to listen to ideas, but pleasing everyone is not the primary concern, and a feature will not be added just because someone wants it.

We do have fairly high standards in terms of expecting people to do things like search and read the manual (and god forbid think) before posting, and yes, sometimes that can come across as (or just be) being unfriendly, and I'm sorry about that.  However we need some sort of policing to stop the forums reducing into some pointless free-for-all.

Also, if you want to get your point across, making baseless and tired insults:


--- Quote from: zenji on February 20, 2011, 10:42:11 PM ---Well, hope you're all (some of you) are having FUN in your bedrooms...!

--- End quote ---

just reduces you to the level that you claim we are at, and makes it much more likely that people will just ignore you.

[Saint]:
Zenji,


What are the 100s of people you've just insulted, deliberately, supposed to think of you now?
You can think what you want about the intentions you believe our forum members to have, but I believe you've showed a lot about your own character just now...and it's not pleasant reading.


[St.]

JdGordon:
1) None of the developers are anonymous. We have a full name policy which is strickly enforced, and just about everyone is on the rockbox map.
2) you're absolutly wrong on all counts, and heck, we dont cry over people not coming back. The core group of devs and experts/users  make this project what it is, not annoying users who come with a chip on their shoulder and think they shold tell us how things work in the real world. So, anyone that comes with lots of enthusiam and dissapears quickly really didnt have it, or was blatantly trolling.
3) I tihnk we all expect the download count to drop, we arent having as much luck with new ports as we were 18 months ago. But noone codeing rockbox cares about that.

And on a personal note, I have no problem being called a nerd supremist, thats language from someone who usually expects his own way and doesnt know how to handle being proven wrong.

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