Site Feedback

I’ll see what I can do, but drupal doesn’t provide much configuration for RSS exports.

However, the existing RSS feed at rss.xml should, hopefully, already contain all updated pages (new pages or any edit, news product, FAQ or whatever). The only difference between that and the “Recent Posts” page would be that Recent Posts also gets updated when someone adds a comment - is this important?

I am being a loon and taking the feed from http://www.worldofsam.org/taxonomy/term/1/all/feed which is what FireFox offered rather than http://www.worldofsam.org/rss.xml.

I love the site to bits and although I appreciate Sam users being passionate about its software base etc I feel some Sam users take the whole thing far too seriously, at the end of the day the Sam computer is a bit of a retro fan hobby thing, not a religion! It mnakes me laugh when I see people leaving serious-assed intense comments on anothers opinion, like someones insulted them or took the mick out their religion or somethin like that - the Sam computer aint a serious assed subject man, chill…. there a lots of things n the Sam world to have a barrell laughs over are there not? Also there are loads of talent and apprecation of things took for granted like the demos on the FRED disks - many of which seem to go unnoticed…..

Spend many hours and years of your life devoted on a subject, at the expense of a social life and any funds… to have a nameless person insult your work and demean your efforts… i’m sure you’d appreciate it as well.

(I know Dan’s posted about not letting comments turn into a typical forum, but I feel I have to reply)

I have to say for me, I view it far more than just a ‘retro fan hobby thing’, you really wouldn’t believe just how much I put into what I do, both in terms of time and money, and I don’t do for what I get back in terms of sales or that, I am just so passionate for the ol’ Sam.

No one is saying you aren’t entitled to have arsey opinions, but some respect surely has to be paid to those who have done stuff for the Sam, in their own time really for their own pleasure, especially after every commercial software company didn’t bother.

Afterall, those involved in producing for the Sam have had to live with arsey comments for years, and especially in the mid 90’s when there was so much more happening, the whole Sam scene was fragmented into it’s own little gangs and factions - it was unbelievable the amount of bitching that went on against people.

When I first started out in 1995 with the soundcard I had the biggest magazine disk refuse to print news about what I did with the comment “I won’t print your news, news is plugging and I can’t be seen to plug other people’s products”, yet of course news from other places was mentioned all the time afterall thats the job of a magazine disk - to report the goings on in the scene for the benefit of the readers and to keep them involved with whats going on. Why I was refused … who knows, i don’t … one chap starting out with a Soundcard was hardly competiton! But never the less, time has told it’s tale and i’m still here producing new stuff for a fantastic machine.

That sort of attitude, and so much more, had such a detrimental effect on the small Sam scene and the typical user was generally unaware of what went on behind the scenes.

In the early days I even had people take the time to write a letter and post it off to me just to just critisize what I did despite them having no idea whatsoever about what they were talking about or what was involved cost/time wise with what I produced. Very motivating I must say.

At least letters like that were rare, and people who actually had bought my stuff and full of praise, so when a letter saying ‘well done’ or ‘it’s great’ turned up in the post it would make me think I was doing something worthwhile!

For a whole host of reasons like that i’ve covered, a lot of great software etc went unnoticed in the Sam world and because of it sadly a lot of programmers gave up.

Even to this day, it can all add up and make you question is it really worth continuing, it’s something i’ve thought about a few times over the years…

Colin
=====
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
April 1995-2006 - Celebrating 11 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/

You talk sense - you know what your goin on about, I totaly agree - it seems though some need to take a few steps back and accept critisms even if theyre of the rails, its the only way software improves - even if it is too late on for the 8-bit machine…

…am glad you didn’t let it get to you. It did to many others.

Hi Anton,

No idea on what sales were like, but it was certainly being sold for several years - I remember the ‘Revelation Software’ adverts, with it being listed up until they vanished in 1999.

Not surprising you did not receive royalty payments - a lot of past Sam programmers I’ve interviewed for Sam Revival magazine have stated they never received any payment from several of the old ‘big name’ publishers.

Colin
=====
Quazar : Hardware, Software, Spares and Repairs for the Sam Coupe
1995-2007 - Celebrating 12 Years of developing for the Sam Coupe
Website: http://www.samcoupe.com/