Re: Intent to sell midiboxes

[rah]

Hi,

I still get hits on my website from the thread I started entitled " so I thought I would write a postscript.

Before I started the thread I had energy, desire and the resources to push forward with my intended project of constructing and selling MIDIboxes. When I came into contact with the MIDIbox community, however, things changed. I found the members of the community to be aggressive, ignorant and childish. My energy and desire both took a hit. I was faced with a dilemma. Do I continue with my project and give some of myself to this negative group of people, or do I allow the energy I had to fully dissipate and devote my resources to other projects?

Unsuprisingly, I chose to allow my energy to dissipate and went on to other things. Hence, I never built my own MIDIbox, let alone MIDIboxes to sell. I never hacked and contributed PCB designs, firmware or free EDA tools.

I may, at some point in the future, return to the idea of hacking MIDI controllers. If I do, I will try my best to refrain from engaging with the MIDIbox community.

Robert

[Wilba]

Ohhh! Trollbait! Om nom nom...

I should correct you there... no one was aggressive, ignorant or childish towards you, a total MIDIbox newbie coming along with grandiose ideas of "commercializing" the non-commercial DIY MIDIbox platform before you ever took a soldering iron to PCB and built one yourself. If anyone was ignorant and childish it was you... first for being ignorant of the wishes of the community before you even posted, and childish for not accepting the polite denial of permission to start making money off something you neither contributed to nor was even involved with for longer than it took you to write your post.

Frankly, I don't think anyone cares what you've been doing for the past four years, but I will highlight something interesting for everyone else reading this thread, especially newbies who might think that permission to do big things with MIDIbox is never granted.

Around four years ago, I started designing MB-6582, which led to being given permission to sell MB-6582 PCBs, then I sold about 4000 6582A SIDs, a few hundred OPL3 chipsets, a couple thousand rotary encoders, designed an MB-SEQ control surface, sold a few of those PCBs, designed sammichSID, sold 200 of those (and still going). I built MIDIboxes for me first, and then shared the designs, helped others on the forum. I contributed to the community first, and then sold things which would primarily benefit the existing community. Then when I presented the sammichSID idea to TK, one that comes dangerously close to being "commercial", I was given permission, because I had an established track record of doing things for the community. That's just one example of how it's done, and that it can be done.

In contrast, all you did was start a thread called "Intent to sell midiboxes" with the idea of... selling MIDIboxes. "I'll build one for me first and then sell them pre-built on eBay" is the essential gist of your post.

I find it interesting that the people who actually build MIDIboxes thank me and others for all the help we provide, and think this is a great community. The only ones who think we're aggressive, ignorant, childish, elitist, rude, epic superdouches, etc. are new or non-members who don't like being told that selling pre-built MIDIboxes is against the spirit of the community. Maybe you should actually pick up the soldering iron and build something... then you might actually understand where we come from.

[smashtv]

I still get hits on my website from the thread I started entitled " so I thought I would write a postscript.

Wow sorry about that, I'll remove the link right now.

I may, at some point in the future, return to the idea of hacking MIDI controllers. If I do, I will try my best to refrain from engaging with the MIDIbox community.

Robert

Excellent! I was hoping our lack of interest in padding your pocket would not hinder your creativity.

I do have one question though: considering this postscript is a form of "engaging with the MIDIbox community" should I go ahead and delete the thread? I would really hate to see you accidentally do something that you are trying your best to refrain from.

Seriously man, you are welcome to come play but you have to play nice.

SmashTV

[nILS]

You'll be missed. :flowers:

[ssp]

U HAZ BEEN DENIED!

Edited April 9, 2010 by ssp

[ssp]

edited for DENIALZ purposes

Edited April 9, 2010 by ssp

[Wilba]

tl;dr :rolleyes:

[ssp]

iz ok wilba i haz made ez read now

[philetaylor]

With people like Robert around, it makes me proud to be British, with our unerring sense of fair play.... yeah right!

I know that I shouldn't respond to what is so obviously "flame bait" but why is the concept of "non-commercial" so difficult for some people to understand.

When I first joined this community, one of the first threads I stumbled on was the rah/jamram one and I was astounded at their arrogance, having just re-read it all again it has annoyed me all over again.

As somebody that has contributed quite a bit of time to this community now, I would certainly not be happy with the thought that somebody else is profiting from MY work and what I have done pales into insignificance when compared to the time and effort put in by TK, nILS, Wilba, SmashTV et al.

Oh well, back to playing with memory management on CORE32 :)

Phil

[philetaylor]

That was going to be my last word on the subject but after a quick perusal of Robert's website, I discovered his music section which states that the works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

So he seems quite happy to take other people's creations and sell them (presumably) for a profit, but for some peculiar reason doesn't wish for other people to take his works and profit from them. How odd

Phil

[Shuriken]

I never read your original post, as i was not yet involved in midibox stuff. So i just had a big cup of coffee and enjoyed the read :tongue: .

First of all i don't really understand why you would return here after 4 years to post a message saying you never want to talk to us again?

Secondly i can only agree with the other midiboxers here. I don't see why you should be granted permission to profit from other peoples time and effort. You could have taken all your energy and develop something yourself. But i get the feeling you only used it to keep your grudge alive.

[nILS]

First of all i don't really understand why you would return here after 4 years to post a message saying you never want to talk to us again?

Oh noes, don't ask him direct questions, you're basically forcing him to return when you do that ;)

[Shuriken]

Oh noes, don't ask him direct questions, you're basically forcing him to return when you do that ;)

Unfortunately no reply to my question as of yet :devil:

[Futureman]

Reminds me of an Ex-girlfriend calling me up to say she wasn't going to call me up anymore.