Geoff Wicks writes: > As promised, some detailed reasons. It is a long piece, about 1,700 words, > so I have done it as an attachment. It is in four sections, which can each > be read separately. One of the sections is positive.
While I sympathise with your struggles I find your conclusion, ie to walk away, rather strange. First of all, I have never really noticed your struggles; this is the first I conciously hear of them. Im sorry about that as I may somehow have found a way to avoid being another straw on the camel's back. As you may have detected, I have been prepared to make a fuss over those issues that have come to my notice, especially the tendency in this group to generate virtually no feedback, often even in cases of direct one-to-one communication (which bears more of a likeness to rudeness than mere lethargy). Secondly, the timing seems particularly ill-chosen as, despite all problems, so much is going on just now, a lot of it with no other apparent justification than as a gambit to generate more interest in developing software and keeping the whole caboodle afloat. Finally, I want to say that although our ways have never really crossed, I am a user of some of your software (about four commercial titles, I believe) I read your letters and articles, and basically agree with most of what you say, or at least dont disagree enough to contradict you, which is why youve never had any feedback from me ;) (Not that it matters much, but at least you now know of one more person who appreciates your contributions, which you perhaps didnt know about before.) Let me candidly declare my interests, so that no-one can suspect me of being an "insider" with a priviliged stake in this whole business. I am not a regular attendee at events (though I really feel I ought to try harder). I dont "know" any of the Great and Good in the QL community. I am not a professional programmer, nor do I sell or trade in QL software. I am merely a ql-user who has invested hundreds, or even thousands, of pounds over the years in hardware and software, not to mention the hundreds (or thousands) of hours I have spent writing programs - mainly for my own use or amusement. I regularly use Windoze, mainly for those things for which there presently is no QL equivalent, and I have muddled through with Linux when necessity has compelled. I use the QL (mainly QPC) out of choice, both for business and privately. The reason I stick my neck out at all is to safeguard and maintain my investment. That is not to say that I dont consider many of the people I have met over the years, on-line and in the flesh, as "freinds". Of course, I dont mean to imply that I expect you (Geoff) or anyone else, to have to fork out a small fortune for the privilige of supporting my interest. I do think it unfair that some people carry a disproportionate cost in time and/or money to keep the whole thing going. I think ways should be considered to distribute this load more fairly. But how? The benefit of committing hari-kiri on-line, as opposed to the real thing, is of course that you can review, and possibly even reverse the act in the light of the subsequent obituaries. I sincerely hope you will take the opportunity to reconsider. I have many a time tottered on the very cusp of doing the same, and perhaps only the fact that I did not have an exposure £100 per anum to gain from it, restrained me from pushing that final "send" button. Now that you have brought your concerns into the open, and there have been responses that indicate that these concerns are shared by others too, lets get to the bottom of this and try and find the causes and some constructive solutions. Per
