Alphasim Forums Still Down ..

deathfromafar said:
Michael, I can speak for many of us when I say I am grateful for your candor and patience discussing many matters here and over at Alphasim not to mention all the hard and excellent works you have turned out for the community.
:applause::medals:
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Hear, hear. :applause:

Brian
 
WarHorse47 said:
As a frequent AS customer, I've learned to hold my tongue and keep my opinions to myself less I irritate someone unintentionally. Hope this gets resolved. :jump:

--WH
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You are not alone, WarHorse -- I too have the uncanny ability to irritate even the most seasoned blokes with the toughest hides... and it is totally unintentional. Suffice to say, I am a staunch, loyal AlphaSim customer and (for the most part) ally who would speak up on their behalf. Phil and the rest of the AlphaSim team have always treated me right, and yes... there have been some differences between us. I would hate to see AlphaSim change their sales venue or worse, go away altogether. I hope some agreement can be reached... as much as anyone here. :engel016:

Cheers -- BB686:USA-flag:
 
Well that doesn't say anything to be honest. It only looks like it is offline! :icon_lol:

Maybe they are working on a new improved forum setup in between their daily busness of fighting polygons and throwing paint at the results of that.

Maybe it will never be back. We'll see I guess.
 
Helldiver said:
Theres no sense in my covering my problems with Phil.
I just don't understand why he would turn his back to someone that has bought $250 worth of planes without explanation.Without knowing no better, I would say he is a poor businessman.
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At this point, Helldiver, I tend to agree.

Since the forum went down, I feel like I'm having withdrawl symptoms or something. I spent a lot of time there reading other posts to find out the issues and solutions to their products, what repaints are in the works, and learn from the team what it takes to produce the aircraft. I also shared a lot of screenshots and chatted with other AS customers. Granted, there were some unnecessary posts from some jerk who wanted to argue with Phil, but for the most part the forum was fun and informative.

What irritates me the most is the lack of explaination from AS. I see no posts from Phil or any of the team (other than Michael's posts) anywhere that explains what really happened to the forum, their future plans for a forum, or how they intend to deal with future customer support (other than sending them a direct e-mail).

As long as the silence continues, I will fly my current AS products but it's unlikely I will return to buy any more. In fact since their forum fell silent, I've already spent $60 on two payware products from another developer.

Sad, very sad.

--WH
 
My observation in the several years I've been buying AS products and perusing the forums is that Phil's going to do whatever he wants to do and damn anyone else. I'm sure he has some overall plan and business model he's working to. While there are those that may not like it or have strong feelings about how his business should be run it won't make one whit of difference.

Of course discussion of AS products will increase on other FS forums with Phil not having ANY control of how those threads progress or digress (as the case may be). That may end up being an irritant to him but one he's going to be powerless in enforcement.

-G-
 
WarHorse47 said:
At this point, Helldiver, I tend to agree.

Since the forum went down, I feel like I'm having withdrawl symptoms or something. I spent a lot of time there reading other posts to find out the issues and solutions to their products, what repaints are in the works, and learn from the team what it takes to produce the aircraft. I also shared a lot of screenshots and chatted with other AS customers. Granted, there were some unnecessary posts from some jerk who wanted to argue with Phil, but for the most part the forum was fun and informative.

What irritates me the most is the lack of explaination from AS. I see no posts from Phil or any of the team (other than Michael's posts) anywhere that explains what really happened to the forum, their future plans for a forum, or how they intend to deal with future customer support (other than sending them a direct e-mail).
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Agree entirely WarHorse... those forums provided a 'comfort zone' of research, knowledge and information for a lot of us- damned shame that they're gone at the moment, but far worse, in my view, if they're gone forever.
 
I agree with -G- that Phill will do what he wants and thats the end of it, however, i do think that if alphasim just took a little time to check everything twice over and release a lower detail but rock soild model with next to no bugs rather than a lower detail model which requieres several patchs to make it flyable, they would save themselfs a lot of grief.



 
The Alphasim public forum IMHO is gone. It won't come back. I hope I'm proved wrong. The only forum that probably remains is the private team forum and that too is doubtful. It nearly went a few years back but pressure from the then AS Team saved it albeit in a cut down form.

It's a great pity as all the issues will now be discussed elsewhere. How many will be content to wait for a reply via email? But of course if there's a switch to marketing boxed products through another publisher it won't matter.

There are still publishers around who do have forums where matters can be raised, and Skysim is one but there are others.
We all move on and I sincerely hope AS have chosen the right path after all the support and effort the old AS Team put in to place the company where it is now.
 
Okay, lets turn this subject around. :isadizzy:

How many developers are there that do not have a public forum for posting questions, issues, pendng updates and the like? And if there are some, how sucessful are they in selling their products?

--WH
 
Now posted to the website:

Announcement : Due to technical problems, both the forum and gallery are no longer accessible. The gallery will be re-instated as soon as practical, however after much consideration, we have decided not to re-instate the forum. We are confident that a leaner AlphaSim is the way forward and this increased efficiency will result in more and better models and scenery in the coming years.
We would also like to announce our partnership with the well-known FS publisher Flight One. Our B-24 and Hawker Hunter have already been released as boxed titles. A series of primarily civilian titles will also be released in the coming months, both on our site as well as through Flight one.
Finally, many will have noticed that the ageing airfield scenery has been removed. This was done at the request of the author. It is not known at present whether the scenery will be available anywhere else.

So be it. A mistake

Bob
 
WarHorse47 said:
What irritates me the most is the lack of explaination from AS. I see no posts from Phil or any of the team (other than Michael's posts) anywhere that explains what really happened to the forum, their future plans for a forum, or how they intend to deal with future customer support (other than sending them a direct e-mail).
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My reply here is of little consequence given the turn of events since Warhorse47's posting, but I just wanted to say that "the team" have been in the dark on this for the past week as well. Since we haven't had access to our team area of the forum either we've only been able to speculate at best ourselves.

WarHorse47 said:
..and the beatings will continue until morale improves... :costumes:
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We wouldn't have it any other way.
:ernae:
 
I've held my tongue until AS made an announcement, but for what it's worth my 2 cents.

I doubt that I will buy another AS products as often as I did. Because I could follow progress of a particular plane on the forums I could plan for that purchase. I don't feel like looking at an announcement page that wont change for days on end.

Phil may have his reasons, I know that I posted a clarification to the SH-2's PDF and someone with his own agenda hijacked the thread. I had to ask that the thread be locked and that I in no way felt slighted by Phil's reply. It seemed that some members were just looking for any reason to pounce on a mistake. :censored: 'em, I hope they choke.

I will still buy AS products, but not within the first 24 hours of release like I used to.
 
So be it, is for the better hindsight being 20/20. All the good out of it overshadowed by a lot of baseless verbal attacks, personal politics, contentious personalities, drive-by-posters, and various other things that aren't moral boosting qualities in a public forum. For the team, much of it a pain to oversee. Then you have people who just do all they can to rivet count and tear down the efforts made by the team in which as of late there was rarely a subjective attempt to point out a flaw or problem overlooked during build. I can understand why Phil was sick of that kind of mess. It takes the heart out of you when you bust your butt working on something and then get ripped into. Many of us who have had a few minor issues ALWAYS got service and 99.9% got satisfied on a problem fix with a bit exercise in patience. On the other hand, some of the short temperedness coming from the staff and moderators was not the best thing in a public sense. I understand full well if skin is chaffed enough, raw nerves will begin to generate pain and irritation. However, the posters I mentioned in my last post on this thread who were merely younger and/or new members who displayed a lot of enthusiasm and exuberance that seemed to wear on a few nerves. Watching some of the exchanges, I feel more than a fair share of them(the posting members) meant no harm but got short replies because of others who did act like buttheads. In the end, if you're open to the public at large, you open yourself up to all kinds of personalities being good, bad or indifferent.

As a person who worked in public affairs for corporations and one politician and having to deal with a vast canvas of different beliefs and personalities both public and press, I know all too well what it feels like to be standing in front of a group of people large or small, keeping a smile on your face whilst getting your grille kicked in trying your damndest to keep your composure. Ain't easy but it can be done. All in the long story short, the forums at Alphasim were going downhill for a while, The fun and enjoyment and camaraderie is long gone sadly. Better to put it to pasture and be done with it if it's become an unwelcome liability to the staff. I support the efforts past and present from the team and hope to buy some of those products as I have many times in the past. If this move helps them to move Alphasim upwards and onwards, I'm all for it. Let's see what happens and best of luck to them.
 
deathfromafar said:
All the good out of it overshadowed by a lot of baseless verbal attacks, personal politics, contentious personalities, drive-by-posters, and various other things that aren't moral boosting qualities in a public forum.
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We are not talking about the SOH, are we? :costumes:

Huub
 
As a CEO and President of three Aerospace companies I can only say that Phils business model is completely at odds with what is taught at the Harvard Business School.
I have never attended AlphaSims forums and can only guess at the content. But with Phil overseeing it, I would guess the words must be guarded.
 
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