ID:182714
 
Hmm... Maybe those 3 "facts" you posted are all related!
As in, the BYOND staff aren't easy to obtain and there hasn't been an update for a few months because they are busy actually trying to fix those bugs?

You might not know much about real programming. But I will tell you this. It is HORRIBLE and hard, millions of times harder than anything you have ever done with BYOND. I would also imagine that the BYOND source code is quiet large (probably hundreds of thousands to millions of lines of code). The difficulty of programming, the size of the source code and the vague nature of these bugs would probably make it very difficult to find and fix them.

Also, the BYOND staff aren't roybots constructed to make BYOND better and better, they are people and I'd assume they have lives. At least they dedicate some of their time to BYOND, which is more than they have to.

You're free to complain about these issues if you want. But maybe the next time you do it you should take these things into account and think about them? Instead of only thinking about yourself and what you want.
Latoma wrote:
Let's view facts:

1: The Staff are never easy to obtain to discuss problems, and when they are, they seem AFK.

What kind of problems?
Bugs? Post in the forums.
General Questions? Post in the forums.
Feature Requests? Post in the forums.

Game dispute? Deal with it yourself.

2: It's been what, 4, 5 months since we had a Version update and we just seemingly got one recently?

I don't understand what you mean by this. BYOND is one of the most frequently updated software packages I've ever come across.

3: Instead of correcting things like the server connection programming, which has plenty of bugs (IE: The whole "Cannot Connect to Byond Server" today) and massive bugs (IE: The one which prevents games from getting past like the 10th command input), they insist on cosmetic or minor upgrades.

I haven't encountered either of these problems, but I don't know what you mean by cosmetic or minor upgrades. Everything they do is important, and they still have a list a mile long of features people want and what could be improved. Tom recently pointed out on a blog post that he's 33 and has 3 roomates, showing that neither him nor the staff are making a fortune on BYOND. It's tough to fully dedicate your time to a project when you still need to survive.
See ID:619650, you ingrate.
Latoma wrote:
Let's view facts:

1: The Staff are never easy to obtain to discuss problems, and when they are, they seem AFK.

2: It's been what, 4, 5 months since we had a Version update and we just seemingly got one recently?

3: Instead of correcting things like the server connection programming, which has plenty of bugs (IE: The whole "Cannot Connect to Byond Server" today) and massive bugs (IE: The one which prevents games from getting past like the 10th command input), they insist on cosmetic or minor upgrades.

I could name more, but It might begin looking stupid.

Do you really care about the staff?
I think they care enough to provide us with a free development tool with no ownership of your creations nor obligation to pay them when/if you make money off your creations along with a full fledged site to promote them..
In response to Foomer
Unfortunately when BYOND staff respond in such a manner as you did Foomer, it makes BYOND seem worse then what it really is.
In response to Mecha Destroyer JD
To be honest, I don't really know how much they are, more along the lines as some of them feel obligated now that they have a huge and thriving community.

With a selfish community, full of abusers and trolls, and 90% ripped off Anime games, there isn't a whole lot to care about. Perhaps when it first started out and the community was smaller, more behaved and had some quality stuff coming out they cared more.
In response to Baladin
Hmm, that's a nice way of looking at it..Maybe with more time, it can change for the better..It's hard to have it but optimism is needed.
Does BYOND really care about us?

Yes. More so than they even should.
In response to Baladin
I'll let BYOND staff worry about its own image. I'm just a rowdy volunteer.
Try putting in a support request to Microsoft to fix a bug in their software, see where that gets you.

This whole topic is one giant insult.
In response to Tom
Tom wrote:
Try putting in a support request to Microsoft to fix a bug in their software, see where that gets you.

[insert generalization about proprietary software here?]

This whole topic is one giant insult.

It's amazing that people can feel entitled to special personal attention from those who write unique software and give it away for free, while actively supporting a huge community of gamers at the same time.
Latoma wrote:
Let's view facts:

[blah, blah, blah...]

I could name more, but It might begin looking stupid.

The title of the thread already looked stupid to begin with.

Let's view some facts from the other side of the table:

1) BYOND is free to use, the only thing that isn't free to use is the hub which now has advertisements on it. This however does not prevent you from making your own hub system.

2) BYOND Staff is active, they're just ignoring you. The reason they're ignoring you and others like you is because you scream at them that they're worthless and that they should make BYOND open-source.

3) Not only is this thread an insult as Tom said, this thread also shows the mentality of a certain part of the community, appearantly compromised of brats who think they should get free stuff and free support.

4) Lastly, but not leastly, I think Tom is getting increasingly annoyed at people such as yourself whining at them all the time, and I think it won't be long till' he starts making use of the "ban" button himself... creepy.

All I got to say is this: =(

-- Data
Soccerguy13 wrote:
You have to realize, the BYOND staff have lives. They have real jobs and real life to deal with. They do what they can. They have to take care of themselves before they can take care of BYOND.

Except Lummox. /whip.

In reality, yes, Soccerguy is right. They're doing what they can when they can. As it is, they're trying to focus more on getting the website nice and stable before they focus back on the software again, since the software is at least usable. If you look at the site now, and looked at it when they first released the new layout, you would understand exactly what's going on.
In response to Audeuro
I personally liked the old layout. Like 1996 layout.. lol
Its free, so they don't owe you anything, so who cares.
I am honestly surprised that you can be this naive. There are more suitable words, but we are not allowed to tell such truths on these forums.
Latoma wrote:
Let's view facts:

1: The Staff are never easy to obtain to discuss problems, and when they are, they seem AFK.

The staff are limited in number and more limited in their available time, while most of the items users define as "problems" are nothing of the sort. We're deliberately hard to get hold of, though that doesn't stop a lot of stuff from taking up our time regardless. Still, we handle support requests and such as we can when they come in, and we do still read bug reports.

2: It's been what, 4, 5 months since we had a Version update and we just seemingly got one recently?

See above comment about limited number of staff. We can do software upgrades or Web upgrades at any given time, not both. We've been working hard on the Web stuff to get the site in decent shape to handle more users. However, focus is soon shifting back to the software.

3: Instead of correcting things like the server connection programming, which has plenty of bugs (IE: The whole "Cannot Connect to Byond Server" today) and massive bugs (IE: The one which prevents games from getting past like the 10th command input), they insist on cosmetic or minor upgrades.

The "cannot connect to BYOND server" thing is probably not a software issue, but a server issue. We deal with these things whenever they come up, as best we can. As for the input thing you're talking about... what the heck are you talking about? I don't recall seeing such a bug report, and for all I know it's an issue with a particular game.

I could name more, but It might begin looking stupid.

No offense, but I think you passed Go right at the subject line. Frankly a great deal of why site and software upgrades take us so long is because after any release we're inundated with suggestions from users, and we try to accommodate any of them that we reasonably can. Does BYOND Staff really care about our users? Of course! Does BYOND Staff drop everything to respond to the 18th report of the hour that XxGokuDudexX ripped Naruto89106's icons? No.

We do what we can. Based on Tom's response here, I think I can speak for both of us when I say that complaints like this are pretty demoralizing. Perhaps instead of wondering why nothing seems to happen fast enough, you could do something yourself to improve the community, like taking an active role in some guilds or developing the next quality game, or even just encouraging others who might be inclined to do so. Maybe you don't think one person can make much of an impact, but you seem to think a mere two can produce godlike results on unreasonably short time scales. I assure you, BYOND's users have not been ignored; not even the ones who give us short shrift themselves.

Lummox JR
In response to Lummox JR
If you think you could do a better job with the service byond gives us
Then you do it genious
1. They are working on a program
2. they are working on a website
3. they have lives and interests/hobbies One of them if I recall even attempted(or maybe did it I cant remember) going from canada to mexico on a bike which was an interesting read (It was a byond blogpost I think)
Page: 1 2 3