What the future has in store - XBMC announcement

1st Official Post

    What with Kodi announcing ending multi platform development. I am curious as to the future of libreelec and the multiple platforms currently supported.

    I gotta say, I'm pretty bummed.

    A lot of the users were just annoyed that the forum was shut down for no reason — on a weekend — when people normally file bug reports, perform maintenance on their Kodi box, and fix things for friends or family. It turned into a big fiasco with a few leading members of Team Kodi growing increasingly nasty towards visitors who expressed frustration and disappointment, with contributors being called selfish parasites, moaning old farts, and other such nonsense. It looks like the thread was removed.

    Quote from wgstarks

    I’ve decided to discontinue support for it.😁

    Now that was the only funny thing I've seen and heard all day. 😁

    • Official Post
    Quote from LE23

    A lot of the users were just annoyed that the forum was shut down for no reason

    There was a reason, but perhaps you simply didn't understand the whole concept behind it. At the same time, a lot of users did get the joke.

    For what it's worth (and this is my personal opinion):

    People are increasingly expecting levels of high corporate company behavior in every sense from Kodi and LibreELEC. They are forgetting that every single one of the developers and supporting staff are normal people and they are all volunteers, who don't much get freedom in taking a step back or stepping out of their normal Kodi routine for 365 days a year.

    So whenever something like April Fool's comes along, and some prank is done, yes there are those 'familiar faces' that are grumbling and saying that it is either inappropriate, or bad timing, or bad humor, or whatever excuse it is they have. It's like bad television: if you don't like it, change the channel, or turn the TV off. All just because of ONE SINGLE DAY that their precious forum is unavailable. Some of us remember the days of BBS chatting, when it could takes weeks before you got a solution to a problem.

    To me, it's all so typical in today's ever faster "me, myself and I" society.

    If anyone associated with the project feels overworked, they absolutely should step away for a while. But I dont see people complaining that someone else has gone on holiday. I dont know where this accusation is coming from, and I dont believe for a minute that the forum was shut down to give anyone a break from their busy schedules. That's simply not credible: If you want time off, you dont need to wait for April fools. This just sounds like an excuse for exercising bad judgment. If you have an international user base, they are not all going to understand your strange traditions.

    Just like you, I can only speak for myself when I say that I never expect a response, and I never complain if I dont receive a reply. And I dont see other people complaining about being ignored either. So I honestly dont know what you are talking about when you claim that people are demanding commercial-grade support. I always take time out to help others when I see that it's needed, and I see many people doing the same. Now some may be obsessed with Kodi, that's true -- but I dont think it has anything to do with selfishness:

    As clunky as BBS systems were, it was still nowhere near as frustrating as Kodi can be. In my opinion, serious Kodi users are masochists who torture themselves with software that's not user friendly in order to break free from the tyranny of proprietary platforms that wont let you do what you want. Many are already at their wit's end, and breaking the forum was a bad move. If you're trying to gather support, that is not a solution.

    I think this is reasonable advice which the staff should be willing to consider. When you claim that it's just a few "familiar faces" who feel this way, it sounds like you're trying to deny reality: From what I observed, I think at least 50% would have voted against shutting down the forums (particularly the parts where add-on documentation is stored that is not available anywhere else.) I just think it's really bad public relations to blame the user base for your mistakes. But hey, if Zuckerberg can get away with it, what do I know.

    • Official Post
    Quote from LE23

    In my opinion, serious Kodi users are masochists who torture themselves with software that's not user friendly in order to break free from the tyranny of proprietary platforms that wont let you do what you want.

    I guess you must be in a lot of pain when using Kodi on a daily basis. I don't share your opinion at all.

    This topic has gone as far as it needs to go. It's time to get back to our usual business.