Missing Hyperspin Discussion

[Asparky]

Just been over to the Hyperspin Forums, just to add to the ongoing Dissussion, about Launchbox, with the most recent updates, only to find that any mention of Launchbox has been removed...............

Does that mean our Community, have upset the Members over there, or is it, they can see Members leaving for Launchbox, as its in constant Development?

 

[DOS76]

Well if its because their users are leaving for here I don't think censoring us off of their forums is going to stop that sounds silly and petty either way.

[neil9000]

Yeah if users are leaving there to come here, then removing mentions to us is just adding fuel to the fire in my opinion. Maybe they should look into improving their product, rather than trying to hide the fact that better and easier to use alternatives exist. 

[ALIE]

wouldn't surprise me unfortunately. 

[Agent47]

Let me preface this by saying I don't know if/why the thread was deleted nor am I speaking in any sort of "official" capacity for HS or the HS staff, this is just my own personal opinion. I also don't use HS or LB as my primary frontend (although I do have a lifetime LB license) so I'm not playing favorites or taking sides and I don't have any bias towards one or the other. I couldn't care less what frontend people use. I browse these forums several times a week along with a few other frontends.

That being said, I can't say I'm sad at all to see that thread gone if has been removed. For those who don't know I'm a moderator on HS and that thread was the biggest source of trouble and drama on the site for the most part, although it had been quiet for the past few months. That thread seemed to attract all of the "your frontend sucks, mine's better" people from both camps and several people received warnings and bans due to crappy posts in that thread. It was almost locked several times due to that stuff, and I think at one point it was locked but at Jason's request it was reopened.

All that stuff aside, the sole purpose of that thread was to advertise a competing product (convert/steal the user base) so in that regard alone I could understand removing it. You wouldn't see Coke allowing Pepsi advertisements on their site or Chevy allowing Toyota etc. If people want to find out about LB/BB updates they know to come here or your YT or whatever so exposure certainly isn't a problem. Plus when it comes down to it the frontend speaks for itself and that's what will ultimately determine whether people use it or not.

Just to reiterate, this is just my opinion on the matter (if there is one) and I'm certainly not trying to invite or contribute to the "rivalry" or troll posts over which frontend is better because there's already enough of that which is beyond dumb.

[SentaiBrad]

Well, with some clarification I say that makes sense. If it was causing a source of strife over there, then I would understand. That has come up a few times with people coming from outside our community, and starting blatantly biased posts just to rile people up. We wouldn't stand for it, I think it's fair to assume you guys wouldn't either. If anyone from our community see's this, know that the Staff and myself do not condone going to other forums and belittling or starting flame wars. Agent 47 is correct: Our program and results speak for it's self. If you do want to have these conversations, then have them here or at a neutral location like Reddit. We've even allowed HS and RL threads in the past as long as it stays civil from both sides. Any of the moderators personal feelings are put aside.

[damageinc86]

2 hours ago, Agent47 said:

All that stuff aside, the sole purpose of that thread was to advertise a competing product (convert/steal the user base) so in that regard alone I could understand removing it. You wouldn't see Coke allowing Pepsi advertisements on their site or Chevy allowing Toyota etc. If people want to find out about LB/BB updates they know to come here or your YT or whatever so exposure certainly isn't a problem. Plus when it comes down to it the frontend speaks for itself and that's what will ultimately determine whether people use it or not.

 

I actually didn't have a clue launchbox existed until I read that thread about a new version of this frontend.  So I might not have found out about it, since at that point in time I was really invested in HS so I wasn't searching for anything else.  I'm glad someone posed the question in that thread, or else I wouldn't be here.

Edited May 29, 2017 by damageinc86

[Agent47]

The fact the thread was often the center of toxic stuff is just one potential reason it may have been removed, but I can't say one way or the other because I haven't been on the HS forum much recently due to lack of free time and other priorities.

25 minutes ago, damageinc86 said:

I actually didn't have a clue launchbox existed until I read that thread about a new version of this frontend.  So I might not have found out about it, since at that point in time I was really invested in HS so I wasn't searching for anything else.  I'm glad someone posed the question in that thread, or else I wouldn't be here.

Yeah, of course some people may not have heard about LB as soon as they did if it weren't for that thread, especially if it was a while ago before BB really took off and the LB forum got up and running. Now though there's plenty of coverage on YouTube, reddit and other emu related sites that anyone just starting to look for a frontend or anyone looking at options to switch from an existing one isn't going to have any problem at all discovering LB.

[damageinc86]

Yeah i'm sure it's more "out there" now.  I hadn't visited the thread for several months, so maybe it did get a bit crazy.   I'm also sure there's a bit of a sore spot there since HS is just so far behind with certain features.  The workarounds get old, and seeing people leave and loose interest surely doesn't feel good.

[Asparky]

41 minutes ago, Agent47 said:

The fact the thread was often the center of toxic stuff is just one potential reason it may have been removed, but I can't say one way or the other because I haven't been on the HS forum much recently due to lack of free time and other priorities.

Yeah, of course some people may not have heard about LB as soon as they did if it weren't for that thread, especially if it was a while ago before BB really took off and the LB forum got up and running. Now though there's plenty of coverage on YouTube, reddit and other emu related sites that anyone just starting to look for a frontend or anyone looking at options to switch from an existing one isn't going to have any problem at all discovering LB.

Sounds like double Standards to me.

I see there are still Discussions going on about RetroFE and Emubox, if you say there are plenty of places, that Launchbox can be seen, what can be said about the other two front ends mentioned.

If you deleat one thread, as you put it " You wouldn't see Coke allowing Pepsi advertisements on their site or Chevy allowing Toyota etc. If people want to find out about LB/BB updates they know to come here or your YT or whatever so exposure certainly isn't a problem. "

What about the others?

[Agent47]

Again, I don't know why the LB thread was deleted. I'm not saying it's because they didn't want LB promoted or mentioned on the site, that theory was already alluded to and I just tossed my $.02 about it. It would also only be a double standard if that was the sole reason it was deleted and all of the flame posts, arguments and conflicts in the LB thread weren't taken into account. If they were then it would make perfect sense because the LB thread had a ton and the other threads haven't had a single one (at least to my knowledge).

[Lordmonkus]

If people from the LB community are going over to the HyperSpin forums just to stir up shit then I can understand locking or deleting threads. I would do the same thing here if it were happening here.

I have no problems people discussing pros and cons of other frontends but flat out shit talking and bashing of other frontends or communities on here will be met with warnings and bans if they get really out of hand. Fortunately that has not happened here yet as far as I am aware of and I hope it stays that way.

Hell, I'm a total Launchbox whore but I will suggest other frontends such as AttractMode or HyperSpin to people when Launchbox doesn't suit their needs.

[damageinc86]

I think a lot of times people misunderstand passion for shit talking also.  I've seen things get so out of hand on threads, when it was just a person's honest opinion and wasn't really inflammatory at all.  I have a whole list that I'm sure i went over in that thread of why I couldn't stand HS anymore, and how LB addressed everything in one fail swoop.  I never had any blowback from it, but I'm sure once you see enough of that you might get tired of it and then emotions get involved, and it spirals out of control lol.

[Rincewind]

The thread as far as I remember was meant to be a place to say , "just to let you all know LaunchBox has a few new updates." but I understand that the replies sometimes ended up with a few frustrated past and present HS users venting, it is a shame when a thread ends up going down that route as someone will always get offended. So if the thread ended up like that then probably it's for the best.

We do need to know the pros and cons of all things to make a better frontend, we just need a level of calm when discussing them.

[Agent47]

I don't mean to make it sound like numerous people from here were going into the thread and trying to bait people or stir stuff up on a daily or even weekly basis because that wasn't the case. It wasn't only LB users either, there were plenty of times that HS members took it too far and I think one of the dumb insult wars was between two HS guys that didn't even use LB afaik. Sometimes it wasn't even really related to LB it was just where someone decided to be an ass. There were enough incidents in that thread though that when I saw there were new posts I assumed it was a 50/50 shot of being a legit post or a post with the potential to devolve into something stupid or disrespectful.

It started off being very productive for you guys since the suggestions for many of the current features in BigBox were made there. Just like most discussions involving things people are passionate about no matter how civil and respectful they start out there's always a few people that take it too far or just want to be dicks. I'm sure some of the things were just misinterpreted and some people may have just gone into an overly defensive stance like it was some attack or invasion on their home turf. Someone asked in the thread why it was even allow it there and I said I didn't care as long as the discussion remained civil and people were respectful, just like I tell people it's fine to disagree and debate along the same rules.

Once seeing new posts in that thread went from "let me see what's new" to "let me check to make sure this isn't anything bad" I was over it. The last time I remember having to remove a stupid rant was on Christmas morning of all days, but I pretty much stopped checking the thread after that so I'm not sure if more crap was posted after that or not. It's possible there were more incidents or they may have removed it for other reasons, I don't know.

[Lordmonkus]

Yeah, it's the internet. All it takes is for a couple of people to start acting shitty and it escalates out of control quickly from there. All anyone has to do is to look at /r/emulation sometime for a prime example.

There have been a couple of times here where an over zealous fan of another front end comes here are starts "making demands" of Launchbox and those threads got heated quickly before having to shut them down. Fortunately those have been extremely rare cases.

[Rincewind]

Your 100% right with what your saying, thank you for clearing it up @Agent47. If there is anything I've learnt in the few short years I've been around the scene is that there are a lot of helpful and respectful people in the community as a whole and that's what makes it great. And I'm talking of the whole retro gaming community.

[SentaiBrad]

There are a ton of toxic sub-communities unfortunately, and we try very hard to keep that out.

[damageinc86]

Yeah it's hard sometimes, I understand it all.  It's hard on the HS side, because there's a lot of loyalty there, but a developer that has basically been M.I.A. since the day I joined (fall of 2013) so there is a bit of defensive stance sometimes because your holding onto a lot there even with nothing moving.  If the thread could have stayed on better terms that would have been nice, since I know that Jason did jump in quite a bit to use it as an issue/update area.  I know a few times before I made the switch, I brought up stuff in there, and he had a new update that addressed the issue posted in that thread.  Oh well, life moves on though.  It was getting pretty big anyways!  i think almost 100 pages. 

[bundangdon]

On a related note, I've just recently noticed that they also removed the long-running post "Do you like Hyperspin?" from their forums. The last time I checked (a few months ago), it was filled with (mostly) negative posts, with people complaining about the lack of hyperspin development and comparing it with the features available in other frontends. They definitely have a great "scene" with people doing some excellent work by providing artwork and themes, but if there's any progress being made on the program itself, I'll believe it when I see it

Edited June 20, 2017 by bundangdon