@moderators - please do not remove - This post (eventually!) becomes directly relevant to wiiflow development.
Happy to edit on request
Firstly, thanks to Fledge68 in particular, but all the wiiflow developers past and present. I love the 'flow, yo.
I just got banned from #wiiflow on abjects.irc *
I'd been popping in over the last few days trying to find out if a function was available in wiiflow. When you logon to #wiiflow, the subtitle or tag line of the room is something like " Ask a question and hang around for a few minutes for an answer". I've asked the same thing maybe 6 times over the last few days or so. I put a post up on here and on another thread. I still don't know the answer.
I'm beginning to notice a pattern.
Whenever i make a suggestion, ask a question, need help to contribute, or interact with the dev team or it's inner circle - it takes an age and multiple attempts to get an answer or even a begrudging acknowledgement that a question has been asked. It's like trying to pass a melon, uphill.
When i first took an interest in WiiFlow(mod), when wiiflow main was still 2.1ish (i think) it was amazingly clunky to get around. New functionality (eg. emuflow) was just tacked on - no one was (is!) thinking about end users might actually use the software. You had to know a multibutton shortcut to launch some basic functions (which, for a time, weren't in any of the documentation), and there wasn't even the checkbox to select different sources. You had to scroll around all of your sources to get to the one you wanted. When i (amongst others, I'm sure) suggested that that there might be better ways of getting around wiiflow - i was met with cries of
"How dare you suggest that wiiflow isn't perfect, you are effectively calling the development team morons, you ungrateful swine" ; "Devs do it for free, and therefore the logic follows that they cannot be mistaken about anything, ever" ; The perennial "Perhaps you should learn to code if you don't like it".
I'm sure some gbatemp cats are familiar with the tone. I have become somewhat used to it.
I'd occasionally lose patience with this and other tomfoolery and malarky, blow and storm off in a huff. I am frankly a little embarrassed by some of my posts from my early days wasting time here. But with patience and time, and sometimes just with my belief in the value of an idea, I'd come back to the forum or irc, and make the case for the idea again. If someone thought it was a bad idea, I'd ask why, and their reply would force me to refine the idea, make it better. Some folks might be a little terse in their response, some of the opinions lazily thought out, I'd occasionally have to bite my tongue, turn the other cheek, but see the bigger picture, right? I got better at holding my tongue, more ready to turn the other cheek, and my ideas improved.
So what kind of ideas are we talking about? -
I'm only saying this because my experiences are relevant to my point, but it also (let's be honest) sets up my credentials as genuine contributor. Credentials shouldn't matter - as a user capable of using a reasonable voice and making a cogent argument, or more importantly, my opinion
as a WiiFlow user is of value.
Well, I think it's fair to say the checkbox menu was certainly encouraged by my input - still used by many who are not fans of the source_menu
The source menu owes a significant part to my efforts - it might have been my idea, not sure, but I certainly had a hand in it's design and inception and encouraged it's development! - The source menu is now used by the majority of wiiflow users to get around wiiflow.
Using 'B' to launch the source menu was (probably?) my idea, and would not have happened had i not argued for it's inclusion - again, this is used by most wiiflow users. When fledge recently removed "B-to-souirce_menu" as the default from wiiflow, he later elected to reverse that decision.
The sourceflow - a 3D coverflow replacement for the source_menu (see my sig) - is also my idea. (I also contributed the artwork for the small 3D covers - it's glowy and readable - Try it!
)
Both sugar and kudos for
fledge68, who coded most if not all of the above - thanks big guy! (reflected thanks on rest of dev team
)
So what spacepimp, You're an obnoxious walking opinion and nobody cares you got booted off #wiiflow?
Ah, yes, quite. Er. I think this incident in particular shows off an unpleasant and growth-stunting dimension to wiiflow's development.
I am going to reveal something a bit
upsetting - In the past I have logged onto #wiiflow from my in-laws - using the credentials they use on that PC. It's unintentionally opened up #wiiflow whenever they've been using IRC (really - they're in their 60's!!!!). I was round at their house very recently, and
the wiiflow log makes for some interesting reading.
What follows is so shocking, it's going to burn your corneas off, however, i'm just going to ask you to pause while I write some (crazy nonsense type lark) and filler before I reveal that I completely and utterly made that last bit up. The last paragraph is all nonsense, but believe me when I say that some people who read that bit in bold suddenly felt
very uncomfortable. And there's the problem -
Wiiflow irc is where you can often find wiiflow users, wii coding types, themers, and the more hardcore end of the wii scene, and often
many or all of the wiiflow devs - And it's a bit...nasty. I can tell you from my experience logged on as spacepimp**, that the general attitude to users of GBAtemp is one of
absolute contempt. Not just general posters, regulars and newbies, but also GBAtemp users who put a lot of time and effort in (more than some of the individual members of the official team, certainly) and contribute hugely to wiiflow, are spoken of as though they are less than diseased vermin. Much of the brilliant contribution, time, imagination, of this forum goes utterly unnoticed from the ivory tower. As far as #wiiflow is concerned, you are largely wasting your time contributing anything here.
You may think that this is not how the Dev team feel about GBAtemp, and I'd like to be able to able to assuredly agree. What I can say is that this is the broad opinion of the place, not the developers - have a look on there and see for yourself. I've seen good work and ideas left to rot (how long is this thread now?) because no one of influence has engaged with the contributing user. Sometimes, it is almost as though they're literally embarrassed to talk about the time they spend on here, and when they talk about fulfilling a user request, it's like an admission of guilt. It's like they've let the developer side down by listening to a user. And that's bad for wiiflow.
So what if they do feel that way, why is this necessarily bad for wiiflow?
Ever noticed how, even though USBloaderGX has slightly lower functionality on paper, and doesn't have drop dead gorgeous coverflows, it always seems to be slightly ahead in Abz's loader poll?
Not to detract from FIX's contribution - his work is the shared common factor between wiiflow and GX.
What's different is Cyan. He's always on here. Talking with, sorting out problems for, listening to GX users. Could that possibly be a bad thing for GX? I don't mean voters on the poll like Cyan more, and that's why they vote for his loader, I mean USBloaderGX is a better piece of software
because of the time it's coder has spent with users.
This idea - that the people who actually use the software might have something useful to say - is openly ridiculed on #wiiflow.
I can also speak to my own experience - if wasn't both stupid and mad enough to keep coming back - the attitude and disproportionate amount of bullsh*t I've had to put up with would have stopped things like the source_menu from coming in to being. You may feel that'd be no great loss, but the fact is you'd be in the minority. BTW, i'm sure other solutions for mere humans with no computer science or engineering background would have arrived eventually
None of WiiFlow happens without the coders. Without code, there is nothing. But WiiFlow isn't just the code - it includes vast amounts of artwork, config, data, and IDEAS made, written, compiled and thought up not by coders, but by users like you and me. A Wiiflow made by coders for coders (and ignores everyone else) -
will only get used by coders - have a look through this thread, before Abz's masterpack, count how many posts read "I'm an old school wiiflow user, used it for years, i've read the documentation but I don't have time for a computer science 101, and it went over my head, nothing works, can i play games?"
i suppose part of the pleasure of coding wiiflow is in that people actually use it - you're not just coding for yourself (or your mates) - so what you're doing is relevant to real people in the real world. A better WiiFlow recognises the coding at the core, but the coders are missing out on a vast resource of talent when they ignore their users.
That's all. I think. Must go.
Get on #wiiflow, dilute the crap with some (more) real people.
*if you want to know who barred me and why - there'll be no surprises, (!) but i'll post under a spoiler later.
**funny story - someone's nicked the spacepimp username, so i make one up whenever i (used to) log in. Oh how I laughed.