Quote:
- to get a job
- pay my bills
- do something I would enjoy
- provide something of use to the community
- remove the load on Hugo and the team


Number one there is a good idea as employment usually takes care of number two. Sadly as you saw, the financial prospects just aren't here to pony up enough money to support a person for 6 months. I think part of that reason is because version 2 of the empeg software is just a plain great release. It added a lot of noticible things over 1. With 3, it adds more, but for some reason just doesn't carry the same value to people here. Auto volume adjusting I think is one of the bigger features, but easially overshadowed by the fact we have had it since version 1 with kernel hacks. Crossfading is interesting, but for me is usually off on any device that supports it, unless it needs to be used for gapless playback. Pitch bend is a fun toy, but nothing that would see use daily (unless you were a non empeg owning friend of mine). Auto EQ is a very compelling feature, but one that works decently now and is usually a one time shot.

So to round that part up, basicially version 3 doesn't add a ton of value to a community measured here probably at under one hundred. (Sadly this new software lacks the statistics of the old one tracking user logins over the past month for an exact number).

So lets see, number 3. I think that once money enters the scene, the fun would decrease a noticible amount. The work turns from a labor of love, to something you start to depend on. It would after all be paying your bills. And due to the money as others hinted, you would probably see a sharp increase in your inbox of "whats the news today on the software?". Look back to the post years ago when 1.1 was being talked about. People were much worse then they were here in this thread, as there was a feeling that it added so much and the just paid $1000 or more should justify having 1.1 sooner. Version 2 eventually came once the community saw the product be killed from the active Rio product line. The response at that time quickly turned to one of thanks, as it came to a discontinued product.

Number 4, you already provide much use to this community. You have a rare gift in being able to rally people from all around the world to show up on your doorstep, then proceed to direct that crowd to many interesting and fun activities. The generous donations from this community still leave me speachless, and the memories I gained due to those donations helping me get to Europe will be with me for the rest of my life. Odds are, had you not put forth the effort to host the meet, I would have never seen some of the parts of Europe that I did. I would really hope that this thread did not somehow degrade the importance you feel you have in this community. And I haven't even touched on the fact that you also offer repair services to this day, 3 years past the discontinuation of the product. One that I hope to utilize here in the near future to keep at least one fully functional player active for years to come.

The last part, I definitely commend you for trying to do so.


As far as the whole off topic discussions, plus the nearly dead horse open source discussion, all I can really say is that it is very typical of the community here, and has been for a long time. Why some are suprised is beyond me about it. I think it is just natural anymore, as one simple sentance said from one person can spawn a full reply. My reply regarding the iPod and such came mostly from my frustration of the success of it. I at least was able to convince several friends to go for the empeg. Sadly that has not been the case on the Karma, and Rio has not helped much. Hugo hints at interesting possibilities, but sadly it is hard to say what the end results will be. I hope some good will come out of them, but I look at the littered path up to here, with discarded technology from Rio's failures. I sit here today with more of a mess of music then I did when I got my Mark 1, even with products like the Central and Receiver and Karma in existance. That also leads to a bit of irritation that is probably visible in my posts.


In any case, don't count the community down and out quite yet. True, many have left and moved on. But the impact it has had on people is still occuring, and I hope it will for many more years through friendships created due to a simple bit of code and a database.