I've been keeping an eye on these boards for quite a while, and I seem to have noticed an spike in postings since the most recent price drop of 12/22/01....can anybody verify this with numbers?

My first EMPEG (Mark 2a) arrived shortly before the price drop and all I can say is it's the greatest music player I've ever seen!! What a great community!!

Wes

My observations are that traffic peaks on this board after every major announcement i.e. upgrade, price drop etc. This time we had a MAJOR price drop coupled with a significant upgrade. I think that's why the increase in traffic IMO.

Yes, traffic has increased, but most of it is of the where is my order/has it shipped yet/I got my empeg in the mail/did they run out/whats the SB customer service number variety.

Sean

I seem to have seen an unusually high number of new users appearing on the board. It would make sense, since many of them are asking the usual "Mine's on order, what next" questions.

Yup, there's more new owners coming aboard. The more the merrier. Let's hope some of them are good programmers, too.

As a newbie myself, I have found the forum to be useful. Being an old hand on a certain car forum, I recognise how important a faq (official or unofficial) is prior to participating in such a BBS. I've used the search function but the high number of results bare no answers to my particular questions. It could be that this forum is a victim of it's success, making a search akin to finding a needle in a haystack of needles using a magnet!

Walking in the shoes of a newbie, there are ambiguities in the riocar faq. I don't know what the target audience was for the empeg, but it can be quite daunting for beginners to be offered such versatility without firm directions in say mp3 encoding. Using things like EAC, Lame and MP3-Trim proves to be not entirely user friendly (although lame 3.90 has made it easier).

However since all the units have been sold, the last wave of newbies will mature at the same rate, with annoying postings trailing off.

By all means post your questions here without fear, but do expect that Tony will probably redirect you to the specific location in the FAQ where you question is undoubtedly answered.

Seriously, Tony has done an incredible job with the FAQ to this point and it has only recently had the search function added to it. Perhaps there are some rough spots that will need working out, but I'm pretty confident the answers to your questions are in there.

Welcome to the group,
Tim

it can be quite daunting for beginners to be offered such versatility without firm directions in say mp3 encoding.

I delberately left the MP3-encoding part of the FAQ vague because those products keep changing and because "what's best" is very subjective.

Using things like EAC, Lame and MP3-Trim proves to be not entirely user friendly (although lame 3.90 has made it easier).

True, but it's hardly my place to provide detailed documentation on those other products. "I can only show you the door."

Personally Tony, I think you've done a wonderful job. I've wanted an Empeg since 1996/1997 (whenever it was that I signed up for the queue). Having just received two 10GB units yesterday, my wife and I have already used the FAQ multiple times for issues as diverse as: Upgrading to 2.0b7, the format of logo screens in LogoEdit, hard drive upgrading procedures and constraints, the Button Guide, and so forth.

The FAQ is clear, concise, and thus far has proven to be at least as useful as the included hardware/software documentation.

Thanks!

Aw, shucks. Thanks.