A message to ClockworkPi and the community

[Lix]

This message is for ClockworkPi and the rest of the community. Please be indulgent since English is not my main language, so my writing is far from perfect.

Some of you might have noticed my message posted yesterday concerning the death of my GameShell. Before writing anything else I would like to excuse the language used in my messages. My goal was never to hurt any member of the community, but I am not going to excuse myself toward ClockworkPi. If ClockworkPi is smart, they will read this message, try to implement my suggestions and act on it, but honestly I don’t think they will.

You have to understand my frustration when my device died. I am a graphic designer, if a client ask something from me and I deliver an half made artwork, I will not get paid. It should be the same for these gadgets. I come a long way with these Retro Gaming thing. I had a Waveshare GameHat, a custom made GameBoy Zero, another GameBoy with Pi3B+, a GPD Win 2, a 1Up Handheld and other smaller things. They ALL died within under a year! (Except the GPD WIn 2 which I sold because it was badly design ex.overheating). To be fair, the GameShell was the best device of them all! Nice form factor, very nice community and easy to use, as long as you stick to GB, GBC, GBA, NES, SNES etc…

One thing I have noticed with the GameShell is that the developpers are absent. Where are they? Aren’t they supposed to at least help us from time to time? Its the same story with ALL these devices. Look at the RetroStone, another crowdfunded device, from day one, users where complaining about the screen being very bad, where is the screen replacement? Users where not asking for a free screen, only one that they can buy. But hey, no, why offer good parts when you can reuse cheap chinese screen already made and ready to ship.

Here are my recommendation to ClockworkPi:
1: Be more visible in the forum and help the community!!!
2: Sell parts!!! Not pack of plastic, actual parts! sold separatly and easy to find in the shop of your website so people can fix their stuff without having to write to you each time.
3: Release an OS that we can install through sudo apt-get upgrade!!! (this is critical because the GameShell obviously does not like being opened all the time to reflash the sdCard.)
4: When you release new OS, do not fill it with bloathware, fixe actual issues!!!
5: The GameShell is modular, so develop new hardware that can fit in it in the future. Do not release another brand new device. Use your modular design, the idea is very good, develop on it!!!
6: Offer warranty. Charge for it if you want but at least offer something.

Do all that and you will quadruple your sells!!!

I have many other points but I believe that its enough for now. I might buy another device in the future. I will continue to follow the development from time to time by visiting the forum and read users posts, but I do not know when. My frustration is way to high now for me to send more money to ClockworkPi!

So thanks again to all the users I spoke to on the forum.

Lix

[Godzil]

Thanks you for your excuses to the community.

And thanks for making a constructive topic.

[Rebusmind]

I’m sorry to hear that your GS broke.
Maybe we should tag users like @guu who are involved with the development, so that this topic doesn’t get overlooked, because you raise some important points.

I definitely wished the devs were more involved, cause I can’t imagine that they are not passionate about their project and don’t want it to be the best it can be.

P.S. I’m still very much in love with my GPD Win 2, even though I’m mostly gaming on my GS right now. Got one from the first batches and apart from some smaller issues (like the USB port turning off when you close the lid) I think it’s great! (And as they promised in their IndieGoGo campaign, I really was able to play GTAV on a mobile device )

[Tariq]

I understand and i agree that there need to be more developers on the forum and that there need to be more customization options for the hardware.

[hexersoft]

@Lix I agree with 1,3,4,5,6.
about 2,you can get every part, https://shop282277148.taobao.com/

last night.I want try i2c keyboard, then find nothing. No i2c module, no modprobe, nothing…
OS too simple…

[hal]

In our forum, there is a label called “Customer Services”, usually, in this case, @Yong will follow up ASAP, or you can just email us to after-sales service "help@clockworkpi.com". Also, in our terms, we have a statement that provides a “one-year warranty”.

Therefore, I personally suggest that when you in any similar situation, please “don’t panic”, we try our best to provide the best service & experience for you.

BTW: I personally don’t like to see a strong voice in this community, it seems that we are some kind of dictator But we are really happy to see that you guys can join our GitHub.

We are also tidying up the valuable content of this lovely forum and refactoring our website right now.

We are also looking for a better screen, and it seems that there is some good news…

At the same time, we are also developing another product

In fact, we are more than anyone else want to share these with you, but product development does require a lot of time and patience, especially for a small team like us.

Thanks for your understanding.

Hal

[wolo]

@hal

At the same time, we are also developing another product

Thanks for taking the time to post, @hal. A better screen would be great, as would a higher-capacity battery.

I’m sure the community would be more supportive of a new product if you demonstrated how much you care about your existing products.

[Cecilectomy]

@hal, I agree with most of your recommendations for getting help, however this thread is not explicitly about getting help, it was only prompted by @Lix having his unit die (which hopefully he gets sorted soon).

This thread is essentially an outcry to get more communication and support from you (clockworkpi collectively), the creators, and I whole-heartedly agree. You need to have more of an online presence. Be more active on the forums, post more news and post regularly. Give us updates whenever possible. LISTEN to the community, but then also let us KNOW that you have heard us. (SNES layout issues much?)

It’s hard to get involved and stay involved if you are consistently absent, or alienate your community. @guu seems to be the only one that is remotely active (thank you).

A great way to keep people interested immediately would be to post about the new site, post about the progress of the website refactor, post about the progress or tease the community with this new product. If your core team legitimately has no time for communication, then you will fail. Maybe not immediately, but the community will abandon you. Hire a community manager or designate a team member as a community manager and make 25%+ of their job devoted to community management.

Whatever you do, just do something.

[Lix]

So I bought a new one through Amazon! I will be BACK!
Can’t live without it.

[Joel]

I agree with some points in this post, i really think they need to sell pieces individually, and i really want to see more input / updates from the developers!

I didnt even know that taobao store page existed, because the communication is poor I believe. And it is quite annoying to order from taobao if you live outside of china…

[lycj]

@Lix

This message is for ClockworkPi and the rest of the community. Please be indulgent since English is not my main language, so my writing is far from perfect.

Hello, this is from Hong Kong, and if English not good enough I suggest you re-order your question in translator. . You are not allowed to claim to own anything you dont own. - LAW - 160320191127.

What are you complaining when you say “was the best device”.t? Thou shalt not steal. and you claim yourself graphic designer . (it should be Graphics Designer ≠ Liar.) .t. who have a (broken Linux game console)died device. moderation: removed suspicious link under social contract you have broken 1.Sales and Purchase Agreement for requesting customs. 3.ViolateTerms 200x damages 6.Refuse 14. 15.

[javelinface]

Was this quote an example of how you can use a translator, or a cautionary tale of loss of ownership of intellectual property?

Also uhh, welcome to the community.

[lycj]

.
.BankA .BankB .BankC .FAIL1 .FAIL2 – 13482019114

javelinface
Was this quote an example of how you can use a translator, or a cautionary tale of loss of ownership of intellectual property?
Also uhh, welcome to the community.

Dear FAIL2, you attack my rights and under British (Hong Kong) Law, ., you decleared war to .the whole Common LAW System. 1978 Dos authority Jacob, you forbidden to use any OS. - 163520191127… .2019930 .

[Godzil]

Ok so sorry, we are in the international part of the forum, if you want to talk in Chinese, use the Chinese part.

Edit your post to be more explicite if you try to explain something about translation from Chinese to English, else both your posts will be moderated.

[Lix]

Hey lycj, what is this ?
In the text you quoted, I was just excusing my bad english since I am french canadian.
Nothing to do with laws or rules, just tried to be polite. lol
Declaring war on members… lol you are funny.

[Godzil]

It’s highly possible it is a bot, so please ignore him.

@lycj: editing your post to just remove the Chinese character is not enough. Prove that you are human and not a bot and I may not remove these weird posts.

[lycj]

@lycj: editing your post to just remove the Chinese character is not enough. Prove that you are human and not a bot and I may not remove these weird posts.

Is it forum policy to define target as bot. and is it the only support channel of ClockworkPi? User according to which have to prove themselves as AA6120.ToSteal (“that you are human”) to ClockworkPi.
.
Under what ClockworkPi identify itself (like a virus) as my website, and branded the content of my website as suspicious link? I am not part of your name list. Abusing name list forefit the right to use it. civ.
.
All contract is worthless if one (ClockworkPi [] AA6153 ≠ Jason Jacob) [] forge user’s identity. - 100620191128

[javelinface]

Is this like some kind of augmented reality meta game submission idea for the next game jam? Because if it is, I absolutely love it! And if it isn’t, boy does someone have some amazing content they could use!
This is actually hilarious!

If only we could administer a Voight Kampff test online.

[Godzil]

Let’s ask it this way. Are you Chinese? Are you fluent in English? Or do you use some tool to auto translate your words from Chinese?

What you are posting is close to nonsense,

Yes I removed your link because you are a new user (account created less than an hour before the first post in this exact topic), posting nonsense in English mixed with Chinese, and add a link to a PDF in there, that’s exactly what spam bots are doing. The PDF could be malevolent (aka a virus, Trojan horse or anything like that). So yeah I’m not leaving potential thing that could harm unsuspecting user here.

When I ask you prove you are a human and not a bot (or just a spammer) is because of all of these factors, and if I haven’t acted yet is because it could just be a communication problem. So ask in Chinese if it’s your main language and you are not fluent in English. But please stop using your auto translator if that’s what you are using.

[Lix]

Guy is from HongKong
http://quickzipdev.org/

THE LORD YOUR GOD's Wordpress