New section?

I don't know if this is wanted, but I'd sure appreciate it. I know we focus primarily on Windows CE handhelds, but seeing we have a section for getting Linux up and running on our handhelds, would it be possible to get a "Other Handhelds" section? Like, for Palms, Psions and the like? Basically anything not running WinCE?

Possible, yes, but is it worth it and who is going to manage it?

It'd give people who still use their "other" devices to discuss them, and possibly get help. I'd love to manage it if possible. If it doesn't work out, you can just remove the section. (Not sure how easy / hard that is using your custom forum software.)

I'd prefer to keep that in Off Topic. Even Pocket PCs, which run Windows CE but don't have the core interface on top, are relegated to that section.

My primary concern would be the same reason why we never allowed a branch off into PPC or WinMo. H/PC is tiny, niche and under rated. Introducing a forum (in the Roman sense) for a different community introduces the opportunity for the site to be taken over by a larger, more vocal minority.

This project had never been about membership size, growth, numbers, potential advertising revenue or hits. I don't want the previous little community to be pushed out and marginalised by something else... Because that us precisely how virtually every other player in the H/PCverse wound up treating the great people in this community, apart from Rich, who hangs it here now. In not saying it was don't maliciously, some moved away for commercial reasons (Thaddeus), some advertising, done personal interest (the other founders of this site, like Clinton Fitch who argued we should go with the flow, I disagreed and he pursued his own interests on ClintonFitch.com as a result).

I know it makes no sense from a numbers perspective, certainly for the money I throw personally into keeping this running for 14 + 4 years. Yet having spent 18 years almost sticking to my principles of CE first, I'd find it difficult to agree unless the community was saying a resounding 'yes' to anything like that.

I see what you mean, and understand. However, there really isn't an HPC "verse" anymore but rather a single planet. The majority of places to talk about handhelds have gone, in fact besides this forum I don't recall any still available. Just thought it'd be neat to have another section to talk about handhelds in different flavors. I would step up to the plate and create one, but financially it's just not viable at the moment. Last time I tried, I just didn't have the time. It's always one thing or another.

Well, thanks for taking my request seriously at least. Appreciated it.

I hear what you are saying. As said, if the community feels strongly about it and people will manage it, I'll entertain it. However if the question is for me to commit more time or money or alienate the few users we have left, then I can only answer with a no.

When I first joined here, the MP900C was still relatively recent, Softmaker's suite and Opera's browser (with RedGear) were still current on HPC2000 devices, and because of that there was a sizeable community who wished to maintain the instant-on/physical keyboard convenience of HPCs. That year, Android saw its first commercial product, smaller notebooks were just taking off (as was energy efficiency) and the iPad was just on the horizon, most of these advances have squeezed out an already oppressed HPC ecosystem, to the point whereby there's not really a sensible reason to keep using them for anything meaningful except as toys.

I'm impressed that this website has been kept alive despite all of this, even after the PPC sites either morphed into Android sites (xda-developers) or closed down altogether. But I wonder what the expenditure on the site really counts for anymore.

Edited by Paianni 2017-06-22 12:45 PM

There may not be a lot of people still using these handhelds, but I've turned two writers onto handhelds (one went with a Psion 5 and the other a Journada 720) who love theirs. I also gave my friends son who isn't allowed a phone an old HP (forget the model name) that he uses to listen to MP3's, watch movies (that he's converted) and uses as a general planner for homework. So there's still a niche, albeit a very small niche.

I hope it wasn't a 680 or 690. Both of those devices had terrible sound distortion when playing MP3s.

It was one of the newer ones. The HP hx2490 I believe. Looks like it via pictures and came out the same time in 2006ish?