Yes that is indeed part of the problem, one of many.
Lots of small things can easily come together to make a larger problem. In our chase this has happened and we need to reverse that trend.
The tech users either fled to the Pocket PC at the promise of new SDK's and freebies or went off to do their own thing. Mainly to keep away from the flurry of beginners questions that they have to answer day in, day out.
Picture it as a vibrant community needs to have things in it so that everyone can get something out of it. When, as an experienced user it comes to a time when you need to ask a question and there is no one there to answer it. It becomes lonely - that is why the newsgroup withered, it was starting to pick up a little and then... you know..
I religiously try and answer posts here as best I can to try and encourage people to stick around and do the same. Once the board reaches a critical mass of users it'll be self-sustainable. Right now if I got hit by a bus tomorrow morning and spent the next 6 months getting patched back together; I wonder what would be here on my return...
There also exists an unwillingness to purchase software, and a sense that everything should be free. Clinton, John and I have been over the moon at peoples reaction to SoftMaker. Pricy
(relative to other H/PC apps
), but people seem to like. Still a great deal.
Then we have apathy, people want things but wont ask, or will expect someone else to do it or the work for them - frequently us. We'll always help where we can, but that isn't beneficial for the community. Many wont reply to posts because they aren't getting anything directly from it.
We ask for hardware submission information to update the HCL with - people don't submit their hardware. I asked a few weeks back for Orinoco users to send me their specific model #'s so I could update the HCL and make it more accurate; no one actually has. But they are quite happy to flame us when the HCL occasionally slips up, a drive doesn't work or the model number information wasn't specific enough
(or they didn't read the information
)
This one is a distinctly personal observation,
Community grouping is a massive problem. Ever wondered why the writing pool here is pretty small?
The simple straight fact of the matter is that more users will decide that if they write anything at all, it's going to go onto their own corner of the web on a free hosting account.
I have great respect for that, I truly do. I started ce320 which became HPC:Factor like that - but I did it because none of the larger sites at the time were addressing the needs of CE1.0 and 2.0 users.
The trouble is that by posing onto a free hosting account, when there are resources which will gladly help distribute it to the masses is that people aren't getting to read about what real H/PC users think about real H/PC issues.
Information becomes fragmented around the Internet, making it difficult for people to find substantive information. When you can't find substantial information you get bored and give up.
This is a problem that we ourselves as a community hub must be failing at. Whether we are seen as too closed, or to dominant... I honestly don't know.
We
(HPC:Factor
) are also guilty of being somewhat slow with implementation. There are lots of ideas in the pipeline, but between lack of funding, lack of time and lack of staff things I am torn between lulls of content but no evolution, or backend work with no content… and then the time in between while I recover from each mad bout.
In the same light when other community resources aren't addressing your needs, what else are you going to do? I do see both sides of that coin.
We are a very close community, far more than the Pocket PC community. That is something great. The relationship we have with the other sites
(Handheld Addict, Handheld Attitude, Handheld Underground for example
) is exceptional that we can build on to better the community.
Then finally there are the more familiar problems, cost of the devices, cost of accessories lack of 2005 models.
In my personal, humble opinion. Based on being in this community and squarely, whole heartedly dedicated to it since 2000. Complaining that Manufacturers or Microsoft are or are not doing x y and z is only a small corner in a seriously disjointed room of corners.
Look at the Psion community, they don't have new Psion hardware, but they thrive.
When we as a community can find that 'magic' that they have which has provided them with staying power - we will have a solution to the above problems.
Yes Microsoft didn't release an emulator for HPC2000 developers, but the mind set was engrained long before that.
We also need to attract more C++ programmers in, Visual Basic is nice but it doesn’t make for viable mass-market
(open source or otherwise
) applications. Western Developers went to the money and the PPC, where as there is still a vast number of C programmers in the Japanese community, however addressing them and their needs is exceptionally difficult for us.
(Even contacting them in the first place
).
Please no one take my comments personally, they aren't directed at anyone, except my selt critique'
but do think the instructions might be improved. 
