What should HPC:Factor do next?

Hey,

Just to say that I PM'd you.

And I was so hoping to get my V14GR4 spamming business up and running, seeing as the major distributor is now out of the running.

Whoa.

Think it was the competition, or just someone tired of getting spammed?

I think the suspicion is that it was the Russian mafia who were collecting on unpaid "debts".

To be honest I still don't understand why people click on spam anyway. This guy allegedly made $2 million a year on spam which would suggest that the companies who advertise using his network must be making far in excess of that. Are there really that many naive people out there?

The same goes for botnets - I'm sure that most people's PCs are protected with some form of hardware/software firewall between them and the web. That suggets to me that voluntary user action was required to install a trojan on the compromised system.

Anyway, this is woefully off topic!

I need to have a chat with the other owners about where we want to go with this. Give me a couple of days to try and hunt them down and we'll take it from there.

Ironically I've just started to get a surge in vI4gR4 spam - must be an "in loving memory of" activity. Whoever said that there was no honour amongst thieves.

Might we consider adding mscdex' site (HPC Software Repository) as one of the community partner links on the home page, so people don't have to navigate to another page to get the link?

The community partner sites on the home page helped us transition into becoming HPC:factor and we have very close collaborative relationships with them. I have never even discusses the repository with MSCDEX, at least not thus far.

I recently exchanged email with Brian at HPC Software Repository and he told me that he no longer has time to maintain the site, therefore it is what it is.

He still has a lot of software titles that were never transfered from his old site to the new one and apparently won't ever be. Basically, it will be up to HPC users to submit software to the site, and he will add it to the listing but he has no personal time to spend updating the site himself.

I have added several titles in the past and will continue to do so, but HPC user participation in uploading titles has been minimal, apparently folks have no problem downloading the software, but actually adding software and sharing it with follow users is to much effort. All the whining (in the past) by HPC owners ,in this and other forums. about there not being a centralized place for downloading HPC software was such a farce....they had a great opportunity to support the very thing they salivated about and they blew it.

For the most part, people are a huge disappointment!

Thanks for listening

Well, let's not forget that there is a limited amount of H/PC software to upload in the first place. I've uploaded a few programs there myself, and I don't know offhand if I can think of any others that aren't already there - it's a pretty good-sized collection now. As for finding time to transfer software from the old site, well, I can only say I can understand about not having enough time. Your post got me thinking about to what extent (if any) I might be able to help maintain that site, but I can't deny that I'm pretty busy myself. I certainly couldn't do it alone - I'd need the help of at least a few others. Let's face it, John - we're trying to support the H/PC platform on our own, with no help from the big corporations out there on whom we've had to depend to produce the hardware - and, right or wrong, they've abandoned the platform. And if the big hardware manufacturers have abandoned the platform, it's left little choice for small software companies other than to follow suit. We're clearly David versus the hardware OEMs' Goliath - right or wrong, we're still the underdogs.

I am afraid that I have to agree with John on the interaction front, there is an expectation that the person who owns the site will do all of the work, and people don't like it when that person winds down their input - understandably; however you don't see people actually jumping in to help.

Bandwidth of course is the biggest concern

CE Geek

I understand what you are saying, but I disagree that 470-ish titles constitutes a complete volume of HPC software titles available. I understand what it's like to have limited time, (because of work constrants) I'm having a tough time getting the Newsletter out in a timely manner ....but I do what I can.

I'm going to try to add 1 software title to the Repository each week.....until I run out of potential additions!
This thing may die eventually, but not because I didn't give it my best shot.

BTW - This is not to imply that anyone else has to follow suit...it's just something I feel I need to do.

if mscdex is really quitting, i'm willing to continue it from there.

We should follow suit, though - it's something we all need to do. You and cmonex definitely have the right spirit. I'll do what I can to help.