I used to champion these forums. Now I don't give a gnat's...

[Phos_four_dots]

I was a contributor, a corrector, a clarifier.

I'd write 1,500 words explaining every possible angle on the simplest of topics, sometimes revealing tricks to people who have far more experience with Photoshop than I do. I exercised painstaking detail in choosing the proper terminology and phrasing when answering questions, and I'd test everything to make sure what I posted was correct. I was an obsessive re-editor of my posts if I noticed the wording was wrong, or didn't flow well. I'd craft screen shot composites so clean you couldn't tell they weren't monitor images that could occur natively. I added arrows, and numbering, and translucent, colored-box paragraph backgrounds for descriptors, colors chosen for the best clarity I could muster. I'd bodge together difficult GIF animations and QT Movies if it would help a user understand a concept more completely.

I was a defender, a protector, an evangelist.

I took it personally when newbies and spammers would come in and muck the place up. I was sometimes brusque, other times gentle in trying to bring people into line with how to get the most out of their time here. I beat up on troublemakers ruthlessly, and without remorse.

I brought the "How to Get Help Quickly" mantra to this forum after reading it elsewhere, because it was the best exposition I'd ever seen on the subject of efficient information exchange.

I'd take the time to help troubleshoot forum problems.

Now, I don't give a crap about what happens to this place. I'd been hoping for the best, as I had during past attempts at major forum changes.

It's clear to me now that the planning, preparation, roll-out and fine tuning has been doomed from the start.

Every single person involved in ramming this new system through is to blame.

And I'm only one person. I'd guess there are hundreds of people who feel the same way I do.

Too bad, Adobe. You totally and completely screwed up.

I'll still visit once in awhile, because there are people here that I like.

But as for all that content I was giving away for free—and happily, I might add—and all the cheerleading I did for this place?

You can shove all that right up that gnat's arse and then go sit on your own thumbs and spin.

It feels to me like you are intentionally doing almost everything in your power to discourage the type of participation I used to revel in. From slow bug fixes and promises unkept (EFF you very much, Jive–shysters) to the mere trickle of ongoing feedback and update info offhandedly tossed to us, Adobe have become slumlords, slapping paint on a building that fails to meet standard-of-living code. Sure, there are some decent new features, but they either don't work, work only part of the time, are cumbersome, and generally regarded as so slow as to inhibit any sort of lively momentum.

I'd be ashamed and embarrassed to be the captain of this rotting ship. As a fully vested, ranking mate on this vessel, I hereby resign my commission.

You don't deserve my help anymore.

[Claudio González]

JayJhabrix wrote:

Claudio González wrote:

I find it most tiring to also waste time in answering people who are unable to participate in any serious duscussion except by inserting what for them must sound like very witty comments, but that destroy the line of the main argument and invite others to follow the lead. Regardelss of the number of points they have been awarded by posting over 400 messages a month -which again shows the futility of the point system.

Claudio, me lad....

1. You don't have to read what you don't want to read

2. No points (which, i agree with, sucks anyway) are awarded by posts. Problem posters have to award them to people they think have solved the problem.

3. LIfe is a joke. So learn to laugh. And if life is a joke, so are these forums – particularly – you, partially and me completely! So just chill and enjoy the ride or else change your car. Right?

4. Tip: You can always bring a deviating thread back on target and those interested will focus in...

Cheers!

JJ

Jay,

1. I agree. And a forum is just a forum. There are however some things as the almost forgotten "manners". I am old enough to remember what that means, and to protest whenever I am interrupted with a wisecrack in the middle of a serious argument, wisecrak I am forced to read or hear precisely because it's interrupting the argument. I find it curious that you defend the wisckracker and not my right to protest.

2. I understand how points work since they were introduced. What I tried to say is that having a lot of points doesn't make the writer of an untimely and uneeded message any better educated than those who have none.

3. I was taught to laugh when I was a kid, and I haven't forgotten, but I would hardly laugh in the middle of a funeral. And I am changing my car, although this is not my main reason, which I explained in my long message above.

4. Tip: if anyone is not interested in the topic of a thread, s/he can very well keep out of it.

It's really a pity that the fact that Phos is leaving these forums, as have already done so many others for similar reasons, is only important for a few of us.

[Guest]

Claudio González wrote:

This is another reason that's driving me off. Not only has one to waste time waiting for anything to happen whenever trying to do anything. I find it most tiring to also waste time in answering people who are unable to participate in any serious duscussion except by inserting what for them must sound like very witty comments, but that destroy the line of the main argument and invite others to follow the lead. Regardelss of the number of points they have been awarded by posting over 400 messages a month -which again shows the futility of the point system.

Well hopefully this wasn't directed at me at all since I was plenty on topic (here) and even modestly helpful, but still, all work and no play makes a nervous dork that needs to chill!  Personally I don't know how anyone can survive on these morbid forums without a wisecrack or two in between the arguments, problems, complaints, and flames.  It's no wonder arguments and flames start here, some are too serious--it's a forum about the forum's problems, for crying out loud--that's funny by itself. lol</peanutgallery>

[Claudio González]

Ansury,

No it wasn't. It seems that because of the language differences, my ironies/sarcasms become too subtle in English.

[Guest]

Nah I don't think it's you, happens constantly (probably more often with me) due to the medium of communication, especially in this forum for some reason.

[Claudio González]

I wrote my previous long message so late last night, and feeling so tired, that I didn't want to have a battle with a defective search engine, or trying to go back a through a long thread page by page (and being taken back to page 1 if I happenned to open a wrong message in the process) to check some minor details. I now notice that, for these reasons, I may have confused Phos with Graf in some of my comments.

Although this doesn't invalidate any of my main points in any way, I apologize to both of them if I did, but I'm still feeling too tired to check. And in any case, I have followed and interacted with Phos also for many years, and most of what I wrote applies equally well to him. In particular, I can vouch for everything he says about himself in the OP.

After having slept through my shock of last night, I think I will not abandon the forums completely. I'll come in every now and then, and post whenever I have something I feel can contribute positively in any aspect.

[Guest]

Claudio González wrote:

Plus, the "Next" button doesn't work (I don't remember if it worked before the change that was reverted).

Claudio, if that's the same problem I posted a thread about, a page reload "fixes" it. (Isn't Jiving fun?)

To me it seems the number of bugs has gone up, not down, over time.

Hey Adobe, just remember that for every person that says they're leaving, ten more probably do without saying so.

By the way, the first time I tried to post this, I got:

This webpage is not available.

The webpage at http://forums.adobe.com/post.jspa?container=3384&containerType=14&thread=461007&message=2102630&reply=truemight be temporarily down or it may have moved permanently to a new web address.

More information on this error

Screw Jive..

[Ramón_G_Castañeda]

Ansury wrote:

Screw Jive..

Nobody has any sympathy for Jive, of course.  But some idiot at Adobe is responsible for choosing Jive.

[Guest]

Screw them, too.

[Ramón_G_Castañeda]

Here's my vote of agreement with what has been said in this thread.

Having noticed the absence of interventions in this forum by Phos± myself, out of genuine concern for his well being in these difficult times, I had posted in another venue asking if anyone had heard from him.  I was relieved to learn he was fine, and I am not one bit surprised that he's had enough of this sorry excuse of a forum.

Even I, having been forced by circumstances totally beyond my control to spend more time at home than I really would like to, find myself making only a minute percentage of my former contributions, none of which was as valuable as Phosphor's.  It's just too much of a hassle to deal with this mess.

A new addition to the forum host staff has not been one bit helpful either.

Because of all of this, I've become resigned to the gradual, painful death of the forums as we knew them.

[Jacob Bugge]

I am still hoping, as I said here: http://forums.adobe.com/thread/451399.

This thread, as does at least one other thread today, creates more sorrow, with more contributors and friends leaving, to follow many more.

But it also holds a flicker of hope: that the forums will be revisited from time to time.

I do not wish to give up, at least not until John says it is over.

[John T Smith]

I am certainly not a heavyweight in any of the forums I read... I read far more than I post

I used to read EVERY message in the forums I visited... to learn new things and to once in awhile post when I knew the answer to a question

Now, the forums are so slow, that I scan message titles and only read a "few" out of the list... which means that I am probably missing learning new things from the discussion, but that just can't be helped... I simply don't have time to wait on the slow forums

I'm not going away... but I do spend less time @Adobe

[dongle99]

I totally agree with these comments and I also feel that the same applies some of their software too. Adobe used to be the best now I am thinking of spending my Premiere Elements upgrade money on something completely different.