MelJet

[Smoky942 1]

As a regular visitor to MelJet, I was sad, but not surprised to see that Melvin Rafi has closed his forum. Melvin is right up there with the best when it comes to designing and building aircraft for MFS. And, like Posky, it's all for free. I only posted there once and was shocked by the childish, inane responses. I wish him the very best of luck if he opens his forum again. He more than deserves a much better following. Your hard work Melvin is, I can assure you, very much appreciated.Regards,Russell.

[John_Tavendale 453]

Couldn't agree more with you Russel! :)

[mackintosh 0]

One of the drawbacks of being "famous" I guess. I haven't visited Mel's forums for a while, it's disappointing to find out about this. I can't say that I blame him though, it's quite shocking how ungrateful some people can be.

[Guest CharlesH]

I totally agree with the above comments. Melvin is a great guy and very talented person. His planes are just great and really add making FS fun for me and many others. I deeply admire him and want to thank him for all of his hard work. His planes are just great. Yes, its sad to close the forum for his site, but I don't blame him one bit, when he gets some of those childish messages. I amazed at some of things I read. Quite Sad. Nevertheless, I am very greatful to him for his continued dedication into making those great, extremely detailed planes. Thanks so much.Charles

[yellow5 0]

This is terrible. I hope that Mr. Melvin Rafi doesn't stop building sweet looking aircraft. He is very talented. Although this seems to be a growing trend amongst freeware designers. They are either going payware or dropping out to just enjoy the game themselves I guess. It is because of the few individuals, I believe, that ruin it for the entire community. I have appreciated the work of Mr. Rafi, and fellow designers like him (free and pay), but not everyone can be satisfied. I think what needs to happen is the designers need to design to their own agenda and realize that they are not going to please everyone. A lot of hard work goes into these designs, and should be appreciated for what it is. People that don't like the work, can ignor it and take a long walk off a short pier. What is your complaint if you didn't pay for it, and you didn't spend many sleepless nights working on them? I am just sadened by a community that I enjoy so much. Granted it is not everyone, just some jerk that ruin it for all of us. You know which catagory you fall in....Mr. Rafi, and other fellow designers, thank you for your time and contribution to the art form of FS. I hope to see more of your work in the future. You are appreciated greatly!

[Guest]

I lurk and read 99% of the time, but I had to crawl out of my hole for just a moment, here. I am just completely flabberghasted every time I read about how some people can have the audacity to sink so low as to flame and get nasty with freeware developers over the most insignificant detail. I mean, to me, with how my mother raised me, it's completely inconcievable to bash a freeware author in the first place. It's like having someone give you a hand-made clock for Christmas, and you scream and holler about how the scroll work on the frame is not 100% symmetrical. I mean, nevermind the fact that this person spent HOURS, even days and months on this GIFT for you! This isn't just for Melvin, but for Mike Stone and all the other freeware developers who are starting to get a bad taste in their mouths. These people got the idea to make a particular aircraft, panel, scenery, or utility because they wanted to give back. They were probably very excited over initial tests-- how those bogies tilted just so, or how the sunlight glinted off that dynamic shine, perhaps even thinking "Oh man, they're gonna love this!". And then, when all the time and effort culminates into release day, they get the honors of recieving not constructive criticisms, but vapid displays of childishness because the third rivit from the left on the first panel aft and below the port wing is off by a micron. Some time back, I remember Flight Simulation as being a gentlemens' hobby, where decency and common courtesy was the order of the day. A good majority of the public figures on these forums still maintain a modicum of honorability, but there seems to be a trend. Narrowminded individuals who can't reconcile that yes, there can be multiple developers of the same kind of aircraft without there being some stupid competition are starting to rear their heads. I mean, let's face it, competition is good... but if you were to ask, for example, the members of POSKY how they feel about Melvin's work, and likewise ask Melvin about his opinion of POSKY, and I'm sure both parties would share a mutual respect. And sure, a little friendly competition never hurt, and if executed right, it's a win-win situation for everyone. But people are going to be people, and someone is going to declare himself the official spokesperson for a particular group, and waste his time and effort by waging a mudslinging war which does nothing for the devs, the users, and the rest of the community but create strife. I think part of the problem is the mainstreaming of Flight Simulator, but the toothpaste is out of the tube now. In the past, Flight Sim got relatively little coverage compared to the latest version of Quake, or Unreal. Now the same magazines-- both online and off-- who cater to the general gamer world are starting to feature FS in front page reviews, previews, etc. So, where we used to have "Hi, John Doe! I really like the work you did on that 737, but I have some pictures that show how the vertical stab is a little bit thicker in the front than what you have. Would you like me to send you some scans?" we now have "ur tail looks gay. Group A duz beter werk than u. u sux!" (insert a wide-sweeping dramatic eyeroll here). Anyway... I'm going to step off my soapbox here, but I want to close on a positive note. In going through my hangar, I've got a number of freeware aircraft and panels I've downloaded. Featured names on some of these are IFDG, POSKY, MelJet, Lonny Payne, Mike Stone, Bill Lyons, Paul Golding, Olesky Frolov, Milton Shupe, and a host of others that, due to the fact that it's now 4:15 AM, I don't have time to mention. You all have my thanks and gratitude for your generous donation of time and trouble to make my simming more enjoyable. YOU are the cornerstones of this hobby, and I hope you continue to use your talents for the good of the community. Thank you, ever sincerely.Jon

[Guest]

Hello,Its the culture I say. Step away from the computer and the simulator and poke your head out into public and you will see it. We can't just blame it on the younger simmers either: juvenile antics seem to be a favorite of internet surfers/simmers of all ages. Look at air travel as an analogy. In the "good old days," a certain breed of folk were the common denizens of the air. These people were likely distinguished by class status (i.e. they had money and didn't quibble over spending it on airfare) which afforded them access to airtravel. Think about how prolific Internet access is now the majority of Western nations. As air travel became commodity, the market and the government brought a wider range of travellers. The lowest common demoninator sunk and the "pretige" of air travel faded. There is nothing novel about being online other than your incentives to behave are even fewer due to a lack of immediate repurcusions for manners. With air travel, the only way you can enjoy the old prestige now is to pay a premium. Increasingly, the only way you can probably enjoy quality within our hobby will be to pay for it. It only takes of drop of oil to spoil the barrel and, once the barrel is a little rotten, it takes on the propensity to rot further. Nasty threads are like a school yard fight: everybody is magentically drawn to them.Rather than bleat about it (yes, our party IS spoiled), your best bet is to do exactly what is being done in this thread: recognize and bolster the greats and give them encouragement. It seems to be tough days to be a quality freeware author; I'd say we make them feel good while they are freeware authors and perhaps NOT chide them when they decide that a price should be attached to their lost sleep and hairs. Ask ANY of the vociferous detractors to "show me that you can do better" and you will realize that their tempests were flailing in a teapot. I think that the freeware developer has the RIGHT to stand up and rail against detractors as it is THEY who have produced. Any idiot can consume, let alone critique.Jeff

[Guest]

Here's some simple advice to ALL freeware developers: Don't give the sim-adolescents a channel to attack you ..... don't give an email address (VERY important), and don't set up forums.Who would attack freeware authors? 1) Either someone who is mentally ill, or some disturbed teenagers, who are RUINING this hobby.2) Someone who has a vested interest in seeing freeware die .... MelJet's fantastic creation has made it that much harder for a payware group to create a 777 ... I wouldn't be surprised if there were some very bitter people, frustrated that they can't screw every last buck out of this hobby! I had a chat with a well respected freeware author recently, and he agreed with me: Someone must be losing a lot of money, and therefore they target MelJet in frustration :("I think part of the problem is the mainstreaming of Flight Simulator"ABSOLUTELY! :) Microsoft knows this, and that's why eye-candy has taken precedence over realistic flight dynamics. Wing views, tilting bogies, opening doors etc mean NOTHING to me, but they seem to be more important than an aircraft that has realistic characteristics :(

[Guest CargoMun]

Yes endeed its very sad Mel closed the forum thanks to some immaturity (or blindness) of some people.I hope Mel will change his mind once this awesome new 777 V2 is out and open up the board again so we can all thank him :DMyself I migrated from there to here so hello to all by the way :)Incidently, Mel or anyone who 'might' know. Will it be possible to use old 777 v1.0 repaints on this new version or is that too far fetched :?:I have only seen mentioned that the FDE and interior would be updated and not the exterioir I think.

[Guest]

BUMPI too am more of a lurker, but when I saw this thread I had to repsond....I just want to say Thank you to Melvin, because he has spent considerable time, bulding something for the whole FS community which is an extremely unselfish and generous thing to do.People who have the nerve to complain to him are just selfish freeloaders, who frankly don't deserve to benefit from his hard work.I hope Melvin sees this thread, so he can see that there are some people out there who appreciate his efforts.Regards,Bob.

[Guest]

they are all against us!!! its the payware people trying to take us down!!! there are no kids harrasing us...... this means war! freeware against payware!!! haha, there are more of us (freeware i hope)... boycott anyone?alright, alright... i'm just joking... but who ever is writing all the uncalled for emails and posts, its sad there are so many of them.best of luck meljet,al

[Guest imemyself]

I didn't go there that much, but I can understand why he would have done it. It's sad there's those kinda people out there.OT:Personally, I'd love for MS to require all addons, etc. for FS:COF, to be freeware. I'd think it'd make the community a better place, but since when has MS cared.

[Guest pez_man]

Very good points made so far! I don't feel that I've much to add, except expressing my gratitude to all the freeware-authors whose aircrafts and scenery I use daily! A BIG THANK YOU! And remember that the freeware-bashers and "gimme gimme gimme"-mentality people out there are relatively few and far between compared to the VAST majority of "good" people! But unfortunately they're the ones who get heard. Or as we say in Sweden "Tomma tunnor skramlar mest", empty cans rattle the most (or something like that, u get the idea :-) ) regards/fredrik

[Guest]

Oh what the hell, I'd thought I'd throw my 2 cents worth in here. It's sad that this had to happen. I mean, CSI, now Mel. What (or who) is next?We can't blame the childish idiots out there. No. If we blame anyone... we should blame ourselves. Why you ask? Because we've let these fools into what was once a respected community and hobby. We let them into our world and when we saw how bad they truly are to the sanctity of this community, we do nothing about it. They're still here.Makes me have 2nd thoughts about re-instituting a forum on our new site. Sure, moderators can consistently delete their posts. But what it would really take I believe is some way of obtaining their ICQ (or whatever) and forever banning these kind of people that cause this heartache from our community. We have to start policing on our own and cleaning house of all the undesirables in our little sim world, and maybe, just maybe, one day we'll have it back to the way it used to be. It wouldn't be clean over night, but if everyone pitched in, then in time it could happen.We need to start closing the door. Mel if you read this thread/post, all my best to you and I hope you continue to do the fine work that you do. Closing the forum down was the first step to closing the door to the undesirables.Just my thoughts for the day. :DMikehttp://sgair.net/mike/mike/mike_small.jpg