Athens, Greece, 6th Jan.2004With due respect to all readers, members, moderators, etc. My real name is Nick Tselepides, alias 'jinks' --that is my forum name here. This post is necessary because of some unpleasantness recently when I posted my feelings about repaint quality and cited the example of Mike Stone's painting his a/c the way he does. The post was locked and caused a lot of distress to many members, though a few did see my point.I am not one who hides or shuns responsibility. As said, I am Nick Tselepides, I live in Athens, Greece, and I am an Enlgish Literature professor at the I.E.K. State College of Athens, Greece, teaching college students on a regular basis and I also hold a post of Editorial Counselor at Kameiros Editions, a publishing house in Greece.. My email is [email protected] am 57 years old, speak 3 foreign languages, English, French, and Russian. and I am a graduate of English Lit. of the University of Athens, and have also studied poetry at Reed College, in Portland, Oregon, under such teachers as Pulizter-prize winner Gary Snyder, poet kenneth O. Hanson, and others well-known in the American poetic scene.... I am widely travelled, and have lived in France for a time. I have worked as an English Lit. professor, as a free-lance aviation writer and painter, as a translator at international and national congresses and conventions, etc. for the past 30-some years.I also do cartoons from time to time and illustrations of various kinds of books. My publications range from collections of poetry in the U.S. and translations, and poems in various literary magazines in the US, Canada, South Africa, and Greece to articles on various aspects of aviation and aircraft in Greek and French and Belgian magazines,to reviews of addons and games and products for flightsims in the Greek relevant magazines, to artwork featuring pilots of the R.A.F of WWII and line drawings of aircraft and covers featuring various aircraft in the more serious history-oriented Greek aviation press. I come from a family whose members have been painters for the past 200 years, some of them being top artists in Greece, though I am leaning more towards literary quality writing, as is clear to all by reading my posts throughout the forums on the net. I also post at simhq.com under my name at the rate of about 10 entries per week, at simouthouse under'Bolter', at biohaz.central under 'jinks', and in other places too numerous to list here. As hobbies, I paint oils, and gouaches and watercolors, fly around in flightsims, make plastic models in 1/72nd scale and take part in I.P.M.S. activities, cook, and travel as often as I can. Happily married with a 24-year-old daughter, by the way.My original intention was not to offend Mike Stone--it was to push for a more painterly approach to repainting.No doubt that came from my paitning background as well as from my modelling activities, where no model ever gets an award if it is not weathered and authentically painted. I did use incisive language, and therefore got attacked for it, and perhaps rightly so. I have my own repaints in my versions of FS2002 and Strike Fighters Project 1 and CFS2 and FS2004,(some will be uploaded in the future), and they are indeed to my taste, and those who want to see my artwork, cartoons, and repaints need only check my posts at the fora mentioned above. And needless to say, I do not install in my game whatever fails my criteria, and I do respect others' right to like and use whatever suits their sense of aesthetic principles. As some have pointed out, these days the fora are full of maximum abuse and minimum innuendo--I agree with that. The number and frequency of 'Lol's' and other such highly educated utterances one reads in the fora everywhere may of course mean that a lot of the posters are adolescents and still immature, and I, because of my lingustic training, have noticed that the level of language and spelling is very basic very often, which also may mean that such posters are young or badly-read or both. I have read Tom Allensworth 'Poison Dwarfs' post many times--it is revealing of both the strengths and weaknesses inherent in any forum--and I would add that it is human nature and also a feature of any live language writing to have argument and difference of opinion--the latter being the basis of democracy as we know it in the West. In the replies to Tom Alleworth's post, one sees the great variation of opinion among the members and one senses how cautiously they tread lest they mis-step anywhere and say what cannot be said openly...After all, it is such a delicate matter, that only gifted writers can handle it well.And our present culture is not conducive to delicate handling of anything, unfortunately....Locking a post cannot, no matter how many times it is done, wipe out principles and preferences in people. Banning one from the forum is also a useless measure--he will just voice his opinions elsewhere--like a journalist who moves to another newspaper.Warning the offender is a good measure,the best in my experience, as it is civilized and respectful of the other person's rights, and it usually works--it worked miracles with me, anyhow, and I am a hundredfold more careful now. I sowed the breeze and I deservedly reaped the whirlwind, though in all earnesty, I never thought that would come along. As long as we live in a free democratic community, any totalitarian measures like locking or banning are doomed to failure, and the moderator has to step lightly. Arguments about freeware vs. payware (i.e.you cannot complain about freeware but you can about payware) cannot stand either the test of scrutiny nor that of reality, as the common denominator is money, and many people will refuse to judge values on the basis of money, a materialistic unit of measurement. I have written many reviews of flightsim add-ons, books, products,etc for the Greek monthly press and I can assure you that the only time I make a distinction is when I think that a payware product is too expensive for what it offers, but then again, I phrase it politely.In that, I follow every reviewer's 'rule of thumb', which is "state what you think is bad or below-par, point out the good aspects, but allow for margins of error and doubt." So, you may wonder, what can be done? Our best bet would be to let things as they are, handle cases like mine with a stern warning, and treat such cases individually as they appear. Anything more complicated than this will prove difficult to apply, as some members have poined out. Anyone in his right mind and worth his salt and with some integrity in his character will take firm warnings seriously and behave civilly in the future, I hope. I hope my thread here does not start any 'flamewars'--I just wanted to let everyone know my position on some matters. Closing, apologies to all whose feathers got ruffled by my post,and let it be known that I am at everyone's disposition for any help I can give in any matter.I happen to have a huge library of magazines and books devoted to aviation from 1942 onwards and have often helped repainters, 3D modellers and addon developers, by providing them with information ranging from camouflage schemes to plans to armament info, to squadron info, etc & all things related to aircraft, and will gladly be of help anyone who needs something and cannot find it, provided I can locate it my archives and can find the time to search.(I usually do find the time to search). I have also uploaded a watercolor showing an avaition theme today at the MS Flight Simulator General forum, titled 'USMC Pilot'--search for that and click on the jpg link to see the painting, and send me some feedback, please. At the moment I am engaged in making an F3H Demon panel for CFS2/FS2002/04, a repaint of the same plane, an A-3 Skywarrior panel, a repaint of an F2H Banshee for Strike Fighters Project 1, and putting the final touches on 7-8 repaints of the default Beech Baron 58 for FS2002/04 in view of an upload to come when I am done. Nick TselepidesAthens, Greece

NickI believe that, for all of us, what we say is not the only important thing - but how we say it. Subject matter and whether we are in any way qualified to comment on said subject matter is also important.I will not in any way comment negatively about anything to do with freeware. This is not to say that I would not like to do so sometimes. But payware is another matter -- it is liable to criticism, both constructive and negative.I appreciate your comments about the external paint jobs of many a/c. I recently purchased the Dreamfleet Cessna 310. A great payware a/c - but I hate looking at it's external appearance. The modelling is great -- but the paintjob makes it look ( to me ) very "cartoonish". It would be great if you could apply your painting talents to that particular machine!! :)Barry

Nick,These are MY feelings, and are not directed at you, personally. When I say "you", it's an 'editorial' "you", for all who read it. :)I think that saying that you can't criticize freeware, because it's free, is doing a disservice to most freeware developers. It's like saying, "it's okay if this is a 'P.O.S.', because it's free!". However, how you comunicate this is what's important. I've seem people get flamed for VERY constuctive, and polite ciriticism. That's not right. We shouldn't be doing that to people.As a former member of a now-defunct freeware group, I know very well how sensitive this issue can be. There's a fine line between constuctive criticism and nit-picking. Nit-picking is, of ocurse, many time in the eye of the beholder, and can be quite annoying to a developer. :)On the other hand, the flat out attacks are what's ruining it for everyone. The "Poison Dwarfs" DO exist, and for whatever reason, tehy are bound and determined to do whatever they can to demoralize freeware developers. (I know, conspiracy theory, but...)Bottom line is, it's tough to be a forum moderator (been there, done that). If you give too mcuh freedom, it can bite you. If you give too little, it can taint your site. For instance, if you don't allow negative comments about a product in your forum, who'll take a positive review of that product, on your site, seriously? I'd say, if the criticism is constructive, polite and intended to be helpful, that's all well and fine. The attacks and insults are what should be deleted, and offenders dealt with appropriately.That also means that if someone points out a "problem" with something, and you don't agree with it, by all means, state YOUR opinion. But don't "attack" the person, just attempt to discuss it civilly. Try to ACT as if you're having a face to face conversation with the person, not hiding behind a computer thinking that you can say anything that you want. That's what these forms were meant for in the first place - civil discussions.Does that make sense? :)

Nick, very interesting post! I can't comment on everything. Just one thing that comes to my mind from personal experience ...I have not studied english at a university (nor is it my mother tongue), I have no education or even talent at painting, I'm not a professional writer - just somebody who is interested in aviation and enjoys to fly in a simulated world.I have had the pleasure to use many freeware addons that were programmed, painted or modelled by other enthusiasts, and at some point I felt that I could give something back to the community. Nothing big, just a simple repaint. I have done several other repaints since then, and none of them is outstanding, maybe they are not really good at all. All I did was add some colored areas to well prepared paint kits provided by the creators of the planes I painted.There was little feedback, but luckily no negative response either. Now I'm glad that I could add something to the file library, and maybe two or three people actually fly with a paint the I have created, which is a thought that makes me very happy.I have done the best I could with my capabilities. I know that other people could have painted the same plane with many more details, more accurately, and generally better looking. So what? I gave my best.I guess this might describe what a lot of people feel who offer their work for free on AVSIM's file library or other places. And I really think that nobody should criticize these fine people, who have done what they could, who invested the time they could spare, and tried to give something back to the community.To say it again, I really liked Nick's posting, but I'm one of those people who think that you should not criticize freeware. If you think a freeware addon is great, promote it! If you don't like it, try to think of the person who made it - he (or she) tried his best, he was nice enough to share his work with the rest of the world, so why put him down?Just my 2c (EUR),VOlker :]

Hi Nick,As an author of freeware, I'd like to weigh in on the criticism issue. Personally (and I don't presume to speak for anyone other than myself) I'd be happy to hear constructive criticism of anything I've uploaded. If people are having problems with anything I've done I want to know about it! After all, it's not enough that I created it -- you've got to enjoy it too for me to feel good about it. And I'll let you in on something else; I'd much rather hear criticism than nothing at all! After Ken Weik started his "few responses" post the other day, I got to thinking about how many people I had actually heard from regarding my recent scenery release. I could count on two hands the number of emails I've received with any sort of commentary at all. So I went searching through the forums both here and on flightsim.com and came up with a tally of how many people had expressed an opinion about this work in the two weeks since its release. The final number was something on the order of 38-40. That's emails, forum posts, screenshot posts, anything. And it's quite possible that a few well mannered folk were counted more than once in there because they were vocal, both to me personally and in public.So what does that mean to me? Well, I'm certainly not packing up my toys and going home, that's for sure! But bearing in mind that the number of people who have acknowledged this work is less than 1% of the total downloads to date, it's quite disappointing. This was hundreds of hours of my life spent pouring over every detail, learning about scenery design, modeling, landclasses, AI traffic, you name it. I think if I were to quantify the pleasure I've gotten out of releasing it, I'd have done better just picking 40 people at random and buying them each the addon of their choice. Don't get excited, btw, that ain't an option :-). I really do see why experienced and accomplished authors often choose to go payware. If you're charging for a product, you don't have to rely on basking in the warm glow of your appreciative peers -- you've got cold hard cash to count! It's something to think about. In the meantime, I've got several more projects in development right now, and I'm gonna get them out there into the world, come hell or high water. Not because my public demands it, but because from a creative perspective I enjoy doing it. If it makes people happy, then so much the better. (plants tongue in cheek) BTW, if you're staying up late nights thinking of how you can possibly repay me for giving you KRDG, just go buy Briefing Time, or the upcoming R4D. Or even join MAAM! Then tell me about it. That's what I really want to hear. :-smoochthanks,

Thanks for your feedback. You all have a good point, none excepted. And your points are appreciated and well-taken.My subject matter has more to do with "preferences"--to use a word that is different, for a change. And by that I mean preferring A to B, whether these are repaints, addons, or anything like that. I never would discourage a developer or repainter, and I may be seen as having done that, but that possibility totaly escaped me as my character is such that nothing would ever discourage me from doing my creative work, no matter if it came in a forum or in an email or from anywhere else--I am that hard-skinned, in other words. That is both good and bad--good because it allows me to continue with my work and never give up, whatever the adverse criticism (which I always take as constructive and not sinister), bad because it makes me assume other people are like me--which is a fallacy and a mistake. And the latter part is a weakness of mine for a long time. I am aware of it and try to fight it, but I make slips from time to time, and fall.Under all this lies belief. I believe in what I do--that is the driving force behind my creative work--whether it be a repaint for FS, an article, an oil for a magaizine cover, or anything artistic--even this piece of writing, which, as you willhave noticed, is highly polished--otherwise I would not be doing it. Belief presupposes reality. You would not do anything unless you believed it was real.. Action depends on reality and a sense of reality. It exists, therefore I can do it as it is real and it exists. Freedom,and especially freedom to act,ultimately, depends on the Real.I know I am getting deep into philosophical matters here, so let me stop it.Thanks you again.Nick Tselepides

You know, that last point is a particularly good one. And it's not just applicable to these forums. I see people every day making rude gestures and yelling at one another while in their cars on the road, but these same people would never dream of doing that if they were behind someone in line at the grocery store. It's got something to do with detachment, a sense of anonymity and a liberal dose of dehumanization of those around us. As you said, if you're tempted to make a negative post about someone, just imagine yourself sitting down across from them and looking them in the eye. Then say exactly what you'd say in such a circumstance.

Hi Nick.I spent 11 years in the USN flying A-3D & KA-3B Skywarriors or "Whales".Anyway, I can't wait for the A3 panel. Who is doing the plane? I assume that these will be for FS2004? I was just commenting the other day that I wished someone would put out an A-3D. Do you know if it will have a working tail hook?Regards,Jim

Bill Just wanted to comment on a few of the things in your last post. I may be responsible in part for the lack of comments here in the forum. I started the first post on your scenery, and that may have been the kiss of death. Quite some time ago one of my posts generated a reply that insulted my intelligence, knowledge, etc. I rebutted in great detail and anger. I have noticed since that I get limited response to posts, and many times appear to stop a topic just by replying to it. It appears I may have been blacklisted in some form. I had decided to allow my account to deactivate, now the timer will need to start over.Also consider who your scenery appeals to. Compare responses to the recent Boston scenery. Personally, I think your work was on the same level as the Boston work... both are excellent. But most of the users here appear to fly the 7x7's out of the major airports, so it's only logical Boston got much more attention. I can count the responses I've gotten for the scenery I've uploaded (lighthouses) on my fingers, my toes are still warm and toasty in their shoes. I did my scenery to enhance my world, the general aviation world. I uploaded to share with what I knew would be a very small audience. You can't see it from a Boeing flying at altitude, and it isn't near any of the major airports. Frankly, I didn't expect the number of downloads that have been done, and I didn't expect any emails or comments, so I'm overwhelmed by the responses I have gotten, and thanks to those who did. I'm looking forward to any future scenery you do, and next time I'll send you an email of thanks.Larry

Hi Larry,I seriously doubt if you're to blame for my so-called woes. Actually, I quite agree that normally scenery for a smallish regional airport wouldn't garner much interest. I did figure (and I think rightly, as the downloads attest) that the fact that this particular field was also home to Briefing Time and the R4D would make a considerable difference, though. I mean c'mon, here's your chance to park two of the finest birds ever designed for FS in their natural home! Doesn't get much better than that. Yeah, I know the big iron drivers like the big airports. But look at it this way, Southwest Airlines runs a shuttle to Orlando from KRDG during the cold months, so you can definitely get a 737 in there! As an aside, isn't it funny that the same young turks who would gravitate towards motorcycles and fast cars in the surface-bound world just love to be the aviation equivalent of city bus drivers? That always struck me as kinda funny. At any rate, it wouldn't bother me in the slightest that nobody much mentioned it if it weren't very popular. Okay, it might bother me a little, given the time that went into it. But it's racked up over 4400 combined downloads in two weeks! Not bad, I say, and I feel pretty good about it. It's only the exceedingly low percentage of those who take the time to download it that actually write to say thanks that bugs me. Well, enough of this. Here's hoping you get more gratitude from the FS public for your next release. And now I've got to go over to the file library and look up your scenery! Expect an email soon ;-).thanks,

Jim-Skywarrior:The plane is a CFS2 version, downloadable at simouthouse.com. They have 3 different a/c to download, and the refuelling probe of EKA-3 comes out. They are fine for FS2002, and I have even landed them on Rich Hogen's arrcab carriers and on the Stennis addon in CFS2.Email me your address at [email protected] and I will send you pics and further info.I am a fan of US Navair, and have been since I was 13. I remember seeing the Whales on the carriers as far back as 1963-64.CheersNick TselepidesAthens, Greece

>Does that make sense? :) >Yes this does make sense. However if I personally were not satisfied with the quality of a freeware product, I would send an email with my comments directly to the designer, rather than going public. This is off course only possible, if the designer proveds his contact details in the readme.Wolfgang

Non-constructive critisism:You mention a few posts back that your work is highly polished (and that you're a great artist). Actually, your work isn't highly polished and you're an egomaniac ;)Constuctive critisism:>>even this piece of writing, which, as you willhave noticed, is >>highly polished--otherwise I would not be doing itwillhave is not a word, your sentence is also fragmented.>>You would not do anything unless you believed it was real.. Action >>depends on reality and a sense of reality. It exists, therefore I >>can do it as it is real and it exists. Freedom,and especially >>freedom to act,ultimately, depends on the Real.I know I am getting >>deep into philosophical matters here, so let me stop it.You're sentences are fragmented, don't make terribly much sense, and a period needs to be followed at least by a space (it's better practise to use two spaces).Now you know the difference between non-constructive and constructive critisism. Freeware developers work very hard at what they provide, and they provide it for FREE (they don't expect anything in return) for people to enjoy. I don't AT ALL agree with any of your logic, and there is an obvious difference between someone developing commercially and someone developing for free.Regards,James

In all my wasted hours trawling through FS forum posts, I don't think I've ever read such an amazing piece as this. Nick, I'm sure your heart's in the right place, but with such an arrogant and pompous manner I'm not surprised you 'ruffle a few feathers'. You describe your writing as 'highly polished' - personally I think it is badly structured and confusing. You say you are leaning towards 'literary quality writing, as is clear to all..' - I'd say you've got a long way to go, but I did enjoy the pretentious philosophical waffle.As to the argument itself, Volker Jansen makes the point well. If you don't like a freeware product, then leave it alone, without criticism. The budding freeware author may not be as well prepared as you to suffer the slings and arrows of artistic criticism. Ian

I do freeware skins. Search the library here and you'll find a lot of my work. I have no problem with criticism. In fact, how does one get better, if not to know what is not up to par? I think if you put your work out for public use, regardless of payware or freeware, you are subject to both praise and criticism. I think of this like an actor on a stage. Regardless of whether he gets paid or not...good is good...bad is bad. Whats wrong with saying so? Im appreciative of everyones effort, regardless of talent and very respectful of it. However, if a user chooses to criticize my work, Im not going to worry about it. Fundamentally I did it for my own enjoyment anyway. I think this is Mike Stones approach too...at least I have read it that way. He does this for himself, and we benefit as a side note. Thats why I do my work too.I have come to know whose work I think is excellent by their name and former works. I also know whose work I dont care for. Typically I just dont DL that stuff. I hate all this political correctness. Lets just be honest, but respectful in our criticism. Eric