you would have to ban people from viewing the forums, that would stop (at least me) from purchasing the products, i always look at forums before i pay £100 for an add-on.

 

I think you have extended way more than what I suggested.  Ban??  I certainly didn't say ban (unless someone is an obvious thief and violating ToS).

 

Take a look at what many sites currently do, they indicate a "Verified Owner/User" they don't give away personal details.  They allow guests and others to review away, but they don't get the "Verified Owner/User" tag.  And as you have indicated, if you're looking for information and you see someone "going off" on a product and they aren't a verified owner ... are you gonna spend much time reading anything from someone that hasn't even got the product in question?  If anything, verified owner will save members considerable time making it easier to parse out the jibber jabber.

 

But you are correct, a real full name is less relevant but it is appreciated ... I'll be honest with you, I don't want to respond "BladderBoy, add this line to your XYZ.cfg" ... if you don't want to provide a full name, then provide a real first name.  It's a good way to go about a civil conversation ... am I going to have a judgement about someone that hides behind an Alias, of course I am.  Communication is a two way street.

 

 

 

Again, what about HiFi and Captain Sim etc, you would have to close all the unofficial forums?

 

Why?  I think you applied some "mutually exclusive logic" here that I didn't.  See response to BladderBoy (see how bad that sounds now).  

 

 

 

My comment was in reply to you asking avsim to become the piracy police, why should i give you (not you personally, but avsim) details of my purchases, what about people viewing the forums?

 

I don't see how "Verified Owner" are details of purchases (no CC info, no license keys, just verified), simply indicates this member has bought the product.  View away ... be a lurker and/or have guest accounts.

 

 

What you propose (to be clear from the licensing standpoint) is either completely unworkable, or horrendously unfair to companies that don't sign up to avsim.

 

From a technical perspective it's a rather simple web service (can be deployed/integrated to vendor stores and have enough flexibility to deal with connection and database variants) ... participation would be entirely up to 3rd party and their deployment mediums.  AVSIM would call the web service to get a Yes/No verified answer.  Either way, whether you or like or don't like the idea, there clearly is a desire by 3rd party to have a verification process.  Expanding it to a consistent unified process that more than just one 3rd party could implement seems like a good idea to me. Like I said, this is already getting implemented at many sites from BestBuy to NewEgg to Amazon ... it's becoming important because vendors and consumers alike I getting tired of all the unsubstantiated jibber jabber.

 

 

 

Super, so FSX is abandonware now?

 

From Microsoft, yes, but you must know this right?  But like I said, 3rd party have NOT abandon it and Dovetail have picked up the distribution of it via Steam ... but yes Microsoft has indeed abandoned it.  Anyway, that's a little off topic.

 

Cheers, Rob.

I'll be honest with you, I don't want to respond "BladderBoy, add this line to your XYZ.cfg" ... if you don't want to provide a full name, then provide a real first name.  It's a good way to go about a civil conversation ... am I going to have a judgement about someone that hides behind an Alias, of course I am.  Communication is a two way street.

 

Why?  I think you applied some "mutually exclusive logic" here that I didn't.  See response to BladderBoy (see how bad that sounds now).  

 

It's clear how strongly you feel about this Rob, as you mentioned me twice in your post, yet still could not address me or my comments directly. Personally, that feels more passive aggressive than civil, but...

 

I am not arrogant enough to bite the hand that feeds me. All due respect to you guys, especially Rob, that share such a bounty of knowledge and information. I know it's a ton of hard work with little reward or recognition. Thank you.

 

Regards,

 

Aaron

It seems to me that whatever name to choose to have as your 'real' name doesn't matter. I mean, who's to know? You don't have to show your birth certificate to register.

 

Having said that, to reply to 'super747flyerpilotextreme7654321VC' doesn't quite do it for me. Call yourself anything as long as it can be pronounced and doesn't take all day!

 

Ron

I cannot think of a better topic than this one being discussed here, where the following applies like a charm: #firstworldproblems

 

It's clear how strongly you feel about this Rob, as you mentioned me twice in your post, yet still could not address me or my comments directly.

 

Oops sorry, I thought I did respond to you directly "Aaron" - now doesn't that sound better than "BladderBoy" ... maybe I hit my quote limit and/or screwed up my post - apologies.

 

 

 

I certainly understand why you would be hesitant to help those who cannot prove legit ownership of software, but I fail to see how changing a username would help scratch that itch.

 

Meant to address this, although I wasn't sure if it was a question or just a comment?  Username is really more about getting a response ... for example I'm not going to respond to someone with "NAZI_LOVER_BOY" or "I_LIKE_LITTLE_GIRLS" ... so one's username will definitely influence input from me and yes it's my judgement call.  

 

If someone is ranting on about how bad a product is or how much better some other product is and I don't see a "Verified Owner" tag, I'm going to ignore the post and file that user away somewhere in my head.  Saves me time, saves other members time, saves 3rd party time ... certainly in "support related forums" ... now for Generic discussion forums go for whatever works and stays within the ToS.

 

Cheers, Rob.

 

Oops sorry, I thought I did respond to you directly "Aaron" - now doesn't that sound better than "BladderBoy" ... maybe I hit my quote limit and/or screwed up my post - apologies.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Rob. Cheers.

 

Aaron

I'm all for either order numbers or real full names for the product support forums. A developer's limited tech support shouldn't be wasted on pirates and trolls.