A question about addon developer etiquette

[Orinks 3]

Hello everyone,

 

I am not sure if anybody knows Helge Schroeder here, but he is the developer of the products FSNavigator and now FSTramp.

 

Over the past 9 months, me and other blind pilots have come to rely on his autopilot feature in FSTramp as it allows us to input values into either the simulator AP, or for custom autopilots like the Feelthere aircraft, allows us to use them.

 

However, today, 11/27, he claimed that by having an opinion about his business model, which is a subscription at various tiers that I don't like, as well as his stance on accessibility, that I insulted his life and proceeded to ban my license keys. I loaded up the sim to find that my copy had been unregistered.

 

Worse, I bought another license key only to find that this one did not work either. I am guessing he somehow banned my computer from contacting the activation server, so that no key I enter would work.

 

Isn't it illegal to do this though? That would be like Lockheed Martin revoking my license key because I emailed them saying that their product was inaccessible and I don't like that the license that I just purchased was $60.

 

They'd probably just read it and move on, deleting it. Not revoke and ban access.

 

I'd be curious as to your thoughts on this.

[abarter 28]

Pretty extreme imo. A good business person would take your criticism, agree to disagree, and then advise that it is not something being considered and move on. Certainly not ban you and revoke licenses. I'd like to hear his side of the story, too. If you're listening Helge, chime in and tell us your side.

[Gazzareth 808]

 

If your second licence was purchased by credit card I would be straight onto the card company to get the transaction reversed. The only reasons I would have thought that would be valid for revoking your licence was if it was being abused, such as shared around, or if it was subscription and not paid. If he has revoked it simply because of an argument, then that would be out of order.....

 

G

[F737MAX 5,596]

Depends on how you described your thoughts of his business model.

There are some developers who are very thin-skinned and cannot take any criticism of their product, thinking that criticism of their 'baby' is criticism of them personally.

Then there are some users of a product that cannot help but be rude, making outlandish claims about a specific developer and name-calling.

At the moment, we don't know both sides of the story.

As it is a subscription and I cannot find the terms and conditions of sale, it's not necessarily illegal to cancel your access.
However, what you could do is get a charge-back from your credit card company, PayPal or equivalent for the money you have paid.

[Ian S 214]

Hi Orinks

You post title refers to etiquette, but you ask about the legality of the other parties actions. These are two totally separate entities. Without knowing the background and full story, it sounds harsh and not necessarily good customer relations, but possibly legally allowable. Of course when the FlightSim community is all over the world, enforcing any legal infringements is another story alltogether. 

Whilst you might be entitled to a refund of any product you've paid for and not received, I presume you actually want to continue usage rather than get you money back. I'd consider disputing the prior credit card payment, then if I was determined to get the product working, repurchase using a VPN.

To be honest, I'd never heard of anyone visually impaired in the FlightSim community, it's great you're able to enjoy this hobby and hope you get it sorted out.

[fluffyflops 1,858]

10 years ago when the defunct PSS rebranded themselves as Blackbox Simulations and then proceeded to make their "prologue" product which was in short a cheap, nasty unfinished product which people payied to beta test I remember thinking to myself this is a very very slippery path the fs community is going down.  Since then a plethora of companies have caught onto this idea of "pay to beta" and released a plethora of unfinished tatty products with the lure of fancy buzz word strap lines such as "prologue" , "early access" , "backer"  etc etc and the promise of patches and updates.  Whether this is aerosoft with its obession of scenery products with terrible quickly thrown togther afcads or the multiple companies making shoddy ai packages that tell us "its a work in progress and will be constantly worked on" both being absolute rubbish.   

So now What we have been left with is a  an expectation that a prouct is "just about ok" but it will be finished "at some point" which it never is 

we are no longer wowed with polished products such as pmdg birds, we are given half baked below standard beta quality junk, why ??  as consunmers we are suckers , its simple kids buy it and people have been conditioned into this "ohh no but its still not finished"  a perfect example of this is the flight factor 320 its a cheap rip off of the fsl320 or the aerosoft 320.  Now you say that to a hardcore xp11 fan they will tell you "muh but its still not finished" when really its a half baked prouduct that is a county mile off being finished, which it never will be.  Try selling that as a strap line.

My prediction is the new 330 will be the same.  It will just about get you comfortably from A to B.  It will have the odd CTD here and there.  and it will have a load of unfininshed items.  But as aerosoft have said "its not quite finished"  and they have led us down this lane of  "we will patch it later dont worry" then all will be ok and idiots  will flock to buy it, funnily enough just with christmas around the corner.. who'd if guessed. 

Edited November 28, 2019 by fluffyflops

[simbol 5,819]

4 hours ago, Ian S said:

To be honest, I'd never heard of anyone visually impaired in the FlightSim community, it's great you're able to enjoy this hobby and hope you get it sorted out.

There are many in fact!. @SteveW implemented something amazing for visually impaired users on his addon.

My advice to the OP, get a refund, change your computer name, restart and buy it using your wife or a family member name instead. Activate and enjoy.

Regards,

Simbol 

Edited November 28, 2019 by simbol

[Orinks 3]

Hello everyone,

 

The issue has been resolved. It turns out that the developer did not do anything, but there was a user error on my part. I wish the program would let you know whether it is activated when entering the key.

 

 

[David Roch 1,982]

Good to know.
I am a loyal FS Tramp user for years, never had any problem with this addon or its talented author.

[micstatic 4,319]

I use FS Tramp also.  Little Nav Map always seemed to have to much going on for me.  Back in the old FSnavigator days I basically was using simple aircraft and FS9.  I had no idea how to manage a flight with the FMS.  So the FSNav was crucial.  Then when I finally switched over to P3DV4 (Skipping FSX) I decided it was time to learn to fly airliners with their FMS.  But I still find FSTramp useful for monitoring my flight and showing AI traffic.  

[David Roch 1,982]

Yes, I use it also for choosing SIDs and STARs while airborne. 😉

[GSalden 4,656]

5 hours ago, Orinks said:

Hello everyone,

 

The issue has been resolved. It turns out that the developer did not do anything, but there was a user error on my part. I wish the program would let you know whether it is activated when entering the key.

 

 

So the negative conclusions you took about Helge were not true .....

 

[Bob Scott 7,720]

Since the OP's original problem has been resolved I'm going to close this now.