You've pretty much summed it up wrt to the community going "off course" for a while. Here's hoping that this and other threads have helped set the community back on its "proper course" and even helped some realize that their personal opinion or experience is not the only criteria to be examined:-)

Why is it that the community is "going off course?" FS10 was a step backwards and many are expressing disappointment, what's wrong with that? The truth is, FS franchise went off course. What if FS11 goes along the lines of FS10? Do you think there will be a community left? Or is your prescription still to 'get a more powerful system?'If you're counting on course correction via endless HW upgrades, your customer base will surely shrink. Or I'm just totally wrong and everything will turn out great (just like FS10 1.5 years after RTM). PatAMD Opteron DC 185 @ 3GHz, Zalman7700Cu cooler, Corsair XMS 2GB DDR, 7800GS-OC, Asus A8V MoBo, RaptorHDD, TrackIR4, CH FSYoke+TQ+peds, Eclipse RED KB, WinXP-sp2

Pat, we respectfully disagree with your assesment of the current state of the FS and the community.We agree that a lot has been said in the the period from FSX RTM until now with SP2/DX10 Preview.In short, the majority of users have completed their OS and Hardware Upgrades and have been enjoying FSX/SP2/DX10 for quite a good while now. We're seeing good indications that folks are "back on course" in that a lot of the moaning about the past has subsided and folks are moving forward with their hobby:-)

Well, it is my experience that once someone that is providing information from the development side to the public at large reaches a decision such as this, it is best that the aforementioned person move on, and let someone else take his/her position. Reason? Because from this point on, most will be afraid to make any criticism of the product at all, due to a fear of the said person once again threatening to break off communication. It will be like the proverbial "walking on thin ice" around "Phil". So, perhaps we should all just allow Phil to do what he wants, and that is, move on. We thank you Phil for your help in the past, and your open communication, in the past. But from this point on, with the decision you have made publicly, I can't see how any of us out here, will be able to make any constructive criticism now. So I, for one, will respect your wishes, and hopefully await someone who can pick up from where you left off. If there is no one else, then that, I guess, is our loss. Best wishes.

>Well, it is my experience that once someone that is providing>information from the development side to the public at large>reaches a decision such as this, it is best that the>aforementioned person move on, and let someone else take>his/her position. Reason? Because from this point on, most>will be afraid to make any criticism of the product at all,>due to a fear of the said person once again threatening to>break off communication. It will be like the proverbial>"walking on thin ice" around "Phil". So, perhaps we should all>just allow Phil to do what he wants, and that is, move on. We>thank you Phil for your help in the past, and your open>communication, in the past. But from this point on, with the>decision you have made publicly, I can't see how any of us out>here, will be able to make any constructive criticism now. So>I, for one, will respect your wishes, and hopefully await>someone who can pick up from where you left off. If there is>no one else, then that, I guess, is our loss. Best wishes.Excuse me but I believe you have completely missed the point. Phil has NOT cut back due to the criticism of FSX rather he is responding to personal attacks and continual repetition ad nauseum of the same old stuff. The fair criticisms of FSX he has handled, IMHO, appropriately. I for one would have no problems voicing my opinion on any further products.VicQ6600 G0 CPU 2.4 o/c 3.65Evga 680i A1 with P31 BIOS 2G XP2-8500 DDR2 1066FSB Mushkin 996535 RAM 5-5-4-12-2T320G 7200 HD partitioned for XP/Vista/Programs 2 - 74G Raptors in RAID0 500G 7200 HD for backup SATA DVD burner Evga 8800GTS 640 PCIx XG 174.74 702/1620/792Kandalf LCS case w/ built in liquid cooling 850W Thermaltake power supplyVisit the Virtual Pilot's Centerwww.flightadventures.comhttp://www.hifisim.com/banners/hifi-supporter-sigbanner.jpg

It is a sad moment. I've enjoy meeting Phil at DevCon, and reading all his detailed and informative posts on forums.

He's still posting good and informative stuff in his blog, so I am having some difficulty falling into the same apathy and sadness as some of you.Make sure you go watch the HD video (Soaring Heroes, by Andreas Paschen) he's recommended. Wowzer.

>>He's still posting good and informative stuff in his blog, so>I am having some difficulty falling into the same apathy and>sadness as some of you."Apathy?" "Sadness?"Try sheer bloody embarrasment for the behavior of some fellow simmers!While it doesn't affect me personally (I do have alternatives), it's a pity that the opportunity for open and public bi-directional communications has been closed.

I suspect MS is the loser...really Bill, cmon, ms wasn't here without a profit potential.

I am with Bill on this , the series of posts that have followed Phil

>In short, the majority of users have completed their OS and>Hardware Upgrades and have been enjoying FSX/SP2/DX10 for>quite a good while now. >We're seeing good indications that folks are "back on course">in that a lot of the moaning about the past has subsided and>folks are moving forward with their hobby:-)I don't know about the rest of the community but to me with SP2 also came the FS-X freeze. Moaning (or making ones problems with the product know) serves no purpose anymore because nothing will be done about it so whats the point in 'moaning' now. FSX/SP2/DX10 is on my bookshelf with a layer of dust settling on it. It did enjoy one last try (2 months back) on my new custom build DX10 gaming rig after which it was removed in favour of less troublesome products.But don't get me wrong. I'm glad your sales are up. I like there to be good 3PD's when FS-XI hits the streets and if the opportunity presents itself I will give some possitive input to the FS-XI wishlists. Until then I'll just keep up on the news and I'll sometimes post my input as part of the usergroup that FS-X left behind...

>Why is it that the community is "going off course?" >>FS10 was a step backwards and many are expressing>disappointment, what's wrong with that? The truth is, FS>franchise went off course. >>What if FS11 goes along the lines of FS10? Do you think there>will be a community left? Or is your prescription still to>'get a more powerful system?'>>If you're counting on course correction via endless HW>upgrades, your customer base will surely shrink. Or I'm just>totally wrong and everything will turn out great (just like>FS10 1.5 years after RTM). >>Pat>>AMD Opteron DC 185 @ 3GHz, Zalman7700Cu cooler, Corsair XMS>2GB DDR, 7800GS-OC, Asus A8V MoBo, RaptorHDD, TrackIR4, CH>FSYoke+TQ+peds, Eclipse RED KB, WinXP-sp2Pat,Specifically the problem is that some people are enjoying FSX, or want to enjoy it. However, those who are unhappy with FSX hasn't been just expressing disappointment. If that were the case, I could ignore it and go about my business.But they are yelling it, and yelling it and yelling it. They are bursting into my polite conversations to yell it. They are yelling at MS, they are yelling at Phil, they are yelling at people who actually enjoy flying the sim. The problem exists because the people who don't like it seemed resolved to drown out all other voices with their screaming, so when it becomes too hard to talk over the din, the rest of the community decides, like Phil, that is just isn't worth it.That is how the community is going off course.

>Pat,>>Specifically the problem is that some people are enjoying FSX,>or want to enjoy it. >>However, those who are unhappy with FSX hasn't been just>expressing disappointment. If that were the case, I could>ignore it and go about my business.>>But they are yelling it, and yelling it and yelling it. They>are bursting into my polite conversations to yell it. They>are yelling at MS, they are yelling at Phil, they are yelling>at people who actually enjoy flying the sim. >>The problem exists because the people who don't like it seemed>resolved to drown out all other voices with their screaming,>so when it becomes too hard to talk over the din, the rest of>the community decides, like Phil, that is just isn't worth>it.>>That is how the community is going off course.In my opinion FS-X caused a split. We are split between those that converted to FS-X and those that stayed with FS-9. The extremist on the FS-X side 'hates' the nay sayers and the extremist on the FS-9 side 'hates' the everything is great in FS-X side.Its both sides 'fault' that the community is going off course. Only time will tell if was FS-X or FS-9 that was a splinter movement in the FS franchise. Before FS-X Avsim had a MS FS forum that discussed generally the most current version of MS flightsim. Now we are divided in a FS-X and a FS-9 forum. I find that very telling about the FS community here. Maybe we should al withdraw into the forums that discuss our favourite FS version and only meet in the bar to discuss the FS future.

>>Pat,>>>>Specifically the problem is that some people are enjoying>FSX,>>or want to enjoy it. >>>>However, those who are unhappy with FSX hasn't been just>>expressing disappointment. If that were the case, I could>>ignore it and go about my business.>>>>But they are yelling it, and yelling it and yelling it. >They>>are bursting into my polite conversations to yell it. They>>are yelling at MS, they are yelling at Phil, they are>yelling>>at people who actually enjoy flying the sim. >>>>The problem exists because the people who don't like it>seemed>>resolved to drown out all other voices with their screaming,>>so when it becomes too hard to talk over the din, the rest>of>>the community decides, like Phil, that is just isn't worth>>it.>>>>That is how the community is going off course.>>In my opinion FS-X caused a split. We are split between those>that converted to FS-X and those that stayed with FS-9. The>extremist on the FS-X side 'hates' the nay sayers and the>extremist on the FS-9 side 'hates' the everything is great in>FS-X side.>>Its both sides 'fault' that the community is going off course.>Only time will tell if was FS-X or FS-9 that was a splinter>movement in the FS franchise. Before FS-X Avsim had a MS FS>forum that discussed generally the most current version of MS>flightsim. Now we are divided in a FS-X and a FS-9 forum. I>find that very telling about the FS community here. Maybe we>should al withdraw into the forums that discuss our favourite>FS version and only meet in the bar to discuss the FS future.That theory seems sound until you look at it in practice, and there haven't been raiding attempts over into the FS9 forum to claim that FS9 is terrible and people are fooling themselves to believe that there is ever any way that it will be as good as FSX.However, there's plenty of cases of people coming in here to bash FSX. I could be wrong about it, but what I saw was even very vocal people about FSX saying they still enjoyed FS9 from time to time, or at least looked back on it fondly. Now, supposedly I'm some kind of agenda-pushing apologist, so maybe I don't have the right perspective on it.

Dude,That's so totally my new word: "crepuscular."I will whip that baby out at parties and soooo scoff at people when they get that look on their face ... you know ... that look I had before I looked it up.