WHAT, now I cannot do NEWS???

[Robertb]

Dear All:

I put up on the NEWS page that the Pocket PRO starts shipping in three days!

It was up for exactly 16 minutes and somebody removed it.

IF I cannot announce true news then HOW am I supposed to get new people to view this designated forum?

Right now Sony has the NEWS section all to themselves regarding 5 inch!

This does NOT seem fair at all or workable in any way! Pardon me, please, but what ever happened to the fact I am a member and have rights like all other members.

Must I create a new Avatar and register as somebody else in order to post NEWS?

[zelda_pinwheel]

Robertb, your thread was not removed, it was simply moved to the Astak forum. PilotBob told you several days ago that he would make a front-page announcement when the Astak devices start shipping, if you let him know when that is. There is no reason to duplicate this announcement and since the devices have not yet started shipping, there is no real news. Please do not post the same thing multiple times ; that is considered spamming.

In addition, please remember that this is a privately-owned forum and you must agree to follow the guidelines here. Those guidelines include not creating multiple threads about the same topic. Again, that is considered spam, particularly when it is posted by an employee of the company being advertised.

Also, creating a dummy account to post under a different alias is called making a sockpuppet and it is grounds for banning.

[griffonwing]

I agree..Here are my thoughts. Probably because of 2 main reasons.

1) You are Astak company, not just a simple forum member.

2) 4 Days til shipping isn't really NEWs (not NEW information).

However, if you were to start a thread announcing the pending release of the Mentor line, or something actually consisting of new information, it might not get pulled.

Also, once you get the approval for another format, that would also consist of something new that is added to the EZ line, and hence might also be allowed for you to post.

Otherwise, it'll be up to EZ "users" to post threads in the News & Comm forum. At least, this is the way I would think of things working.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

Robertb, your thread was not removed, it was simply moved to the Astak forum. PilotBob told you several days ago that he would make a front-page announcement when the Astak devices start shipping, if you let him know when that is. There is no reason to duplicate this announcement and since the devices have not yet started shipping, there is no real news. Please do not post the same thing multiple times ; that is considered spamming.

In addition, please remember that this is a privately-owned forum and you must agree to follow the guidelines here. Those guidelines include not creating multiple threads about the same topic. Again, that is considered spam, particularly when it is posted by an employee of the company being advertised.

Also, creating a dummy account to post under a different alias is called making a sockpuppet and it is grounds for banning.

Dear Zelda:

Perhaps banning would not be so bad. We are not getting new members here in this Designated Astak Thread. I have guidelines that have never been explained to me and faltering posts. I love this forum.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear Zelda:

Perhaps banning would not be so bad. We are not getting new members here in this Designated Astak Thread. I have guidelines that have never been explained to me and faltering posts. I love this forum.

The Astak forum was created for people to find information about the astak devices, just like the other device forums. People who are interested will find it. There are many different devices out there. People come to MobileRead for discussion about all kinds of devices, not only Astak devices.

As for the guidelines, you agreed to member guidelines when you registered your account here. We will soon be publishing the forum guidelines in a more prominent place to make it easy for everyone to consult them when in doubt. However it should be common sense that if a moderator has told you (as PilotBob did, several days ago) that he will make a front-page announcement when you actually start shipping, and you have already mentioned the fact that you will be shipping soon in several places, there is no need to create another thread about the same topic in the news forum.

Griffonwing has said it very well also ; take a look at his post a little higher up.

[rixte]

Also, I don't think it's surprising that things have slowed down a bit - it's sort of the cycle of pre-product releases. There are probably people who are waiting for the first hands-on actual user reviews before they commit themselves one way or another.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Perhaps banning would not be so bad. We are not getting new members here in this Designated Astak Thread. I have guidelines that have never been explained to me and faltering posts. I love this forum.

When you joined up, you agreed to guidelines.

As Zelda mentioned, this is not a commercial site. We are happy to give you space to communicate with people interested in the Astak devices.

Everybody benefits if there is ready access to accurate information. There is now a dedicated Astak section of the forum, owing to members' interest in the devices. When there is genuine news then we are happy to cover it. Pilotbob has already offered to do this.

I, personally, think that you might expect peaks and troughs of interest. Doubtless there will be more posts when buyers actually receive their devices and posts reviews. Frankly, I think that you may be a little impatient. Forcing the pace by posting rather empty news stories is likely to alienate people in the long run.

However, we aren't here to be part of your advertising and sales wing.

That would not be fair to our members. We are an independent site and have no commercial affiliations with any ebook vendors. We are certainly looking forward to receiving independent reviews from members who have purchased an Astak, or got hold of a device for review.

[JSWolf]

The problem is that we've seen many announcements of things that are coming soon and that's all we've heard. Nothing after that. It's not that we don't trust, it's that we'd rather wait until the Pocket PRO are really shipping in case for some reason they don't ship on time. Look at Bookeen (for example). They've been saying soon with new firmware updates and yet nothing. So publishing what might or might not be happening as news is not a good idea. When it's really happening, then it's good to be news. Also, it means that other tech sites might pick up the news and run with it and if for some reason you had to be delayed, you would not look silly.

[Patricia]

I'd love to see you doing a review of the new Astak devices, Jon. Any chance of getting your hands on one?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Patricia

I'd love to see you doing a review of the new Astak devices, Jon. Any chance of getting your hands on one?

If RobertB would be willing to send me one, I'd be happy to do an honest review of the Pocket PRO.

[Donnageddon]

Also, having a representative of the Astak company posting the "potential" shipment of the self described "most powerful 5 inch" out there is just tasteless.

I know it has left a bad taste in my mouth concerning the Astak devices.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If RobertB would be willing to send me one, I'd be happy to do an honest review of the Pocket PRO.

Robert, this is an offer that you really should consider. JS Wolf is a long-standing member with considerable experience of electonic reading. His review would be a fair weighing-up of the strengths of the device.

[Kostas]

Originally Posted by Donnageddon

Also, having a representative of the Astak company posting the "potential" shipment of the self described "most powerful 5 inch" out there is just tasteless.

I know it has left a bad taste in my mouth concerning the Astak devices.

Very true! As long as Robertb is an exception, there is no big deal.
Just imagine a situation where representatives of other manufacturers did the same thing!
This forum would turn to a disaster filled with announcements of "most powerful" COOL-ER, OPUS, TXTR, SONY, JETBOOK, FOXIT, KINDLE, HANVON, FLEPIA,..........
(I forget the name of the new Ukrainian ebook reader)
Cheers!

[ekaser]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

Robertb, your thread was not removed, it was simply moved to the Astak forum. PilotBob told you several days ago that he would make a front-page announcement when the Astak devices start shipping, if you let him know when that is. There is no reason to duplicate this announcement and since the devices have not yet started shipping, there is no real news. Please do not post the same thing multiple times ; that is considered spamming.

I've tried not to get too worked up about the supposed/possble anit-Astak bias, as it's generally not my business and Robert, being a sales guy, CAN get a bit over-enthusiastic at times. AND I have to agree that the Robert should have waited until the units were ACTUALLY shipping before posting the 'news' item.

BUT... I have to take issue with your comment above that NEWS should be posted ONLY in the Astak forum (since we now HAVE an Astak specific forum), and upon notification and acceptance by the moderators, the news item will be put on the front page.

The reason I take issue, is simple: There is also a SONY section. Yet the News section is filled with nothing but Sony 'news' (actually most of it is speculation, wishful dreaming, etc). If, once a manufacturer has a specific "forum of their own" on MR, there can no longer be ANY posts about that manufacturer to the News section, then the News section will be pretty empty, and there will no longer be any posts about Kindle, Sony, etc there either.

Yes, Robert jumped the gun. But when the devices DO actually start shipping, that is just as valid news as the fact that Sony has updated firmware for devices that they have barely even started shipping (or any other Sony news).

Hopefully, that is really what you meant, and I'm just misinterpreting what you said.

[Patricia]

Originally Posted by ekaser

BUT... I have to take issue with your comment above that NEWS should be posted ONLY in the Astak forum (since we now HAVE an Astak specific forum), and upon notification and acceptance by the moderators, the news item will be put on the front page.

Hello ekaser: that's not what we intended. We had agreed with RobertB that Pilotbob would do a news and front-page post as soon as the new devices had actually started shipping. That due to happen in a day or two.

However, RobertB then posted a message in the news forum saying that they were due to be shipped in three days. That's not really news, in our opinion. (And, had there been any delays, RobertB wouldn't have looked good either.)

So we thought about it a bit, then moved his post to this forum. We're looking forward to seeing the new Astaks and reading the reviews. That certainly will be news!