I've now added karma score and registered since information to the voter list. So spotting this can be a bit easier.

You do bring up some interesting points, even if it they are only two coppers worth B-)

Seriously though, I'm not trying to hang the SiO2 developer before he is proven guilty. I really do think he should be given the benefit of the doubt. This could be a symptom of something bigger though, such as the clash between the Linux and Windows worlds.

In Linux free means "use and share", non-free means "use but don't share", and commercial means "use but pay up". Nobody cares if SIO2 depends on financial returns to continue development, they only care that they are upfront about it.

I have no real objection to commercial software being in maemo-extras, in my mind non-free is non-free. At one level, this is similar to the doom and quake ports.

However the registering of accounts specifically to vote it through from testing is a deliberate and informed attempt to violate the letter and the spirit of the QA process. There is absolutely no way that he can claim he didn't realise that he was not supposed to do that and therefore has forfeited any trust I may have had in him.

This has nothing to do with commercial applications in the maemo.org repos, this has to do with following the QA rules, and it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that this was not done. (There are logs you know)

EDIT: to be less confusing

You don't find asking for payment from volunteer "testers" a problem then?

That'sa completely separate issue and IIRC the QA requirements for non-free are lower. (something like does it run? is it optified? does int uninstall cleanly?)

IMO, the maemo-extras QA process is (and should be) a separate thing from Beta testing.

As if getting a sticky in the games section wasn't promotion enough.

Cheating is cheating. Shame on you...

Before anybody drag this rant any further...

Since I start porting on the maemo I found major issues ALL along the way prooving that the whole platform is not mature enough... at all...

I start checking the Extras AFTER paying the 50 euros and realize that I was not even
able to put a .deb on the OVI Store.

And on top of that, I received shortly after the official confirmation that the OVI store doesn't EVEN accept payment... I was completely astonished that the whole platform, SDK, and Store are already release to the public, but you can't even put paid apps… unbelievable...

This is when I start checking the Extras (since I had NO other way to publish the app). Basically there's no restriction putting a non-free/commercial apps online but redirecting directly tester to any payment page is not an option, and cannot be done since you cannot update the package once released...

All that after spending about 1 month on the platform porting the engine and the games to finally arrive to theses conclusions... Everyone have to admit that is REALLY disappointing... and from my opinion NOT ACCEPTABLE...

After realizing that I have ABSOLUTELY NO WAY to put my games anywhere, and my last resource was the Extras that technically speaking DO approve commercial apps (if the price is in the description) so I try to get it up there...

Examining the approval process, and get approved the first time, I found out that NONE of the criteria mentioned where coded properly:

- No need for having 3 tester to approve.

- Votes can be executed as much as you want by the same IP address. I didn't even have to use proxy or anything... (same for the application rating)

- Voters doesn't even need to have karma.

- The 10 days in standby was not working on the server and I was able to go up and running in a few hours… due to a buggy date comparison code. Does the coders did even test the whole thing? I dont know...

I feel quite ashamed cuz the device is really great, but the whole experience for game developers is REALLY disappointing, buggy, unstable and would NEVER have imagine that… not from you know who...

As people mentioned yes SIO2 is a 1 man show... and I do apologize for the ranking... I found a flaw and exploit it... I do have a family to feed and spending 1 month on the platform to realize that I cannot even get my games out there due to a poor and immature system is really disappointing and was at first really excited about it, but when I realize after spending so much time on it and that it is not really an out-of-the-box ready platform I feel really frustrated and feel that is not acceptable at all...

Im a one man operation, and I had all the good will in the world to go forward with the platform, and even after finding work around all along the way to make things work to finally ending up in a dead-end.

I had to still shout out loud that I'd still made something work out of it but couldn't really get it out there... I figure out there was a bug and I exploit it... that simple...

Please take note that I mean no disrespect to anyone from the community, I can't really be blamed, the door was wide open, and I didn't cause no harm to anybody so... I just found quite ashamed that the platform is out-there and really not ready for
game developers as well as customers... its really unfortunate...

My apologies... I just wannit to provide good commercial arcade games for the N900, but due to the lack of maturity, I was not able to get my work out there by any other means. And waiting reporting all theses bugs, and waiting for them to be fixed is not an option for me... as they shouldn't even be there at the first place...

I didn't even had to cheat... anybody could have done it.. the whole thing is wide open... probably for months… if it was illegal, they should have code the necessary protection to avoid it, instead of leaving it like that and if nobody notice that before well... I can't really be blamed

If you want to put the apps out, fine with me, but please take note that there is NO other way to get a commercial game out there for the platform, and the whole situation will turn down ALOT of game developers... and games are exactly what this platform need at the moment in order to gain popularity.

Failure to do so will most likely doom the whole platform and leave it at the immature stage as it is at the moment even if from my opinion it is not ready for public...

The 2 SIO2 games out there are the first and ONLY commercial 3D games available at the moment coming from an external developer that have NO affiliation whatsoever with Nokia… and god know how much the platform need them

The final decision is up to you, after this incident the bugs will probably be fixed so...

But unless something change there's no way to put commercial games out there… And not alot of people have the budget to spend 2 weeks to 3~6 months developing games that can only end up free on a platform... And without commercial games, no game developers will be interested to continue on the platform… leaving it at a moot point… which as mention earlier would be
QUITE unfortunate cuz the capabilities of the device are probably the BEST out there...

That was all I had to say about it, and my 0.02$ about the current situation for game developers.

So that's about it, I think the rant can stop now, there's not much more to say I guess...

I am also interested and willing to offer my service to make the platform more competitive, you guys know how to contact me

Cheers,

ps: The close button on the buynow box is not crashing the application, it was never meant to be a LITE version or something...

Well obviously I'm pretty new here and thus still learning the ropes. Still though, I believe there should be a clear distinction between software seeking the help of testers and software seeking to profit from testers.

This might well be true since there isn't any!

I didn't mean to offend anybody here on the forums, but even if Sio2 did break the rules there's always room to talk one-on-one rather than pillorying publically.

"Kill him and then ask him what he can bring up to his defense" is not exactly what I'd expect from a halfway contemporary open-source community...