A very, very condensed story of this forum:

The forum was originally called Internet Tablet Talk (the old address www.internettablettalk.com still works), and it was a place for Nokia Internet Tablets fans to meet and discuss. As people may know, the NIT started with the 770, then the N800, N810, N810 WiMax Edition; then finally the N900.

Some time before the launch of the N900, Nokia approached the owner of the forum, and an integration of the forum to the official Maemo webpage (www.maemo.org) was coordinated.

Which take us to today, where the forum is part of the Maemo site.

This forum existsed long before the N900 was even a glint in the N770's eye. It is a place for like minded people who like to test and develop their devices be it the N770/N800/N810 or the N900.

It is a COMMUNITY forum and no one is paid here. Some new members come on here demanding to know why this and that is not included and why this and that is not working, in general most posts are answered by a helpfull member but most of the time the original posters question/query/rant have been answered on so many previous occasions that it does get frustrating especially when it is plain to see that the OP has not even bothered to do any reasearch/searches themselves. They then get all wound up saying how crapping the SERVICE is around here.
Just to reiterate this is a COMMUNITY driven and populated forum not Nokia Customer Care.
If you have a genuine greavance with any of their products there are many avenues to explore just try searching.
If you have a problem with some software developed by a member here or indeed if you have really searched and could not find an answer there are more than enough willing brilliant members on here only to happy to help out.

I totally agree it cant be everything to everyone and a hapy balance should be found. I love the versatility and the amassing things this community has helped me do with my n900, and the n900 does lots better than other portable devises.

But my n900 is missing features the most basic phone made by Nokia has (like syncing task descriptions with you PC) the PIM function is so inadequate for reasons pointed out at the top of this thread, that i am considering using an old phone and just retiring my n900 to a web pad.

That said if the 2 bugs in my signature were resolved I'd keep using my n900.

Nothing worse than bugs in closed source components

This cannot be quoted enough, people treat this forum like Nokia customer care which it is not. The forum is simply the place for maemo community members to engage each other, Nokia thought it would be better for Internettablettalk to come under the stewardship of Maemo instead of trying to build a new forum for maemo.org at some point last year which was definitely protested by some but in the end a lot of people have forgotten about that and moved on.

Maemo the organization in Nokia did not create this forum. It was created independently as Internet Tablet Talk and joined with maemo.org last year. It has never been nor will it ever be positioned as official commercial support for Nokia Maemo products.

I'd suggest searching the subject before posting the thread title, but...

The community started off as Internet Tablet Talk by Reggie for Nokia Internet tablet enthusiasts to communicate to each other. It was primarily a crowd with alot of tech know how, or at least willingness to learn or ask for help nicely if they didn't know how to do it themselves. It's because of this community that when I was looking at an iPod Touch versus the n800 when I first joined this website that I decided on the n800. The community provided alot of support, and gave the tablet devices the ability to do what I was looking for in a mobile device. There were always a few people who were (or still are) vocal about what the tablets could do or not do, though not to the way it is now. I think even those vocal members probably find most of the newer individual's style of ranting and raving to be quite irritating and a waste of space.

It was with the beginning of the N900 that it was turned from internettabletalk to maemo.org with Nokia sponsoring the site by paying for the server hosting (because they were interested in the community and its developers).

I think the community has gotten alot less tolerable now (partially due to the high influx of people who are not as patient and well annoying). Which I personally can't fault them with. There's individuals who don't want to read posts to figure out how to do things (and then complain when nobody will help them or complain about the developer or the program. Keep in mind that this is after a developer and other members of the community have likely answered, and re-answered the question several times in the thread). There's people who don't understand the difference between the different platforms (X platform has this, why doesn't the N900? OMG THE N900 suckz). And so many more reasons.

There also seems to be a misconception that Nokia pays attention to this
site. While Nokia does have a few individuals like Qgil who look at the site from time to time, your honestly more likely to be heard on the Forum.Nokia.com site (link to the right) than on here. It's also unlikely that Nokia even pays attention to posts, since posters tend to convey their displeasure so poorly it looks like a pointless angry rant.

That's partially why I classify new people on any forum, game, community, etc.. into two categories. N00bs, people who don't want to learn, and are just a general nuisance. I've given up on helping these people.

And the good kind, newbies. People who are willing to learn (or may not understand the way the community works, but are willing to at least try to integrate into the community). It's these people that I think a forum like maemo.org needs.

And on a side note, one thing that's been bothering me is posts like "implement this feature or get the application to this point and then I'll donate". Besides money being a terrible motivator when an individual is doing things out of their own personal desire (see tons of psychology research). Why is it "and then I'll donate". Why not donate because you appreciate the developers' existing work? Why not donate because the developer makes an effort to communicate with the community?

only an idiot would buy a £500 phone without doing a little bit of research on it first, were all beta testers here and its why we bought the device, the community will further progress the future os's/devices, maemo, meego, n910, n920, what ever it may be ill pre-order the latest device as soon as im allowed, because im helping to create it!

I don't think this is fair, because nowadays consumer culture is pretty mainstreamed, so it is reasonable (however silly that may seem) for some not too technological person, to assume all sorts of things.

The N900 is not mainstream.

Obviously marketing people (of nokia or resellers) wouldn't put up big red labels saying "Warning!You probably do not wish to buy this phone!", even though that would have been helpful for a lot of ... noobs.

So, the problem is with the underlying system. The world doesn't operate on truth. The world operates on convincing people to buy things.

That said. The N900 is the right phone for me. I like the GNU/Linux Freedom thing more than any proprietary feature or shinyness.

well in MY case, because of the n900 and this forum, i am now learning the very basic of Linux (or whatever OS is maemo SW is based), and will continue to learn.

it took me 2 months of research before i bought this device (i even have my n97 at that time).

the n900 is a different and new experience for me,