Good bye to TabletRoms (TR)

I was a participant on TabletRoms (TR) for a while - even before it became TR. And all throughout, I've admired how this community grew, and how its developers have helped the Notion Ink Adam owners (and increasingly others too) and have, more than once, praised them on this blog and on their forums.

However, I recently decided to logoff for one final time when a post became personal, and it  was made more than clear that I wasn't wanted. It wasn't that opinions challenging a NI favoured view were countered, argued or debated - it's just that they could not be said at all.  Such posts were viewed as "negative" / "not constructive." - more like "don't say it because we don't like to hear it"

To me, asking questions, keeping a company to its word, checking if they're following up on what they say, repeating when necessary, they're all constructive actions. You can see that I link NI's words from their own blog and interviews as evidence. But it seems all we can do is praise, provide technical solutions, or be able to code like gods which unfortunately I cannot. The way I see it, it would have been right to tell me I'm wrong, correct me, point me to the right facts, ignore me, debate with me, find faults in my arguments -- but the path taken was essentially to silence the voice because it doesn't sing the same tune.

As much as I continue to admire their work, this is a gentle caution. Non-tolerance to contrary views (when not abusive / personal) and remarks is a slippery slope. If you  cannot criticize the company, cannot criticize the product, cannot criticize the admins, cannot criticize developers, cannot even ask probing questions without being told to shut up, it will slowly choke discussion and debate. Recently I've seen more than one example (not involving me) where even innocent, gentle questions were attacked.

I see the quandary some of the TR folks find themselves in - it's their forum they built, a lot of hard work went into it, and now NI is paying some "bounty" (reward money I guess) for some work, some of the TR devs are benefiting for contributions from NI. This creates a conflict of interest - and reduces the ability to step back and not step-in unless comments are abusive or personal (which in most cases were not).

There were  3 roads they could take, given their unique position and influence with Notion Ink.

a) Active role  - often reaching into NI and getting them to answer difficult questions & owning up to responsibilities while supporting them and their community, even if benefiting from NI for certain aspects. Play a strong mutual give-and-take role.

b) Be an independent / hands-off party - take no sides, and take no benefit from the company so as to maintain a neutral stance

c) Benefit from NI / stand behind them - maintain a positive spin for the company and its product even in the forums and keep contrary opinions limited / discouraged

I'm sad that they chose (c). With their influence, having NI's ear, they could have played an interesting role in bringing an incompetent company to a higher level. But by tolerating such poor performance they've only reinforced what NI has always been able to get away with - sloppy performance, vague answers, all the while benefiting from the good work of the developers on a community forum.

There is also another way, which is, instead of lip service to posting freedom, simply make it very clear that members must (a) contribute via code, beta testing etc. or (b) post something nice. Nothing else is permitted - that way it can be a close knit community of all like minded people.

Unlike NI, I have no doubts that TR will continue to grow and serve its community well. Just that I'm not the right type of member.