Im sure many authors of this site can empathize with Nick as well. I know i have unremittingly been begged by sick TI-89 gamer robots that promise me coolness and "everyone will love you" if i finish Zelda or add something to Alien Invasion or whatever the hell my next service to them is. After explaining i have things to do now (say, college?), i get sighs and "but you promised!" or some other form of goading.

Nothing is really appreciated anymore. Its actually quite annoying to release anything at all, for fear of the swarms of middle schoolers who will beg you to add them a cheat or something.

I don't think that 99% of the consumers here actually realise how much time, head scratching and pain is spent in the development of any decent program in the archives. I don't really speak from experience: a large chunk of my stuff, I have to confess, is utter rubbish - but some projects stick in the mind as being just what I said above. Programming can be difficult. If you guys want something to be better, why don't _you_ try? If it's so damn easy, what's stopping you?

[The text of this article has been removed by a news editor due to violation of the acceptable use policy.]

lol, I've actually listend to a 12 year old tell me that a molar mass computator was a stupid/un-needed feature to put in one of my programs.

-Samuel

Oh jeez... I found Yapt to be a useful program. Very useful indeed. (Thanks for making it!)

lol. I doubt they even have any idea to how hard chemistry can be. Give me a break.

When I was 12, I could have told the difference. Just because the person was 12 doesn't mean they're stupid/immature/etc. It just means they're 12.

Heh, I remember that. The kid hadn't even really taken any sort of chemistry. Those are the other kinds of people who annoy me: those who think they know what they're talking about but really don't.

I'll admit, my actual programming experience is somewhat limited -- A diamonds clone, a program that got rejected by ticalc.org, and a general math program that essentially had a bunch of formulas programmed in that some friends have found useful. That's pretty much it in C for me, but I still frequent the TIGCC message board, accumulating some 1199 posts there. So, those who don't actually actively program still contribute.

Try setting up a filter to move anything that has "cheat" and "add" into a folder with mass auto-reply that says "implement it yourself." I've had people ask me to put a cheat in my little command prompt RPG because it was so hard. They don't seem to realize that it's in a beta stage. Also, tell the people tah ask you to do stuff that you're making the games for FREE. You don't have to put them up or even mae them at all. It's how I deal with people that ask for homework help.

Yes, I agree. However, on almost every single message board I visit there are always complete (fill in disparaging name and make it plural! :) ) that post, and I find that I just can't escape it. It's sad, but I'm glad finally ticalc.org is doing something to augment it :)

I've noticed that on other message boards, but rarely at ticalc.org. Well, not on the message boards, anyways. Could someone tell me where these things are happening? An IRC chat channel? AIM?

I didn't know you still had access to the site.

Yelling at these kids won't change a thing for them though, it'll have to be something else.

This is absolutely appalling. While I have resorted to some rather reprehensible behavior in the past (a pattern which I am trying to get out of), I do not believe that I have ever physically threatened anyone here, except jokingly.

I do not know what caused the threat, but I find it sad that someone would feel so offended by anything that happens on the internet to actually threaten harm to another person. This is ridiculous. When someone is willing to do this, they have lost sight of the fact that life is more important than the internet. It is truly disheartening that a person's priorities could become this disordered.

To the Ticalc staff: I apologize wholeheartedly for any trouble I have caused in the past - and I know that there has been a lot. Posting entire books to the boards, flooding the boards with off-topic spelling and grammar corrections, insults and harrassment to various staff members... I am certain that there is more. My behavior has been nothing short of childish, and is certainly not acceptable from someone 21 years of age.

I would especially like to apologize to Michael Vincent. I have attacked you personally many times in the past for things you were wholly justified in doing, or things that I believed you had done while in fact they were done by someone else. My words have been bitter, angry, and venomous, and I am sorry for them all.

On a final note: I sincerely hope that this person's account has been revoked. Physically threatening someone is simply deplorable.

I too would like to apologize if I have caused any problems for the staff. I'm 100% sure that the staff does an enormous amount of work for the site that many visitors don't notice. Thank you for your work.

Thank you. I have noticed a huge improvement in your behavior in the last few weeks.

Who was the threat from? :-O

I think I should probably say something along the same lines, too...
Even though I like small off-topic humor on the side as well as good constructive posts, I have to say that, well, I know the site isn't my own to run, so it's not my right to say what happens on the site and what doesn't (I'm referring to the free open-discussion board idea, in case you didn't know). So, sorry for any inconvience that I've caused and all that stuff...
Oh yeah, and MV, it was nothing personal, okay? I just got angry a few times at deleted comments.
And... I know I probably shouldn't be asking this, but which news article was the threat written in? I got the picture that it was posted on this site from the article.

i just don't see how these people would threarin to hurt someone over a calculater. i know that i am into calculaters just like the rest of use but i would never really hurt someone over it

Well, I guess we really don't know what it was about, since I didn't see it... did you see it? I think everybody's going to be curious about this...

Sadly enough I saw it and didn't delete it off the bat. I got side track and when I went back for it, it was gone and so on...

It is something that everyone needs to just put past them and just think about what NickD said and not who posted it.

I feel like this site is here to present the community's beliefs as much as anything else. TICalc.org was the first place that I discovered software created just to help other people - no strings attached. Now I have been introduced to many other communities, especially GNU/Linux, along the same lines. My expiriances here have given me a desire to help and be a generous, productive member of society.

I want the next generation of students who pick up a calculator to have the same expiriances I have, and to put their energy back into the world in return.

Thank you.

Well put, and I whole heartedly agree with you. One minor problem, I'm not being cynical abouth this either, most people my age and younger are flat out immature and self centered. They want help without giving any. They see a strong knowledgable person and these people pounce on that person and try to get every bit of free, and sometimes undeserving, help out of them. In short, they take advantage of people. I really wish their parents would have taught them better than that. Lets just make it so our kids (yes, nerds, geeks and social loosers still have a chance of getting married) won't be brought up so poorly.

It's all about phychology and it's really quite a bit more complicated. See, if your in a bad, "lower," position you strive to get to an equal position. The route to get to that position is often very ugly. You can see all of this in real life in common situations. For example, you ever wonder why your boss always seems to be higher than you and in a bigger chair? Or even in wildlife. Why do you think modern zoos keep animals at an even ground level postion and not completely surrounded. Yes, it's because even animals feel stress and this has in the past often caused animals to pace back in forth. This leads to a shorter life span/non-existant reproductive cycle and bad business for the zoo. Anyways back to humans. It's not always about young people being self-centered or immature or bad parenting either. There are really smart people for example that may, dare I say, copy work just because of the load of certain courses combined with others and there not being enough hours in the day as it were. I know that if you take a lot of tough AP courses like Calculus and Chemistry this can happen, although it shouldn't happen as often in smart people. Then again even by classifying people as "smart" can be detrimental...

PS. You mean the odds of a nerd/geek meeting a girl aren't better than winning the lottery?!

>I know that if you take a lot of tough AP courses like Calculus and Chemistry this can happen, although it shouldn't happen as often in smart people.

I did that, not in the same year though...

PS. They have a better chance than the lottery. To use the cliche ,they have to know "what women want"

my class schedule this year (im a high-school junior):
1. Bible and Literature
2. AP Chemistry
3. AP English Language
4. AP US History
5. AP Calculus BC
6. Art 3

Not bad. I see that your smart enough to not take all AP classes. Right now I have *counting in head* 9 classes totaling 17 units. I'm suprissed at how little homework I have.

i didnt have anymore AP classes to take, the rest would all require already having taken what i am taking now. And i never have any homework, and find that calculus and chem are a relief during the day. I just like science and math, hence me joining a calculator web site...

I am trying to say that we don't have to wait until we have our own children... We can start now, as long as no one knows our age.