In my post Ampache and how to not give tech support I mentioned the atrocious tech support and snotty attitude that the developer(s) of Ampache had.  The saga continues!

I put a post in the Ampache forums, detailing my problem and basically saying “I told you it wasn’t the flash on my computer.”  A couple of days later…my post and all the info I had detailing had disappeared. Deleted because of how I revealed that the dev had been a total ass to me.

All of the sudden, several other people started reporting the issue and trying to figure it out.  I once again, added some info and made a comment about my posts disappearing.  That post was edited to remove my comments on deleted posts. This continued…ad nauseum.

What does this mean?  Well, the developers tender ego was being hurt by me revealing him to be an ass and he (or one of his fanboys) was deleting and editing my posts to make him look better.  Jokes on him..cause I’m gonna blog about it!

Update: Vollmer (the Dev’s) childish behavior has continued rampantly. As I was trying to solve the problem and give useful information to those working on it, he proceeded to delete and edit my posts, in the process removing useful info.

ad nauseum, Ampache, post, snotty attitude Hide

I recently installed Ampache on my home server.  It is a neat little project that allows me to easily stream music to work from home. Cool!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the flash player to work.  I did what a responsible software user should do…tried it in several different browsers, checked the error logs, etc.  I even went so far as to try on versions all the way back to Flash 8 and in every OS I could get my hands on.  Nothing.  So, I went to the forums for Ampache and posted in a thread describing the issue, one that hadn’t been solved yet.  I also took the time to hop in their IRC channel, asked my question, and patiently waited.

The dev for the project took the time to answer me. Neat, right? Wrong.  Turns out, he really doesn’t care.  I was told “It’s your flash/browser/computer” and when I informed him of the extensive testing I did, I was basically told to leave him alone cause he was too busy to even try and help. While I was aware the problem was in my install (I wasn’t blaming the software as a whole) I was looking for help in tracking down WHY it was happening.  Not to be dismissed and told that it was my fault.

I eventually found the issue.  I still haven’t corrected it, but I informed the community of it and asked for assistance in correcting it.  None has been given.

While I acknowledge this is a free product and all support is given as “volunteer work”, you still shouldn’t treat your users that way.  The person who “helped” me was arrogant, rude, and an all around prick.  He was so used to running into people who have no concept of how to test a problem, that when he ran into me (part of my daily job is trying to replicate user’s issues) he didn’t have an easy dismissal handy. So while most users would go away feeling the issue was “their fault”, I knew the problem was on my end and went away feeling that the dev and support team was a bunch of wankers.

Moral of the story is: Don’t be a dick to those who use your “product”.  You’ll probably lose a donation/sale that way. Ampache sure did.

Ampache, DON, error logs, flash browser, way Hide