Good morning ,afternoon,evening
a long rhetoric and winded post but the last I want to say on the matter.
I thought i would do the honourable thing and explain my decision however you are free to make your own judgement,assumption . Im not going to force the opinion
you see it how you wish.
A few days ago i received a request via email for some help , nothing unusual there and that has become the normal morning ritual, I had often dealt with most requests,issues first thing in the morning with a pint of filtered coffee
gets the old brain into top gear..
However I always check the url for any simple solutions 95% of time I could resolve an issue with a few email exchanges, but this one particular simply caught my
eye , on first appearance you would think nothing of it then that little "designed by weathersoft.com.au " , but that little simple change of wording drew my curiosity and as i look further into there or his website it became quite obvious and looking further at the detail on a services page we find "has now been replaced with a brand new site designed and implemented by WeatherSoft" .
Too many you will be thinking well thats the way it is the internet is like that , however now put yourself in to my shoes having spent two years collaborating with many weather enthusiasts to create a good looking useable functional template that simply showed you
your personal weather station .
Many enthusiasts forwarded ideas, tested versions and wether there input was small or significant what mattered is collabaration helped get the template where it is or was yesterday prior to the decision I took. I felt cheated and totally disillusioned and that was the final tipping point and I made the decision enough is enough.
I was in no way going to sit week in week out continuously implementing ideas forwarded, improvements and so on so someone could sell and use that work for there own personal financial gain. Absolutely no way it is an insult and you simply feel totally cheated and the trust factor diminishes rapidly.
The only way to continue was to start encrypting some of the code , with each issue add on a unique ID then issue the download via request so this all indicated my trust had disappeared and I simply didn't want to do that its just another additional time consuming process and unnecessary to 99% of the ones that use it ..
it leaves a horrible gut feeling inside you.. but as they say "
if you leave your car window open with the keys in the ignition then who is to blame"..its the nature of the mindset of the minority that will say to themselves lets take it !!
So has i mentioned on the Cumulus forum
"first and foremost lets not beat around the bush you want to make money ? from something that is offered for free"
but as much as he tried to throw the obvious into different directions the bottom line was
"first and foremost lets not beat around the bush you want to make money ? from something that is offered for free"
so there you are and I received some 122 emails yesterday and overnight not one of them is saying anything other than we are sorry and dissapointed by the actions of an individual , i wont repeat the exact words in most of them . bit I sincerely thank you for your support,kind words and understanding..
but two of the emails,pm really stood out and I think I did create something good didn't I ?
I did create something usable and fresh in design for weather enthusiasts because that was my simple goal from over 2 years ago now .
so here the extracts of those two emails,pm it really was telling me I did create something good didn't I ?
Dear Brian,
I'm so sorry to hear about the wanton plagiarism of your code by a miscreant claiming it as his own, and for sale even!
Makes me very angry both for the callousness of the person who lifted/claimed your code, and the demoralizing effect it has had on you. Your code is elegant and highly functional, and to have you withdraw from it is a great loss to the weather community as your work enjoyed otherwise wide support and acclimation. I hope, in time, you might reconsider and pick up the code again.Ken..Saratoga Creator
Brian,
I finally got your template to work with your latest version…now that I got a WU API key. I love that template so much and have tried just about all the weather station software out there. Nothing compares to the elegant yet nicely laid out design you have made. I would like to remove a couple things on the menu bar like the Celcius stuff, but will not even ask you. It will be a real challenge to figure it out. I just browed the WX forum and am deeply saddened by what some idiot has done. I am 56 years old and have been playing with weather as long as I can remember. I went the way of the Network Engineer, and I am now retired. I just wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for such a nice piece of software! I will use it for the rest of my days. I fully support your decision about calling it quits. When a hobby becomes a job it takes the fun out of it…and when someone steals from you to make a profit, it makes you no less than pissed off!
Again,
Your software is the only thing I will ever want. Thank you for such a perfect way to get the data I want at my fingertips whenever I am at my computer…
Have a wonderful life and know that there are at least a thousand people telling 10,000 more about your stellar work.
Sincerely,Michael A......
"
Just to add my thanks and admiration for what you've done, your template is truly beautiful as well as functional, you have such a talent for what you do.
"
Steve..Cumulus Software creator
lets not forget Erik Madsen(translation idea), Eric Rechlin(theme switching),Wim (meteobridge solutions) , Tony (HRvista- created unreleased mysql for cumulus/MX users)
The what would of have been September release.
All modules have optional positions so all twelve modules you could choose what positions you wanted particular data to shown in and a blank module to create
your own or turn off something that was not relevant to your weather station
3 extra optional top modules to show extra sensors last version has one extra sensor module.
Meteobridge API users mysql database usage bypass weather underground and use your own data with ,mysql(i) database for charts.
Cumulus/MX users bypass weather underground and use your own data with ,mysql(i) database for charts.
but sadly it was not to be..
so I want thank you all that participated wether it was something small or significant it all counted..
so its not a take care and good bye cruel Im leaving you today, Im still around but there will be no updates or releases under any circumstances released from weather34, if make exception for one I have to make it for all and I simply don't want to fall into that trap..
alternatives:
Saratoga
http://saratoga-weather.org/template/Leuven
https://support.leuven-template.euMeteotemplate
http://meteotemplate.comCumulus
http://weatherbyyou.comthere are more I am sure ..
brian
