Hi All!
I have heard from many of you recently asking about the future of REALnews
(http://www.swssoftware.com/realnews). Rather than answer individually, I
figured I would post where I stand to the list(s) so that everyone can
understand what is going on with REALnews.
When I first posted that REALnews was going on hiatus back in June, I
received literally hundreds of e-mails asking what had happened and why
REALnews was "going away." First of all, I had no idea that REALnews had
such a following. I am flattered to know that many of you were finding a
benefit from REALnews and I am sorry that I have not been able to keep it
going over the past several months.
I also need to apologize for not responding to each of you who did write in
to express your concern. At the time, I was so overwhelmed (with a lot more
in my life than just e-mail), honestly, responding to those hundreds of
e-mails was very low on my list of priorities.
So what happened? It boils down to a couple of things:
First (and I'm not going to go into great specifics on this point, for
obvious reasons), with the current economic climate in the United States, my
wife had been laid off from her job. Although she was able to find some
part-time work while continuing her search for a new career, our income was
cut by nearly a third. Unfortunately as we were living on a shoe-string
budget to begin with, it became necessary for me to put in even more hours
at my full-time job to help make up some of the difference and try to make
ends meet. Working all the extra hours I have been working, I have found
very little time for software development (which is really just a hobby for
me), let alone keep up with REALnews. Many of you may have noticed that my
participation on the lists (although not a lot to begin with) dropped
greatly at around the same time. It simply became a matter of my not having
enough time.
Second, I had been tossing around in my head for quite a while that I was
not happy with REALnews simply being an announcement site. REALnews,
honestly, simply regurgitated a lot of what was posted to the list(s) in the
way of product announcements. I did spend time attempting to find other Made
with/for REALbasic products that weren't announced to the lists, but my
resources here were quite limited, and this is very time consuming anyway.
The rest came from authors who didn't post to the lists, but sent
annoucnements directly to me at REALnews. As I said before, I wasn't happy
with this being all their was. I had dreams of REALnews becoming almost a
"one-stop shopping" point for many people when it came to REALbasic. Not
only could one find product annoucements, but they should also be able to
find product reviews, how-to articles, etc. I realized, of course, that this
was not something that I was going to be able to pull off myself. I had been
in discussions with another party with regards to pooling some resources to
create such a site under the REALnews name. However, the deal fell through
(due to circumstances out of either of the parties' control) shortly before
May.
All this, crashing down on my at around the same time, made it impossible to
keep up with REALnews. And, rather than produce a substandard page (which I
had been beginning to feel like it was becoming anyway), I decided to pull
the plug until I was in a better position to continue.
So, that's the story of what happened to REALnews. Sorry it's taken so long
for an explanation.
So, what happens to REALnews now? Well, I would like to start it up again.
Although I'm still having to put in long hours to help provide for my
family's needs, I feel that I'm in a better position (or soon will be) to
get the ball rolling again and restart what I've come to understand is a
valuable resource to many.
However, some things will HAVE to change before REALnews can start up again.
If there is still a demand for REALnews, I will not be able to go it alone
anymore. I will have to have help. If you are interested in seeing REALnews
started up again, let me know by sending me an e-mail at
realnews at swssoftware dot com dot I have a few things possibly in the works,
but
nothing definite at this time, but if you are interested in helping out,
send me an e-mail at realnews at swssoftware dot com (please don't post these to
the list). At any rate, REALnews won't be back before the end of the year,
but come next year, hopefully something will get going again!
Thanks again to everyone for their support and to REALsoftware for providing
such a great tool to everyone!
Scott
--
SearchWare Solutions
Simply Great Software
http://www.swssoftware.com
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