Why would the availability of shells depend on things such as GIF mockups? Also, Axe might not be the best way to write an awesome shell. Assembly exists, and it's used for a reason. Axe isn't the magical answer to everything, although it is very useful for developing games. I'm not saying that Axe is bad - just that assembly fits better for shells.

I have a working basic shell on my calculator written with Axe.

I have a working basic shell on my calculator written with Axe.

Nice! But I assume it requires some raw ASM hacks to execute other stuff, right?

Nice. I think otcalc starts in the summer again.
As for c2i, well, working on it. But i need datasheets on the ralink chipset for usb used in the nintendo wifi usb adaptor.

I have a couple of things to say.
1. We need a facebook page.
2. We need to find a way to download programs tthrough school computers.
    I am sure that noone here can download things to their calc through a school (restricted) computer.
3. Animated program images would be great.

I think DJ said a facebook page might take discussion away from Omni, although its still worth a try...

There's one since Christmas time. It just didn't got announced yet. I need to remember to post a news about it later.

Now for the post, I was gonna post on Cemetech first but QUOTE doesn't work well in Opera there and I got to quote a bunch of stuff, so I'll do it here then cross-post there. I agree and disagree about some points and for TL;DR people, I personally think the TI community is currently in good shape in terms of activity and notable releases, at least much better than it was in the past 5 years.

Now to the topic - so you've heard about the POTY results, and not everyone's happy with it.
However, if you looked a bit more closely, you would've seen a pattern. It's not about Omnimaga and Cemetech - it's about the community in general. Who actually voted in this year's POTY? Only the people in Omnimaga and Cemetech, who comprise of mostly developers. And another fact: around <100 people actually voted in the POTY. And if you look at the stats, it has steadily decreased year by year.

Total 83+ votes per year:
2003 - 172, for 8 programs
2004 - 226, for 20 programs
2005 - 166, for 7 programs (excluding tie-breaker)
2006 - 157, for 8 programs
2007 - 111, for 5 programs
2008 - 0, for 0 programs
2009 - 81, for 7 programs
2010 - 95, for 18 programs

I agree there are very few votes compared to before, but from what you can notice since 2008, we're recovering, despite the TI-83+ series age and outdated hardware. On the release side, we almost beat 2004 record for featured programs. I don't know about the 68K series, but we can't judge much because not only a person under the initials KK didn't help the 68K community cause, but TI pretty much abandonned the 68K series now and most people get a TI-Nspire instead of a TI-89T. Also, if you look at the pre-POTY era, there weren't really more notable releases back then because back in the days, Ticalc.org would feature pretty much anything, even text-based BASIC RPGs and redundant math programs.


Now back on the TI community forums activity, I do not have updated stats of what I had a while ago, but they were already approximate, anyway. If you think active discussions are lacking in the TI community, think again. I compiled stats of most major english z80 TI forums since 2005 (which didn't require much work, but is not 100% accurate) and this is what I got:

Yearly post stats on english z80 forums:
-2005 ~115000
-2006 ~145000
-2007 ~80000
-2008 ~40000
-2009 ~50000
-2010 ~135000

Yearly post stats on english z80 forums:
-2005 ~115000
-2006 ~145000
-2007 ~80000
-2008 ~40000
-2009 ~50000
-2010 ~135000

Just take a look at Cemetech activity for example:



However, ticalc.org traffic did decrease quite a bit, it seems. It did not help that in 2006-08, barely anymore news were posted and it took 1 month for files to get approved on ticalc.org. In 2008 it got so bad that some UTI members started uploading their stuff in Calcgames.org and United-TI archives instead of ticalc.org, to get it approved faster. Since early 2009, Nikky and Tev are doing A VERY GOOD job on ticalc.org: we just have to let ticalc.org the time to recover. I think a file upload form and account settings overhaul would be a good idea, though. A forum on ticalc.org is not a good idea because there are already established userbases elsewhere and since ticalc.org is a download site, their forums would be a n00b-haven, making it extremly hard to find anything worthy. Social features such as subscribing to author profiles, friend lists and maybe PMs might be a nice addition. Same for project pages, although they would need to allow users to search projects by filtering categories and have a moderator.

So what are the causes?
For one, lack of interest in calculators, since there are plenty of other "portable" distractions (for instance, iPods). Basically, people don't really want to play around with their calcs anymore - they have something else that is more "fancy" to play with.

Second, the release of "interesting" things has significantly decreased in the years.... whose cause is something I'm about to describe. How many significant advancements have you seen released? The POTY winners are great, but there was a time (early 2000-2006) where there were tons of activity. (Not that this year didn't have awesome releases, but it wasn't as much as before.) Now? It's fizzing away slooowwwwlllyyyyyy.....

So what's the 3rd cause? People. To be precise, generations. The first generation was a big wave of developers and users... replaced by the second, and then... not replaced? I'm not saying that you should worry about leaving or something, but there will be a day in which you wake up and say, "I'm tired of this and need to get moving on my life." (Or "I'm way too busy, and I need to focus on my studies!" I've had that vision already, and I won't give it up yet - possibly in my senior year at HS.) It's bound to happen. If you are that person, please finish up your major projects first! Then you can continue your life - and I wish you good luck in your future endeavors.

I agree with the first point. iPods and the like budged on our thunder. However interest towards calculators tend to increase when new discoveries are made or when revolutionary softwares come out. An example is Ndless and Doors CS7. Omnimaga activity spiked after Ndless release and Cemetech did the same after DCS7 came out. United-TI had this happening with the key factoring discussion too. If we keep releasing notable stuff and games, people will continue coming as long as TI markets the respective calculators (In this case, TI-83+ and Nspire series).

I disagree with the second point. This was true from 2005 to 2008, when it comes to notable releases, and from 2007 to 2008 in terms of active discussions. Before 2009, we never saw things such as TI-Boy SE, F-Zero 83+, Axe Parser, Doors CS7, 83+ RSA key factoring, Calc unbrickers, certificate deleters or Star Fox engines come out. There were also barely any greyscale games. Also look above for the amount of notable program features. I fail to see how you see fewer notable products in 2010 than there were two years ago. You can't compare 2010 with 2000: Most featured programs back then wouldn't even be featured today. In 2000, they featured more programs because they ran a POTY EVERY month: they had no choice to get more programs in to have enough for the surveys. The bar was just risen, that's all.

As for the 3rd cause, people won't stay interested in calc stuff eternally. At 18 years old, most people move on, because most people code while in math classes. After I finished hi school, I myself stopped coding regularly. Not everyone will stop, but they'll be busier with life. To help replacing those people, it goes back to the point where notable products attracts people. To help keeping others around for longer, the people who are still around gotta convince them to stay. Some people don't care about recognition, but some people like to know that 3 or 4 people online loved their game. If they like intelligent discussion and they have a place for it, this might also keep them around longer. Likewise if they like a friendly community and such community exists.

However, the more notable programmers/releases, the better! So for your following solution:

1. Get people!!!
Do you see a person who programs on their calc? Bring them here! Give them a connecting cable (if TI-83 or less), and get them here! If you know a developer who doesn't touch the calculator, but is awesome at programming, introduce them to the calculator, and bring them here! We need creative, smart developers in the community - people do come and go, and we need more guys who have talent to fill the gap! Hire people of all ages - younger ones are best, since they (obviously) have a lot longer to go before graduation. Oh, and better yet, tell the new hires to pass on the tradition too when time comes - tell them to find potential developers, and get them in!

I agree a lot. Some Omnimaga users have done it with real life friends and I believe that Kerm does it by e-mailing some authors on ticalc.org who never post anywhere. If these people are interested in further calc programming and the online community, they'll get more recognition and the community will have more activity. Just, please, if you invite people from real life: Use common sense. When Netham45 and Miotatsu invited real life friends on Omnimaga, they pretty much invited 4chan.

2. Go wireless!
One of the things people hate is wired things, especially for communication. So why not do the same for calcs? Wireless linking... and wifi access is definitely a goal for this year, made closer with CalcNET and C2I!

That might be a good idea, if possible.

3. App Store
Simply, a central center for downloading and installing programs. Very few people go to ticalc.org; why not bring it to them directly on the calculator? Obviously, the previous goal will be needed for this to occur. Now obviously, we're against closed systems, right? This system will probably follow the Debian way - i.e., having a central and external sources to install from. That opens up opportunities for Omnimaga and Cemetech to have their own software available for everyone to download! Of course, the external repositories will be featured on ticalc.org for people to easily add as well.

Note a store: Historically, the TI community has been always for freeware downloads. If you mean specialized download places, Omnimaga and Cemetech had this for years already.

4. Centralized but everywhere
Central is the key eh? It applies to communities too! I propose that ticalc does a minor redesign for the majority of the users so that it's easy to find and download things, and better yet, review/rate too! (And hopefully a good review team too!) Also, a central forum would allow new users to find new people and programs! Any existing communities are linked, and can exist separately - may be like "teams"!

See my reply to your first quote regarding a ticalc.org forum and a more social-oriented ticalc.org. As for merging every single existing forums, this would not work: Each board has a different posting, learning and general mentality. If we take Omni and Cemetech, for example, both sites userbase in overall prefer different types of jokes/humor. When someone trolls in #omnimaga, people are not happy. When someone brings up old memes in #cemetech, people are not happy. Back in 2005, when kerm announced DCS and gCn on MaxCoderz, it did not get received well and back then there was a rivalry between UTI and MC. I believe that it's good that multiple sites exists so there are different sites for different people. Everything in one place would only cause mentality clashes, people leaving over drama, thus, even less people in the community. If you check ticalc.org comments from 1999-2000, back when Ticalc.org was pretty much the only site with notable activity, most comment pages had flame wars.

5. Easy to use
The interface has to be easy to use. No questions asked! A community effort to create a very user friendly shell may be needed in the future. (This depends on time, Axe's features, and the availability of GIF animation software for mock-ups.)

This. If I take the programming language example, BBC Basic is an awesome language, but people were turned away by the on-calc editor. This is why Axe got so much more popular than BBC. I even saw Axe coders wanting to create a BBC Basic editor for the 83+ before and someone wanted to port it to the TI-Nspire. I also like a lot how with Doors CS7 we can run everything like a BASIC program, from the home screen, even xLIB/Celtic games, plus the instant-Goto feature.

6. Social
As part of the calculator -> internet initiative, it's time to hop on the social train too! Achievements can be posted to Facebook, making gaming on the calculator much more favorable than an iPod!

Done. Cemetech got a FB page and Omni recently did too, although the latter was not announced yet. SAX and the like also do a very good job. Normally, chats decrease forum activity, but Cemetech has a post notifier bot which encourages IRC users to check the forums more. More social features like I mentionned earlier in my post would maybe be a good idea for ticalc.org, though.

7. Stronger community
I'm really looking forward to a stronger community this year. They don't have to be together, but they can work together! I'm looking forward to less bickering between peers (none of the craziness of last year), stronger collaboration, and (hopefully) more people and tech!

I think it started getting pretty strong again. I notice fewer and fewer fights than there were back in the days. I bet you didn't read old forum posts here, ticalc.org and MaxCoderz. Go check the 2005 ticalc.org April Fools Joke, for example. Cemetech also used to have pretty epic battles between JPez and Netham45. An even stronger community is always welcome, though!

Forgive and forget the past - who knows? If you are feeling generous, unban past problematic people and invite them back in!

It depends. Some people may never change. Some may change, however. Some people were unbanned before and there wasn't any change. I guess it's up to the respective site admins to judge if letting someone back in would be healthy for the community or not.