The new RISC OS Foundation demo coding competition is causing a bit of a stir in various news groups and mail lists - the first prize being a refund on anything you buy from Castle between now and when the competition ends.
Although on the face of it that seems like quite a generous offer, many people feel a little uneasy about it - not so much a competition as a thinly disguised advert, because if you don't buy anything from Castle, you don't get a prize.
The cap on the prize is £2000, which should be easily recovered if even a few people are drawn in by this competition, so it should pay for itself; which might be attractive to the companies "sponsoring" the competition, but may be alienating the very people it's trying to appeal to. Let's hope they see the error of their ways and offer an alternative, if lesser, prize.
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General unease at new Foundation compo |
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(09:59 13/3/2001)
John Duffell (11:38 13/3/2001)
Andrew P Harmsworth (18:31 13/3/2001)
Robert Richards (18:35 13/3/2001)
Robert (18:25 14/3/2001)
Annraoi (19:07 14/3/2001)
Andrew Weston (21:31 14/3/2001)
Nathan (23:25 16/3/2001)
Gerph (00:50 17/3/2001)
jess (12:16 17/3/2001)
Andrew Poole (18:26 17/3/2001)
Andrew Poole (18:27 17/3/2001)
gerph (22:12 17/3/2001)
Richard Goodwin (11:53 19/3/2001)
Andyb (10:42 20/3/2001)
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Lee Johnston |
Message #88366, posted at 09:59, 13/3/2001 |
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I'll admit I'm not too keen on it and even if I was in a position to enter something I wouldn't for several reasons
I have no intention of buying anything from Castle right now so it's useless.
I'm concerned that Castle seem to be favoured here - what about any of the other companies (not just hardware manufacturers)? Is this Castle's idea to drum up sales for themselves?
Will the winning software be available to the other hardware manufacturers? It would seem unlikely.
I suspect that I'd be less bothered if RISC OS Ltd weren't involved through the Foundation. They're supposed to be neutral to their "customers". If Castle had decided to do this alone then that would be up to them and I couldn't gripe about it but it seems like they're using the Foundation as an easy means of drumming up support for themselves.
Or maybe I'm just paranoid.
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John Duffell |
Message #88367, posted at 11:38, 13/3/2001, in reply to message #88366 |
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They obviously didn't think it out very well, as it's basically a gamble between buying lots or getting a smaller prize should you win.
I too don't like the way ROL have endorsed Castle exclusively; I'd be happy if castle were supplying the prize, but to add an incentive to purchase from them to enchance (or even create) the prize is a bit much. It's not a competition where you have nothing to lose - you stand to lose as much as you can gain, in a way. |
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Andrew P Harmsworth |
Message #88368, posted at 18:31, 13/3/2001, in reply to message #88367 |
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I guess part of the problem is that those most interested in coding will want an Omega - not a Kinetic - so wouldn't be going out to buy a Kinetic at this time, until the Omega is released, or the replacement to the Kinetic hits the shelves.
As has been raised elsewhere, the long delay in the production of the Omega has been really bad for the market as a whole. The idea of a competition is a great one, and is clearly positive for the platform (not the least because we'll have new things to show off).
It is strange that the competition appears to be provided for solely by Castle. Perhaps this could be attributed to the fact that RiscStation are pouring all their money into the laptop, and can't go crazy giving away prizes. Meanwhile, Microdigital are pouring all their resources bringing Omega to market. Castle (although they're no doubt secretly busy working at Kinetic II) are the obvious choice, and are in a position to stump up such a potentially valuable prize.
Mind you, I've never heard of any competition like this before, where the prize you win is the prize you paid for. It just doesn't quite seem right.
Anyway, good luck, y'all!
Andrew |
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Robert Richards |
Message #88369, posted at 18:35, 13/3/2001, in reply to message #88368 |
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Bizarre.
Why couldn't they just give the winner a Kinetic? Or a nice big LCD monitor or something?
It's a bit sly to expect people to buy stuff in the hope of winning the competition. |
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Robert |
Message #88370, posted at 18:25, 14/3/2001, in reply to message #88369 |
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Sorry, that should have said silly, not sly.. |
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Annraoi |
Message #88371, posted at 19:07, 14/3/2001, in reply to message #88370 |
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I suppose it's too late to hope Castle might revise the prize such that if a person EVER bought a Castle product that the price of purchase would be refunded ;) |
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Andrew Weston |
Message #88372, posted at 21:31, 14/3/2001, in reply to message #88371 |
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I don't know why they'd do that given that they make exceptionally high quality hardware badged with a renowned British brand and are actively developing the hardware. |
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Nathan |
Message #88373, posted at 23:25, 16/3/2001, in reply to message #88372 |
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I think this is a very poor exercise in customer relations. You can see right through this. Does this mean that Castle are going to be more in the know than RS and MD from now on?
This stinks just a bit too much. |
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Gerph |
Message #88374, posted at 00:50, 17/3/2001, in reply to message #88373 |
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Personally, I think it's probably just the case that Castle offered a prize for a competition as a bit of a promotion for themselves and nobody else did. 10 out of 10 to Castle for a cunning marketing ploy. Minus several million for it not being a particularly good offer :-)
Anybody actually spoken to Paul about it ?
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jess |
Message #88375, posted at 12:16, 17/3/2001, in reply to message #88374 |
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Perhaps they should allow the winner the same deal for purchases a month (for example) after the results.
With the option of a storm or a copy of oregano etc. as an alternative.
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Andrew Poole |
Message #88376, posted at 18:26, 17/3/2001, in reply to message #88375 |
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Well.. Sounds like Castle are trying to get people to buy from them in the hope of winning.. A poor excuse for trying to waver people from the other companys to them. If i were to enter the competition (which I'm not because I'm a pathetic coder ;-)) I probably wouldn't have the need to buy anything from them in that time anyway, so if someone were to win who hadn't bought anything from Castle, what would they win? It's a silly idea for a prize! A better idea would be them able to have up to £2000 of castle stuff AFTER the compo... even then, it's still promoting castle!
Hrm.. Maybe I'll go back to VB on the PC :( (then again.. thats the only language I know :-/)
Byee! |
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Andrew Poole |
Message #88377, posted at 18:27, 17/3/2001, in reply to message #88376 |
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me again...
That last bit should be,.
Promoting castle above the other companies! |
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gerph |
Message #88378, posted at 22:12, 17/3/2001, in reply to message #88377 |
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I repeat; has anyone actually spoken to Paul it ?
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Richard Goodwin |
Message #88379, posted at 11:53, 19/3/2001, in reply to message #88378 |
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I've emailed, and am awaiting a reply. |
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Andyb |
Message #88380, posted at 10:42, 20/3/2001, in reply to message #88379 |
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So what would stop anyone from ordering stuff on the Friday, and then if they don't win the prize, cancelling it on the
Monday? |
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