Could someone please shed light on what exactly is going on with Rhymbox?  Earlier today I looked online and saw that for the first time in over a year, there was an announcement of a new version.  I proceeded to the forums, which I check from time to time to see what problems/features people have run into/requested.  Turns out the forum is no longer on ezBoard (no loss) but rather is run on phpBB (though it appears to be an outdated version if the copyright is any indication).

Next I found an 'open letter' apparently written by one of the developers, followed by a reply by the admin of this site, which gave contradictory information.  I posted what I considered to be a fair, albeit lengthy, message to the same area, and now I check back and find the entire message board has been erased.  The post by the admin, one Justin Fisher, indicated he would resort to requiring users to register is the board was used for anything other than its intended purpose.

I now must ask why, Mr. Fisher, you felt the need to wipe out ALL the messages when you locked down this message board?  I do not believe my post was off-topic nor was in any way derogatory.  It was intended as a straightforward, logical progression of thought regarding the changes which appear to be going on and to which the site does not give any information, how that IS a problem and what solutions can be offered, both to client app users and to the Rhymbox family.

As a long-time user of Rhymbox, I would very much like to continue using the program.  But the verbal skirmish which appeared here earlier between yourself and the developer doesn't give one much confidence.

To make things plain, I HAVE registered myself, I AM now signed in, and I am once again posting what I wrote earlier.  I do not hide anonymously, nor do I use false information.

I can understand that as we all have our opinions, you may disagree with my offered solution to the problem which appears to be besetting Rhymbox lately.  But the fact that the entire message board has now been erased not once, but twice (once in the transition from ezBoard to phpBB, and then today when it was set back to zero messages all around) does not lend you, as the admin, much credibility.  I would respectfully suggest that IF this is indeed a 'forum', and not a dictatorship, that you allow my post to stand and let other readers decide for themselves what exactly is needed.

To anyone reading this post, please feel free to post any supporting or disagreeing comments.  It is important that the Rhymbox folks (I honestly don't know who to address here so I use the generic term 'Rhymbox folks') to know how their customers/users feel regarding this matter, as it lies at the core of ANY software product:  customer confidence in the support of current software and its continued development.

ORIGINAL POST FOLLOWS:
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PROBLEM:
There appears to be issues going on within the Rhymbox world.

SOLUTION:
Until further notice, I would recommend that anyone interested in a decent Windows Jabber/XMPP client _NOT_ use any pre-release version of Rhymbox 2. If necessary, download the current release (v1.6) only, which has been available since May 2003.

For those who have not been paying attention, go back into earlier postings here dated Sat., 12 June 2004, and note one named "Open Letter to the RhymBox Community", written by one of the two programmers of Rhymbox, Sebastiaan Deckers. Then note the reply by the admin of the forum, one Justin Fisher.
[EDITOR NOTE:  Not possible as forum has been deleted.]

On the one side, you have an original author (see Rhymbox v1.6 About... box for details) claiming his domain name & software have basically been stolen. On the other, you have the admin of the site saying "We find it unfortunate, that Mr. Deckers has chosen this forum and
approach in resolving his concerns." (incorrect comma placement left intact)

Mr. Deckers provides provides a thorough explanation, complete with URLs to back up his statement. Unfortunately, things like the FedEx tracking # cannot tell you what was IN the package sent, among other things. On the other side, Mr. Fisher attempts to write in a formal, legal manner, yet his writing skills are so poor (especially in the areas of punctuation) one must wonder what exactly his background is.

I will not tell you what to think, only that you should think.

Whatever your opinion on this matter, it is clear there are legal uncertainties to using this software. Either one of the original programmers is revolting (never a good sign for a software project) or Mr. Fisher is as Mr. Decker portrays him. In either case, it does NOT bode well for Rhymbox users to toy with any newly released software until these issues are put to rest.

Instead, I would suggest it would be best to look for alternatives such as

Exodus ( http://exodus.jabberstudio.org/ )
GAIM ( http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ )
JAJC ( http://jajc.ksn.ru/ )
MyJabber ( http://www.myjabber.net/ )
Psi ( http://psi.affinix.com/ )
TipicIM ( http://www.tipic.com/ )

at least until issues have been resolved. And in the interests of fairness, it would be best to NOT monitor this website, which is controlled by one party, but rather follow the discussions occurring on the JDEV and JADMIN mailing lists or monitoring independent sites such as www.jabber.org or www.jabberstudio.org .

And to both parties involved in this dispute, I would recommend that, once issues have been resolved, you let the Jabber community know in the appropriate forums. This kind of issue does nothing to help the Jabber community.
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