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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
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Is this this a community message board or just a place to come when you have a problem?

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    Is this this a community message board or just a place to come when you have a problem?

    This was once a vibrant developer environment - now it seems its just a place of last resort - I might be wrong, I hope I am, but many brilliant developers that were hear just 2 years ago are silent. What do you think? Is it worth persisting with, I've posted thousands of posts over the years in assistance - seems its one-way traffic. I made a post today, seems everyone has everything sorted. 30 views, not one response. Seems odd.
    Pete
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
    Albert Einstein, (attributed)
    US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

    #2
    Good question. Participation is way down. Where has everyone gone? Very little input from Alpha. Does this reflect Alpha's waning popularity?

    Comment


      #3
      I would guess some participants have left out of frustration over the years, others have been priced out, others retire or move on to other things. I think this is just the nature of things.

      There are a couple of other options to connect with Alpha developers such as Steve Wood's weekly hosted IADN webex meetings. These are a great way to see what other developers are doing, learn about Alpha methods and techniques and ask questions to problems you may be experiencing. Some great knowledgeable folks over there.

      Another great option is the weekly Alpha Q&A Webinars or Alpha Guides at [email protected].

      What should this forum be?
      I have to admit it has become my defacto place to ask about problems. However, in doing so, I never 'expect' an answer and always appreciate those who take the time to respond. Here's something to ponder .. I have been working with Alpha now for about 13 years and yet I still constantly run into problems. Is it me? Is it Alpha?
      I also try my best to contribute and answer things that I may have seen before or post a solution that did not get an answer.

      I guess it should be both imho, ask for help when needed, participate where you can. I agree that it has been much quieter than it used to be.
      Alpha Anywhere v12.4.6.5.2 Build 8867-5691 IIS v10.0 on Windows Server 2019 Std in Hyper-V

      Comment


        #4
        This forum has definitely changed over recent years, personally I am not a fan of the "new" forum layout. That being said I do keep an eye on it, As you may know I am active on the IADN webinars and we often see questions raised that have already been asked on here and not resolved. Quite often someone is able to answer the question or at least point people in the right direction.
        Glen Schild



        My Blog

        Comment


          #5
          We know it started going downhill when Alpha decided to stick with their new system rather than admit it was a horrible disaster.
          It doesn't help that many of the seasoned developers have chosen to spend most of their time with IADN, returning here on rare
          occasions. It would be nice to see this return to an easy to use forum, and maybe even get more of the interaction with Alpha
          staff that we used get.
          Gregg
          https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

          Comment


            #6
            You can always hang out in our discord chat too https://discord.gg/fj7Ccxf its unofficial just something I put together - not well attended either but its there and I am always around. I come here just to see if AS posts anything or if I can help or to ask a question as well, so I guess its both!
            NWCOPRO: Nuisance Wildlife Control Software My Application: http://www.nwcopro.com "Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all...now what was I saying?"

            Comment


              #7
              Over many years, I have noticed the change in attitudes people who post stuff on the forum.
              In Desk Top only days, when Stan Mathews was around, you could get anwers to problems but not a lot of "banter".
              Tom Cone wrote a lot of challenging teasers to solve and they were both informative and educational.
              I don't use Alpha Web and, for personal reasons, have no interest in IADN. My web tool of choice has a vibrant community and the development team are always monitoring the forum as they pick up on development options. As in they react to requirements. I do develop web stuff, just not the Alpha way.

              Lenny F, for whom I have huge respect, has started joining in with difficult questions so that is great.
              What is NOT great is the disrespect shown when any one of us bothers to attempt to assist a person and we get a blank.
              I have started pointing out that everyone learns if we get any form of dialog or response and upset a few people.
              Reminding them that they will get ignored ifvthey don't join in sometimes works.

              I believe the whole world is becoming more insular and rude at the same time. Covid lockdown hasn't helped.
              See our Hybrid Option here;
              https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


              Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
              You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Ted Giles View Post
                Over many years, I have noticed the change in attitudes people who post stuff on the forum.
                In Desk Top only days, when Stan Mathews was around, you could get anwers to problems but not a lot of "banter".
                Tom Cone wrote a lot of challenging teasers to solve and they were both informative and educational.
                I don't use Alpha Web and, for personal reasons, have no interest in IADN. My web tool of choice has a vibrant community and the development team are always monitoring the forum as they pick up on development options. As in they react to requirements. I do develop web stuff, just not the Alpha way.

                Lenny F, for whom I have huge respect, has started joining in with difficult questions so that is great.
                What is NOT great is the disrespect shown when any one of us bothers to attempt to assist a person and we get a blank.
                I have started pointing out that everyone learns if we get any form of dialog or response and upset a few people.
                Reminding them that they will get ignored ifvthey don't join in sometimes works.

                I believe the whole world is becoming more insular and rude at the same time. Covid lockdown hasn't helped.
                It just feels like that now but I can say that we here in EU are very happy together and everyone here are in good mood and polite :)

                By the way I noticed that your current web platforms is going to have big change this and next year. I think they are in good path.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I was more active here when I was developing actively, which I am not doing right now. However, I still do run a couple of Alpha websites.
                  None the less, I can say that Alpha Five itself has changed. I started with the very first Windows version, Version 1, which cost some $50. The software is now definitely too expensive for me to buy now, with the yearly pricing for the server.
                  I am still running Alpha Anywhere 2682-4435 Application Server. I am in the process of moving to a new server. Someone at the Alpha Five office said just this morning that I could not move my perpetual license without renewing it.
                  First he claimed that the software would not work, but I have already tested it in demo mode, and it works. Also, I left two messages with two other people, and they did not bother to call back.
                  This is wrong. The license is perpetual. If the software does not work or has issues running, that is my problem. But if the office will not transfer my perpetual license, that is wrong.
                  In my opinion, this is not the way to attract more customers.
                  Richard Urban

                  Grocery Delivery Software for Stores and Entrepreneurs: http://www.urbangrocery.com

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Just install it, it's a sales tactic - tried it on me - I won't be re-subscribing until anything past 8099 goes solid, I have decided not to use nightly builds anymore. I have all I need.

                    <personal non-public discussions removed>
                    Last edited by Lenny Forziati; 07-25-2022, 09:45 AM. Reason: personal non-public discussions removed
                    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                    Albert Einstein, (attributed)
                    US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

                    Comment


                      #11
                      While I far prefer your belief of what should happen, my experience suggests Alpha's licensing module can at the very least severely restrict your license (invalidate it).
                      Gregg
                      https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Obviously the perpetual license without updates today sounds bad from the security point of view. You really need to have security updates if your software access any other data than your own data (in public internet). So I think the Alpha team is right here and now they have certainly data to analyze their previous marketing decisions and current license model.

                        I remeber when years ago I did think Adobe Coldfusion is an expensive software. Well today I do think it is not actually expensive.

                        I think from the developers point of view in the end all what matters is how fast can you develop and how fast you are in the market.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          This is one reason I avoided the Alpha licencing model, Richard.
                          I stopped at V11 although I do have V12 as a freebee.
                          My chosen web kit is perpetual and doesn't rely on a proprietary WAS. I was unhappy agreeing to let Alpha pull the plug. I now host stuff anywhere.
                          If the product was sold as a "perpetual licence", then that's what it should be.
                          I know a lot is bandied about regarding the need for security updates, but is this really true?
                          I regularly run security scans for malware etc, have an image backup process and use a reputable hosting company who have advanced "gatekeepers".
                          If someone wants to hack you, they will. All the security updates are "after the event has been noticed." Horse/stable door situation.
                          It's unfeasible for Alpha to anticipate all possible breaches, so they are probably playing "catch up".
                          See our Hybrid Option here;
                          https://hybridapps.example-software.com/


                          Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                          You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Just about the time you think you don't need security updates, the folks at open ssl change things.
                            If you think it doesn't matter, consider that other companies (including microsoft) demand a minimum
                            level of security when connecting to them. Personally, I think once Alpha Software stops supporting a
                            product, they should stop checking the license status of that product. In the case of pre-Alpha Anywhere,
                            it was not uncommon for Alpha Software to have a "fire sale", selling the "old" version at a minimal amount,
                            promising unlimited connections and no annual fees.
                            Gregg
                            https://paiza.io is a great site to test and share sql code

                            Comment


                              #15
                              In EU you better call Saul if you are running outdated software and handling sensitive data and something happens which happens just for others but not me.

                              Comment

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