Welcome to ppebcr-docs Discussions! Read this first for background!

[hexbus]

👋 We’re using GitHub Discussions as a space for open, respectful collaboration around this project and its documentation. Here, you’re encouraged to:

• Ask questions
• Share ideas
• Engage constructively with others
• Help build a stronger community through communication and support 💬💪
• We believe that progress happens when people can actually talk to each other—something that hasn’t been possible elsewhere.

Unfortunately, support threads related to this project have been repeatedly shut down on other platforms, with no explanation and no opportunity for dialogue.

So we’ve opened discussions here to ensure that open-source documentation remains accessible, support remains available, and communication remains two-way. This project exists to help people—and that’s what we’re going to keep doing.

To get started, feel free to introduce yourself in the pinned thread and share what you’re working on with this project!

[hexbus]

As I shared on Facebook, there has unfortunately been some controversy surrounding this project—specifically around efforts to provide user-to-user support and maintain open-source documentation for this hardware. I’ve been trying to distance my work from any drama, but one moderator on AtariAge, CPUWhizz, has made that extremely difficult.

Despite the fact that this is an open-source hardware project, and the documentation I’ve written is entirely my own and hosted here on GitHub, the moderator in question has repeatedly locked my threads without any explanation or opportunity for discussion. Private messages are blocked, and no effort has been made to resolve things constructively.

While I can’t confirm the motivations behind this, it appears that the original author (JasonACT) requested that the original forum thread—and possibly anything related to the project—be removed. That’s his right, of course to remove his thread. But not anything that others create under the auspices of open source user to user collaboration. The reality is: once something is released under an open-source license, it belongs to the community. People will use it, people will build on it, and yes—people will need support. That's why we have this open source documentation repository.

That’s where I come in. I’ve been part of the TI-99/4A community for over 25 years and currently serve as Vice President of the Atlanta Historical Computing Society. I’ve always believed in empowering users through documentation, collaboration, and shared knowledge—and I don’t plan to stop now.

I’ve reached out to Albert, the forum owner, multiple times to try to open a respectful dialog and resolve this issue collaboratively. So far, I haven’t received a response. If anyone here has a way to get in touch with him, I’d welcome any help in doing so.

Below are the messages I sent, which provide a clear outline of the background and my perspective on this situation. I remain committed to defending the principles of open-source software and ensuring that users who rely on this project have access to the support they need. To be clear: nothing in this repository violates any stated rules on AtariAge, and I believe the attempts to suppress open, constructive discussion around freely licensed documentation are both misguided and harmful to the community.

It’s disappointing that we’re still encountering this kind of gatekeeping by individuals like CPUWhizz in spaces meant to foster collaboration and knowledge-sharing. The open-source community deserves better—and I intend to keep advocating for fairness, transparency, and access.

Neither JasonACT nor CPUWhiz allow private messages, which is… ironic, to say the least. There’s no channel available to even attempt a conversation or resolution. Every time I try to post something constructive, the thread gets locked—often accompanied by a threat of a ban. Without any ability to communicate, how is a resolution even possible?

[hexbus]

Hey, everyone -

TL;DR — There was a misunderstanding by the original PPEB thread author, and a moderator overreacted by removing the entire thread without fully investigating the situation. Unfortunately, the same moderator overzealously also locked unrelated community threads without authorization—mine included—just for discussing the project.

Thankfully, this has now been brought to the attention of AtariAge leadership, and they actively worked to address the issue and are clearing up any remaining concerns including follow up moderator concerns. I appreciate everyone’s support and patience while we get things back on track. I’ll close this thread but this will continue to be an open forum for discussing changes we need to make to the documentation repo.

[oboroc]

[Rockster5-Me]

Same questions