mpc, rest in peace, Note: bumped from 2006 starting with post #78 Options

[Squeller]

The last article in the mpc forums is from July 1st. This is more than dead.

Isn't it time to remove the direct links to mpc forums? mpc is like a dead limb in ha.

This post has been edited by Squeller: Aug 9 2006, 07:12

[CiTay]

guruboolez, assuming MPC is dead, then you're a necrophiliac. Don't make me close the thread, guys.

[flipik]

guruboolez, assuming MPC is dead, then you're a necrophiliac. Don't make me close the thread, guys.

well just to be precise, it was me who said that mpc is dead.. so it would be more accurate to call myself the necrophiliac but..
if I want to be less offtopic I would say.. don't complicate things.. we all know, that using mpc leads nowhere nowdays, so why bother with MPC forum when no one really needs it?
But of course you're an admin here.. do what you please with it.. I don't really care, just wanted to be little practical

[guruboolez]

well just to be precise, it was me who said that mpc is dead.. so it would be more accurate to call myself the necrophiliac but..

Thank you for defending me, but...
I also share this idea. Let me explain.
Instead of debating about what death for a format is, we should start to define what a "living format is". There are different criterions.

Is development a condition? I would definitely say "no". If LAME project would stop, who could seriously pretend that MP3 is dead? With more than 100 millions MP3 players sold in one year, such claim would appear as completely insane.

So popularity is indeed the first condition for a format to live. With a user basis of millions persons, I think that we could seriously considering a format as still living. With 10000 persons worldwide, it's a bit more problematic. With 100 users, yes, the format should be considered as "dead". Yes, but MP3 had no more than 100 users at the very begining and there are now millions. So what matters is not only the number but also the trend. A format with a small but growing community is maybe stronger than a format with a deflating basis.

So let recap my position. To live or to be considered as alive, a format must have an huge amount of users or at least a growing community. Development and hardware support are not a direct condition; but with a halt-development we can expect to see the user basis quickly decreasing; and with no hardware support, it's hard to imagine the community becoming a big one. Other arguments like: open-source, marketing campaign, etc... have a direct influence on both essential criterions but are not directly a part of "life". It would be hard to call VQF a living format even if Yamaha would decide to make new advertisings for it.




Now let examine Musepack position:
- user basis: impossible to evaluate but probably very small. MPC is known to be a niche.
- user trend: impossible too, but we have some interesting elements with HA's polls. MPC was on top with 30% of voting people in 2001 source. It constantly decreased with subsequent polls and finally reach 11% on the last one. It's a huge fall! Other element of answer: the lack of activity in various MPC forums (the subject of this thread) here and on the official MPC board. There were much more litterature about musepack four years ago. So obviously the user basis of MPC isn't growing (and if it grows we should conclude that new MPC users don't like forums and polls at all).

So in my opinion MPC is dead. It not only has few users but the amount of people using it is decreasing. There are probably small MPC community spreaded over the net but the existence of a small community sharing 1000 or even 10.000 GB of MPC material (legal or not) can't be considered as a sign of life. The corpse is only moving by the energy of small worms but that's all. It's dead, unless new elements will encourage new people to use it and revive MPC. These elements may be: active development, clear superiority, strong efficiency (efficient encoders are always most popular than high-bitrate only ones), etc...

we all know, that using mpc leads nowhere nowdays, so why bother with MPC forum when no one really needs it?

That's the most efficient concise argument in this topic. Congrats !

This post has been edited by guruboolez: Aug 9 2006, 00:26

[Never_Again]

The corpse is only moving by the energy of small worms but that's all.

This should be nominated as both The Most Bizarre Quote and The Funniest Quote of the year.