[Spirit FM] mikereidis:
Re: The "forbidden" GalaxyS ALSA audio method:

I think I may re-enable this audio method on the free version. Too many people are complaining about no audio now, and very few are complaining about broken speakers.

And as silly/distorted as the Android review system is, Broken Speaker people can't post a review with less than 1 star. But I'm also getting one star ratings from the majority just angry or baffled as to why their audio isn't working anymore.

Most people don't read the warning and can't be bothered to ask for help or look for the instructions I've posted about. I guess if their speaker breaks, that's their problem.

On one page of the most recent comments, from March 14-17, there are 7 of 20 that mention Galaxy S: 4 are 1 star, 1 is 3 star and 2 are 5 star, so the average is 2.4, substantially lower than the overall 3.8 (which is just above the average of 3.7 I think for all Android apps).

So despite my trying to protect people from their own "lack of reading", and protect my rep and my apps rep, I'm getting penalized.

The 7 comments:

1 star (lowest):

- GALAXY S	Please fix the issue for galaxy s...i cant listen to any radio

- SGS con ICS	Esta nueva actualización no funciona en Samsung Galaxy S con ICS (o al menos yo no sé configurarlo para que funcione ahora, si alguien sabe como hacerlo que lo explique por aquí)

- Galaxy S i9000 with ICS	After upgrading to latest version i can't hear anything ! I used Galaxy ALSA as sound method but now it doesn't work any more.

- Galaxy s with ics	After one of the last updates, it works no more. Hope you fix it.

3 stars:

- configurazione galaxy s ICS per Italia	Qualcuno può dirmi come si configura per l'Italia su Galaxy S ICS? Grazie

5 stars:

- Works great on Galaxy S	It didn't harm the speaker

- На galaxy s (miui) не работает звука нет и не может найти ни одной станции

If I go to the 2nd page of comments I see this 1 star one too:

- mike on Monday, March 12, 2012 at 22:03 Samsung Galaxy S (GT-I9000) Version Mar9

WARNING- DONT TRY! Even though it worked on my galaxy s, it ruined my phone speaker. YOU SUCK!

Interesting that his Mar9 version was the first recent version that removed the audio method. I try to be nice, but for the record, What a jerk !

As far as star ratings go, the free app is still suffering from the relative lack of functionality and the relative "uglier-ness" the app had a year ago. I also recently have been removing devices known to have no chance of FM, so that people with those devices can't try the app then rate if badly for something that is no fault of the app.

So, I think a fresh start will be needed. The old free app will be replaced by a new free app, and the ratings can start fresh. But I expect to reduce functionality in the free version and create a lower priced light version, so I imagine the free one will suffer in the ratings for that, LOL.

I'm sure some people will get angry when functionality is removed from the free version, but there's only so much I can do about that... But I guess a 99 cent introductory price should minimize the anger from all but the most critical...

I'd like to think most people would think it silly to get angry over removed features from a free app that's been out almost a year, when you can get all those functions back, and perhaps a few more for just 99 cents.

And, as a positive, it looks like Market/Play has some nice new features that allow rating of comments. I think that should improve the rating system, for people who read at least a few comments instead of making judgements on overall rating alone.