Channels & viewing

[BadRobot]

"CLOC" is still there, but the weather features are all gone/broken, and have been for a long time.  Something about how the Roku app store works, had kept the developer from updating the official channel version for a long time.  Which is why so many people have (had?) the private CLOCKPRI app installed, I'm sure.  And now, the private screensaver is gone, replaced by Roku's fish tank.  And the public one is broken--it doesn't show the weather.

I would pay money (even a subscription, if it was a low one) to have this back again.  I'm happy to pay a reasonable price for something I rely on to keep it running.  And I literally might replace my Roku over this, if the CLOC app doesn't get updated.  Time and weather displaying on my TV, whenever I'm not actively watching something, is a useful feature I've gotten used to having.  If I have to, I'll hack something together with a Raspberry Pi and spare time, and then Roku will have lost a years-long customer.

Roku doesn't realize just how much they shot themselves in the foot here.  If they make me go through effort to replace functionality I had on my Roku, I'm replacing my Roku.  I'm not going to keep something I don't trust and I expect to keep losing functionality on.

[mrdctaylor]

I'll miss it, but I don't think I'll be switching from Roku over it. But Roku DOES need to get their arms around the screensaver situation.  They have almost 1000 screensavers available and 99% of them are hot garbage.  They are blatant money grabs by developers and paid by unsuspecting people thinking they are actually getting something.  I scrolled through them today to see if there was ANYTHING good and there really wasn't.  Most of them are simply slideshows that cost money.  Who in their right mind would pay that?   They need to filter out most of that **bleep** so people can actually find decent slideshows (even though there aren't many).

[mrdctaylor]

I'd been using a private screensaver (CLOCPRI) for YEARS.  Because they took it away I started looking around and realized something:  Roku REALLY needs to get their arms around the screensaver situation.  They have almost 1000 screensavers available and 99% of them are hot garbage.  They are blatant money grabs by developers and paid by unsuspecting people thinking they are actually getting something.  I scrolled through them today to see if there was ANYTHING good and there really wasn't.  Most of them are simply slideshows (some with as few as 4 photos!) that cost money.  Who in their right mind would pay that?   They need to filter out most of that **bleep** so people can actually find decent slideshows (even though there aren't many).

[mrdctaylor]

Honestly, I'm not trying to start trouble.  I just really wish they'd get a grip on this and make it easier to find decent screen savers.  It is a disservice to all of us.  😞

[bellsfolly83]

Completely agree. What's worse, most of those garbage screensavers do indeed want a monthly fee of .99 cents.

What I love(d) about the CLOC and CLOCPRI (after Roku's update ruined the "channel" version) is what I really like about Roku in general, and that is the simplicity.  It just....works.  It's uncluttered, and informative.  I sincerely hope Jim 'fixes' the channel version, per Roku's new ridiculous totalitarian-regime mandates. Argh.

[renojim]

Just to give everyone a little more information about the situation - the reason the public version hasn't been updated in a while to fix the weather is that it uses old components that aren't allowed for new or updated channels/apps, so it practically has to be rewritten from scratch.  If I could just make the private version public I would have done that a long time ago.

As for private channels being removed there's probably no one more outraged than me.  Private channels are the reason I got into Roku development in the first place.  It's just a case of a few rotten apples spoiling it for the rest of us.

-JT

[bellsfolly83]

Thanks, Jim.  It sounds like you're going to have to basically re-write all of your apps pretty much from scratch, which sucks.

It also seems to me that instead of weeding out the "few rotten apples" which Roku surely could've done, this is more of a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" approach.  Making Roku more like Apple's imperialistic little 'empire'. 

[DBDukes]

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@bellsfolly83 wrote:

... It also seems to me that instead of weeding out the "few rotten apples" which Roku surely could've done, this is more of a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" approach.  ...

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Roku has been doing that. It wasn't enough. This approach, while very aggravating to just about everybody, at least is taking a "rip the bandage off" approach and getting all of the hurt happening at once. Now the healing can begin.

[meebzorp]

"This approach, while very aggravating to just about everybody, at least is taking a "rip the bandage off" approach and getting all of the hurt happening at once. Now the healing can begin."

Wow. I appreciate the very honest response, yet highlighting a very bad business practice to knowingly and intentionally upset a large community of users instead of weeding out those who were breaking the rules.

Was this method easier to accomplish than looking at each app? Yup. Was there a way to remove the rule-breakers without annoying and inconveniencing the users AND developers as scapegoats? Yup, but it would have required more work.

You took the easy way out, diminishing the value of your developers and the desires of your customers. So "healing" to me feels like: We hope everyone will just forget about this eventually.


Not a happy camper,

Meebs

[junkmail]

<Most of them are simply slideshows that cost money.  Who in their right mind would pay that>

Those are all shell companies laundering money for the drug cartels... 

JK...