Hippy status, rev 2.0

fernando_g

Senior Member
It is almost a year (June 11), that Hippy last posted here.

An explanation was provided by RevEd that, due to the pandemic, he had been placed in “administrative furlough”, or words in that extent.

Now that it appears that the whole World is getting back on their feet, is Hippy coming back here?

My fear is that he may have already found another job, and the answer could be no.
 

erco

Senior Member
Agreed, Hippy was a valuable forum resource and his many contributions are missed.
 

premelec

Senior Member
I learned a bunch from hippy even before he was official on this forum... Hope hippy is doing well and will some day stop by and say hello for old times sake even if for nothing else... hippy - thanks for all your good thoughts and knowledge and thanks also to present posters for keeping the quality of this forum high !
 

neiltechspec

Senior Member
My fear would be he has been forced to find another means of income, along with so many others.

I was forced out of business due to no work. Fortunately, I have a good pension from my previous employer of 38 years. So am now fully retired. Thousand's are not so lucky.
 

steliosm

Senior Member
That would be very unfortunate. Hippy was on this forum long before he was on Reved's payroll.
Hope he is doing fine and that he will be joining us again soon.

@Technical any news on Hippy?
 

Technical

Technical Support
Staff member
It's been a very challenging year, the majority of Rev-Ed's income is normally from sales to schools across the globe and those sales have been non-existent for over a year now. Although many schools are now open again they are still not working in the normal way, and practical subjects like electronics are still not being taught practically at present...

So a number of Rev-Ed staff are still on the UK government furlough job support scheme. A condition of this grant is that the employee does not work for the company whilst claiming - this includes service work like technical support.
 

fernando_g

Senior Member
Thanks for the explanation, Technical.

We understand fully. This pandemic has ravaged many economic sectors.

In a storm, a ship has to batten down the hatches.
 

dennis

Member
Lets hope it recovers soon and Rev Eds business greatly improves. I am just returning to Picaxe after a long break and appreciate the updated software and hardware.
Dennis
 

johnlong

Senior Member
This pandemic has been brutal still been able to post is a blessing.
It would be nice if rev-ed would just give us a heads up that the gentleman is safe and well
would go along way to abaiting peoples concerns.
 

erco

Senior Member
It's been a very challenging year, the majority of Rev-Ed's income is normally from sales to schools across the globe and those sales have been non-existent for over a year now. Although many schools are now open again they are still not working in the normal way, and practical subjects like electronics are still not being taught practically at present...
That's a crying shame and a missed opportunity. I've been in the toy business for nearly 40 years and the pandemic was a surprise blessing for them. Even failing Mattel accidentally squeaked out its best year in a decade, but educational toy companies were off the charts. Parents bought tons of physical toys, desperate to keep kids off Youtube. I did numerous freelance projects for educational toy companies pushing CODING (and yes I used Picaxe for all of them). Hopefully we won't be locked down by another pandemic anytime soon, but how people work and do school has been changed for the long term. Rev-Ed should consider changes to marketing, advertising and distribution channels to reach kids and adults who are at home. It's the new normal.



 
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tmfkam

Senior Member
So a number of Rev-Ed staff are still on the UK government furlough job support scheme. A condition of this grant is that the employee does not work for the company whilst claiming - this includes service work like technical support.
It is a little surprising that no new member has appeared on the forum, with a similar level of in depth knowledge and expertise of all things PicAxe with a user name of "Yppih". I thought that before being an official paid member of staff, a number of contributions to the PicAxe community were made by someone that bore a remarkable resemblance to the member now known as Hippy. While the forum has been quieter than normal, it is sad that Hippy has not found some way to assist, paid or unpaid, officially or unofficially. I wouldn't have thought he'd be able to resist.

Sending you (Hippy) and all at Revolution Education kind thoughts and I hope that things begin to look up for you all soon.
 

WhiteSpace

Well-known member
@tmfkam - obviously I can't speak for Hippy or Revolution, but the rules on COVID-19 furlough in the UK are very strict and there's a big focus on furlough fraud. Employees on furlough are not permitted to provide a service for their employer, or to do anything that makes money for their employer - which, given the huge value any post of Hippy's adds to the Picaxe community, would probably include posting unofficially. So it's not surprising that he has had to keep his head down, both officially and unofficially. I'm certainly looking forward to his return.
 

tmfkam

Senior Member
(Partial quote) Employees on furlough are not permitted to provide a service for their employer...
You are allowed to work part time. I worked two days a week for four months or so, paid "normally" by my employer for those days, paid partially by furlough for the other days.

And of course there are VPNs.

Still, I'm surprised, and more than a little worried by the ever increasing silence.
 

tommo_NZ

New Member
I can only say I was not expecting that. In New Zealand, we have been relatively safe and hence underestimate the impact the virus has had on friends from overseas. Reading about Hippy woke me up a bit and reminded how lucky we are down here at the bottom of the Pacific. I hope Hippy recovers from this. and thanks to technical for the explanation. Sincere best wishes to you all, stay safe.
 

cpedw

Senior Member
I encountered a user named Hippy on a Raspberry Pi forum. I didn't understand any of it and I don't know if it's "our Hippy" or an imposter.
 

johnlong

Senior Member
I do hope not its been a sad time for alot of familys if the worst has happened I would expect revED to do the right thing and allow us all to pay our respects
 

wapo54001

Senior Member
The UK Furlough Scheme has now come to an end ... with no sign of hippy's return...

Are we to assume the worst?
May I suggest that "the worst" is that hippy is not coming back, nothing else.

This forum has evolved. No one is asking questions that cannot be answered by some other member of the forum nor are we contributing much in the way of insight that could be of value to Rev-Ed. Further, this forum does not much figure in the school-oriented mission of Rev-Ed, and so money spent on this forum cannot be justified as mission essential.

I imagine that hippy himself felt he was no longer adequately engaged or stimulated in dealing with this forum given the current level of activity.

I see it as quite reasonable (inevitable?) that hippy does not return. 'Course, no one knows anything for sure . . .
 
I hope he does return someday, I bought almost all of my picaxe kit almost solely because of his excellent posts, often times he was the difference between me getting a project working or not. Either way if you read this hippy thanks for all your help and I hope you are doing well.
 

julianE

Senior Member
Hippy always came up with an elegant solutions, what would take me 20 lines of code he would distill into a half a dozen.
We are so fortunate that others have taken up his mantle, I can't thank Alan enough, if i were twice as smart I wouldn't be half as smart as he.
 

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Hi folks - I'm back !

Thanks for all your expressions of concern and appreciations. And apologies for my long absence.

Due to the way things were it was proving just too tempting to respond to posts, get engaged and caught-up in discussions, so I cut myself off from the forum as much as that meant missing the community and all of you in it.

As a consequence I have missed a fair bit and am still in the process of catching up, trying to recall all the things which were second nature back then.

Hopefully I will soon be back up to speed and it will be 'back to normal'.

And just to say; it is good to be back and to see you all here. And many, many, thanks to everyone who posted and helped out, answered questions and gave advice, while I was away.
 
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