STEPHEN FRY

AnthonySmirnovini said:
Calling the Fantastic Mr. Fry a "money grabber" is despicable and should be punishable by law. Mr. Fry is one of the most selfless people on Earth. If you buy the first three editions of a series and have to wait a couple months to get the next one, you are not getting robbed. If you truly loved the series (I did ), then you should be prepared to wait. Am I right?

I can only assume that the "Fantastic Mr. Fry" would adhere to the quote that he would not necessarily agree with what I said but he would defend my right to write it.

Kipling wrote: "If you can wait and not be tired by waiting", but even the most patient commuter needs to know when (and if) the next bus will arrive. I paid for three episodes of a series that was announced to be longer, and the series has been discontinued indefinetly for obscure reasons, possibly that "Mr. Fry" is too busy. I would like to think that he would pay the courtesy to his fans and bread and butter to at least tell us if he plans to return to the series or if his other projects have now forced him to retire his story early. It would not take much for a daily/hourly/minutely blogger like him.

All very well outlining Mr Fry's foibles, but MONEY has changed hands here, & quite a bit of it for each measly episode via iTunes. Put up Mr Fry, as we have paid up. I got to the section of Pt 2 which says come here for pics which are not where he says, & after paying the 2nd amount on faith am beginning to think there's a scam afoot. Pt. 1: a lead in to Pt 2... Pt 2: a recap of Pt 1 & missing bits. What's the deal? & are we supposed to believe that's Trefusis' voice on the recording??

Andrew Sampson said:
This is incorrect. Stephen does not view money in this way and nor do I. Every pence or cent earned goes back into stephenfry.com or other projects. And right now, the ratio of production of this site, audiobooks, design and everything that makes this operation professional outweighs the money earned.

In the future if we do turn a profit, that profit will go back into this site and other projects for you to enjoy.

And that's the truth.

Ah yes this is where management weighs in with the expected response, that the earnings are piddling & get spent on the project. Well get Stephen to sort the logic & semantics of that statement. You'll find an ethical discrepancy which says you should not promise what you don't deliver, that to say the money you took hardly amounts to much is a reprobate attitude as the money has it's exact value to the payee, & to excuse taking money for something incomplete & poorly maintained by saying the amount it ads up to is pittance to you is doubly insulting to us who paid it. It's no favor your doing offering things you won't complete. & you the site manager, you haven't even BOTHERED to fix the picture link in Pt 2. That's how invested & genuine you are Andrew. Good on you mate.

Strangelady said:
Oliver,
I don't think that we are supposed to believe it is Trefusis on the recording...it is a fictional character.

Strangelady, it is not a fictional character at all. It is presented in the promo as S's mentor & friend, no irony evident whatsoever. If T is fictional then the whole exercise is very strangely conceived as I see no evidence of the appropriate literary devices. Not my main point anyway, care to comment on the main point? I'm beginning to think this forum is all out to tea...

Strangelady said:
Sorry Oliver, but Donald is a fictional character...

Professor Donald Cornwallis Treadway Trefusis (1921 - 2008) is an eccentric fictional character created by Stephen Fry, initially as an occasional contributor to Ned Sherrin's BBC Radio 4 programme Loose Ends. Trefusis was portrayed as a senior tutor and professor of philology at the University of Cambridge. He is an important character in The Liar (novel), and transcripts of the Loose Ends broadcasts were published as essays in Paperweight. In addition to a propensity for taking very liberal positions on a range of social issues, as when he states his credentials as "a lover of truth, a worshipper of freedom, a celebrant at the altar of language and purity and tolerance,"[1] the greetings and salutations to his broadcasts almost always consist of a non-sequitur (E.g. "Hugely so to you all [...] And if you have been, then it was").

Stephen is using very subtle devices and writing from the perspective that Donald is real.

Anyway, as per your main point... Please refer to the thread I started.

As for your main point,

Thanks for letting me know this, & taking the time to. The presentation of this pay-per episode on iTunes now looks even more shoddy lacking any such lead in. In fact, what a crock! Let's throw something on iTunes completely misrepresented to the uninitiated, let everyone start buying it, then umm hmm what? Forget all about it & move on. Maybe the funds were blown shoring up the site managers ballsing up of the forum software...

joanna said:
do you think we are entitled to our money back?

We could certainly bring it up with the Ombudsman and/or the Advertising Standards Authority. There is enough information listed by the administrators in this forum to suggest that we are being sold a pup that will never come.

As for a refund I can't see that happening. The argument will be that we got what we paid for (three episodes) and, even though we were informed of upcoming episodes which were not forthcoming, all we can do is complain and then see if this bogus site and its creators (not to mention the 'Fantastic Mr. Fry' who just happens to be 'too busy' to finish this project) get reprimanded and fined for their deceit.

Contact the ASA at: http://asa.org.uk/

and the information about the Ombudsman can be attained here:

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/nm/index/your_rights.....udsman.htm

It may be only a few pounds you have spent on these episodes but if thousands of people have downloaded them then that is thousands of pounds of many peoples' money.

You misunderstand, Michael. I am not criticising what we have already got but what we have been promised and not yet received after so long. I would never have bought the first three episodes (and I'm sure there are many others who think the same way) had I known that the last seven were not forthcoming.

I never said that I wanted my money back for what I paid for. What I am asserting is that we, as consumers buying in good faith, have been short-changed. A busker's repertoire is not a good comparison to this. If a busker plays one or six songs then they are, in themselves, a performance, like them or not. You pay a busker because you like his style or one song or more. You are not paying him because you expect a concert. That cannot be said of this series, which require, I assume, the last seven episodes to be complete.

Without them we have an unfinished product.

That's not tacky, that's fact.