Just a Historical Perspective
Back in the early days, P123 had limited resources, and the forum often felt like a place where users competed for those scarce resources. Different “camps” emerged—each with valid viewpoints—but the limitations made it a zero-sum game at times. Debates would break out over which features should be prioritized, and everyone had to lobby for their preferred tools or methods.
Then came the downloads—and with them, freedom.
Do your own thing, as my generation used to say. But just as importantly, let others pursue their own methods.
Maybe I dislike neural nets and love slicing universes with mod(). But honestly, who cares what I think about that—because with the downloads and API, people can follow their own path. The newer AI/ML tools also opened doors for those without a lot of prior experience to start exploring. That’s a win too.
So I love P123, and I’m not even sure what new features I’d need to ask for. Maybe cheaper downloads—but I’m not unhappy with the pricing as it stands.
I appreciate the new features but where possible P123 should give us the autonomy to build some of our own feature—without a feature request.
The AI/ML is already powerful but there might be ways to free up or expose some of the code in the AI/ML module, for example—allowing people to follow their own ideas within the AI/ML. I think when the LLM becomes available it could possible make some calculations on some of the data—giving specific information a user is interested in without a feature request.
Maybe that is what the downloads and API are for. I do have the freedom there and I appreciate it: every day.