Invented in Canada, continued in Switzerland…
If you are an existing customer of Roughpixels or a subscriber on past email lists, you might have already heard, that Roughpixels is under new management. This is the official announcement, introducing myself and giving some words about the next development steps on this project.
Who is the new owner?
My name is Swen Popiel and I am the owner of the company „S.Popiel, Lernplaner für die persönlichen Ziele“, translated as „S.Popiel, your learning assistance for your personal goals“. A company which used to develop learning quiz applications for a young public and then moved to some more coding oriented services – and still doing it.
What is the motivation?
In developed countries, to deal with new information is getting more important, then actually learning something and keep that knowledge for the whole life. On the other side, to express creativity based on good knowledge can be wonderful, if you continue to use new experiences to improve your knowledge. For that sense, I took over this theme base, to further combine these two aspects, so that everybody should be able to setup a website and might also learn to become a developer to adjust it the way it should be.
What about the current standards?
Since more than 5 years, Roughpixels is known for their website themes…
So it is a balancing act to take over this existing project.
In order to maintain the known standards, the former owner („Andre“) will continue to collaborate with me until at least end of April.
I will do my best to continue, providing you first class support.
What about my purchases / account?
Even though, set in previous terms and conditions, contracts to end on a buy out of Roughpixels by another company, it is regarded difficult to break like that on recent purchases, especially if the project itself will be continued. On the other side there are some obstacles in terms of privacy law here in Switzerland to simply take over subscriber lists, emails and addresses of users which might not want to continue with a new owner.
Finally, we decided to continue offering you support…
We took over the data encrypted and anonymized. Physical addresses has been deleted entirely. Subscriber lists we did not take over. The usernames and emails got hashed, so that you can login with your existing credentials (please note, that we will reopen on coming Tuesday. Before that you might face some obstacles when you try to login).
The license key remains valid until it matures, based on your subscription.
Any past helpdesk communication has not been taken over.
What do I have to do?
However, to have a clear cut on permanent license connections with your site, which is not allowed without your consent under privacy law, we operate the entire site now under roughpixels.ch, no more under roughpixels.com.
To show the license as valid, all you have to do is download and install the new theme by logging in with your credentials or let us know by your email, providing the license key. (please not that we will reopen on coming Tuesday, before you might face som obstacles when you try to login).
From that point, you agree to use our servers and services and you can also contact us (voluntarily and independently from using the license key) to let us know your contact information by providing your real identity, under the existing license key, once you need support. The license key becomes your reference key for communicating with us. If you order something we will hash your email again after successfull purchase, for security reasons.
Did something else change?
We are currently about to adjust the privacy policy and restate statet changes in the terms and conditions in order to adhere to Swisslaw and the new operations.
Other than before, our support would be given via email or threema, not under a separate helpdesk system.
Having your license key ready as a reference, you can always reach us and communicate with your real name if you want.
We will dynamically open and close the store during company vacation. Based on that, support or response time might be different, if the store is closed.
What is this thing about hashing all about?
We have prepared some explanation about his process.
Please have a look at https://roughpixels.ch/increased-privacy-roughpixels/.
As we know, some of these changes will cause some steps for you to take and accept, we will offer you a discount of 20% for renewal.
So let’s continue to build a website which is easy to style and simple to maintain…
We like to get in touch with you…
Any constructive feedback is highly appreciated. Do not hesitate to contact us on sales@roughpixels.com.
Thank you
Swen