Brad Wardell's views about technology, politics, religion, world affairs, and all sorts of politically incorrect topics.
Trolls on a mission..
Published on February 11, 2005 By Draginol In Personal Computing

..I'm in a ranting mood...stand back!

Over the years I've noticed a pretty consistent thing - there are people who really really have a problem with the concept of people making a living selling software.

As a result, some of these people make it their mission to go out and harass people (like me) who make a living selling software. 

One example came up today. I am a news moderator on the popular tech news site Neowin.net. I think it's a fantastic site with an incredible staff of volunteers.  But it has a sizeable user population of "l33t" users who a) Think they know everything on tech because, well they're 19 years old and they know everything doncha know? and Non-free software is the devil and any level of nastiness is justified to thwart the purveyers of evil.

One guy today went so far to create an account called "ToadLad" (my account name there is "Frogboy"). Get it? Toad = Frog. Lad = Boy.  Very clever...

Since I post software news on Neowin I also post Stardock's press releases too. On other sites, our media relations goddess does this. But since I'm a news moderator on Neowin, it makes sense for me to go ahead and do this since, essentially I would be the one who would end up approving the final news item.

But this guy went onto a rant that essentially went like this "You just love to spam the world with your crap? You've already got Stardock.com and WinCustomize.com? Why do you have to spam your stuff here?" Here being a Technology NEWS site. And spam being news for software that is (god forbid) not free.

For those not ambitious enough to create fake users to troll the comments, you also have the people who insist on trying to rationalize that any good commercial product has a freeware equivalent.  Photoshop? Oh, the Gimp is much better. Terminal Server? Loser, VNC.  WindowBlinds? No, just hack your uxtheme.dll.  And now with our upcoming Multiplicity program we've got the same crowd chimes in with "Oh, you can do the same thing with Synergy!"

In most of these cases (almost all these cases) these "l33t" users have never actually used the commercial product (see "evil" above).  But they just know because they know everything.  Who cares if the "Free" program has a lot fewer features or is flakey or requires hours of setup time to work? When you're 19, time is all that matters and $20 or whatever is big money to someone who's source of income is their mom. 

I have nothing against free software. I use a lot of free software.  In fact, I use free software whenever I can. I'll take free over commercial any day if it does what I need it to do.  But there is nothing inherently magical about free software. And the downside is that most free software I run into (not all of course, there are very well known examples) have the 80% problem.  They work -- almost.  They tend to often be more proof of concept.

"Sure the screen flickers when you switch desktops and you can't play a full screen game while using it and you have to configure the machines using a text file with arcane configuration fields and it sometimes disconnects for no reason requiring you to reboot...but...it's free!"

I don't think I have a problem so much with the people who try to promote a freeware program. Hey, more power to them. I take the view that people who might potentially buy our product will try out the free alternative, try ours and make their own conclusion.

What I do have a problem with are the people who intentionally go out of their way to try to stifle my right to promote our software.  The double-standards really irritates me. As if free software somehow deserves special treatment because it's "free".  I don't think users should make such distinctions in terms of what gets reported, only in terms of when someone makes a decision on what to actually use.


Comments (Page 8)
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on Feb 14, 2005
I think I'll just bow out of this cat fight.Have a good life and long live the free exchange of view points.
on Feb 14, 2005
John Galt: your post of off-topic.
If you want to discuss about evil communism, or anything similar, please do it in JU'S political forum, not the Pesonal Computing forum.
Thank you.
on Feb 14, 2005
I Think You Should CANTHUS., Believe Me You'll Just Be Chasing Your Own Tail If You Don't.

And Not That I Want To prolong What Has Indeed Turned In To a Cat Fight But , The Certain People That Commented (Sometimes More Than Once) That My Typing Style Was Annoying And As Such Wouldnt Be Reading My Posts, Had Only To Stick By Their Conviction And Boycott Any Post That Had My Nick Above It In Bold Type.
Your Protests Were All Duly Noted. Calling Me Inconsiderate and Insulting Is a Little Harsh I Think. But I Suppose I'll Have To Live With It - Unless You're Planning On Banning Me From This Site And Removing My Membership Because You Dislike My Typing Style, In Which Case Good Riddance To You And This Site.
This Is the Last Time I Am Going To Akcnowledge Any Comments On The Way I Type, Frankly Its The Longest Anyone Has Ever Harped On About It In a Forum. I Usually Just Get "Why Do You Type Like That?" Your Opinions On It Have Been Duly Noted - I Consider Anymore Talk On This To Be The Annoying Thing To Be Honest .....

[Not Logged In]
on Feb 14, 2005
WOW: just to let you know that I did not read the above post. Too difficult.
on Feb 14, 2005
It's funny you should mention my tail.how did you know it's the name of a war dog in a novel? lol
on Feb 14, 2005

Jafo wonders if it'd be any easier removing all the caps entirely......

nd ot hat I ant o prolong hat as ndeed urned n o a at ight ut , he ertain eople hat ommented (ometimes ore han nce) hat y yping tyle as nnoying nd s uch ouldnt e eading y osts, ad nly o tick y heir onviction nd oycott ny ost hat ad y ick bove t n old ype.
our rotests ere ll uly oted. alling e nconsiderate and nsulting s a ittle arsh I hink. ut I uppose I'll ave o ive ith t - nless ou're lanning n anning e rom his ite nd emoving y embership ecause ou islike y yping tyle, n hich ase ood iddance o ou nd his ite.
his s the ast ime I m oing o kcnowledge ny omments n he ay I ype, rankly ts he ongest nyone as ver arped n bout t n a orum. I sually ust et "hy o ou ype ike hat?" our pinions n t ave een uly oted - I onsider nymore alk n his o e he nnoying hing o e onest .....

Possibly not....

on Feb 14, 2005
WOW - we are just saying that your typing is a bit annoying. The "Proper" thing to do would be to type as everyone else does and have good forum etiquette. Your attitude is a bit childish. What's so bad about learning to NOT use the shift key?
on Feb 14, 2005
I'm sorry, I'm slow...

You guys do realize that the title of the article refers to "Capitalism" and he is capitalizing every word, right? It just seems like some of ya think it is typographical errors or something... lol...

Beyond that, you DO realize that letting someone who is trying to annoy you know that you are annoyed is probably not going to stop them from annoying you in that way, right?
on Feb 14, 2005

Yes, Baker...we do...but the secret is we are less concerned than we pretend to be...to give him the false impression his behaviour actually DOES SOMETHING.

Damn...now he knows....

on Feb 15, 2005
Lol This Is Absurd.
You're All Starting To High Five Yourselves.
Have Fun.
on Feb 15, 2005
Learn to type...
on Feb 15, 2005
Jafo, I have a feeling that WOWfactor is going to change his typing style just as soon as you change your incessant need to correct!

By the way, Kona, learn not to repeat yourself. We already know how you feel, BELIEVE ME.


I Don't Mind WOWfactor's Typing Style, But I Don't Agree With His Content!
on Feb 19, 2005
Is it a wise commercial move to have political threads on a design site? I like Stardock products, I like the designs many people post here, but as someone outside the USofA, I can't stand the (what seem to me to be) incredibly right-wing views that are often expressed by many of the posters on this site. It's put me off visiting this site, and it sadly put me off giving money to the company. Perhaps this is a bit of an overeaction and yes, it's my loss - because I like the product and I like the skins. But it's the company's loss too, and it seems an unnecessary one - certainly by purely capitalistic principles.
on Feb 19, 2005

I would respond by saying that such losses in business is a business cost to the owner of the company. I.e. a form of compensation.  That is, giving the CEO (in this case me) the right/ablity to post rants even if it means some loss in business as a means of recreation is just as justifiable as a bonus or salary increase.  I like to speak my mind. I would hardly describe myself as being particularly right wing (though obviously I'm very conservative on most business issues).  The company (Stardock) would have to dramatically increase its compensation to me in order to make up for the loss of the ability to speak out on issues that I care about. Therefore, from a business point of view, it's a lot cheaper for it to simply suck up losing the business of people who have such strong ideologies that they make purchasing decisions based on my postings.

That said, I think it's a pretty big stretch to call a rant that talks about how commercial PC software gets trashed by legions of "software should be free" people to be a "right-wing" political blog.

on Feb 19, 2005
Hum, I don't think it's your post particularely, Brad. It's more like #92.
Your post wasn't so much political but more a personal opinion regarding different types of software. Perfectly legitimate on the Personal Computing forum. When other people come and use this thread to discuss capitalism vs communism, then these can be annoying on a skinning site and belong more in the Political forum of Joe User.
Your own article was software related, not political.
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