I don't care. I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me. I can't in good conscience support such stupidity, so I don't. That other people can, well, that's on their heads. *shrugs*
If your institution has them, you probably should get to know them before plunking down your hard earned money. I worked for a large company years ago where that kind of behavior got people fired, including some corporate execs who insisted on doing the very thing you are doing.
Chances are, if the IT department has any mandate from higher-ups to protect the network there, you're going to have to jump through whatever hoops they require. In that case, just be glad that they're allowing you to use something you bought with your own money rather than telling you to use it as an expensive doorstop. If they screw it up, then go have a long chat with the head of IT and whoever gives them their clout, financially and otherwise.
They (including "math whiz" Mr Hammerbacher, apparently) have no clue about those who want no part of their little world. Go figure.
The thing the so-called "whiz" kids are missing is that Google et al are trying to market to people without creating a giant scam network where people are bullied/peer-pressured by their sucker friends into revealing to the rest of the world everything they shouldn't.
Sure, you can analyze and target people more directly once they've told you everything there is to know about their lives, including their relationships, tendencies, and desires.
Without all that, you have to figure it out the hard way; the way that his so-called "peers" are "wasting their talents" on.
At least not the same way Religion is a "Matter of Faith", which is the parallel I think this article is trying to draw.
You don't have to accept the Authority of Science to understand it. You don't have to trust the word of the Authority. You can BECOME the Authority yourself. You can come to understand it as well as, or better than, any Authority.
Yes, you can accept what a Science Authority has to say on the subject via trust/belief/(small "f")faith in that Authority, but that does not mean you HAVE to. You can challenge that Authority, and if your challenge has merit, then that Authority has no choice but to accept your challenge and amend his/her understanding of the subject. That is what Science is all about.
The trust we place in scientists is based on reason, not "belief" or "faith". We trust that the person has integrity and is telling us the truth to the best of his/her ability, but that trust is rational. We know that, at any time, whether we have cause to challenge that person to back up his/her claims or not, we can. This kind of "faith" is completely different from that used for a Religious Authority, where there is no rational basis for belief, and no possible rational challenge. You either accept it as the absolute truth, or you don't.
I would say that this completely and unabashedly exposes just how big the MAFIAA douchebags are (a 75 trillion gallon douchebag, all combined), but this is far from being news.
I stopped buying music years ago, except directly from artists who are not under contract to give ANY of the money I pay them to those rackets.
Nothing more than a bogus lead-in story talking about the product that the story's author is "preparing to release someday". Basically, creating a problem for his "solution".
News flash: develop your damn product first, let people try it out, and THEN promote it. Astroturfing vaporware is the epitome of hubris.
AOL as the walled-garden content provider, like Compuserve and Prodigy IS dead. That's what I am talking about.
AOL as a dialup internet service is not the AOL of yore, but a vestige of POTS networking equipment that they are clinging to while there are still enough non-broadband customers to justify the cost.
The problem is, though, that Google/Netflix aren't the ones "using" (as in "consuming") the bandwidth as those who are complaining about it claim. They are producers. The ones who are "using" (as in "consuming") the bandwidth are the ISPs' USERS, who are requesting the content from Google/Netflix. It doesn't make any sense to bill content providers for bandwidth consumed by users.
Well, it does make sense if you look at it from a competitive angle.. one where the ISPs so complaining have a vested interest in competing content provider services.
Google, Netflix, and everyone else pay for their access to the internet. They pay a LOT already. If every ISP who carries their content at the behest of the ISP's own users/consumers could charge an extra "fee" to carry "popular" content, then there wouldn't be any "popular" content, except from each particular ISP.
This is why I believe that true "Net Neutrality" is where content providers and bandwidth providers should not be allowed to be the same entities -- they are simply an untenable conflict of interests waiting to happen. Indeed, this is why the internet grew explosively and prospered, because, for a long time, the bandwidth providers had little interest in content, and the old "walled garden" combo access/content providers died out like the dinosaurs they became (AOL/Prodigy/Compuserve/etc). That's all changed now. Companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T want to go back to that model, which might be lucrative for them, but it impacts the freedom of their customers, and the free market overall.
I don't think he means domain default addressing. i.e. @hisdomain.com is not accepted. Only accounts he has created and given out will work.
What I think he means (at least the way I do it) is that all the myriad individually-assigned email addresses he's given out all have a common "catch-all" inbox.
Yep.. been doing this for a long time now. It actually made my email use enjoyable again. I simply don't get spammed anymore. If I start seeing spam come in on an address, I "cycle" it and give the person/company it was assigned to a warning. If they do it again, I don't give them another address.
Jeff is right that managing game forums is a job. A thankless one that can chew through even the most heavily armor-plated CSR over time. Community Management can be one of the most difficult jobs any game company employee can take on. So, yes, if you as a creator/developer, or your team does not have the skillset to manage forums, it's going to become a cesspool of unhappy people fighting amongst themselves and denouncing your existence and lineage all the way back to Lucy.
Gamers are passionate people, though the game industry is not necessarily the only industry where you'll find such. The trick is, if you are going to have forums, and you want them to be of value to you as a creator (as well as to your customers), you have to manage them. Ignoring them because it turns out to be an intrinsically difficult job isn't really much of a solution, and will really only fan the flames even more. A lot of the time, the act of distancing yourself, either in intent or just apparent, will make it appear like you just don't care; that you live in an ivory tower away from the players and look down your nose at them with the all-too-common "I'm the game developer, and I am always right/best/smartest/insert-superlative-here", regardless of whether you explicitly say it or not. When it comes to this phenomenon, appearance of impropriety has nothing on the appearance of hubris.
What this means is that you have to communicate. Frequently, candidly, and, most importantly, VISIBLY. Remember that "say five nice things for every mean thing" notion goes both ways, but is meaningless if hardly anyone sees it.
There may also be technical problems in communication. Some game companies opt for some REALLY REALLY BAD community portal/forum software that is just total pants. No matter how good a communicator you are as a creator, or how stellar your Community Management team is, if your communication venue and tools are crap, it will completely ruin you. On the flip side, an extremely well-designed community portal / communications venue setup will make your job of communicating and interacting with your customers an absolute delight.
Yes, there will be those people who will simply be chronically unhappy with you no matter what you do, and yes, the anonymity of the interwebz can turn people into total douchebags. Do everything in your power to use the carrot to try and bring them around, but never be afraid to resort to the boot if they simply insist on spreading their misery to you and the rest of your (otherwise happy) customers. Not saying necessarily ban them, but at some point, you can just simply say "I am truly sorry that I/we have failed to resolve your issue(s) / bring you enjoyment with my efforts; I want you to know that I am at my wits' end trying to do so. At this point, I would suggest that maybe this game / community simply isn't for you, and I would urge you to seek out another game or form of entertainment that can bring you enjoyment. There is simply no sense in remaining somewhere where you are miserable, and I don't want you to be miserable, here or anywhere. I wish you the best of luck in your travels, and you'll always be welcome to return, if you do find something of value to you here later."
One last thing: don't fall into that "well, the forums are only representative of 10% of the playerbase, and only the loudest cranks to boot" trap. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant to how you treat your customers. It generally is only true to a certain degree, and grossly generalizing and overtly dismissing the entire body of forum participation as non-representative of the greater majority of your playerbase is the kiss of death, ESPECIALLY if you say that publicly. So, don't do it. Ever.
I'm sure they dream of it (or will now), along with every other scheme/scam they've dreamed up, but it Ain't Gonna Happen.
They're riding high right now, on top of a giant bubble. All that means is when it bursts, they have that much farther to fall, taking all their users along with them.
One would think people would learn to stop putting all their eggs along with everyone else's into one giant basket, but I guess it speaks volumes as to the population of stupid people out there.
Slashdot Mirror
How is babby formed?
I don't care. I'm not doing it for them, I'm doing it for me. I can't in good conscience support such stupidity, so I don't. That other people can, well, that's on their heads. *shrugs*
I listen to plenty of music, watch movies, and read books. You're right I don't watch television, though.
Only a moron presumes that media can only come from megacorporations.
No, I don't pirate anything, at all. I don't have any need to. I have plenty of money to spend on entertainment, and regularly do so.
The ad dodge is bullshit, as that wasn't the issue with bnetd at all.
Don't care. I burned (as in tossed into a fire) my Blizzard games after the bnetd fiasco.
Never another single cent of my money shall they ever receive. Same as with the MAFIAA, of which they've pretty much become a part.
(Policies and Procedures)
If your institution has them, you probably should get to know them before plunking down your hard earned money. I worked for a large company years ago where that kind of behavior got people fired, including some corporate execs who insisted on doing the very thing you are doing.
Chances are, if the IT department has any mandate from higher-ups to protect the network there, you're going to have to jump through whatever hoops they require. In that case, just be glad that they're allowing you to use something you bought with your own money rather than telling you to use it as an expensive doorstop. If they screw it up, then go have a long chat with the head of IT and whoever gives them their clout, financially and otherwise.
They (including "math whiz" Mr Hammerbacher, apparently) have no clue about those who want no part of their little world. Go figure.
The thing the so-called "whiz" kids are missing is that Google et al are trying to market to people without creating a giant scam network where people are bullied/peer-pressured by their sucker friends into revealing to the rest of the world everything they shouldn't.
Sure, you can analyze and target people more directly once they've told you everything there is to know about their lives, including their relationships, tendencies, and desires.
Without all that, you have to figure it out the hard way; the way that his so-called "peers" are "wasting their talents" on.
Durrrr.
At least not the same way Religion is a "Matter of Faith", which is the parallel I think this article is trying to draw.
You don't have to accept the Authority of Science to understand it. You don't have to trust the word of the Authority. You can BECOME the Authority yourself. You can come to understand it as well as, or better than, any Authority.
Yes, you can accept what a Science Authority has to say on the subject via trust/belief/(small "f")faith in that Authority, but that does not mean you HAVE to. You can challenge that Authority, and if your challenge has merit, then that Authority has no choice but to accept your challenge and amend his/her understanding of the subject. That is what Science is all about.
The trust we place in scientists is based on reason, not "belief" or "faith". We trust that the person has integrity and is telling us the truth to the best of his/her ability, but that trust is rational. We know that, at any time, whether we have cause to challenge that person to back up his/her claims or not, we can. This kind of "faith" is completely different from that used for a Religious Authority, where there is no rational basis for belief, and no possible rational challenge. You either accept it as the absolute truth, or you don't.
The above is what makes me really enjoy reading /. :)
I think my funny bone broke under the strain..
I would say that this completely and unabashedly exposes just how big the MAFIAA douchebags are (a 75 trillion gallon douchebag, all combined), but this is far from being news.
I stopped buying music years ago, except directly from artists who are not under contract to give ANY of the money I pay them to those rackets.
Stupid should hurt.
That said, I think sentencing for most of these crimes is a little over the top, but still; if you ask to get busted, you're going to get busted.
Nothing more than a bogus lead-in story talking about the product that the story's author is "preparing to release someday". Basically, creating a problem for his "solution".
News flash: develop your damn product first, let people try it out, and THEN promote it. Astroturfing vaporware is the epitome of hubris.
I predict EPIC FAIL for this one.
"unknowing" information can never be a right. It goes counter to the entire flow of knowledge.
If you don't want to be known online, then don't put anything about yourself online. Period.
Asking for the global mind to "un-know" you is ridiculous and rather impossible.
Then proceed to beat them to death with said arms.
I find it particularly therapeutic and cathartic.. for me, that is. The trolls don't generally survive the encounter. :)
Clearly, they need to sue the cell phone / message service for wiretapping and recording the poor law-abiding citizen's call.
I bet that will solve the issue in a jiffy.
AOL as the walled-garden content provider, like Compuserve and Prodigy IS dead. That's what I am talking about.
AOL as a dialup internet service is not the AOL of yore, but a vestige of POTS networking equipment that they are clinging to while there are still enough non-broadband customers to justify the cost.
The problem is, though, that Google/Netflix aren't the ones "using" (as in "consuming") the bandwidth as those who are complaining about it claim. They are producers. The ones who are "using" (as in "consuming") the bandwidth are the ISPs' USERS, who are requesting the content from Google/Netflix. It doesn't make any sense to bill content providers for bandwidth consumed by users.
Well, it does make sense if you look at it from a competitive angle.. one where the ISPs so complaining have a vested interest in competing content provider services.
Google, Netflix, and everyone else pay for their access to the internet. They pay a LOT already. If every ISP who carries their content at the behest of the ISP's own users/consumers could charge an extra "fee" to carry "popular" content, then there wouldn't be any "popular" content, except from each particular ISP.
This is why I believe that true "Net Neutrality" is where content providers and bandwidth providers should not be allowed to be the same entities -- they are simply an untenable conflict of interests waiting to happen. Indeed, this is why the internet grew explosively and prospered, because, for a long time, the bandwidth providers had little interest in content, and the old "walled garden" combo access/content providers died out like the dinosaurs they became (AOL/Prodigy/Compuserve/etc). That's all changed now. Companies like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T want to go back to that model, which might be lucrative for them, but it impacts the freedom of their customers, and the free market overall.
That would be a public service.
That should read <anything>@hisdomain.com. Silly /.
I don't think he means domain default addressing. i.e. @hisdomain.com is not accepted. Only accounts he has created and given out will work.
What I think he means (at least the way I do it) is that all the myriad individually-assigned email addresses he's given out all have a common "catch-all" inbox.
Yep.. been doing this for a long time now. It actually made my email use enjoyable again. I simply don't get spammed anymore. If I start seeing spam come in on an address, I "cycle" it and give the person/company it was assigned to a warning. If they do it again, I don't give them another address.
I think I will keep doing it if for no other reason than to personally piss you off. :)
I will post what I please, kthxbai.
Jeff is right that managing game forums is a job. A thankless one that can chew through even the most heavily armor-plated CSR over time. Community Management can be one of the most difficult jobs any game company employee can take on. So, yes, if you as a creator/developer, or your team does not have the skillset to manage forums, it's going to become a cesspool of unhappy people fighting amongst themselves and denouncing your existence and lineage all the way back to Lucy.
Gamers are passionate people, though the game industry is not necessarily the only industry where you'll find such. The trick is, if you are going to have forums, and you want them to be of value to you as a creator (as well as to your customers), you have to manage them. Ignoring them because it turns out to be an intrinsically difficult job isn't really much of a solution, and will really only fan the flames even more. A lot of the time, the act of distancing yourself, either in intent or just apparent, will make it appear like you just don't care; that you live in an ivory tower away from the players and look down your nose at them with the all-too-common "I'm the game developer, and I am always right/best/smartest/insert-superlative-here", regardless of whether you explicitly say it or not. When it comes to this phenomenon, appearance of impropriety has nothing on the appearance of hubris.
What this means is that you have to communicate. Frequently, candidly, and, most importantly, VISIBLY. Remember that "say five nice things for every mean thing" notion goes both ways, but is meaningless if hardly anyone sees it.
There may also be technical problems in communication. Some game companies opt for some REALLY REALLY BAD community portal/forum software that is just total pants. No matter how good a communicator you are as a creator, or how stellar your Community Management team is, if your communication venue and tools are crap, it will completely ruin you. On the flip side, an extremely well-designed community portal / communications venue setup will make your job of communicating and interacting with your customers an absolute delight.
Yes, there will be those people who will simply be chronically unhappy with you no matter what you do, and yes, the anonymity of the interwebz can turn people into total douchebags. Do everything in your power to use the carrot to try and bring them around, but never be afraid to resort to the boot if they simply insist on spreading their misery to you and the rest of your (otherwise happy) customers. Not saying necessarily ban them, but at some point, you can just simply say "I am truly sorry that I/we have failed to resolve your issue(s) / bring you enjoyment with my efforts; I want you to know that I am at my wits' end trying to do so. At this point, I would suggest that maybe this game / community simply isn't for you, and I would urge you to seek out another game or form of entertainment that can bring you enjoyment. There is simply no sense in remaining somewhere where you are miserable, and I don't want you to be miserable, here or anywhere. I wish you the best of luck in your travels, and you'll always be welcome to return, if you do find something of value to you here later."
One last thing: don't fall into that "well, the forums are only representative of 10% of the playerbase, and only the loudest cranks to boot" trap. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant to how you treat your customers. It generally is only true to a certain degree, and grossly generalizing and overtly dismissing the entire body of forum participation as non-representative of the greater majority of your playerbase is the kiss of death, ESPECIALLY if you say that publicly. So, don't do it. Ever.
I second that motion.
I'm sure they dream of it (or will now), along with every other scheme/scam they've dreamed up, but it Ain't Gonna Happen.
They're riding high right now, on top of a giant bubble. All that means is when it bursts, they have that much farther to fall, taking all their users along with them.
One would think people would learn to stop putting all their eggs along with everyone else's into one giant basket, but I guess it speaks volumes as to the population of stupid people out there.
Goes hand-in-hand with the modern-day Farcebook version:
Fools and their privacy..