Jason Dixon wrote:
I have no intention of starting a flamewar with you, so please take this as constructive criticism, not a throwing down of the gauntlet, as it were.
Tragically, it is not constructive, and yes, it is very much a request for a flamewar. It contains nothing of value; it can be distilled down to "You suck, and you're doing it wrong", nothing more, same as your last halfassed comment on the topic. Yap yap yap, in other words, no actual solutions or offers of assistance to back up your yap. Yup, looks like flamebait to me. I am more than happy to oblige you, too.
You repeatedly *spam* this mailing list with requests for traffic to your "store". I don't think you really understand what you're doing, or you wouldn't treat your "customers" this way. I'm not referring to just the countries you've targeted due to spam issues, but all the bystanders that read this list, caught in the path of your verbal shrapnel.
Comments about "verbal shrapnel" are comedic on this list, you sound like half of the so-called "whining lusers" whose existence is decried every time they post looking for assistance. Look at nearly any other recent response to a request or comment. You want shrapnel? There it is. The difference is that mine is in response to a direct provocation, and not indiscriminate. I believe that the common understanding about this list is that it is neither warm nor cuddly, or so people keep saying. Well, I don't do warm and cuddly either. I guess it's too bad for you that you're not nearly as good as I am at communicating "unwarm/uncuddly"; while you seem to enjoy doing it to others, you also seem to have a problem being on the receiving end. Tough shit, live with it - don't play the game if you don't want to lose. I've been nice to those who have been nice to me. Hell, I've even been nice to some of those who haven't been nice to me, but have changed their mind, or who had a useful point to begin with. You may wish to try either one of those, see how well it works for yourself. Also, no "spam" is involved, neither am I "requesting" traffic to "my" store, I am suggesting that people who find it useful use it and contribute to it, such as are able to. Again I reiterate: this is not "my" store. I am willing to give it to anybody else that wants it. I am willing to provide the code I have written and information I have collected so far to anybody else who wishes to take this ball and run with it, or who thinks they can do a better job. I will note that no complainers have stepped up to the plate so far. This thing has gotten nearly 2,000 hits in less than a month, which puts the lie to the idea that nobody is interested in it. Of those hits, slightly over 10% have generated a clickthrough to a site to buy it, or at least to view a purchase page. I don't pretend to be a Web ad expert, but that seems to be pretty fucking good ratio for something that's just started out. If you don't think it's useful, feel free to continue to disagree, and to ignore my requests for information, I've mentioned "Metastore" in every subject line since I've settled on that name. Also note that I am not profiting from this in any way (rather the opposite, in fact), nor do I have any desire to, nor do I envision any means of doing so, so it's not exactly like I'm doing this for my health. This seems like a useful and timely contribution to the OpenBSD users' community. If you disagree, please feel free to keep your opinion to yourself, because I don't want to hear it and plenty of others seem to feel otherwise. I grow tired of snide comments from people whose sole contribution is "You should let these netblocks in" or "You really are an asshole", as though they know something about the topic, or have any right to complain that I am not providing equal access to, *sigh*, _MY NETWORK_ to all comers. I said in my FIRST POST ON THIS TOPIC that I would not host this myself past "beta" stage, that I would initiate and continue the development work and maintenance of the database, but that somebody else needed to get it on a better connection because I do not have the resources to host it by myself. This is not a surprise, in other words. I also said nothing about changing any of my network policies to permit traffic that I was not permitting before. I have proposed a distributed-hosting scheme which should make everybody happy, SOLVING A PROBLEM THAT HAS APPARENTLY ARISEN. You have suggested no solutions yourself, therefore your "contribution" of yap is meaningless. You may take my opinions about the worth of certain netblocks with a grain of salt, I admit they are somewhat hyperbolized for entertainment value. (Who among us who has ever been in a real network- or system- administrator capacity NOT wished nuclear death on some of these places, I ask you?) I reiterate: I have been nothing but polite to those who have helped me out, and/or have acted like civilized human beings. You have done neither, which is why I previously told you to "sit down and shut up, you lippy little shit". You appear to be one of those sycophantic, bagbiting, useless little fanboys who runs around nipping at ankles because he thinks it will please his master. Therefore, again, I tell you: Sit down and shut up, you lippy little shit. When you have something useful to contribute - code, suggestions on design, information about supported hardware, offers for hosting or help, whatever - then I will listen to what you have to say, not one second before.
I know it's a cliche, but it's true... you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar. If you don't want to be in the "business of selling information", then don't. Either way, at least stop spamming the lists. I think we all heard you the first 20 times.
This list contains information that is of use to this project. I am willing to consider hosting a separate mailing list, but since this project makes no sense outside the context of OpenBSD, it seems to make more sense to keep it here than move it elsewhere. I also note that a mailing list that I host will suffer from the same problem as the website, invisibility to certain countries. Until I am specifically barred from posting about this topic by a list administrator - of which you are not one, unless I am mistaken - I will continue to do so when I require information or have made a change that I believe is noteworthy. Again, no spam is involved; this project is about OpenBSD and only about OpenBSD, meaning that its most proper place is "misc", which is a general discussion list about things concerning - wait for it - OpenBSD. Perhaps you should read the list charter again. And finally, I provide "honey" to those who provide me "honey". For those who provide me "vinegar" - like you - I have "acid". HTH, HAND. -- (c) 2005 Unscathed Haze via Central Plexus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I am Chaos. I am alive, and I tell you that you are Free. -Eris Big Brother is watching you. Learn to become Invisible. |-------- Your message must be this wide to ride the Internet. --------|
