Snapping
December 20, 2007Update: Huilie huilie dikke boehoe. Buhbye now!
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I may be a fine specimen of the human race (arrogant? I? What gave you that idea?), but even I can get a little… Upset every now and then. While it is a whole lot of fun ‘doing OSNews’, and being ‘the OSNews guy’, OSNews, or more specifically the people using it, can be a real bunch of idiots.
The problems all stem form the idea that some have in their heads that somehow, OSNews exists solely for them, and that we serve only them, and them alone.
That’s not exactly the case. OSNews is a hobby for me, I do it for fun, I don’t get paid, nor does anyone else on the team. In other words, demanding we publish something, or demanding we don’t publish something is a bit like telling a floor tile to flip. Not only is it futile, it also looks a bit silly for passers by.
Today we had a regular Apple fanboy crying foul over the fact I published the Think Secret story. His complaints were something along the lines of “why are you publishing this Apple story, and not the other ten articles in the submission queue” (which were all submitted hours after I published the TS story) - I had it up to here, and I snapped.
Snapping, however, is always a thin line to walk. It can go horribly bad, but it can also fall really well. This time, it was the latter. I wrote:
What’s keeping the other ten articles on the submission queue?”
MY LIFE?
In case you haven’t noticed, contrary to you, possibly, I have a LIFE to run, a job to go to, a social life to manage, a university study to complete, parents to help, a home to maintain and keep clean, an ass and a couch to sit on, tea to drink, a cat to pet, a car to maintain, a party at my place saturday eve to organise, …, ….
I don’t sit behind my computer all day long just to please YOU, I do it to PLEASE MYSELF.
I’m sorry for the snappage, other people, but I can’t help it. This morning, I emptied the submissions queue by removing those I don’t want to publish, and by publishing the remainder (two in this case). After clearing the queue, I did a quick round along my favourite few websites, including the Dutch Mac website I visit daily, where I encountered this story. I posted it because not only is it a follow up to an earlier story I wrote, but also because people are clearly interested in this stuff.
There is no conspiracy here, you annoying little Apple fanboy, just what I always do: clear the queue, post whatever’s worthy, and then do a round to see what other stuff you readers missed/did not submit. I’ve had it up to HERE with your nonsense, meianeriogn, just go get a goddamn life instead of annoying me with your pointless little “oh-my-god-Thom-is-anti-apple-and-eats-babies” nancying around. Conspiracy idiot. Go spot black helicopters or get abducted by aliens or something.
Glad I got that off my chest. Sorry to everybody else.
Babies do taste nice, though.
OSNews | 
You’re overdoing the whole baby-eating thing.
After you had said it the first 1398759 times, it started getting less and less funny…
Come on, you’re not dumb, think of something new.
How about sources of regenerative energy?
Like heating your flat with all the hate mail you get.
Anything! Just not eating babies, I can’t take it anymore :(
Btw, I agree with you on the matter, some stupid people will always accuse you of all sorts of bias. This just tells you that you’re actually being pretty unbiased, otherwise some group would not hate you :-D
Ok, the Windows trolls probably complain the least. But how could they?
They’re waaaay too busy posting “GPL is teh suck” in every even remotely related thread…
Comment by RandomGuy — December 20, 2007 @ 11:39 pm
Why do you think I passed on the torch to you at OSNews? So I can be free from all this crap. Sucker! :D
Oh well, hopefully osnews will still be alive when you are out of the uni and you will try to get a job. At the profession you chose, it should help you out with a head start. Not bad of a deal.
Just ignore all these idiots. I never read comments on osnews anymore except for my own originals. Do the same and you will feel better.
Comment by Eugenia — December 21, 2007 @ 5:59 am
Well, gotta admin, when you do snap, you snap hard :)
Comment by l3v1 — December 21, 2007 @ 7:37 am
“admin” = “admit” of course
Comment by l3v1 — December 21, 2007 @ 7:37 am
Do you think there will ever be a time when OSNews can afford to pay staff? I think it would be good if it could. I have to be honest, sometimes I have asked what I thought was a simple, honest question and the I got called everything in the book (pretty foul language sometimes). That always surprises me. I think if there was a paid staff, there would be more expectations of professional behavior. I realize you gus do a great job, but when it is just a hobby, it is hard to find the time (or the reason) to treat it as a profession. How big would OSNews have to get to reach the “tipping point” of being able to pay the staff? I think it would be a good thing for all concerned.
Comment by Tom Dison — December 21, 2007 @ 4:50 pm
OSNews has passed the tipping point so it will never pay staff. The pageviews are on a decline for the last 2 years. There is no real “OS” market anymore, just 3 major players. So traffic is down for that kind of site.
Comment by Eugenia — December 21, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Crap! I was hoping the views were on the rise. I’ve never looked at OSNews as just an OS site, but a great site to kick around tech issues, which I would think is getting more popular. Oh well, no matter how long it lasts, I appreciate the effort.
Comment by Tom Dison — December 22, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
I agree with Eugenia, don’t bother reading the comments. More often than not, people do not respond to the article or the situation, the Idiots make it an (OSX is better, or Windows is better, or Linux is better). The article has nothing to do with that.
Keep up the great work.
Sylvain
Comment by Sylvain Jette — December 23, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
File under “WTF” :
“I don’t sit behind my computer all day long just to please YOU, I do it to PLEASE MYSELF.”
Yeah I know people who sit behind the pc all day and please themselves I just didn’t have you pegged as one of them ;-)
(I can’t believe none of the trolls picked up on that one)
Comment by Tyr — December 24, 2007 @ 3:54 pm