Years -- no, decades -- ago, I moderated several forums on BIX, the Byte Magazine Information Exchange, an early threaded online discussion system. We would frequently encounter blind zealotry in support of operating systems, programming languages, or computer models. We called what happened when opposing parties of zealots came up against each other RWars, short for religious wars.
Microsoft was often a target of RWars. Tipoffs that the person posting had a grudge against Microsoft included gratuitous misspellings, like "Micro$oft" or "Windoze," and personal rants against Bill Gates, often accusing him of being the Antichrist or Satan. The worst zealots by far were the Amigoids, supporters and defenders of the Amiga computer, who would compulsively attack any mention of other computers and operating systems (meaning not just PCs, DOS, and Windows, but also the Macs, Ataris, and various Unixes of the time) that didn't acknowledge the inherent superiority of the Amiga.
We all have Amiga computers on our desks now, right? So that was a great strategy.
The other day, I posted a blog entry entitled In Praise of ASP.NET. I tried to keep it factual and balanced. I wrote about my personal, hands-on experience developing a site with ASP.NET 2.0, and I wrote it when I was deep into the development of a new version of the site, because that was what was on my mind at the time. I also mentioned having had a good experience developing a site with Ruby on Rails. I didn't mention all the other technologies I have used to build Web sites over the years: that would be a very long list.
I was gratified to see that the first commenter got what I was saying. I was disappointed, but not surprised, that the next commenter went on a rant against Microsoft, and came close to accusing me of being paid to post good things about Microsoft. After all the times I have roundly criticized Microsoft in print and online, that would be a little hard to credit.
I have written for, edited for, developed software and sites for, and managed projects for lots of clients. Is one of them Microsoft? Of course. It's no secret: I disclose that whenever it is relevant, for example whenever I mention a book in the Microsoft .NET Development Series, for which I was an editor for several years.
Does Microsoft or any other client of mine influence the content of my work for InfoWorld, or any other publication for whom I write? Not at all. One or two have tried, unsuccessfully; Microsoft was not among them.
When I write under my own byline, I say what I think, not what anyone else wants me to say, and I do my best to support everything I say with verifiable facts based on hands-on experience. Transparency is hard to achieve, both in user interfaces and in life, but I do try.
Posted by Martin Heller on March 5, 2007 06:00 AM
