Getting an account to be counted [LWN.net]

Getting an account to be counted

Posted Nov 9, 2008 16:54 UTC (Sun) by farnz (guest, #17727)
In reply to: Getting an account to be counted by TxtEdMacs
Parent article: Is Smolt the Key to Counting Linux Users? (InternetNews)

I find it ironic that you now accuse me of not reading your post, when you went off on a tangent yourself - the topic was explicitly "Getting an account to be counted", and the comparison was between an LWN.net account, and "getting a Launchpad account, just to tell them what hardware I'm using"; I naturally assumed that you were staying on that topic.

From what you're now claiming, it's clear that you assume that any criticism of Canonical is automatically hate, and not intended constructively; I gave (at least) two ways that Canonical's application could be improved:

Allow me to submit my hardware profile anonymously; make it "click and forget".
Reduce the hassle factor of Launchpad account creation for this purpose - collect an e-mail address in the application, submit it with my hardware data, and ensure that the response e-mail tells me why I'm getting this message, and why I want to follow the instructions it gives.

I have reread my own posts, and yours. I don't see how you jumped to your conclusion without deliberately misreading my post, and extending my claim that creating a Launchpad account for the purpose of collecting hardware data is hassle with no obvious gain to a claim that creating a Launchpad account is too much hassle for any of the uses you can put Launchpad to; I can only conclude that you are part of the group of people who sees things as a binary for/against, and that you feel that I am not allowed to criticise constructively, only to mindlessly praise our corporate overlords.

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Getting an account to be counted

Posted Nov 9, 2008 21:00 UTC (Sun) by zotz (guest, #26117) [Link]

To jump in where I am perhaps not wanted, and to comment from an impression and not a careful reading.

I think you haven't quite got his point yet.

I think he is saying that the way it worked for him is DIFFERENT to the way it worked for you and this led him to think you were guessing at how it would work rather than describing your experience.

He then suggests that had you come back and told him that your description was your actual experience which for some reason did not match his then he might have picked up on this.

He also admits that none of this is an excuse, which to me is an admission that he sees himself as in the wrong, but is just by way of explanation, which to me is a request for you to go a bit easier on him now that he admits to being wrong.

Anyway, enough from me on that.

I have been in the linux counter for years. I am conflicted in my desire to be counted. I end up semi counted and not keeping my machine counts up to date.

all the best,

drew

Getting an account to be counted

Posted Nov 10, 2008 13:37 UTC (Mon) by TxtEdMacs (subscriber, #5983) [Link]

Drew,

I owe you my belated thanks. Reading his (franz)last message, I had a sense of futility, hence, my thoughts were only on how to walk away from this exchange. That is, either by silence or by a final terse note attempting again to state my experience and intent. However, your summary showed I spoke with sufficient clarity to be understood. I thank you for simply taking the time to restate my message.