Messages

1

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« on: December 15, 2008, 05:43 AM »

Guys, please heed Deozans advice (don't feed the trolls!!)

There are 2 posters on ACF who are most prolific in their posts against (and about) BearBottoms purported activities and various character flaws and Franklin is one of them.  FYI he is permanently killfiled as I have never seen a worthwhile post from him (plenty of trash talk though)

FWIW, I've been a long time lurker in ACF and can't say as I've ever seen a post from Silverstein. 

-Target (December 15, 2008, 12:32 AM)

Hello Target. 

Your suggestion to be a long time lurker in alt.comp.freeware strikes me as a little unexpected because Ari Silverstein has made very many posts and they are typically unmissable.  Google Groups lists over 1,000 posts by him to that newsgroup using just one of his email addresses.

Your hostility towards me is, I would guess, likely to be based on some historic observation you made long ago because other comments in your posting don't really suggest you have been a regular lurker in alt.comp.freeware.  I have made very many posts there about freeware and a search of Google Groups shows that.  Of course there are many posts there by me which are not to do with freeware and it may be those which you find have distracted you from your wish to read only about freeware.

I don't seek to make a personal attack on you and I suggest it's probably not useful to use the hospitality extended by DC forums to make unsubstantiated personal attacks on people like myself.  Let's stick to the facts and let's stick to software. 

It is the flaky and misleading software recommendations Bear Bottoms makes in alt.comp.freeware which have led a number of individuals there to consider the recommendations on his freeware site to be unreliable.  Posters have said exactly that as Google will confirm. 

Mr Bottoms happens to be keenly supported by a few posters such as Hummingbird and Me.Here (along with their sockpuppets) because they share his wish to take over the Pricelessware freeware web site and to ban discussion of Pricelessware recommendations from alt.comp.freeware.  I think you will find the vast majority of posters to alt.comp.freeware would consider the prospect of Mr Bottoms running Pricelessware or determining what is  posted to alt.comp.freeware to be a distasteful one.

I hope that helps get things back on topic and in perspective.

regards
Franklin

2

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« on: December 15, 2008, 05:06 AM »

People are getting pretty antagonistic on this thread -- can i remind the DC regulars that the way we demonstrate tolerance and good manors here, is by acting respectful and showing by example how we expect people to behave, not by going on attack.

-mouser (December 14, 2008, 10:55 PM)

Very true.  Nevertheless the following does sound like a threat, doesn't it?

I own several companies that use contract coders, all of us are familiar with DC, it's fine reputation. I hate seeing it besmirched by association with slime.

-Silverstein (December 14, 2008, 06:56 PM)

I find that statement to be rather interesting. In order for DC to be besmirched, somebody would need to do the besmirching.

etc

-40hz (December 15, 2008, 12:11 AM)

Hello 40hz.  I have read the statement which you refer to in a very different way than you have done.

(a) You've seen it as a threat and inferred that it means DC will be besmirched.

(b) I read it as saying DC has been besmirched on account of carrying postings eulogising the web site of a cocaine smuggler like Bear Bottoms and his flakey freeware recommendations.

Mr Silverstein appears to say DC is known to many of his associates as a fine site and he hates to see DC's image become reduced on account of posts like the ones at the start of this thread.  I don't see any threat in that at all.  Maybe Ari's passion about these matters has led you to feel you're under attack but I don't think it is like that at all.

Hope you see what I mean.

regards
Franklin

3

General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site

« on: December 14, 2008, 08:38 PM »

Silverstein,

I think one of the main issues here is that you're new here, coming in guns ablaze in an attempt to tell everyone how terrible "Bear" Bottoms is by reviving a 2 year old thread everybody has forgotten about (and my guess is that most people didn't even know about), linking to websites that either result in 404 or are just newsgroup conversations where anybody can say anything (i.e. they have no substance), much like you and I can have this conversation here.

I'm not saying that you're lying, or that "Bear" is a saint. But what's the point in digging up a two year old thread that has been long forgotten, and in such an inflammatory manner?

-Deozaan (December 14, 2008, 07:16 PM)

Hello Deozaan

I am familiar with the situation Mr Ari Silverstein refers to in alt.comp.freeware. In a nutshell, about two or three years ago a poster called "Bear Bottoms" started posting in some of the Usenet groups to do with security and encryption.  He made enemies extremely quickly on account of his attitude and had to move on to the freeware newsgroup which is where he settled down. 

Mr Bottoms knows little about software but tries to learn a bit.  There's certainly nothing wrong with that.  However readers of alt.comp.freeware have found many of his recommendations to have little foundation even though he had started putting himself up as an authority and recommending software he had allegedly tested.  In some cases it was found he hadn't installed the software, in other cases that he had never downloaded it and in another case that the software was not (and is still not) working yet he had "tested" it thoroughly and given it his strong approval!

Many people find Mr Bottoms's information about freeware products to be not just useless but misleading and sometimes dangerous.  In particular, Mr Bottoms pursued his interest in security and encryption.  It appears this is to do with his notorious real life background as a cocaine smuggler who betrayed more than a few people.  Lives were lost and others did time inside.  So Mr Bottoms became keenly interested in security and encryption as a way of communicating without the knowledge of those who wished to obtain justice from him.

People like Mr Silverstein, who know more than a little about encryption, find Mr Bottoms's security recommendations are weak and the problem is doubled when Mr Bottoms is adamant in recommending very poor software in the face of all the facts to the contrary. 

One additional factor is that Ari Silverstein does not find anything to admire in a cocaine smuggler who has caused the loss of life & liberty of other accomplices as well as all the damage street drugs cause.

You may need to forgive Mr Silverstein's passion in these matters but he very much dislikes the damage cocaine causes people and just as you might object to having members of the Ku Klux Klan using DC software forums for their own ends, Mr Silverstein sees Mr Bottoms as equally immoral and undeserving of your hospitality.

The two year old posting you mention does not age.  I read the rather overdone recommendation for the Bear Bottoms website without even noticing the age of the posting.  To those who haven't seen it before, like myself, it appear as if it were a current matter.

I hope this brings you up to speed on some of the background to the renewed interest in this thread and why Mr Silverstein has taken the trouble to post here.

Thank you for the opportunity to make this posting.

Franklin2