Recent Posts7551
General Software Discussion / Re: Bear Bottoms Freeware: A very nice high-quality software site
« Last post by Deozaan on December 14, 2008, 10:12 PM »Hello Deozaan
...
Many people find Mr Bottoms's information about freeware products to be not just useless but misleading and sometimes dangerous.
...
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.
...
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.
Franklin2-Franklin2 (December 14, 2008, 08:38 PM)
Franklin,
First of all, thanks for discussing this in a calm, friendly manner. I'm afraid I still have to say that you bring no credibility to the situation. I have no reason to trust anything you say. I have no information that makes me believe that you are a credible authority on the discussion. I am not calling you a liar, I'm just saying that you and I do not have a friendship or any kind of history that I can rely on to trust your words or your judgement on the matter. It also does not help that because of the wonderful technology of the internet, you may even be "Silverstein" posing as someone else. There's no way for me to know if you are or not. To reiterate, I am not implying that you are lying or being deceitful. I am merely stating the fact that I have no way of knowing whether everything is as you say or not.
I, too, find nothing to admire in a drug smuggler or a member of the KKK. But I have yet to find anything to admire about you or Silverstein. How could I? As far as I knew, neither of you even existed until today.
I'm sure that most of us agree that drug smugglers/dealers and the KKK are unpleasant groups of people and that society would be better without them, but it is not my responsibility or desire to keep software I write out of their hands. There are instances where such an attitude may be irresponsible. However, I don't believe that any software provided here at DonationCoder could directly aid the KKK or in the smuggling/dealing of drugs, so why should I care if someone who is a member of the KKK or is a drug smuggler uses DC software? The idea of a programmer getting background checks on everyone who ever uses his software is ludicrous.
Here's a rhetorical question: If everything you ever got in life was based on your strict adherence to morality, would you ever be deserving of anything?
We have had threads here at DonationCoder about unethical and scumbag "companies" that scam people by selling free software or through other "dirtbaggery." There certainly is a place here on these forums for exposing bad deals and bad companies, but Silverstein's inflammatory comments are unwanted and unwelcome. Civil discussion about software is generally what we're all about, though from time to time we do bring up other subjects. But this site is not about defaming and smearing people. Even if it is true, and once again I am not denying that what you and Silverstein have said may be true, the more appropriate method of warning us against the poor software being recommended by Bottoms is to tell us that the software is poor and the recommendations shouldn't be trusted. Going on a diatribe about drug smuggling and assassinations and what-not about people we have never heard of nor do we care about is not going to get you welcomed into the community.
