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Last post Author Topic: Bartels Media paranoia  (Read 35258 times)

rjbull

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Bartels Media paranoia
« on: February 11, 2010, 08:52 AM »
I recently started using a registered copy of PhraseExpress Pro.  I knew it was capable of being portable, which could be useful to me, but it didn't seem to work like Intellicomplete or Comfort Keys do, at the word level.  That is you can define your own words and short forms, but it doesn't seem to have a ready-made dictionary built in.  So I put a message in their forum:
Please excuse my ignorance, new user query...  I'm already using my own multi-word phrases plus some words I've defined.  But to make PhraseExpress behave like Intellicomplete/Comfort Keyboard etc. which come pre-loaded to give you pop-up lists of words at the cursor, do I need to import a dictionary into PhraseExpress, or something like that?

I'd have thought that was pretty innocent.  After all, we've all looked at other softwares, and nothing is developed in complete isolation.  I got an e-mail from Bartels Media of which the operative part reads:
Thank you for taking the time to write us about PhraseExpress.

Please note that the PhraseExpress forum is not about other programs.

For a start, we recommend to study http://manual.phraseexpress.com first to
learn more about how to use PhraseExpress.
How tetchy can you get?  PhraseExpress seems a good product, but they want us to believe and act as if nothing else exists?  Don't they have any confidence their product is good enough to beat the opposition?  You can't even mention any other program as an example, to explain what you mean?  When I entered my post, their forum changed "Intellicomplete" to "another software!"  They since deleted the post.

I've read Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I used to work for a big company with a Stalinist culture, so I've had my fill of paranoid megalomania.  I deleted my registration key and uninstalled PhraseExpress.  So, until the Instant Text people come up with a version that runs on Vista with UAC = yoU Aren't Computing On, I suppose I'll have to use AutoHotkey, just like everybody else.  I'd still be interested in alternative portable apps, though.

f0dder

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #1 on: February 11, 2010, 09:28 AM »
Wow, what morons - amazing that there's still people acting that way in this day and age. Definitely bad enough that I wouldn't want to be a customer of those :)
- carpe noctem

yksyks

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #2 on: February 11, 2010, 11:53 AM »
I had exactly the same experience. When I mentioned in my forum post the TapTap utility, because I suspected it of interfering with PhraseExpress, the sentence was immediately deleted and I received a ubiquitous reply that they cannot help me if I am using "third party programs". This attitude surely repelled many customers.

mwb1100

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #3 on: February 11, 2010, 12:18 PM »
I suppose I'll have to use AutoHotkey, just like everybody else.

You realize that AutoHotkey stole all their ideas from PhraseExpress, don't you?

TucknDar

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #4 on: February 11, 2010, 12:46 PM »
I've had something similar happen, when I got some false reports about me using the free version for professional work, which I posted about. The post was deleted within minutes and I got an e-mail about the issue. To their defense, though, they did fix my issue promptly.

It's too bad they behave like this, because it really is an extraordinary product! I'm sure AHK can do pretty much the same, but I'd rather keep the advantages of the PhraseExpress dialogs and features  :-\

Darwin

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #5 on: February 11, 2010, 01:42 PM »
Very poor. I don't like it when people are so paranoid/are such poor sports.

wraith808

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #6 on: February 11, 2010, 01:50 PM »
I wrote them off a bit ago when they were on DC.  The tete a tete with DirectAccess was more than enough to put me off their product.  :down:

rjbull

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #7 on: February 11, 2010, 02:33 PM »
You realize that AutoHotkey stole all their ideas from PhraseExpress, don't you?
erm, is that ironic?  I thought AHK was developed from AutoIt, and imagine both pre-date PhraseExpress.  Besides, before any of those, there were various programs that did much the same even in DOS.

rjbull

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2010, 02:38 PM »
I wrote them off a bit ago when they were on DC.  The tete a tete with DirectAccess was more than enough to put me off their product.  :down:
Yes, I saw bits of that, I just didn't expect it would ever happen to me.  Shame, because the product is good.  Not as good as Instant Text, but that's $189.

Darwin

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2010, 02:48 PM »
You realize that AutoHotkey stole all their ideas from PhraseExpress, don't you?
erm, is that ironic?  I thought AHK was developed from AutoIt, and imagine both pre-date PhraseExpress.  Besides, before any of those, there were various programs that did much the same even in DOS.

I think mwb1100 was being ironic?

mwb1100

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #10 on: February 11, 2010, 03:35 PM »
erm, is that ironic?

Just a little joke - Bartels seems to have a habit of jumping into any thread here that's discussing PhraseExress and competing software and making pointed accusations of improper theft of ideas and/or marketing materials by the competition.

J-Mac

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #11 on: February 12, 2010, 11:45 PM »
Their forum replies are pretty much always like that. Then again there is one person staffing the forum, I think, and there are a lot of questions that are clearly from not RTFM. However this reply is used way too often and IS very off-putting.

Regarding the Bartels Media "attack posts" back when Direct Access first announced their product here at DC, the same was done to the developer of Breevy text expander when he posted in the "Deals..." forum to announce his product's availability on Bits last month. Same BS that was smeared all over the Direct Access developer.

I will say that the Breevy developer reacted much smarter to the attacks and slurs than the DA guy did. BTW, I'm now using Breevy.  :P

Thanks!

Jim

f0dder

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #12 on: February 13, 2010, 01:04 AM »
Well, the BartelsMedia guy was eventually banned from DC, wasn't he? It really takes a lot before a non-spammer gets the boot, and I think that says something about whether you'd want to use their software or not...
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J-Mac

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #13 on: February 13, 2010, 03:37 AM »
Well, the BartelsMedia guy was eventually banned from DC, wasn't he? It really takes a lot before a non-spammer gets the boot, and I think that says something about whether you'd want to use their software or not...

Really? I didn't know that. Good move if true.

Thanks!

Jim

f0dder

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #14 on: February 13, 2010, 03:44 AM »
Well, the BartelsMedia guy was eventually banned from DC, wasn't he? It really takes a lot before a non-spammer gets the boot, and I think that says something about whether you'd want to use their software or not...
Really? I didn't know that. Good move if true.
I might be wrong, the BartelsMedia user profile doesn't mention anything about a ban. I might have misunderstood something one of the moderators said on irc... if so, I apologize :)
- carpe noctem

Josh

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #15 on: February 13, 2010, 05:33 AM »
Bartals was banned by me for hijacking various threads and accusing other coders/members of stealing various things in every thread that mentioned a competing product. The way I look at it, DC is not the forum to vent at every single developer you can and then attack people for saying they use a competing product.

mouser

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #16 on: February 13, 2010, 05:36 AM »
wait what? im not sure i agree with that ban..
in fact i really feel strongly that banning should be a drastic last resort that should only be used in the most extreme cases and for spammers.
let's talk about this offline.

mouser

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #17 on: February 13, 2010, 05:40 AM »
furthermore, i hate to disagree with other mods, but i think it's simply unfair to have a post complaining about someone or their company, and then have them banned so they can't reply.  that's just not right imho.  a person should be allowed to defend themselves.

i'm not saying that bartels hasn't really rubbed people the wrong way with many posts, but there has to be a better way to handle this.

rjbull

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #18 on: February 13, 2010, 09:24 AM »
i think it's simply unfair to have a post complaining about someone or their company, and then have them banned so they can't reply.is.
As I recall it, Bartels mounted a sustained attack in an aggressive tone.  I also seem to remember they themselves said they would no longer post here.

rjbull

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #19 on: February 13, 2010, 09:37 AM »
I'm now using Breevy.
For which I too have a license  ;)  It isn't portable, though, and portability would be a big plus for me at the moment.  That's why the next one I intend to look at is Typing Assistant.

mouser

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #20 on: February 13, 2010, 09:52 AM »
I don't want to re-litigate this and dredge up lots of arguments, etc., but for the record, Bartels has posted some pretty damn clear evidence that other companies are in some cases actually stealing byte-for-byte files that he has written for his program and using it in their programs which are based on his work.

Again, i really don't want to get into a debate about the wisdom of trying to have these arguments on our forum, but i think some sympathy is due for someone who may (rightly in some cases) feel like other companies are stealing his work and then posting here about their products.

Josh

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #21 on: February 13, 2010, 09:59 AM »
Sympathy and understanding for a user is one thing. Allowing them to attack and insult our users is another. If the crowds would like, I can restore the last two posts that were removed prior to my banning Bartels in which a couple of our users were directly attacked and I can link to others where several more were attacked.

DC is a site about learning about software. Who's to say that some of the other programs advertised here are not blatant forgeries of other works? I understand the frustration of having this happen but taking over every thread where one of these products is mentioned is a bit absurd and attacking our users who might prefer the other versions is even worse.

It seemed that users were being diverted away from the topics every time that Bartels would post in said threads. This is a detractor not only to the quality of responses we would normally expect at DC, but it removes from possible discussions which could be had because most of the replies from BM were those of retaliation and attack. I simply do not agree with that.

wraith808

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #22 on: February 13, 2010, 10:15 AM »
I will say that the Breevy developer reacted much smarter to the attacks and slurs than the DA guy did. BTW, I'm now using Breevy.  :P

Do you know if there are any advantages of Breezy over DA?  I was using DA, then switched to MacroExpress Pro, but it's a bit too heavy for launching applications (though good for a lot of other things), so I've been looking at the newest version of DA...  how does Breezy compare?

wraith808

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #23 on: February 13, 2010, 10:17 AM »
Bartals was banned by me for hijacking various threads and accusing other coders/members of stealing various things in every thread that mentioned a competing product. The way I look at it, DC is not the forum to vent at every single developer you can and then attack people for saying they use a competing product.

I'm pretty sure I remember that Bartels left of his own accord.  He was addressed in several threads about his tendency to hijack them, but then at one point (I remember because I was in the conversation) he said that he was done with the boards.  It was pretty annoying that he'd hijack *any* thread about a competing product.

Sorry... removed offending part of post.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2010, 11:22 AM by wraith808 »

mouser

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Re: Bartels Media paranoia
« Reply #24 on: February 13, 2010, 10:24 AM »
Arguing about the validity of his claims is exactly what is going to open up all this stuff again.. how can we expect someone to not reply to a thread claiming he has no proof people are stealing his work?  sigh.. this has really become counter-productive.