Serving at the Pleasure of the King • Hacker News Board

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#41

Post by VMG » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:01 PM UTC

gbog wrote: post #27

VMG wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really didn't care about karma, you wouldn't have the need to mention it.

I don't care about karma. You are free to not believe me, I don't care about that either. However, I care a lot about HN, and the possibility to have reasonable discussions here. I am not the only one to have sensed the impact of a the Apple lover crowd trying to bury down other thoughts or any slight criticism. Gosh, even the respected and respectable Fred Wilson did notice this issue on his blog (avc.com).

My only point is I prefer HN without meta-talk about karma and comment scores. Your disclaimer paragraphs probably do nothing to soothe the apple fanboys and can be annoying to those who actually agree with you. (Enough with the meta from my part)

Edit: brainfart

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#42

Post by latch » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:02 PM UTC

tsotha wrote: post #35

cstross wrote: post #30

If Microsoft added a feature to Windows that duplicated a popular application's functionality, developers would be screaming bloody murder and rioting in the, er, blogs and web forums Utter rot. This used to happen all the time in the 1980s and 1990s, before the DoJ anti trust lawsuit really got rolling. It was most obvious in office apps (ever wonder where the third-party spelling checkers and grammar checkers went?…

>This used to happen all the time in the 1980s and 1990s, before the DoJ anti trust lawsuit really got rolling. Yes, and the reason for the DOJ anti-trust lawsuit? Developers were screaming bloody murder.

Your parent's point is that the reason Microsoft doesn't do this as much now isn't because they are more benevolent, it's because they were so over the top tyrannical that they've been forced to stop.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#43

Post by kstenerud » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:09 PM UTC

VMG wrote: post #24

gbog wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Phone companies had all these build processes Well, yes, and that's why we had crappy phones for years before iPhone and Android arrived, as noted by Jeff Atwood. I think it shows again that, not unlike the first PCs and their open slots for third-party cards, openness is the right move. Many people here seem to renounce to this, mostly because Apple's walled garden is currently at a pinnacle, but in my opinion it…

If you really didn't care about karma, you wouldn't have the need to mention it.

The problem is that downvotes make the text lighter colored and harder to read, which is a huge motivator for partisans to censor things they don't like or find inconvenient.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#44

Post by mikerg87 » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:18 PM UTC

Nobody has a monopoly on ideas.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#45

Post by ethank » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:18 PM UTC

Reading List doesn't have an API, so for the moment it doesn't come close to what instapaper provides in terms of instapaper and third party apps.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#46

Post by adabsurdo » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:23 PM UTC

cstross wrote: post #30

If Microsoft added a feature to Windows that duplicated a popular application's functionality, developers would be screaming bloody murder and rioting in the, er, blogs and web forums Utter rot. This used to happen all the time in the 1980s and 1990s, before the DoJ anti trust lawsuit really got rolling. It was most obvious in office apps (ever wonder where the third-party spelling checkers and grammar checkers went?…

Well, Microsoft never set itself up as the gateway to install third-party software, or as the authority on taste and acceptable content, or on taking a cut on commercial activity taking place on its platform.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#47

Post by ryanhuff » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:36 PM UTC

adabsurdo wrote: post #31

I think the Apple app store policies is the bigger problem, because Apple is using it to control not just quality, but content, and forcing applications to use its payment gateway; which in itself, wouldn't much of a problem if they didn't take this gigantic 30% cut (10x more than other payment gateways), and prevented you from knowing your customer. This is truely unprecendented. Microsoft could screw you by cloning…

The AppStore isn't just a payment gateway. It's essentially a retail store. You would be hard pressed to get to keep 70% from many other retailers.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#48

Post by dbkbali » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:51 PM UTC

I think some good ant-trust regulatory lawyers would have a field day with this. But one would have to have deep enough pockets to pay the legal bills!

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#49

Post by nestlequ1k » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:55 PM UTC

Funny how Android Instapaper (a 3rd party app) is infinitely better than the iPhone version (the official version) since it plugs right into the browser.

Re: Serving at the Pleasure of the King

#50

Post by ashishgandhi » Sat, Oct 15, 2011, 4:58 PM UTC

adabsurdo wrote: post #46

cstross wrote: post #30

If Microsoft added a feature to Windows that duplicated a popular application's functionality, developers would be screaming bloody murder and rioting in the, er, blogs and web forums Utter rot. This used to happen all the time in the 1980s and 1990s, before the DoJ anti trust lawsuit really got rolling. It was most obvious in office apps (ever wonder where the third-party spelling checkers and grammar checkers went?…

Well, Microsoft never set itself up as the gateway to install third-party software, or as the authority on taste and acceptable content, or on taking a cut on commercial activity taking place on its platform.

Yeah, they did not do that. But that's not the only way to be responsible (consciously or not) for killing smaller developers.

> authority on taste and acceptable content

I don't know about that. If I want something that Apple doesn't approve for their store - say Grooveshark, for plausible legal complications in the future - I get the Grooveshark app anyway, from some other store that's legal (hint: jailbreak).

Personally speaking: I would rather have someone make sure (for free) that the app that I download isn't buggy, or crash-y, or other stuff. In practice, I've never missed something on the App Store (iPad 2 that I bought a few months ago) although I miss a lot of stuff on the Android Market (Nexus One that I own since a few years now). I got an Android before I got an iOS device going by such arguments from the couch. But I'm glad I can choose my phone, and it's going to be iPhone 4S when it launches here. I'm glad you can choose your phone, I presume that'll be an Android. That way, both of us can be happy.