The content of you post does not bother me if that is your intent. What does bother me is the upvotes you recive. It is sad to see the decline of a great site so enshrined in a single line post. The active approval of your post, by other members, just becase they dont agree with my position on the subject, is sadning to say the least. Your comment is devoid of quality and only serves to try and infuriate another member.its active acceptance is indicitive of the decline so many members complain about.
You wanted volume licensing, but decided to be clever about it and 'test' the vendor. You inferred from their unwillingness to give John Q Random Customer a single pro version at the basic price that they would be 'inflexible' in an enterprise purchasing context, which is where your error starts and ends: it's an absurd leap to make, and you make a lot of assumptions to get there. You also manage to conclude from this that they "do not have a competent pricing structure".
Asserting that you gained any real insight into their business acumen or their suitability for your real purchasing needs with your strange test seems deeply misguided. And your delivery makes it entirely understandable if people take away from your post a reading that you are simply self-satisfied at having wielded that purchasing power so capriciously.
Now, after some initial rounds of criticism (and the consequent derail of much of this thread), you've stooped to repeatedly decrying the decline of HN and its devolution into slashdot (although you are apparently finding posts that agree with you to be restorative of hope on that front).
unwillingness to give John Q Random Customer a single pro version at the basic price that they would be 'inflexible
I have stated on several occasions that the flexibility that I was looking for was customer service in the sales process. I also clarified that it was the tone of the developers response served as a red flag to me, the discount was of ill consequence.
Now, after some initial rounds of criticism (and the consequent derail of much of this thread), you've stooped to repeatedly decrying the decline of HN and its devolution into slashdot (although you are apparently finding posts that agree with you to be restorative of hope on that front).
I chose HN after a long stay out of all communities because I did not like the direction that most have them had taken. If you review my post history, you will find it evident that I do not make personal attacks and when I respond to someone, I try to to show them that I value their comment by providing what I think is a well thought out response.
Given my history of finding most sites pointless due to the noise to value ratio and what I feel is an investment of my time to help contribute to HN to make it what it's stated goals are, I do find it disheartening when a comment, that, if you take away the emotion, is totally devoid of value and whos only purpose was to serve as character assassination.
I mean can you honestly look at the post I complained about and defend it as being anything other than a pop shot. One thing I can say for sure, is that no matter my position on a subject, I would not support such a post. I have seen the trend other complain about, and have tried to deny it, make excused for it and ignore it.
So with it so evident in that post I decided to confront it, because I really do want to know if, when critically analyzed, do the members of HN support that kind of regard for other members, that offer a genuine post (whether you agree with it or not, my intent was to contribute to HN).
So given that I feel that I contribute value to HN, I want to know if this is how people that contribute are valued. Because if the answer is yes, then it is time for me to go.
I realized when I posted it, that it would most likely come off as that I am just sour about my message not being received, and people are free to infer what they will about my complaining about it, but if you take away the bias of my original post, go back and read that post, I think you will find it clearly evident that there was little regard for the contribution of a member and an intent to aggravate and malign for having a different view point that the majority.
I asked and would love an answer to is this now acceptable by the majority of HN. Obviously for my continuing to post, I do not believe it is, but the seed of doubt has been planted by other members that I respect so with an example of it so obvious, I felt compelled to not only highlight it but to confront the issue head on.
You posted a comment arguing that "Asking for a discount" is not a good filter, because it would have filtered out you. You even sound a bit smug like "hah they failed my test, how stupid of them to not give me a discount, now they lost me as a customer". Jonkee is just saying that that sounds like the customer you'd want to filter out, and HN seems to agree.
I never said that you outsmarted them (in fact I explicitly wrote "You even sound a bit smug"). See how you can read something that's not literally written? It seems that every single person in this thread has interpreted your comment completely differently from how you presumably intended it, but every single one of them has interpreted your comment in the same way as the others. Whether that's their fault or not, you might want to consider changing your writing to avoid this...
Right you did not, that was mentioned in another post you did however say that "how stupid of them to not give me a discount" so I carried over the outsmarted perception because they where similar. If it appeared that I put words in your mouth I apologize it was not my intent.
Whether that's their fault or not, you might want to consider changing your writing to avoid this
Point taken, I am well aware of the fact that I did not communicate the story well, that or I see the world different from other developer in either case. I think this thread chain serves as evidence to that fact. It is not in dispute.
Not that it amounts to a hill of beans, but it was already a long post, I trimmed it to shorten it, I think in doing so, I omitted some important details. Further I tried very hard to not inject the developers response, because I did not want to bias the intent of my post with charged rhetoric, I also omitted that I ended up paying full price to the alternate, which I think further slanted the perception that my decision was based merely on not getting my way for a non-standard request.
