PithHelmet, Shareware Fees, and Update Site Backlash

The author of PithHelmet recently wrote a short piece on shareware fees and software update site feedback. It’s disheartening to think that this is becoming increasingly common. Mike worked very hard on PithHelmet 2 to make it far suprior to the open-source, free PithHelmet 0.7.3. He added quality features like Machete (which allows you to filter web pages through a perl or Python script) which I have not seen on any other browser. He continues to distribute 0.7.3 for free, but apparently that’s not good enough for some users.

Further, one “reviewer” at Macupdate demanded that Mike go to Macupdate to answer his questions. That has to be the single most infantile act I’ve seen at a software version tracking site (and I’ve seen some pretty dumb things).

This type of idiotic behavior is commonplace on these sites. At one point, I heeded reviews on these sites. They were fair, balanced, and in-depth. Now it’s filled with 1 and 5 star reviews, no in between. Wonderful. The 1 start reviews are filled with such intellectual gems as:

• And if an author wants to persuade you of its harmlessness, kick off his balls!
• Here’s to hoping that Net Monitor dies the slow, painful death that all suckerware deserves.
• Just another POS from Alpha Omega.
• Especially when one spent two years by nothing else than scratching his sphincter.
• GIVE US BACK SOUNDJAM, you ignorant Apple idiots!
• What else from people who are permanently to stupid and ignorant to even fill in a “What’s new”? Avoid this piece of bullsh1t

Once again, the prevalence of the Internet is starting to bite us in the ass. People who can’t tie their shoes or put together a coherent sentence are offering their “expert” advice.

Here’s to hoping that the Internet community will fight back against these “scholars”.