"You don't seem to be able to comprehend the idea that people will sometimes just make their work available to others without any desire or need to recognition or compensation."
If that really were so, then why the rant? So a part of you seems to care. The "demanding" customers are basically just dumb or socially challenged, so I would pity them, not write a long rant.
First of all, your use of "you" immediately after the reference to the long rant seems to show a confusion. I'm not the author of the long rant, although I'm in largely the same situation. It's not especially relevant that I didn't write the linked article, but I thought I'd make that clear.
Secondly, it may be that you didn't intend it, but your first sentence is calling me a liar. I object to that, and ask that you withdraw it. It is so, I say it is so as a matter of fact because I am one of them, and while you may legitimately express doubt, starting a sentence with "If that were so ..." (emphasis added) is calling me a liar, and I think it's out of order.
Thirdly, I really don't care if people use my code, but I really do care that some people then behave in the obnoxious manner that they do.
You may be sufficiently socially disconnected - I don't know if you are, but you might be - to pity people who do the internet equivalent of repeatedly spitting in your face, but I'm not, and I object to it, especially when they use my work.
Oh dear, I guess if we were in a bar we would now start a bar fight and hit each other over the head with beer glassed? Sorry if I hurt your feelings, and no, I did not intend to call you a liar, just probing a little. I see a degree of difference, but it is not important enough to me to have a fight over it.
Anyway, sorry I even chimed in onto the conversation. Obviously people have different reasons to publish their stuff.
> Oh dear, I guess if we were in a bar we would now start a bar fight and hit each other over the head with beer glassed?
If we were face to face I suspect it would've gone completely differently. I don't think you'd've said what you did in the way that you did. I was simply trying to point out that you were, in my opinion, being rather more aggressive than perhaps you thought.
I accept that you didn't intend to call me a liar.
I'm not sorry you chimed in. I haven't down-mud you because I think you have added value to this thread. You have expressed a point of view. I think what you said was wrong, and I've supplied my point of view as a counter to it. The thread has been longer than I'd've liked, but that's the way it's gone.
I hope I've expressed myself clearly enough that you now understand my position, even if you might not agree with it.
If that really were so, then why the rant? So a part of you seems to care. The "demanding" customers are basically just dumb or socially challenged, so I would pity them, not write a long rant.