So I had a very angry rant all written up yesterday, but I decided not to post it because I didn't want to cause too many waves.
I'm slightly less angry today, so I think I can rewrite my rant to be shorter and friendlier.
Please, everyone, read the disclaimer. This is a personal blog, and I do not speak for the company. I'm very tired of having people point to my blog and project my feelings as the attitudes of REAL Software when they disagree with something I say.
Case in point: "Aaron hates Mac, therefore REAL Software hates their Mac customers." Give me a break. I don't see anyone on the lists saying, "Aaron supports gay marriages and women's right to abortions, therefore REAL Software is a left-wing cult." So it's obvious that some of my attitudes aren't being misprojected...
The reason this came up is because of my personal thoughts on the beta program. But it's come up in the past on a few other occasions. I'm getting annoyed by it for one reason alone -- wrong choice of venue. If you take issue with something I say on my personal blog, bring it up to me (either on the blog or in private email, etc) -- don't bring it to the lists or the forums. I read your blogs (for those of you who post with links in your names) -- and I don't discuss your topics on the lists. Please afford me the same courtesy. I don't expect people to agree with my personal opinions (it'd be damn boring if everyone did!), but I do expect everyone here to behave with proper decorum.
So! If it's a factual post (code, explanation of how things work, etc), go ahead and point to it to prove arguements. But if it's an opinionated post, don't bring it up in public as the attitudes of my company. And if you're ever in doubt, just ask!
I apologize to most of you, since this usually isn't a problem and doesn't affect 95% of you. And to the other 5%, I apologize if I've not been clear enough on the fact that this is a personal blog full of personal opinions. Mostly, I'm sorry that I have to bring it up at all -- I never thought this would become an issue.
Thanks!
A slightly less pissed off Aaron
It's sad when people start to forget that people are more than just their job. I totally hear and agree with you on this one, Aaron. I've run into similar situations, and I found it aggrevating to say the least.
PS-Hope you got lots from Santa this Christmas and I wish you a prosperous and joyful New Year :)
I'm pretty sure I can guess about the instances you're referring to. That's a shame, man. It sucks that people can't separate aaron@rs from personal Aaron. When that whole thing came up about how RS hates Mac users because of something from your weblog, I was floored. I mean, I was floored enough that it came up at all. But then the response was even more surprising. I was very disappointed in what is usually a fair and open-minded community. I for one support your right to say whatever the heck you want on here without it affecting your work life. You know, unless you post a rant about Geoff personally or something. That just wouldn't be smart. ;)
Pussy .
Uh, there was supposed to be a smiley after the feline reference, uh, it got stripped out somehow, uh, sorry, please don't get mad at me, uh, sorry.
@Scott -- Santa was nice to me this year; he brought my girlfriend up to me from Texas. :-)
@Brad -- I *know*!! I was freaking floored when I saw the topic come up on the NUG. I mean, I can sorta understand why the betas topic came up. But the Mac thing? I assumed people were smarter than that.
@Bill -- your mom. :-P
The Mac thing was out of bounds but to be honest if the topic of your blog post deals with the beta list then I don't think that you can be too upset if it bleeds onto the beta list...
~joe
I can when it's used in the context of "RS doesn't think its beta testers are working hard enough and I'm offended by that."
*AARON* doesn't think the beta testers are working hard enough (and sadly, the person who commented on this was one of about 10 people who that post was NOT directed at). I knew it was going to ruffle feathers, and I KNOW we have an imperfect system. But, since I posted that blog post, I've seen a large influx of bug reports. It had exactly the I was hoping it would have in terms of getting more reports.
But let me make something clear (which is a contradiction to a statement above):
I realize now that it's a matter of expectations. It's not that beta testers aren't working hard enough. It's that I expect more out of them than I'm receiving. And I don't think it's been made sufficiently clear as to WHAT I expect out of beta testers, and what beta testers expect to have to give. No one's ever talked about it before (that I recall).
Ok thanks for the clarification...
For what it's worth I'm one of the deadbeats this time around and I don't feel bad about it. With the X-mas holiday, my b-day, new years, the bowl games, and the like (oh and I just partioned the hard drive for linux) I'm a bit surprised that anyone has the time to do a lot of beta testing.
That said, starting tomorrow I'm going to hammer away at the linux version...
~joe
Aaron, I think you're an invaluable asset to all of us(yes, even the Mac guys). I read your blog on a daily basis, and have taken much from your posts here, on the NUG, Forums, and in privately exchanged emails.
I have started my own little blog which deals mostly with RB, as a direct result of the help you've dispensed. I just hope I won't have to put up with the (ignorance?) you've had to.
If people think that you are your job, then I'm pretty well screwed. I work Part-Time for the support industry, and Full-Time for the Amusement Industry. I dunno...on second thought, I guess that'd make me a coin-operated video game with a lot of support. Heh. Anyhow, thanks again Aaron.
I haven't read the lists recently, so I can't be entirely sure what the Mac comments are about, but I always assumed you were so vocal about your ... umm ... anti-Mac feelings *because* you worked in such a pro-Mac environment. I never thought your sentiments reflected the companies feelings, but were rather an attempt to even things out.
@Anthony -- thanks!
@Brady -- I think you hit the nail on the head.
Fun trivia fact: we have a lot of pro-Mac users in the company. Who's the only person with Apple stock?
Fun trivia answer: me.
I can understand why you'd be pissed about people misinterpretting things
Yes, this IS your personal site but when you write about things related to RB and specifically things related to how a program run BY REAL is working (or not) it's almost impossible for it to NOT get dragged onto the list.
Write all the cool stuff you do and offer other snippets of code here and such.
But when you talk about the company the programs and the product it's hard to not hear this as coming from "Aaron the REALSoftware guy" and not just Aaron Ballman
However, folks taking that as "REAL software says" is not right but it happens.
I used to work for the Police Dept and we just got used to saying "No comment" to lawyers, reporters, etc regardless of how on or off the reord something might be becuase if you opened your mouth and were NOT an official spokesperson you knew shit would hit the fan when some one reported that "A confidential source said ....."
Unfortunately that seems to be the same kind of case here
As a die hard Mac user should I admit to owning MS shares ?
@Norm -- I agree with you, but "No comment" is boring and doesn't let me vent when I need to. I'd liken this to "as a police officer, we stopped writing going to parties because people could overhear what I said." ;-)
I do see where you're coming from though, and that's why the betas topic thing could be kinda fuzzy. It just happened to be the straw that broke the camel's back. My biggest fear is that someone will take something I say (such as the I hate mac users rant), put it out in the lists or forums, and then Geoff comes to me and either 1) says I can't talk shop on my blog at all, or 2) fires me. Either one of those situations is going to cause me to jump into a whole new world of pissed off that most people here have never seen before. ;-)
Welcome to the Benedict Arnold club, Norm! :-P
Aaron,
The nefarious evildoers believe *your* opinion carries a huge amount of weight, and if they can [mis-]quote you while trying to effect their own desired changes within Real...then they will do it. They probably feel little or no personal loyalty to you, unlike most of us here. They don't care about the disclaimer.
I think once you have gone "public", such as in a blog like this, you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. 95 out a 100 people will joyfully respect the separation of "Aaron and Blog", but it's the other 5 that will kill you every time.
I am a timid sort, not eager to rock the boat, but I can't imagine ever mentioning my employer's name in my own blog! Or talking about company internals on my blog! The prospect just fills me with anxiety.
Please forgive me if I am merely stating the obvious (he said timidly).
Russ [Aaron Loyalist :-) ]
@Russ -- well put. :-)
I hate the "no comnent" thing as well.
But the first time you get hauled out by your commanding officer for opening your mouth and reamed out by a senior officer in front of the entire staff, you learn pretty quickly that this is serious.
Yes I've had this happen. It was hte Chief of Police who reamed out my boss who then reamed me out after the Chief left but with everyone still there.
And if you get fired for it that's not good for you.
Oh ... and while working for the police I simply never told people what I did
I'd have been better off to tell them I wa a mortician rather than working for the Police. That was worse than being a leper
“No comment†is boring and doesn’t let me vent when I need to.
yep... that's the cost of being a public figure; you have to do your venting in private.
I agree with you Aaron. I think its bad that people take a person's personal views and apply them to where they work. Heck, I have had it happen to me before. Hang in there buddy!!
I'm sorry you have to deal with that. Some people don't seem to understand that a company and a person for the company are not the same thing.
Some people, when brains were being handed out, thought the line was for trains, and went to the next line. (I rephrased it. Sorry if you don't like it.)