Censorship

I can see a couple reasons for this. They do have a feedback form for people to use, while that doesn't let us share our opinions as a group together on an apple provided forum, it does let us give them feedback. As far as their content outlines, I think it's mostly to prevent the information from becoming a collective of complaints or off topic posts that would be pretty useless to anyone that was really searching for help with a problem. That said, I do agree with the idea they should offer an e-mail only option! :)

That makes me want to switch right away.

I would say that the only appropriate response is to overload them with email about our distaste of .Mac. I only use the Homepage service for quickly tossing up snapshots to show people myself, so it appears as though a service that would allow you to pick and choose what you use would be best. I wouldn't mind paying just a bit for the ease of doing so. I would guess that they're getting the hint about this through weblogs and places like Metafilter and Slashdot, etc. They would probably gain in the long run to implement such suggestions instead of losing those of us that can't justify the cost of the whole service for our one bit of usage.

got an email from apple this morning about offering .mac for $49.99 this year for current users...did anyone else get this?

For current iTools members, you can get it for $49.95 for the first year, we have until Sept. 30th to sign up, and the year starts when/if we do. Something else to check out before you give Apple feedback about the package, is the TOS for the .Mac service, they leave a bit to be desired.

Here is the appropriate place for .Mac Feedback. It's a support forum, after all. Not a discussion site. It's not "censorship" to enforce that.

I have been seriously thinking about the big switch... however after the recent news about .mac and apple's OSX debacle.. i'm re-considering.

Socialism doesn't imply censoring of complaints. I think you mean fascism.

I'd have to agree that Apple has every right to delete off topic posts on their support forum. They *do* provide ways of giving feedback.

I'm not happy about the .mac situation, especially since permanent hooks to it are built into both the system and Apple's iApps. On the other hand, an awful lot of free services have fallen by the wayside or just disappeared and I'd rather see the services that Apple offers continue, even at a price. Just not $99 a year, take it all or leave it.

After calming down and thinking it through, 10.2's pricing seems fair. It's certainly cheaper than XP Pro and it's still the best OS I've found. (And the beta is really very, very fast.)

Socialist? You've got to be kidding. Apple is acting exactly as they should: as a corporation beholden to its shareholders to turn a profit. Just because us die-hard users want to feel warm and fuzzy about the company, or want to believe that it's the one true path (which, acutally, I DO kind of believe...) doesn't change that.

I'm not happy about the .Mac fiasco, but I'm getting a little sick of the gimmee gimmee gimmee bitterness of most of the users. So Apple changed their mind. So what, cut them a little slack considering all the things they do right. Frankly, I think Apple overestimated the math abilities of its users. I think there would be much less complaint if they had said "we're going to charge $8.33 a month for this service."

As for this specifically, you posted in the wrong forum. I see nothing wrong with removing comments about policy in a tech-support area.

Besides, if any political model symbolized Apple, it would surely have to be an oligarchy, and we can show our support by spraypainting an O within a circle all throughout our urban landscape.

"Welcome to Discussions
You'll find a community of experienced computer users who actively participate in these discussions and are ready to help. Please post your questions and comments regarding Apple products here after logging in. "

Notice the term comments? No this is a bit too much like control freakery

Thank you Martin. I needed that today.

t,

don't feel so bad. somebody should do a take on 1984 and switch and have the apple gestappo coming after .mac flee-ers. hehe. that'd roxxor.

-mathew

I can't see how some people *Martin* justify getting fu#$%ed by Apple. We already pay premium for their support, hardware and software. So I am sick of Apple's gimmee, gimmee, gimmee attitude. They should at the very least give us a free email address for our simple loyalty to the brand.

I have to agree with Derek. There's nothing I dislike more than wading through off-topic posts in support forums.

Let's face it, you're trying to get Apple to sit up and take notice -- one way of doing that is to be a little inappropriate in how you use their web site. Fair enough - I can appreciate guerilla tactics.

Own up to what you're doing, though -- don't whine when your protest is rightfully quieted -- something which is to be expected.

Don't dilute your .mac protest by switching the focus to less important issues and name-calling. If you want to effectively protest .mac, you gotta keep your eye on the ball. Stick to the facts -- I think they're strong enough.

Well, Ricky (or should I say "Ricky"), I bought my latest Mac, and sold my last Win box, after doing a little market research. For a similar box running any other system I would have paid a similar price, all things considered (Firewire, DVD/CD burner/etc etc). So, although I didn't buy a cheap computer, I don't feel that I paid a "premium" as you say. Do I feel "fu#$%ed " by Apple?

Well, with my box I got a free DVD burning software, music software, video editing software. I got $300 off of my monitor in a rebate, I got two OS's that I, personally, love. I was happy to pay for it, because I like the product. Oh, I also got some free neat stickers. I don't feel "fu#$%ed " at all, I feel that I made a concious choice as a consumer.

To top it off, it makes me money, works as a social tool (see exhibit A, this dialog), and I think it's really cool looking.

Personally, I have two .Mac addresses currently, which I'll let slide. I don't think it's worth my money for the services that they offer, but I certainly don't feel that Apple is acting in some way against their charter (which I believe to be making money--am I wrong on this?). I think that Apple is letting a service that they subsidize by charging you more in other areas pay for itself, which makes good sense to me.

Besides, the best form or protesting is to simply not buy, but all the incessant whining (and this I direct away from you Todd, who I think raises valid points very smartly even when I disagree with you) on the net is driving me frickin bonkers. Go to Pair.com and buy your own domain and hosting. Set up free emails for everybody you know, and offer it to millions of other people. Kind of expensive, I would guess.... But, if you're really for the idea of free email, it seems the political thing to do. Or, just keep it for yourself at less than the cost of .Mac so you're never at the mercy of anybody again. Then stop bitching and lets talk about something more productive, like how Macromedia is trying to screw us by not giving us free stuff. Or Adobe. Or Alias|Wavefront, or...or...or...or....

Does .Macs web page design and host have support php and mysql?

Martin has managed to say what I've been struggling to put into sentences about this whole thing. I don't think Apple has committed some mortal sin for all this, though with hindsight I think everybody can agree it could have been handled much better from the start by both sides.

And I really don't have a big beef paying for 10.2: it's a lot of money, yes, but it's been a long time since they released OS X. It's a pain, and I'm sure they're not all happy about it either, but it's commercial reality that everything costs money, and there's only so much fat in the margins on hardware.

"Apple is acting exactly as they should: as a corporation beholden to its shareholders to turn a profit."

I hope you remeber this comment when ever you bad mouth Microsoft about anything.

How dare you insult socialism!!

This is fascism, not socialism.

Do me a favor, try to figure out what socialism is about before using it as a swearword. Socialist countries (such as Norway) is all about democracy and letting the citizens say their part. In fact, I would claim that democracy is a lot healthier here with our numerous political parties than in the US where you only have a couple that seem to mirror each-other.

If this were socialism, .mac would be paid for by taxes, as would 10.2 upgrades, and we'd think of them as "free" but complain about how we weren't getting them in a timely fashion and how many forms we had to fill out to get 'em in the first place. And then we'd also complain about how high our taxes were, and then we'd vote in Tories and they'd lower taxes and eliminate/privatize Apple and then they'd charge for .mac and we'd be back where we started.

being a pc user all my life and seeing them try so hard to get PC users to
switch
cant see their logic in charging their loyal users for the .mac domain. They fail to see how much of an advertising an email address could be.

of course this isn't socialism - it's capitalism!

Hmm, your definition of socialism must be seriously screwed..