Ladies and Gentlemen... Friends...
In this particular issue, I must impose my now-retired Amiga.org persona and point out that two wrongs don't make a right.
Brad Webb was wrong in misusing his position as a respected "journalist" in this community to promote his own overt opinions. That much is plain to see as a lot of you who are now slamming Dave have openly admitted. While you may or may not be able to overlook it, Brad's comments are certainly no worse than those of some "defenders" (is that term less objectionable than "cheerleader"?) we have had to contend with in this community for a while now.
On the other hand, and I say this with all due respect to Dave Crawford and the rest of the Amiga.org staff (who are otherwise doing a fabulous job), Dave (aka Targhan) -- IMHO -- stepped over a thin line with posting his opinion as a news article on the site. A forum post would have been warranted. A post of Brad's article with Dave's comments as the first would have been warranted. A news article it is not.
In that particular way, Dave lost a little bit of his own unbiased view, and to those of you whom he offended, I ask that you step back and realize how truly "offensive" Brad's biased viewpoint is to those who are proverbially slaving away to give classic Amiga owners a real alternative for the future.
So, who is really wrong in this situation? The man who said it? Or perhaps the man who retorted? I suppose this is an instance where I could just as easily said "neither.... or both..."
Initially, as I checked my messages late this evening, I thought to close the thread here. Xoops doesn't allow that, so I thought to simply remove the item altogether but that would kill 90 posts and not be taken well by either "side".
Humorously, I remembered that neither is strictly my "job" any more, and I hate to go all Rodney King on you, but I leave you with one comment.
This community has survived 8 years without Commodore. This community has survived 3 years of Amiga Inc. We have grown up together, we have all had good moments and bad. Now that there are good things happening for the community by way of several available alternative options, it is radicalism and closed-mindedness which is destroying the community that WE built. (NOT Commodore. Not Amiga International, NOT Escom, NOT Amiga Inc., and NOT Genesi). Closed-mindedness is NOT what the Amiga has ever been about. Quite the contrary.
If we don't stop the bullshit and start getting along, there will be nothing left worth fighting over. While it's cool to have a preference, let the products do the talking, not the religion.
