[kwlug-disc] Astroturf Farming

[Shane]

The "hooking" may be the result of various fears.  The fear of having made, and having to admit to having made, a bad decision.  The fear of throwing away years of effort to learn and who knows how much for licence fees.  The fear of being uncertain about future operations without the familiar, if flawed, MS system.  The fear of doing something nobody else is doing.

The trick is to show that these fears, and there are probably more, are not grounded in reality but in MS propaganda. 

================
It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog.

-----Original Message-----
From: Raul Suarez <rarsa at yahoo.com>
Sender: kwlug-disc-bounces at kwlug.org
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 08:51:05 
To: KWLUG discussion<kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
Reply-To: KWLUG discussion <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org>
Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] Astroturf Farming

--- On Wed, 6/23/10, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
> John Van Ostrand <john at netdirect.ca>
> wrote:
> > Members are encouraged to perform 4 activities
> promoting MS products, including writing articles, giving
> lectures, and starting a user group.
> 
> They never learn.  Community is challenging enough
> when it is sincere.

Community? I guess you can call it that. The students actually get hooked with "free" stuff and job promisses. Have you heard of laced candy?

When I lived in Mexico I used to feel so proud of all the free stuff I got from vendors. It made me feel important to receive invitations to launch events. To receive surveys because "they valued my input". Once I even got to talk to Steve Ballmer at an event.

And that was even though I didn't like Windows. My servers were Novell, and I was playing with the alternatives (OS/2, NeXT, early Linux, etc). Can you imagine how hooked the people that really like Windows are?

The onus is on us to show the alternatives to the new generations.

Raul Suarez

Technology consultant
Software, Hardware and Practices
_________________
Twitter: rarsamx
http://rarsa.blogspot.com/ 
An eclectic collection of random thoughts
 



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