[mythtv-users] THIS IS A NON-COMMERCIAL MAILING LIST (WAS: Re: Torc for iOS - Application Submitted to the App Store for Review)

[Simon Hobson]

Chris Pinkham wrote:

>  > Oh come off it Chris, this is of high interest to many people. If that
>>  is the case please make sure you never discuss schedules direct, which
>>  charges.
>
>Schedules Direct doesn't come into the -users list for support. SD has
>its own forums.  SD is also a non-profit.  If Hauppauge or Ceton or
>NVidia or ATI or Intel or anyone else came in here advertising or
>using this as a support channel for their commercial products, we'd
>say the same thing to them.

I think I'm inclined to side with Nick on this one. Fundamentally 
this app has one function - to make the experience of using MythTV 
and Torc on an iPad great. As I've read the thread, he's not been 
here pushing it (apart from an announcement that it was happening and 
that it's been submitted) - rather that he's been answering genuine 
questions from MYTHTV USERS about using something WITH MYTHTV. Ie, 
apart from a couple of short posts (and at the time of most of them, 
I don't think this was commercial), the bulk of his posts have been 
in response to questions from MythTV users.

Now, if someone from (say) Ceton or Silicon Dust were on this list, 
and answered questions about using their product with MythTV, would 
you really tell then to sod off ? Or would you actually be thinking 
"great, a manufacturer prepared to help MythTV users ?". I'm on quite 
few mailing lists for a variety of subjects, and I don't think any of 
them would SHOUT SUCH A MESSAGE AT A VENDOR OFFERING ADVICE IN SUCH A 
MANNER - did you *really* need to use all caps in your subject ?


And if we're being pedantic, then look at the wording : "... 
advertisement or support of any commercial products, whether they be 
MythTV related or not"

So no discussion of support of cable services, satellite services, 
commercial streaming services, commercial listing services, tuner 
cards, remote controls, hard disks, video cards, TVs, the list goes 
on. Doesn't exactly leave a lot to discuss !
Just for good measure, discussion of hooking up a 
satellite/cable/whatever box via analogue to a capture card breaches 
the DMCA - but it's discussed openly. The use of CableCards is 
discussed openly, but discussion of CAM/CI is forbidden even where it 
is perfectly legal (yes I do understand where that comes from, but 
still ...)
So there does seem to be a lot of "selective application of rules" 
when deciding what is and isn't permissible.

You may have a point and consider Robert to be promoting his app. You 
could have been polite about requesting it to stop - your shouted 
demand (what else is a block of all caps ?) was not a polite request.


Lastly, I really have to wonder if you would have acted the same had 
the Torc project never forked off - ie this app was purely MythTV 
related.

-- 
Simon Hobson

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