A (silly?) request regarding the mention of Microsoft here

[Geo]

I think if site staff was regulary using "M$" there might be a point to be made that we ought not to do so, in the same way we ought not regularly (other than the very infrequent ironic use) to use "NVidiot" or "fanATIc".

But that we don't force our visitors to not use it as valid criticism of the site, or some sort of proof that we're running an Anti-Microsoft operation here? Umm, that strikes me as a passive-aggressive effort to get us to fight their image battles for them. I can't see us having that responsibility, but that's a personal opinion rather than a statement of site policy.

 

[London Geezer]

Surely you mean bitty ? Or there's the movie and t-shirt. Honestly LB, a post without links is just not on...

yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but yeah but no but

 

[digitalwanderer]

But that we don't force our visitors to not use it as valid criticism of the site, or some sort of proof that we're running an Anti-Microsoft operation here? Umm, that strikes me as a passive-aggressive effort to get us to fight their image battles for them.

Well put, although I would have added a "nyah-nyah!" to it.

 

[Skrying]

I see a lot more of the use of such terms in the console forum, where bias is really pretty damn heavy if you ask me. Its hard to not read a thread in there and want to e-slap someone because of their use of such terms. Its not really limited to something like "M$" though, which is pretty minor. But I do think it reflects badly on people when they do such things and I honestly do tend to avoid their posts when they do it on a regular basis.

 

[3dilettante]

I don't get it. I'd kill to work for a company that's become such a presence in the zeitgeist of the net that it's been given a full 2 characters in the ASCII set as its mark.

It's like how we call tissues Kleenex or cottons swabs Q-tips, only geekier.

Who cares how or why your company is referred to as a unique set of symbols, you've got the street cred or fear or loathing directed at you that shows you're part of something so bad-ass or feared that it's appropriated for its own use two keys on the keyboard in concert with shift.

M$ is like Sting, or whatever the hell symbol Prince had is called, or Celine, or some other unique and singular portion of the popular consciousness.
Let's break M$ down: there's M for mmmmm goodness, and $ for wealth.
Sound it out, it's Mcash, or mmmmcash. Your company is known as delicious richness, you devil's food cake of binary goodness, you.

Cheer up micro-softies, you're part of the Sting of pasty-white nerddom, the ACME of the Roadrunner cartoon that is the internet, the "miserable failure" search term that is the Google-bomb of the consumer software market.

What do they want the company abbreviated as? MS? They want to be referred to as a debilitating auto-immune disease?

If they can pick what abbreviation they are referred to, I demand that I be referred to as 3d, thus taking my own share of two keys on the keyboard and requiring royalties, if for whatever reason someone should uses those letters in the three-dimensional graphics field. It may seem unlikely anyone here would use those two things together on a board devoted to graphics, but you never know.

 

[Reverend]

Personally, I think anyone from M$ who complains about this should have better things to do. They should just sit back on their big pile of money,

The Microsoft guys that wrote me do not have big piles of money to sit on, not that I know of anyway (they do however have "manager" status). I guess this is a bit like NVIDIA where lots of folks don't like the company but some of the NV employees I know work hard, love what they do and they get treated well by NV and it's understandable if they don't quite like the animosity shown towards the company they work for.

Maybe this is just the kind of (wrong) association they meant?

 

[BRiT]

If you filter out M$ then you should also filter out $ony and any other possible or conceivable combination. I know, lets just filter out the $ character.

 

[Fodder]

Letting people use M$ is important as it makes it far easier for the rest of us to identify and ignore juvenile posters.

 

[digitalwanderer]

The Microsoft guys that wrote me do not have big piles of money to sit on, not that I know of anyway (they do however have "manager" status). I guess this is a bit like NVIDIA where lots of folks don't like the company but some of the NV employees I know work hard, love what they do and they get treated well by NV and it's understandable if they don't quite like the animosity shown towards the company they work for.

We're supposed to be so understanding of their angst over this that we put aside our own hard feelings against the company they work for just to make 'em feel a bit more warm and fuzzy when they come here?

If they're that sensitive about things, mebbe they're better off not visiting public forums.

Maybe this is just the kind of (wrong) association they meant?

They are as welcome as anyone else to start a thread discussing their feelings on the matter and getting input from other members about that, but they'd best understand that as much as their happy feelings about their employer are righteous/justified so are many of the bitter/nasty feelings held towards their employer by some members here.

 

[Arun]

Letting people use M$ is important as it makes it far easier for the rest of us to identify and ignore juvenile posters.

Bingo. (purely imo, at least)

Uttar

 

[Rys]

If anyone at Microsoft who uses the resources here has a concern about anything, just drop me a line. rys @ beyond3d.com gets email to me, or PM me on the forums.

For me, the usage of M$ is childish and almost entirely out of place on a technology website where the populous is smart enough to use otherwise, but it's so infrequently used that I've never seen it as a big issue. But if anyone feels otherwise, just drop me a private line or use Site Feedback.