A Blog About Making Culture
Fanboys Are Stupid, But You Are Not
November 2, 2007
Phew! A warm welcome to my regular readers, now that I've had the misfortune of being visited by the worst of the rest of the web's audience. I should have known that writing anything even mildly critical of Apple, or anything that appeared to be a Mac-vs.-Windows post would have brought the idiocy, but even my jaded expectations couldn't anticipate how stupid things got after I mentioned that I didn't like smugness, as typified by an icon.
Some highlights from the rest of the web, in response to the post:
- A nice How-To from Engadget, for people who want to switch out that icon on their Macs running OS X 10.5. Ryan Block also sent me a really nice email about my post, which was not only flattering but made me realize he probably knows exactly what it's like to be in front of a fanboy shitstorm and can see one coming a mile away.
- An amusing take from Fake Steve Jobs, which I particularly appreciated because Dan Lyons was being a mensch after I vented about his dissing of blogs when he was first outed. And I wouldn't want to be perceived as a negative person; Negative people upset me. Of course, his comments probably set the record for the race to the bottom -- this guy called me "Anal" in the very first comment, which usually takes at least four or five comments. I'd have thought this guy was in my junior high school, given how quickly he went to that tired-ass taunt, but since he's almost fifty years old, according to his profile, he probably did not. (Honorable mention to this kid from Brooklyn, who figured I must work in a call center, because I'm Indian. GET IT?!)
- Significantly more satisfying is Chris Owens' response, which includes his own custom icon that does exactly what I'd thought OS X should do -- use a variation of the Boot Camp logo to represent Windows. Consistent, still slightly deprecating (pulls all the color out of the Windows logo, and rotates it so there's a cleverly dismissive negative-space "X", but doesn't actually go for the Calvin-pees-on-your-logo gag) but overall very sensible.
- A couple of actual Windows pundits weighed in, Paul Thurrott and Ed Bott. I said in my post, "I'm just pretty consistent in my assessments of technology", but what I should have said is that I try to do that. Part of the reason is because being a Windows fanboy is as awkward and ugly as being a Mac fanboy is sneering and arrogant. Yuck.
- And then in my own comments, the world's most compelling argument for getting rid of anonymity on the web. There's a couple of dozen "get a life" comments, paired with an equal number of appeals asking me to get a sense of humor. (Hey, I'm the goatse guy! Mr. Lolcat
) There are the expected number of people who didn't read the post, accusing me of either being a Mac or Windows partisan (I use both.). From there to Dennis adding a comment that says, in its entirety, "dick", followed by guys masquerading as Steve Jobs (predictable), Steve Ballmer (unsurprising), and Osama Bin Laden (what the fuck?), things get increasingly disturbing.
What I learned is that I have really thick skin -- the personal attacks, even the couple of emails saying I should be the victim of violence for my feelings about icons, didn't really bother me at all. What can I say, I guess I'm just used to stupidity on the Internet. If the traffic from an Engadget post isn't enough to bring the stupid, then that post getting on Digg's homepage will do the trick.
But what I did find disheartening is being reminded just how many people don't even try to think about or rethink their preconceptions. They'd picked teams on this completely meaningless debate ages ago, and are still spending time fighting some war that will never be won. I can be kind of bothered by it, shrug my shoulders, get over it, and move on, and they'll be off to the next thread or the next article looking to restate their same completely unconsidered opinion, in the same words, but maybe just a little bit more shrill. All this despite the fact that the general is not at war. I wish I had contact info for more of them -- I want to understand them at an anthropological level. Was mom's cooking tonight lousy? Did the Xbox get a red ring? Was that Facebook poke just there to mock you? What was it, son, that made you want to click from Digg to Engadget to my blog just to say say "BSOD??! I thought it was teh [sic] Vista spalsh [sic] screen.. But seriuously.. [sic] get a life. Compalining [sic] about this is so anally retentive, so MS."
And these guys miss really obvious stuff. I'd assumed that, as soon as I put a photo of myself looking like a deadly serious member of a boy band on the top of my blog, people would know that I was kind of mocking my self-importance a little bit. Not so. There's lots of comments about "you have a picture of yourself in a pink shirt trying to look all serious on your blog!" I find it comforting to think that at least you, my regular readers, know that I'm making fun of myself.
Now, who should I piss off next?
Previously: Smug Ugly
Rory
Speaking of consistency, I was amused to find that the first thing I read after this post was a quote of the day from Bernard Berenson: “Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.”
I’m not saying it applies to you (necessarily :P) but it tickled me.
Chris Abell
I’ve got to say, the language you used in your previous article was pretty vitriolic - it reads as though you’d taken genuine offence. To me, Apple’s inclusion of a BSoD icon was a cheeky dig and a very clever way of promoting their shiny new hi-res icons.
Apple has a history of knocking Microsoft, sure - but there’s always humour behind it - and don’t the big targets make for the best jokes? :)
Having recently returned to the Mac faithful after 10 years of software development on Windows and Unix, I’ve found my childhood companion almost unrecognisable - but a pleasure to use in almost every situation.
Apple fanboyism is generally a reaction to the sheer pleasure of working on a Mac. Remember: the vast majority of its user base will, at some point in their lives, have spent a considerable amount of time on Windows. Conversely, Microsoft’s equally partisan supporters are often ignorant of anything but “The World according to Gates”.
I enjoy both platforms - I like the easy logic of MS (everything’s where you’d expect it to be) - but equally, I like the fact that the Mac only shows you what you need - and the rest’s hidden away in the terminal for us geeks to explore in our own time.
Keep up the good work - and don’t let the bstrds get you down. :D
Rich Ziade
I call this phenomena the “touring riot.” Anyone who blogs regularly knows its generally a relatively peaceful, often times fun experience. You sort of get to know your “regulars” that visit and comment. It becomes a loose little clique.
Then you get Dugg (or the equivalent)…
And everyone’s seen that scene in the movie where the small town silence is broken by the motorcycle gang that comes roaring through town. Normalcy sort of goes out the window. There’s a lot of shouting and screaming. You’re lucky if an insightful/thoughtful blurb gets through.
…and then the gang leaves town. You captured that nicely in this post here. Basement.org’s been Dugg a few times and its such a weird, surreal kind of social experience b/c you’re both excited (flattered?) and sort stupified that there’s massive crowd standing outside your house. And then they leave.
The glimmer of hope is that once the noise ebbs, there’s always some new fans/friends that remain that can add a lot the real, ongoing conversation.
And you gotta admit…it’s fun :).
Anonymous
I don’t really care that much about this whole icon kerfluffel, and I whole-hardedly agree that it’s “disheartening…being reminded just how many people don’t even try to think about or rethink their preconceptions.”
But to make a small point, I think you’re mistaken that Mac vs. Windows is a “completely meaningless debate”. I’ll admit that most of the discourse on the web surrounding the debate is “meaningless,” but software user interface and experience design is of vital importance to anyone who uses a computer.
Of course, opinions are subjective, no company is perfect, etc, but on the whole I believe Apple is working towards, and succeeding at, making computer users lives’ easier and more enjoyable, while Microsoft, whatever their noble intentions may be, have been failing on these fronts for the past decade and deserve to be called to task.
Also, I’d ask how much time do you spend on each of the platforms? Have you tried recently going all-OSX for a few weeks?
Chris Johanesen
I don’t really care that much about this whole icon kerfluffel, and I whole-hardedly agree that it’s “disheartening…being reminded just how many people don’t even try to think about or rethink their preconceptions.”
But to make a small point, I think you’re mistaken that Mac vs. Windows is a “completely meaningless debate”. I’ll admit that most of the discourse on the web surrounding the debate is “meaningless,” but software user interface and experience design is of vital importance to anyone who uses a computer.
Of course, opinions are subjective, no company is perfect, etc, but on the whole I believe Apple is working towards, and succeeding at, making computer users lives’ easier and more enjoyable, while Microsoft, whatever their noble intentions may be, have been failing on these fronts for the past decade and deserve to be called to task.
Also, I’d ask how much time do you spend on each of the platforms? Have you tried recently going all-OSX for a few weeks?
Matt Haughey
I’ve been around this block a lot with PVRblog and I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem is “nuance and subtlety don’t scale”.
Here’s the recipe for disaster:
take a big obvious thing
mention a subtle point that makes you rethink the obvious
commence beating via comments
In this case, you had the big obvious joke of the BSOD and of course the first time I heard about it I thought “wow, they really shipped that? that’s hilarious!” but your post pointed out a subtle but important point: in the typical mac house, you might have one old windows box as a file server, and that icon is mocking you, the person that just paid $130 to Apple. That made me rethink it and I agreed with your point of view, it was arrogant of Apple to still do these kinds of things and yeah it’s kind of lame to put a joke in about “those windows owners” when a lot of mac owners are counted among them.
The types of blog posts that go badly are the ones that would otherwise go well if it was a one-on-one conversation. I have conversations with friends like this all the time “Hey, did you see that one thing? Wasn’t it hilarious? No? Oh, I never thought of it that way, you’re right.” but when you try and scale that up to one-on-ten-thousand you tend to lose the subtle points and people can’t get past the big obvious thing and then start attacking you for noticing the small thing that’s actually important.
Stefan Hayden
well if you’re saying the fanboys are gone then congrats. Seemed like a short shit storm from the masses. Though it might have seemed longer to you since you were living it.
Terren
You can’t really expect newcomers to your blog to know you’re mocking yourself with your own banner image. I certainly didn’t until I read this post. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking yourself seriously, either, but if you balance it with humor then some people won’t assume you’re a dick.
I also don’t believe you have thick skin. Which makes being a public persona hard, but I also think having some vulnerability is what makes you human. Just keep it up and don’t let the bastards get you down.
Jason Wall
:)
Derek K. Miller
As a total Apple fanboy, I appreciated your post. Others noted that the BSOD Windows icon had been there in developer betas, and I think many of us assumed Apple would replace it at release time, leaving that as a little in-joke for the previews, just as the “Redmond, start your photocopiers” banners at Apple’s developer conferences are. (It’s not like those banners show up in the windows of Apple Stores.)
It is a small thing, but I agree that it’s just slightly over the line — the old-style beige 14” monitor would have been more subtle. Those of us who’ve used Macs (and Apple IIs before that) for a long time have long suspected that a world where Apple had really “won” the OS wars wouldn’t be all that much fun to live in. This and some other recent behaviour — iPhone bricking, unnecessary requirements for licensed chips to output video from new iPods — may confirm that.
I think Anil’s reaction, and similar vaguely uncomfortable ones from sensible fanboys, to this small but indicative choice, tells us that Apple isn’t the underdog anymore. It’s okay to be scrappy and bit rude when you’re under the thumb of The Man. When you’re becoming The Man yourself, it becomes a tad unseemly.
Raffy
Ya know, I was “first post!” on that Smug Ugly writeup…and I used it to show the love. The minority of us that aren’t slashdot-troll-reincarnates do appreciate the new viewpoints we stumble across on the web. I guess that’s why you have a blog in the first place…at least I hope it is. And trolls come and go and the good readers stay, though they are often quiet.
Liana
There’s enough energy here to power the city of San Francisco. We’re talking about an icon. Anil is sharing his opinion. Threats of violence? Really.
Thanks, Anil, for being man enough not to hide behind anonymity. I find value in well written opinion whether I agree or not. Well done.
Tom
First, it’s a shame about the Indian call center crap and the “Anal” name. The former because it’s just wrong-headed thinking, and the latter because, come on, where’s the originality? I sometimes think half the population (myself included) has a name that’s just too easy to make fun of. After the third grade it gets old.
Second, I like your blog, but freely admit I think your “Smug Ugly” article was nuts. I blogged about it myself. You took a little joke way too seriously, and ascribed to it in a near-maniacal manner intent that I don’t see how a rational person could think was ever there. You can certainly claim it was a bad joke and hate it. You can even call it childish, but where you went with your article did not logically follow from one icon.
Third, it’s way too easy to just blame Apple fanboys. That argument is 20 years old and doesn’t hold. Please consider that maybe, just maybe, many people genuinely thought you went way overboard attributing monstrous characteristics to a corporation (any corporation) for a small joke.
Finally, plenty of Apple-bashers weighed in on it too, and last I checked they are easily as obnoxious as those you ridicule from the other side. Further, there’s a lot more of them. Much of the “support” you got was due solely to the fact that you were knocking Apple. They couldn’t have cared less for what reason you knocked them, they just jumped on board.
Anonymous
What I learned is that I have really thick skin
You are completely kidding yourself. People with thick skins don’t go on and on about a phenomenon that everyone experiences on the internet. They’re too busy ignoring it.
Tony
What I want to know is this: did you get any phone calls about it?
sabizak
I loved the piece and am comforted by the idea that there are people in the world who do not see any reason to take sides in this juvenile debate.
Digifiend
I can’t say that the Apple fanboi shitstorm surprises me in the least. The only thing that approaches that level of nonsense is the linux lovers brigade. Those two groups and expression of their inane loyalties remind me of wrestling fans.
As bandwidth increases, costs drop and important apps get shifted from local to remote locations, it won’t matter if the terminal is designed by a bunch of Califonia hippies, euro-hacks, or chinese inspired Wal-Mart drones. Who am I kidding, there will then be a call for fruit and open source calculator apps.
Britt
I’ll guess we’ll have to add one more thing not to discuss in polite company: religion, politics, and operating systems.
ac
I loved the way Avinash Kaushik of Occam’s Razor put it, “the distance between a story and its intended audience is only two pixels”.
intended audience!
Lately I’ve seen a lot of good bloggers get subtler and subtler - so only their intended audience get their posts - and any shit storms full of idiots are wholly avoided.
And if the shit storm ever comes back, remember what the wise penguin from Madagascar said “just smile and wave boys, just smile and wave”.
Hallenbeck 
As a little impromptu analysis on all this, I asked a few people around the office here (a couple of them being Mac users) if they knew what a BSOD was. Apart from the two IT people I asked, no-one had the faintest clue what I was talking about, even when showing them a picture of the now infamous icon. For the most part, ordinary Windows users haven’t seen a BSOD since about 2002 when XP had taken hold.
So there’s an interesting take (to my eyes anyway) on all this: the joke is lost on most (ordinary) users which means that the icon itself must seem pretty nonsensical and weird to those who don’t know what a BSOD is. This being the case, surely this “little joke” is simply a bad design decision that panders to an elite few who “get it”? That’s not very in keeping with the general Apple philosophy of ease-of-use, accessibility and friendliness (anyone remember when Macs used to smile when you turned them on?)
But really all this is just an example of the way things are these days. The sky is blue, shit stinks, people with an affinity to a particular piece of technology become feral if you criticise that technology. I bet there are psychologists and anthropologists out there somewhere studying this kind of behaviour already.
Anyway, FWIW, I found myself mostly agreeing with your sentiments: smugness just isn’t funny.
Anonymous
Congratulations, you’ve just proven what we all thought: that you are, in fact, utterly without a sense of humor, or empathy, or humility, or any ability to learn from your mistakes. And now we know why:
“What I learned is that I have really thick skin — the personal attacks, even the couple of emails saying I should be the victim of violence for my feelings about icons, didn’t really bother me at all.”
That’s because you’re a sociopath. If the horrified reactions of others to the crap that spews from your mouth has no effect on you, you are lacking the traits that make the rest of us human. You are one sexual dysfunction away from being a serial killer.
Please keep using Windows, and stay away from the Mac, we don’t need the bad press when you’re found wearing a hooker’s skull for a hat.
Vidiot
^^^^^^^^ C’mon, we all know that Anil wears hookers’ skulls as shoes, not hats. Don’t we?
Smugness is, as you note, never an attractive trait — whether or not the smugness is justified, and whether or not the source is entirely flawless.
As you point out, it’s just tacky and makes the source look bad. I’ve long wondered why Fox News (and now Fox Business) persists in adopting such an assholish, taunting tone in their spokespeoples’ statements, even after Fox eclipsed CNN in the cable news ratings wars. It reeks of insecurity and neediness.
bob
“Now, who should I piss off next?”
Linux users!!! :D
Anonymous
more power to you. apple are being smug - i dont mind the cat-names but ironicallly in its latest cat-incarnation (‘leopard’) it shares little of the speed of its namesake. this latest upgrade has given me more problems than i went through installing any windows os. so your blog was spot on - at a time when they should tone down the arrogance given that their “it just works” strengths are faltering with leopard.
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