>>why not acknowledge that your customers' perceptions are different than your intentions?  Why spin the situation, ask your customers if they even have jobs, if they even read your blog, which might be perceived as attempts to discredit their comments, rather than accepting their perceptions and opinions, and changing something about the way you communicate to fix it?

> Because both of you do not approach me in a rational way. If someone comes up to you at a party, and says "you're a jerk" without acknowledging your positive attributes that isn't an opening for a conversation about human improvement. It's just someone asking to fight. That's not rational.

I'm not sure what you mean by stating that I don't approach you in a rational way.  If a customer (or many customers) calls me a jerk, you can be damn sure I'll try to find out why before telling her to f*** off because she's wrong and I'm not a jerk.  These are customers we're talking about -- not some drunk jerk at a party!

>Huh? You obviously haven't read my blog. I say nice things about Google, Apple, Yahoo, and others all the time. You do note that a lot of the things I hype up on my blog are also running on Linux servers, right?

Does saying nice things about Google, Apple, Yahoo, and others make up for ninjagarden's perception that you trash stuff that isn't made by Microsoft?

>>nanite: maybe he should stop jumping all over google and firefox whenever they make a mistake.

>I was one of the first to come out and say I like Firefox and use it. Tell me, do employees of Coca Cola come and say they like Pepsi products? Doing this is very dangerous in corporate America. Do you even have a job?

Interesting.  nanite has the same perception.  Rather than dismissing it and asking him/her if he/she "even has a job", why not acknowledge that your customers' perceptions are different than your intentions?  Why spin the situation, ask your customers if they even have jobs, if they even read your blog, which might be perceived as attempts to discredit their comments, rather than accepting their perceptions and opinions, and changing something about the way you communicate to fix it?

In your response, you seem to take credit for every positive thing your customers have pointed out, and dismiss the negative.  How about throwing out the positive for a few minutes, and sitting down with all the negative, and trying to figure out what, if anything, you could be doing better?

I've noted this before, and I guess I'll note it again here.  I think what you do is awesome, and you do it well.  But, you could be more humble in communicating with our customers.  There's no need to attempt to discredit them, or tell them they don't understand the fundamentals of blogging, or point out your lucrative job offers, or tell them to unsubscribe when they tell you they haven't found your blog interesting or insightful...

I'd also hedge my bets that if threads like these continue, and you find yourself constantly arguing and dismissing harsh criticism and your readers' perceptions, you will eventually take a step back, realize you're unhappy and unappreciated, and take one of thoselucrative other job offers.  Fix it before that happens.