Yes, the guy was out there -- but does waving chat logs like this around for people to gawk at really belong on the front page of a supposedly educational foundation's website? It sure did get linked around, so it's certainly advertising... but by no means is it educational and it's still very much the general antagonistic and lulzy behavior I've come to expect from these people and how they choose to run their community and maintain their web presence.
At the end of the day, the RPi only feels 'educational' flavored for marketing for me. It may not for you, that's cool too. People are going to do educational things with the RPi, but they're going to do it in spite of how the RPi Foundation are running things since now the meme of this board being 'educational' has been cemented.
... Though given they're already talking about on their own blog[1] how the board may not be around in a few years, I suspect we'll have another 'educational' board (with a new Broadcom chip, natch) to purchase for cheap. It'll be just as revolutionary as the others on the market at the time, I'm sure.
> does waving chat logs like this around for people to gawk at really belong on the front page of a supposedly educational foundation's website?
It's a post on "the blog" which for 24 hours or so (if post timestamps are to be believed), was the first thing anyone looking at the website saw.
And yes, since they are a non-profit, and some idiot is wasting their time trying to weasel out a $35 gift from them, I don't see a problem with shaming to prevent recurrence.
The rpi foundation IS a non-profit. As someone with some experience in hardware design and in entrepreneurship, I see EVERYTHING they've done is along those lines. Your snark and disbelief of that is completely unwarranted, and speaks volume about you, rather than about the rpi foundation. They have some ideals and principals, but are extremely pragmatic, and if that bothers you (as it seems to do), you are welcome to ignore them.
They're STILL on track, as far as I know, to produce a $25 board that's useful for education. If you think they are chasing profits, please explain how that is possible. Their $35 model is STILL significantly cheaper than any comparable commercial offering (I found one vendor in Singapore offering an MK802 for $46, the rest are >$50; cubieboard is $50 but not yet available; RPi is available from multiple vendors including for-profit ones for $35-$40).
If they tried to make more profit, they would have priced it higher - demand definitely supports a higher priced point. And by NOT chasing profits, they've actually brought down the prices from anyone else.
Well, the title says it all: a prankster tries to extort $35 from a non-profit. Word of advice for others that might be thinking about doing the same: don't. Or prepare to be shamed publicly.
While I also felt strange to see such a Michael Arrington-move on the homepage, it was impossible to not laugh about the idiotic effort of this guy trying to convince them to get a freebie. And what a persistent prankster he was. Towards the end it became more obvious that probably he was just a kid, having fun and practicing his social engineering skills.
Anyway, shame on him, for wasting people's time. Try picking one of the big guys next time, that have deep pockets and vast call centers (and lawyers) to deal with idiots. And btw, TI, Microchip, Renesas, all have trial programs for hobbyists, no social engineering required.
Again, I don't want to speak on behalf of R-Pi or Liz, but I don't think she's doing this just for lulz, at all. It's really a pain to manage social communities, especially tech ones. 1% of the users cause 90% of your nightmares, so you need to have a bit of humor (even if it's dark humor; it's a British foundation after all).
Yes, the guy was out there -- but does waving chat logs like this around for people to gawk at really belong on the front page of a supposedly educational foundation's website? It sure did get linked around, so it's certainly advertising... but by no means is it educational and it's still very much the general antagonistic and lulzy behavior I've come to expect from these people and how they choose to run their community and maintain their web presence.
At the end of the day, the RPi only feels 'educational' flavored for marketing for me. It may not for you, that's cool too. People are going to do educational things with the RPi, but they're going to do it in spite of how the RPi Foundation are running things since now the meme of this board being 'educational' has been cemented.
... Though given they're already talking about on their own blog[1] how the board may not be around in a few years, I suspect we'll have another 'educational' board (with a new Broadcom chip, natch) to purchase for cheap. It'll be just as revolutionary as the others on the market at the time, I'm sure.
[1]: http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2519