DNN sucks
Following with my rant about how certain projects in GDN suck (OK, I said GDN sucks, but I really meant that project, I did), I went over to DotNetNuke to download the latest release and install it on my dev machine to try something out. Lo and behold, nowadays you have to register with the site to actually download anything. Registration includes your name (last name first, first name last please), phone number, physical address, shirt size and the name of your 4th grade teacher. Uh. Well, I went over to BugmeNot and got a login, then went back to DNN to download.
But here's the kicker — the download link redirects you to SourceForge, where DNN is now obviously hosted (maybe it's been there for a while or forever, I don't know. It doesn't matter). So essentially the guy that runs DNN wants you to give up some personal information, no doubt to spam and junk you (their privacy statement is not exactly reassuring) to death.
I don't have a problem with people trying to make a living. Writing something like DNN is an investment in time and effort that is not trivial in any way (and besides, I don't think open source is a particularly smart way to make money, underpant gnomes notwhitstanding). But if you're going to release your warez as "open source" and then require people to register so you can make a few bucks and then redirect them to a website that requires no such thing to begin with, then you're being a bit dishonest, and worse, you're trying to hoodwink me into giving you information I don't want to share when I can just go to SourceForge and download it without fuss. And even worse, in my book that's also a bit of an insult. I don't think you're smart enough to figure out how to download this from somewhere else so please fill this out, sign this with blood here, here, here and here, and I'll let you have it, kthx
I think this is the classic open source "success story". Guy releases code, code becomes wildly popular, guy tries to make a buck, everyone complains, code becomes irrelevant and unsupported (or is bought by some company that charges so much for it that no one buys it, ever), no one remembers guy (or code). We've seen it a hundred times. So why not just be a bit honest, release the code without resorting to a free project hosting service, don't call it "open source" (or "free" or "Free" or whatever) and do the registration thing so you can sell the information to your "partners", make a few bucks and be done with it? Why the subterfuge?
Geez. Well, in any case I'm not going to do whatever I wanted to do with the GDN code now — first of all I lost time writing this blog entry and second I'm a tad pissed. Charge $10 bucks for it but be honest about it and I'll buy it. Do this type of thing and expect to be ignored.
