I just upvoted this article and now I feel dirty. I did it because I agree with it and want to sock one to those Apple fanboys, but there just isn't any substance here. Normally I upvote something because I think its interesting and (or) I want to see what the rest of the HN community says about it. Upvoting to agree, or to express an opinion not about the article itself, seems to be a problem in need of addressing in social news sites.
Agreed. Voting up things to express opinions is exactly why Reddit became overrun with Ron Paul posts. I'd rather not see Hacker News devolve into OS/browser/editor/etc wars.
Interesting. Is this a DH1 response or a DH2 response? (http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html) Maroon seems to inspire lots of highly charged responses, both positive and negative. But it seems that most of these stem from his acerbic and slightly glib writing style. His biggest critics are critics of his tone, I think. Not critics of actual content.
How long are we going to have to put up with the ridiculous labeling of every post. If you like Paul's article, fine, use it as your own frame of reference. But please don't litter News YC with your analysis of what is DH1 and what is DH2.
The cult of mac is really interesting when you see it from a business perspective. It is similar to a religious cult in many respects - A sense of being superior to others, near-total devotion to their god (sorry, couldn't resist...), ,the constant need to tell the world that their way is the only right way. And they have a charismatic leader.
This is what it is, and not all mac fans are like this - but many are. Whatever Apple puts on the market they will buy. And they will tell all their friends about it - whether they like it or not.
This has to be one of the best marketing ploys ever deceived by man, Apple has thousands and thousands of fanatical marketing representatives in coffee shops all over the world who are ready to tell everyone of the superiority of the mac. I think that this cult is a primary success factor for Apple, evidenced by the fact that under Sculley's reign at Apple shares fell, and Apple wasn't cool. When Jobs came back he got the cult going again, and they are now heading for new heights.
Do you know what else was a "great marketing" ploy by Apple? Making products that were better than their competitors. Customer evangalists aren't created by a marketing team - they are created by making great products.
Your cult references could be pretty much be applied to fans of anything: the Yankees, the Beatles, some restaurant, or even YCombinator. It's certainly not exlcusive to Apple.
No it's certainly not exclusive to Apple, and your examples of other instances of this phenomenon are good - My point is just how much they have perfected it.
Oh - and look at the posts in relation to this post that got downmodded - what other company would be able to convince it's customers to actually start modding something that is the least bit negative about their product down?
"This is what it is, and not all mac fans are like this - but many are. Whatever Apple puts on the market they will buy."
Same for Windows, Linux, etc. It used to amaze me the level of devotion to Acorn computers during the 90s, when they were sinking fast in terms of market share. It took years to convince my boss to buy PCs instead, despite Acorns often being 2x more expensive.
I drive a car because it gets me from A to B. I use a Linux server because it's secure and doesn't eat resources. I do Windows consultancy because it pays the bills. I use a Mac because I like it and it's a productive environment. We should ignore the fan-boys because they'll never change, and articles like this one certainly won't change them.
"And they will tell all their friends about it - whether they like it or not."
LOL, especially the "whether they like it or not" part is so true ;-) I still think it is mostly cognitive dissonance ("I paid so much for this stuff, it has to be good or I'll look like an idiot").
