There are so many holes in that argument it makes a slice of Swiss cheese
look like a neutron star.
AFAIK, MathType and Equation Editor are not MSFT products - just like (for
example) Adobe Acrobat is not a MSFT product. Both work with Word and
other Office products, but when there are questions about Acrobat/PDF
maker, I don't see reps from Adobe posting answers here. The usual
response from the community is "contact Adobe support". Accordingly,
rather than prowl the MSFT NGs looking for lost lambs, I would expect
Design Science to host their own user support forums and for this
community (or even Bob) to direct posters to it as need be.
And while I'm sure referring posters to the Design Science FAQs is the
correct response in many cases, this particular thread is clearly not one
such case. No one asked a question, and there is no reference to said FAQs
anywhere apart from this particular post. This thread was initiated as
advertising plain and simple - with or without the magic [ANN] label - and
the Rules of Conduct clearly ask posters to refrain from such activities.
In addition, as Doug points out, it was posted separately to multiple NGs,
which fits my definition of SPAM as well. (However, as Bob has since
apologised for this oversight, I'm not especially concerned about it.)
In any case, there is still a big difference between you (note that I
don't say "us" because I'm no longer part of the in crowd) referring
posters to the MSFT knowledge base or the MVP website or "personal" sites
like yours, Greg's, Graham's, Shauna's, etc. For the most part, none of
you have a direct financial interest in directing traffic to any of those
sites. Oh sure some of you might own a bit of MSFT stock and thus may have
a highly-tenuous interest in the success of MSFT, and the owners of the
personal sites may advertise their services or generate a tiny bit of
revenue from Google ads and the like, but that hardly compares to a full
e-commerce storefront.
Finally, I still say that this thread looks like SPAM, and as such I
believe it's fair game for doing what I was trying to do: determine if my
MVP status has been revoked. As was evident from my second post in this
thread, it clearly has been revoked so my goal has been met. And had you
just stayed out of it, the peace and harmony of the community - something
that you've preached to me about so many times before - would have been
considerably less disturbed. One day maybe you'll figure out that this is
NOT your own personal newsgroup and give up on sticking your nose into
everything. Until that day comes I suggest that you at least refrain from
posting in response to my posts. If I ever need or want your help (or the
help of the clearly smitten Mr Daniels), I'll ask for - and you can rest
assured it'll be a long time before that request is made.
Suzanne S. Barnhill said:
It is true that Bob works for Design Science. Part of his job is to help
MathType and Equation Editor users in these NGs. He therefore keeps an
eye on the NGs for posts with questions on those specific topics. If he
has few posts, it is because there are few questions. When he refers
users to the Design Science FAQs, it is because they answer the users'
questions, in the same way that we refer them to MSKB pages or articles
at our own Web sites.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
Gordon Bentley-Mix said:
Now I'm confused. Does posting it separately to multiple newsgroups -
with or without the [ANN] label - make it SPAM or not SPAM?
And if I posted a link to some dodgy website but signaled properly,
would it be OK? Of course, I'm assuming that I fit the "valued
contributor" category, having until _very_ recently been an MVP and
having posted more than five times in the last three months (and in none
of my posts have I ever advised someone to visit a website or use a
product that I'm personally associate with).
Don't get me wrong. I'm sure MathType is a great product and does stuff
that Word's native equation editor (whatever that is) can't do. However,
posts that appear to be intended to generate some type of commercial
gain for the poster certainly look like SPAM to me. From the Rules of
Conduct for the MSFT Discussion Groups:
Advertising/Solicitation: These communities were created as a forum for
providing peer-to-peer assistance on Microsoft products and services. We
ask that you refrain from posting advertisements or solicitations that
do not pertain directly to the intended use and purpose of the newsgroup
or chat.
I also note that there is no mention of the [ANN] label or any other
"King's X" special method of identifying a post as being exempt from the
rules. In fact, if I still had the power to do so (and could be
bothered) I'd probably report this thread as SPAM and ask for it to be
removed.
--
Cheers!
Gordon Bentley-Mix
As it was posted separately to multiple newsgroups .....
--
Hope this helps,
Doug Robbins - Word MVP
Please reply only to the newsgroups unless you wish to obtain my
services on
a paid professional basis.
It is not spam. Bob is a valued contributor to these NGs, and many
Word users are also users of MathType. This is a legitimate
announcement, properly signaled with the [ANN] label.
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
This looks like SPAM to me, so I figure it's a good place to see if
my MVP status has been retired yet.
Hi,
I know many of you are already MathType users, so I wanted to let
you
know about yesterday's release of MathType 6.6 for Windows. This new
release features handwritten math input via mouse, tablet, or
touchscreen, and compatibility with over 350 applications and
websites, including Google Docs, Gmail, and WordPress.
Our goal is for MathType to eventually work with all applications
and
websites used by students, teachers, professors, elearning authors,
scientists, and engineers. Visit our "Works With ..." web
application
at
http://www.dessci.com/en/products/MathType/works_with.htm to see
if
your favorites are already in our database. If you don't find the
applications you are looking for, or if you wished any of them
worked
differently with MathType, let us know by emailing
(e-mail address removed)
or with a tweet to @MathType.
Regards,
Bob Mathews
Design Science, Inc.
