Nick_Tarleton comments on Do Fandoms Need Awfulness? - Less Wrong

23 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 28 May 2009 06:03AM

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Comment author: Nick_Tarleton 28 May 2009 07:49:03AM *  7 points [-]

"Not commonly criticized"? Are we on the same Internet?

Comment author: Emile 28 May 2009 08:37:27AM 1 point [-]

Seems to me the main object of criticism is the presence of fans. I haven't heard many people complain about Apple products (or marketing) first.

Comment author: thomblake 28 May 2009 02:35:33PM 7 points [-]

I used to complain at length about Apple products - especially the PC software they've made. iTunes should die in a fire, and I refused to download quicktime for a while since they were sneakily bundling iTunes with it (and it messes with your startup stuff without asking).

Comment author: Peter_Twieg 28 May 2009 01:55:46PM *  0 points [-]

Well, there are complaints about "Apple premiums" on pricing, but if those actually exist they're most likely largely the result of the fact that the company can "exploit" its devoted fanbase...

I think Apple is a good choice, though. I'd also point to Prius or hybrid vehicles in general or other items of objectively-good quality which turn into status signals of various sorts... and then you see criticisms aimed at the signalers and not the underlying goods or their functionality. Or the criticisms are aimed at the fact that the fans overstate the value of their choice objects, which doesn't exactly impinge the actual value.