Fake Debian Developers Try To Get Free Linux Games

[schmidtbag]

I subscribe to people I enjoy on Youtube and Twitch. Here's why I use adblock on Phoronix when I don't on others:

The ads are invasive.
The ads have a history of being malicious.

You're articles aren't worth the money you ask for (subscription or ad-ridden website). I can create my own web crawler or subscribe to the various mailing lists myself to get the same content. I usually just visit the forums or read the headline then research myself because the information in the articles are often incorrect and misleading.

Even further, there's a simple lack of professionalism in the articles where you appear to be incapable of proper grammar and/or spell check.

The more you hate on people who visit your website, the more I really don't care to give you ad revenue.

Perhaps you shouldn't make Phoronix your living if this is the best you can do.

I wouldn't consider any of the ads to be malicious - I visit phoronix on both windows and linux systems and never got anything bad from them. The ads that take up the whole screen are the only invasive ones and they're easy to get rid of - just click outside of them and they disappear.

The thing is Michael is shooting for quantity over quality. I like this site and I don't use adblock but there are plenty of articles I have an interest in that I don't bother reading, because I know they're just a continuation (or will be) of another article. The problem for Michael is his userbase isn't that large and doesn't have a lot of potential to expand (not everyone has an interest in what this website offers), so while he COULD do longer high-quality articles, he won't get as much revenue as he would dividing the articles into many separate small ones. As far as I'm aware, ads work based on visits, not visit duration.


Anyway, addressing the issue of people always trying to get a hold of free stuff - this is what my personal issue with Canonical was all about. I liked the fact that Canonical did so much to help linux, but they popularized it in a way that attracted the wrong crowd. There are people who want something simply because its free, and there are people who want something because they like what it is or what it represents regardless of price. The people who are parasites to the linux community are the ones who used linux because of at least 2 of the following:
1. The eye candy
2. Security
3. It is free
4. Makes them look like a "hacker"
Canonical, and Valve for that matter, have attracted these kinds of people, and they're the ones who will do things such as pirate software or make unjust complaints about an OS that doesn't work the same way Windows does. Linux has become significantly more user friendly the past 3 years and it has gained a lot of functionality lately too, but these people not only make linux look bad (because they're like "psh it can't do ANYTHING") but they also make the linux community look bad, because they do cheapskate and immature things.

[andyprough]

33.3333333333% guilty

I'm guilty one-third of the time. I get the Phoronix ads in their full glory on my phone and tablet, but I do use adblock and ghostery on my laptop.

Does that make me a good person 66.666666666667% of the time, or a bad person all the time?

Not sure which smiley to use:

or

[Dukenukemx]

Didn't see this happening. Nope. Not at all.

[Sidicas]

Well, I think I am not any better, as I tried to request access with my Ubuntu Member status... Shame on me

Of course, only "Ubuntu Developers" have access (Dafuq?!)...


Why do packagers get access, and Unity developers (like me), Mesa devs etc. not?

Hmm.. It sounded to me like Debian package maintainers don't get access as Package maintainers are still a notch below a Debian Developer (DD). Or maybe I'm wrong on that?

I think it's an interesting idea for Valve try to create more incentive for people to become developers. It's a lot of work, sometimes with little thanks and with very little rewards.

I laugh at the people that pretend to be Debian Devs just to get free games though.. With the bullet-proof way distros like Debian do security and authentication,with the keysigning parties and such, good luck with that! (Grabs popcorn).

So some individuals have tried to game the system, how do you even know that they are Linux users? Are this keys somehow bound to an OS?

Chances are, they *AREN'T*.
When valve did the in-game tux hats, there were hundreds of people coming to linux forums.. Learning how to run Linux in a VM so they could get their hat and then go back to windows..
I don't really care though, if they want their tux hats, let them have their tux hats. At the very least, it helps promote linux when you join a game and see so many people wearing tux hats. Even if these people don't actually game with linux.

It is Valve who started giving away games for free, afaik nobody asked them for it, or am I wrong?

I think Valve is aware of the manpower difficulties some distros have, especially in Debian where resources are sometimes spread a little thin (one person, 50+ software packages). Encouraging more people into dev work can't be a bad thing. The only thing I worry about is all the Debian devs dropping everything to go play some games. Haha~. We might not see Jessie for years! /joke

[Sidicas]

I don't get how cheap people are... The games are so cheap today, since they're fairly old, that it's probably more costly to waste your time trying to fake yourself into getting key than just buying the games at a steam sale or something like it.

Well, I know with the windows users grabbing the tux hats. More often than not, they're just teenagers that go to school everyday and don't have a job. Some of them can't even get a job because of child labor laws and such. So they don't have the money and so they just get stuck waiting for the next holiday before they can get games from their parents. If they can spend a few hours a day for a few days to get around that, you can bet they will try. Especially if there was a game in there that was released between holidays that they absolutely have to have..

I know because I've done it before. I used to sign up for all the chances from game developers to get free games... and I ended up with quite a stockpile of free games, some that I even got on release-day..

[Sidicas]

Valve keys are OS-independent, no? So while there's always jerks on any OS, these 12 could have well been Windows gam0rz.

They are not. Buy it on one platform, it runs on all platforms that the game is available for in Steam.

[the303]

Only a few, like 3/20, of articles interest me in this site and even they are worthless because of your low quality, opinion based text. Although I do turn off AdBlock for some sites, NO, there is no way I turn off AdBlock for this site. This site only hints me to do research and get proper information about something, and it is too painful to choose that something out of numerous BS. And NO, this is definitely not my sole source, it is down bottom in the list. You don't deserve to earn money with Ads, earning money is not that easy with these low quality articles.

I once turned off AdBlock for this site though. One of the articles themed FUGNU made me switch back on.

[the303]

The last paragraph of this article, like many others, does not let me turn AdBlock off on this site. You should pay me money because you made me read a paragraph of your own utter BS opinions that don't even combine to a valid logic system. You are way too time stealing.

Your nonesense argument can go many ways. Like did you get permission for reporting other's work (that they do for free) and earning money over it with loosely written articles? They making the news public does not mean that they let you use it. I can steal all your website's data and republish it with that logic. And as counter-argument: your site is public and I can do whatever I want with it, AdBlock or not.

[computerquip]

I'll actually amend my previous complaint. There are a couple people other than Michael who post. Their articles are not anywhere near as grotesque or self promoting.

[Sidicas]

Wow, some people on this site.
I pay phoronix money..
And I still view the website with ads (I dont log in unless I post, and I don't turn on ad block).

Some people are good at making a big deal out of nothing.