And who are you to slander a named person and publicly question his reputation, for selling his own business that he created to somebody else? Your behaviour is not proportional to what has happened. It is an icon utility.
A paying customer of Bartender.
> to slander
It is not slander to say you distrust someone.
> a named person
Ben’s name was already public. Bartender was published under “Surtees Studios”, after all. Ben has also appeared in at least one podcast. Trusting Bartender meant trusting Ben, the developer, the person.
> for selling his own business that he created
That’s not what’s in question. No one is blaming Ben for selling Bartender, the complaint is that it was done in secret. And it would’ve continue to be a secret were it not for a feature in MacUpdater that someone noticed.
> It is an icon utility.
No, it is not. It is an app that requests Screen Recording, Accessibility, and Location permissions to do its job. Thus it is an app which requires a high degree of trust. That the new owners added an analytics framework to, and who knows what else. This case is awfully similar to when a developer sells a browser extension to someone shady because the profit is in the user-base.
Of course it is slander to say that somebody's reputation is damaged. Especially when it's not a public figure. Just that somebody's name is public, doesn't make them a public figure. And you even continue. Step out of the mob frenzy for a while and try to look at how you are behaving from a higher perspective. Is it right of you to treat a person like that, because he sold his own business? It matters little you once purchased a product from him. Software change owners all the time.
Until there is definite proof of malevolence you should calm down, as should the other hackers. This business has the possibility of becoming a great embarrassment for Hacker News in the future.
Of course it is not. Reputations are, by definition, opinions. And opinions are subjective.
> because he sold his own business?
If you’re not going to engage in good faith and will just keep repeating the exact same argument after its inaccuracy has been pointed out to you, I don’t see the point in continuing the conversation.
Engage with the words, not the strawman in your head.
> you should calm down
I am calm. Again, you’re projecting what you want to see, not the reality.
And you shouldn't give apps permission to record your screen. That's your responsibility.
Clearly, they already know this. They're exercising this responsibility by ceasing to use an app that they no longer trust with their privacy.
Why can’t people be reasonable online
People saying the original software author is untrustworthy live in a fucking whimsical fairyland. And probably have never built anything worthy of a sale
It's not shady to sell a business. It's not shady to have screen recording privileges because that's legitimately needed to provide the functionality. It is shady to sell that product to some unknown group without notifying your customers.
I trust(ed) Ben Surtees to run his software on my machine with enhanced privileges. I'm not thrilled that someone else controls it now, and that I'd probably never have known that if I didn't follow tech news closely.
Would any hacker be proud to explain to their grand parents that they got very upset that their icon hiding app was sold?
Good on you for having a grounded take, and realising how feeble minded it is of people to denounce the developer and label them as untrustworthy.
I can bet on my life that the majority of these loud complainers have probably never built or contributed anything of value to the world, let alone sold something and gone through a software acquisition.
I have basically no faith in people on social media, but please don’t feel like your alone in your thoughts I agree with everything you’ve said here
Furthermore most people probably haven’t built macOS apps and are unfamiliar with the permissions model regarding screen recording - it may be that it is actually required for good functioning to have this permission. I haven’t built macOS apps, but I’ve built plenty of browser extensions and know from experience that permissions are much scarier than what the developer is actually using them for in most cases. Like with most things: people are ignorant. People are arrogant. And people don’t think for themselves. This all gets amplified when they group up.
Slander is in oral or spoken form.
Saying harmful things about someone is neither libel nor slander if those statements are factual. It's only libel or slander if the statements that are made are false.
IANAL but... It is my understanding that statements can be considered "per se" libel or slander even if they are expressed as opinion as long as they are made negligently or with malice and they cause reputational harm.