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Comment by jamesbritt | Hacker News Reader

... but it's more likely that just don't want their message boards to become a cesspool of trollish complaining about everything, like most company forums.

Do you think Lessig's deleted comment represented trollish complaining? How about the other comments highlighted by Lessig? Were they the ingredients of a "caustic cesspoool"?

You conjecture might seem more likely if the deleted comments were, in fact, trollish complaints, but they were not.

There seems to be a knee-jerk reaction here but not from the people criticizing Apple.

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> Do you think Lessig's deleted comment represented trollish complaining?

Yes.

While the user probably has a real complaint, instead of voicing their problem and making a reasonable complaint, the comment resorts to long-winded, over-the-top, trollish melodrama. Let's look at it:

"enter a Brave New World where huge monolithic companies such as yourself[...]"

"your untested 7.0ios system"

"you have become the Goliath of the tech industry"

"I will be the first one inline if someone with some money or some lawyer who had this happen to them to be a part of a civil action lawsuit against you"

And more similar threats and accusations.

The user is literally making false assertions of iOS 7 being untested, attempting to smear Apple as a science fiction villainous corporation and threatening legal action.

It would be fair to consider the whole comment trolling and Lessig drawing attention to it seems like little more than click bait aimed at people that already want to tar and feather Apple – it certainly has nothing to do with the actual WiFi support issues at hand (remember: this was posted to a support forum and they didn't delete the whole thread on the topic, just this comment).

I have great respect for Lawrence Lessig but I think he's fanning flame wars here.

enter a Brave New World where huge monolithic companies such as yourself

When did Lessig ever post that on the Apple forum?

Lessig's deleted post is detailed here: http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/65338904338/wow-or-from-the-wh...

Grandparent is talking about the post linked to by Lessig in this thread's linked article. Others are variously talking about that and/or the actual post(s) by Lessig you've linked to directly here.

Seems many people are focused on the one post that mentions law suits and using that to justify post deletion. But there are several other quite resonible posts that have been deleted as well.

Every post that people have brought up seems like it fails the basic rules of the forum:

https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/etiquett...

Lessig claims to be astonished that his post was removed but his post was a repost of a post that was removed. Does that even make sense to anyone? Now Lessig is back with another example, the one being skewered in this thread for multiple reasons, not just the threat of lawsuits.

That's completely untrue. Providing information that you can solve your problems under warranty is helpful, constructive, factual, and a fix to the specific technical problem under discussion. It meets every point Apple cites as the characteristics of a proper forum post, unless of course it is impolite to criticize.

1. "So as we enter a Brave New World where huge monolithic companies such as yourself began to possibly test ways to take out old phones so that customers have to go purchase new ones"

2. "I will be the first one inline if someone with some money or some lawyer who had this happen to them to be a part of a civil action lawsuit against you, just for the fact that you have stood quiet while people struggle with this issue!"

While "trolish complaints" is a nebulous phrase, I think statements like the above move the post from being an issue report/support request to a more inflammatory post.

If you read farther down in his blog, Apple has responded directly to Lessig: "These forums are intended for technical questions that can be answered by the community. We want everyone to be able to contribute to our forums and have their issues addressed. We feel that we have a very strong community and that it is an excellent resource for users to get assistance. I encourage you to continue using the Apple Support Communities while abiding by our terms of use. The Apple Support Communities Use Agreement, which also includes helpful information about using Apple Support Communities, is located at https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/tou.html...

If you read farther down in his blog, Apple has responded directly to Lessig:

Did you read the post from Lessig to the Apple forum that was deleted?

What you quoted is from another user, "tarinib."

I think you might be mistaken:

"Dear Lessig Lawrence (Lawrence Lessig),

...

These forums are intended for technical questions that can be answered by the community. We want everyone to be able to contribute to our forums and have their issues addressed. We feel that we have a very strong community and that it is an excellent resource for users to get assistance. I encourage you to continue using the Apple Support Communities while abiding by our terms of use. The Apple Support Communities Use Agreement, which also includes helpful information about using Apple Support Communities, is located at https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/tou.html

...

Best Regards, Apple Support Communities Staff"

That was regarding the removal of Lessig's post where he copied the information about EU warranty laws.

http://lessig.tumblr.com/post/65338904338/wow-or-from-the-wh...

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