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Congratulations! and best wishes.
Authored by: macmath on Sep 25, '04 04:59:39AM

Congratulations and best wishes on the success of this volume (and that it overcomes its name). I see this volume not so much as vehicle for you or your pocketbook, but as a vehicle for the platform and the site.
A) It puts the name "Mac OS X" out on the bookshelves and helps offset the boatload of "Windows" books.
B) It brings these hints and the power of the platform to people who would not otherwise have access to them. [As difficult as it is for us to believe, not everyone opens the MacOSXHints page first thing each morning and for each coffeebreak.] The more people who can be brought to this level of usage of Mac OS X [I'm at a loss for a term here....oh yeah, the PowerHound level :-) ] the better it is for the platform. Besides giving them more reason to stay with the Macintosh, they can better respond to the crowd who derides the Macintosh as a plaything platform.
C) It will likely bring others to the site to contribute their hints.

Those who will post that you are making money off of the work of others fall into (at least) two categories, the begrudgers and those who truly love the free-sharing aspect of the computer community. The latter people really should not be too upset since that aspect still exists here and is not changed by the book*. They'd probably also admit that the hints are now being brought to a greater audience than before...in a sense still being shared for free with the price of the book paying for paper and publishing costs and the value you added with the rewriting. Afterall, those buying the book would not get the hints otherwise (unless either they're buying the book to support you and therefore the site or they need the value-added book form of the hint). As for the begrudgers, these people's lives are burdened already by their disposition and maybe having another outlet to begrudge someone something is therapeutic for them. [I'm kind of thinking of those sea gulls in <i>Finding Nemo</i>.]

*While it might scare off hints from the few who won't share a hint if they think it might be used in a book, it may very well attract hints from those who have become aware of the site by reading the book.



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