It seems Paul has removed his post after receiving, what I must assume, was the exact opposite sort of feedback to what he wanted.
I have removed this post because of the amount of misinterpretation people have read into it. After being verbally lynched by developers and members of the OSD community who feel I have wronged them by sharing my opinions, I have decided it is best to forget the whole thing,
This has been a very eye opening experience for me. The mob mentality of some of the people involved in this is disturbing to say the least. This has left me with an entirely different impression than the one I had when I originally wrote this post.
To those I have offended so extremely you have my sincere apologies, but please look at the way you handle these types of issues and ask yourself if maybe your actions are a little extreme at times.
I am not sure what misinterpretation there was. Being told you are greedy and make them sick by someone is pretty clear cut to me, not a lot to misinterpret there.
Again with the pity call "lynched by developers and members of the OSD community who feel I have wronged them by sharing my opinions"
He shares his it's ok, but if anyone disagrees and shares their opinions then they are part of a disturbing mob mentality.
Paul, sharing opinions and insulting people are two different things.
You got a 'mob' because you made a wide range and far reaching insult that offended a lot of people. Make a post saying any "AAAA type/race/religion/job people make me sick" and you would get the same reaction from that community.
There is a saying I love that is appropriate here.
If you get kicked out of one bar. It's probably the bar's fault.
But if you get kicked out of every bar. The problem isn't with the bars.
You can decide which group you belong in.
The worst thing though is that this apology is not one at all, it's just a cop out to avoid further offense.
The whole post is trying to point the blame back on the developers, their "mob mentality", "Verbal Lynching ..[for].. sharing my opinions" and saying they should "please look at the way you handle these types of issues and ask yourself if maybe your actions are a little extreme at times"
He didn't do anything wrong by personally insulting people. Everyone just overreacted and he is the victim here. 
I wonder if the comments had all been applauding him and tearing down commercial OSDs would he have pulled the post citing a mob mentality, misinterpretation of his words and extreme actions? Would he have pulled the post?
Of course not, he would have reveled in it. Like Scrooge McDuck in his swimming pool of money.
There was no misinterpretation, and this isn't an apology. He doesn't think he did anything wrong, so is just trying to appease the people he offended with some crocodile tears.
If you want to apologize Paul, try admitting you were wrong to call people greedy and say they made you sick because they don't do things you aren't prepared to do yourself - i.e. work for free.
It doesn't work when you say sorry for offending people while simultaneously insulting them again with your mob mentality etc. comments, and expect them to believe it. 
Just bite the bitter pill, swallow that pride and say a real apology if you want it to be taken seriously.
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Comments like this one are actually opportunities for folks like us to help persuade the 4.6 million potential customers out there who don't know what the hell Joomla is, but are in the market for a better solution.
Take Paul's stance and vilify commercial OSDs to get them on side and make ad revenue?
Not a good stance if you want to keep friends. :(
I can't think of much else though. I am open to suggestions though. :)
He brings up some valid points which the OS community needs to deal with.
I am interested in hearing a way to benefit from it, but can't think of one, other than that above.
How do you get people to pay who refuse to?
You could aim to get the income from elsewhere, leveraging those people, e.g. ads. But this doesn't leverage them anymore than those willing to pay for quality.
I agree with Mr. Coonen, and you were a bit hard on Paul, Dan, though not unfair, and he did "step in it."
What if the JCDA got a little more publicly active and organized, offered ways for people like me to express support? People like me: not an extension developer but someone who might release free alterred GPL extensions or templates, even sell templates someday--though no plans too. For the most part I build sites for a side income, and I use a mixture of free and commercial templates and extensions when I'm using Joomla. (I don't just use Joomla.)
With Joomla I like having a lot of free extensions and also a choice of inexpensive commercial ones that have to prove they are worth paying for by being better and/or adding other value that the free alternatives lack.
I do think it is natural and has to be accepted that a lot of us start like Paul playing with all the neat free Joomla stuff, and then it's a surprise that unlike other GPL CMSes, there are all these commercial templates and extensions, because only a few people decide they want to do that, and a smaller number actually try to start businesses.
I think what needs to happen is not a delegitimization of either the free or commercial material, as if there can only be one and you are for or against one or the other. What needs to happen is more awareness of the synergy and the fact that there is a growing segment of the Joomla ecosystem that is commercial or semi-commercial, often in non-traditional, innovative ways. How is this a bad thing? Why can't it co-exist productively with the freebie culture? Open Source is probably moving in this direction. If FOSS systems are going to get any purchase in enterprise level deployments, it will be because you can establish business (contractual, financial transaction-based) relationships with FOSS providers for products, services, support, etc. The only way a business will buy into a pure GPL system is if they are paying someone in-house or on a retainer or contractor relationship to provide the functionality, security, updates, etc. Why is it "OK" if someone does this as a service with all GPL products but "not OK" if someone else does it with some differently GPL or non-GPL materials mixed in with the GPL stuff?
If you are using my commercial extension and I guarantee it or offer support, then that is a value you can't get if I just install someone else's GPL extension and you are now dfependent on them for development and support with me just being a middle-man. What about free as in FREEDOM and independence? A lot of GPL business as usual seems really aimed at creating client dependencies on GPL software that no one can guarantee. Look at GPL CMSes defer responsibility for security problems in third-party extensions. If those extensions are in use on an enterprise site but not backed by a direct relationship with the end user and obligation to maintain them, then their attractiveness for high-level use drops off completely.
Just read the previous entry and this entry and I agree with you entirely. The mindset of a lot of people appears to be omnidirectional. Want everything for nothing. I see that quite a lot with my work.
Funny thing that I find is if you deny giving away of your time/work etc... for free, some come back and pay *properly*. Funny world ain't it
:)
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