Small XML-dev Flame War

I am a member of the xml-dev mailing list, the original XML-zealot conclave and home to most of the people in the world who worry seriously about XML in general; a very special and fortunately small shared obsession.

Anyhow, this marketing droid from BEA (a fairly smart company in my opinion) popped up yesterday with a lengthy posting about their new "XML Beans" stuff which included the following gem:

For the first time, developers can gain a familiar and convenient Java object-based view of their XML data without losing access to the richness of the original, native XML structure.

To which I responded:

What crap.

Because his remark is historically illiterate... an offline exchange developed, which included the following from him:

Sorry if I offended you with the announcement, but a simple note directly to me would have probably been more effective than spamming the whole list.

I closed the loop (I think) with the following; the reason for this entry is to reproduce it:

Trust me, you didn't offend just me. And on the Internet, communities have to be defended against those who would reduce them to content-free product placement vehicles, or we won't have any places left where we can talk seriously. Flaming you in public has the useful effect of discouraging the next marketeer who's considering pissing on our playground.