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I'm getting tired of seeing the insulting Resolver One ad "Does anyone actually like VBA?" coming up frequently lately when I view Microsoft Access questions.
http://ads.stackoverflow.com/ads/rsone220x250_staticV2.png
I like working in Microsoft Access and VBA.
You folks who work in other environments can close/delete/make rude comments about this posting all you want. But I'd like Jeff or Joel or the people who sell advertising to read my complaint.
Chill out! It's just a joke ad!
Why every day or so there is somebody here offended by something!?</rant>
Look, it's just an ad trying to be clever. It's trying to explain what the application is capable of and what it's strengths are in a mere 30 characters. That is an impressive feat by itself.
Personally, I don't find why you find it offensive, as it's vox populi that VBA is not the most loved language, and like it or not, Python is quite more powerful. I find more offensive an ad using a stock photo child to sell me something, or an ad that gives no info at all about the product, or an ad that promotes a stereotype.
Now tell me that you also like Visual SourceSafe and get offended by this other ad.
If you don't like it, you are free to block it on your own network, make it never reach your computer.
As for your twit/blogpost, I've used Access at a previous job, and I hate it with passion.
[vba] on SO) because she thinks that is the only way to accomplish a specific goal and she might realize that she could use Python and do the same thing in an environment she likes better. Win-win.
Apr 6, 2010 at 13:58
I'll take partial credit for this one; we actually worked with Giles over at Resolver One to develop this campaign concept way back in 2008 (originally for TDWTF).
Anyway, the fact of the matter is... most people hate working with VBA. It's not that it's a bad language (it is what it is), it's just that certain people use it for all sorts of crazy things, and because of that, most people would rather pummel themselves to death with their own keyboard that work with it.
Fair? Not fair? It's a reflection of reality, and we're merely playing off of it.
ON ERROR RESUME NEXT with a pre-historic debugger
Funny that an anti VBA ad pops up on a site owned by a co creator of VBA and owner of the ever so wonderful WASABI
They are appealing to people who hate VBA. If you like VBA, you're probably not going to use this product.
The alternative would be "Love VBA? Try something else just for the hell of it."
And how is "does anyone actually like VBA?" insulting?
I would understand a protest for something like "VBA suxx, try our product".
But there, it's only playing on the fact that many people don't like it. For these people, the ad will make sense. For you it doesn't, because you don't have a problem with it. All I can say is "good for you", the ad is just not for you.
But I don't see an actual reason to offend, unless VBA is like a sacred thing to you. It's just a language which has the reputation to be disliked. It has nothing to do with the fact you, as individual, like it. I'm sure you are great with it as well.
But seriously, it's just a programming language. Get over it.
I can fully understand your annoyance at such ads. Especially since I am a Perl programmer and Perl gets far more ... spiteful ... comments about it.
That being said, you don't have to take it so personally. Getting angry at the situation only accomplishes one thing: getting yourself angry.
"Chill out! It's just a joke ad!"
Ah, yes, the "it's only a joke" defense. This has been used to try to excuse every brand of idiocy and bigotry there has ever been. It is never a convincing answer.
"how is 'does anyone actually like VBA?' insulting?"
Try "does anyone actually like Microsoft Windows?"
The phrasing of the ad's question implies that it's self-evident that nobody really likes VBA, which is a complete falsehood.
As to those who prefer language X and hate VBA, as I said in a comment, I'm gay, which means I prefer men, but it doesn't mean I hate women. Preferring Python or whatever language you enjoy working in does not in any way suggest that you should also "hate" some other language. Mantaining any "hatred" of anything requires a lot of emotional energy and I don't quite understand why anyone would defend something so counterproductive.
Don't like it? Don't use it! Mazel tov!
In fact, most people don't enjoy working in languages that they aren't familiar with, or that use different paradigms for problems they've solved in other languages. This doesn't justify hating the language. It just means that for you it's more work to program in that language.
It seems obvious to me that the ad is counterproductive (it's popping up for the people least likely to hate VBA, i.e., the people who use it all the time), but given that it's based on denigrating a programming platform, I don't think it should have accepted by SO in the first place.
And I doubt there's any other language for which it would have been accepted.
"most people hate working with VBA"
This is an assertion without any basis in fact.
If SO has a policy that VBA is not a real programming language, then it should prohibit posts on the subject. If that is not the policy, then this ad should have been rejected.
If Then End If haunted my nightmares.