> I don't think being free means people can't legitimately complain about something being inferior, epecially when there are other free resources that are infinitely better.

You can note. You can't complain. (Well, legally you can, but morally, no, I don't think so.) I believe this to be the case *particularly* because there are other free resources available. If anything, complaining would be "more" justified if there *weren't*, not since there are.

> WWWBoard has more bugs than a roach motel and I would be ashamed to have such an inferior product bearing my name.

WWWBoard is also specifically stated as being an alpha (or is it a beta? same difference), and therefore you REALLY have to be full of it to nail it for not matching up to expectations. Alphas and betas aren't even *supposed* to.

But I used it, hacked the heck out of it, and now I have something that works and is reasonably popular. Can't complain about that. And the fact that the site is famous enough even to talk about is indicative that its free services were of value to *someone*. There may be more free scripts out there now, but it was among the first and therefore had great value to many such as myself.

> Look at all the programs that have improved on it, and most of them are free! If you're going to do something, do it well, free or not.

That's a personal philosophy that I happen to subscribe to myself -- but I don't see what moral right one has to thrust it upon someone else.

> Granted, you have a right to expect more when you pay for it, but there are certain expectations even on free stuff.

Why? I can think of a couple: that whatever you get free doesn't destroy data (hey, viruses are free) and that it's legal. Bear in mind that I'm not saying it's wrong to note inferiority, but to complain about it or apply expectations of quality on it is absurdly misplaced. People think, myself included sometimes, that the world owes them a living, and as much as I hate that expression, it's certainly true. This issue is a watered down instance of exactly what that expression is talking about -- free perl scripts aren't a living, but they're something given in excess of what you have a natural right to -- you don't have to make use of it, and you can make any observation about it that you want, but complaining that you weren't given *more* in excess of what you have a natural right to is fundamentally wrong.