Gift horses don't come with free hay

Okay, it's probably all my fault for creating a group membership account under one login and a blog under another. All the same, I find it quite annoying that I can't just bop into the group threads while blogging.

Honestly, I don't think that this is an entitlement mentality talking. In online existence, the facets of our interests and pursuits are thrown into a relief that they typically are not in face-to-face interaction. At least not my real-world interaction, anyway. In short, I can't imagine I'm the only one who multi-tasks online, or on popular platforms.

Yes, I know: Gift horses and all that. The thing is, though, that even if you ultimately decide to take the horse back of the barn and shoot it, it still costs you something. The Knackerman's services don't come for free, after all. And in the context of "gift" software, neither does user time or goodwill.

Perhaps "enterprise" payware can act like it's the center of the universe. Mostly because those who sell it know very well that they're not marketing to the front-line grunts, but, rather, their managers and bean-counters. I don't have to like that reality to acknowlege it. "Free" software, though, doesn't have that disconnect. Which is something that the people who want to rent your thoughts to advertisers, content aggregators, and those who make their gelt off taking the pulse of the internet would be better off keeping in mind.