When I saw this post on TUAW, my first instinct was to just blow it off. Then I started reading the comments and realized that I wasn't alone in finding it odd that software for such a niche was being blogged about. So, I decided to chime in. Here's what I said in a comment:
Meh, I'm with the naysayers, let the Christian blogs cover Christian software. This blog already serves a specific niche. Though to be honest a Christian-themed post makes perfect sense on a fan blog for a company that loves to believe in their own version of reality, instead of *actual* reality. All right, I'm done being douchey. I hope this post was civil enough for you.
That last part was referencing an earlier commenter who claimed to have had a comment removed. The author of the post explained away the removal of the comment as being a result of its lack of civility. I guess that makes it OK...?
Anyway, so the author of the post replied to my comment with:
Then should we let photography blogs cover the photography apps? Geek blogs cover Terminal tips? Writing sites cover writing apps? Where does it end? Why is Christian software a 'niche'? Whether you are happy about it or not, there are quite a few Christians around.
Haha, are there? I hadn't noticed them! (Why do you think I feel compelled to speak out in instances like this one?) And here's what I replied with:
@TJLuoma, fair enough, but I don't think photographers are linked to things like oppression, homophobia, child abuse and religious wars. But putting aside my personal feeling of offense when Christianity is mentioned, religion is a personal thing. Keep it to yourself and everything's cool. Besides, photography and technology overlap, thematically. Christianity and technology don't. At least, not natively. Software being used as a study guide for Christian doctrine is hardly a natural fit. By your logic we should see TUAW cover apps that only plumbers would use. "Do you know how many plumbers there are in the world? And now they are using software compatible with Macs, so that makes it relevant to TUAW!" I mean, hey, it's not my blog, AOL can do what they want with it. This is just my ¥2.
Well, I tried to point out why Christian stuff shouldn't show up on a tech blog, but if you're willing to not see the difference between being responsible for untold oppression/torture/death and, say, photography, what's an atheist boy to do?