No, the title doesn’t refer to any part of the specification, but refers to the “ecosystem” that is currently formed around ODF.  Two years ago when the topic was ODF, there were only three types of people in world:

1 - Those who didn’t knew ODF.

2 - Those who were in favor of ODF.

3 - Those who were against ODF.

It was very easy to identify each type, and we lived in troubled times, but a time of clear and transparent actions. We knew who was who.

Today, the three categories cited above are practically reduced to two:

1 - Those who do not know ODF.

2 - Those who are in favor of ODF.

The third category died ? … Sort of…

With the growth in international ODF adoption and support, it’s becoming politically incorrect to be anti-ODF and therefore all those who have work so hard against the adoption, dissemination and development of the standard today present themselves as “ODF supporters”.

Indeed, they are wolves in sheep’s clothing, working quietly to satisfy the same agenda (now a hidden one), but from inside… without raising suspicions of many the young and naive in the area.

Now, I had to see these guys taking part in the ODF discussion lists (developers or user lists), launching ODF validators and support tools, and even participating (or trying to participate) in the ODF TC.

What irritates me most in discussions lists, is the amount of times they use to make the same arguments and copying and pasting a huge quantity of useless text from one discussion list to another. The worst is that it takes a lot of time from good people who really work for ODF, because the amount of FUD that they spread is alarming. They are the disinformation industry.

To be honest, there is a particular person within that group that, if he were here in Brazil, the community would take care of him: he would be banned. This guy is so annoying, but so annoying that he used to repeat the same stupid and unfounded arguments for more than three years and still finding people that believe his stupid arguments, as if he knows what he is writing … always the same crap, copied and pasted, list after list.

If you want to see an example of the kind of thing that those folks are able to do, please take a look into the ODF entry at Wikipedia. A few months ago, it was an important source of information about the standard, and it had the most updated ODF application list that I knew. For some time, I helped to keep that entry updated and contributed there with all the initial information on ODF adoptions around the world, and I lost a few days to collect, organize, and format all that information.

Now the entry is fully destroyed.

In their first attack, they removed the entire list of applications and reduced it to a ridiculous list of six office suites, strangely including Microsoft Office (older version with the Codeplex plug-in and 2007 through SP2). At the standard definition, managed to say that ODF was similar to OpenXML. In the list of adoptions, the list that I’ve worked hard to build and maintain, they find a way to stick OpenXML in half a dozen countries, even with nonsense like “in the document, OpenXML is quoted” … who would have an interest in those kind of things?

During some days, I tried to get up there and fix the damage they were doing but come on, I am too old to play cat and mouse with delinquents… If they want a messy ODF entry at Wikipedia, please have it, as final proof that they’re playing a very dirty game ! (and the same applies for entry ODF Alliance entry on the Wikipedia, which suffers the same “mysterious” problem).

I get very angry to seeing in Wikipedia a message stating that “appears to have a conflict of interest with its subject” about the contributions to the article … we are all in favor of ODF ? Or not ?

This is exactly what they want … confuse, deceive, hinder, delay … help to fail! And hope it serves as a lesson and proof (or a warning) to all those who think that everything is solved!

When I was preparing to write this post, I made a complete list with names, email addresses, blogs, sites, and in some cases companies of each of the “workers in the gray area” that I managed to identify. With the help of some trustable friends around the world, also prepared a compilation of information that shows the questionable not-so-distant past of those folks.

As I believe that good conversation is always paramount before a more vigorous action, I decided to write this post to give them a sincere warning:

“I know who you are, where you are, who you are related to, where you came from and what you are trying to do.

Don’t force me to disclose all this information in this blog, because with the ability to crosscheck information that we have today, we can unmask yourselves once and for all… and also expose those who are behind all those things.

Respect ODF and those who honestly work  on its development and dissemination.

Don’t test my patience. With you it’s null !

Stop playing with something serious, and quickly leave this gray area (you may return to the opposition … I don’t care about you). ”

Before someone start “having ideas,” be advised that all the information I have is safeguarded with loyal friends in various countries around the world.