[paulduv]

Well I just cannot get on with my day without commenting on the devolution of this thread. If there's anyone at OmniFocus reading this, I apologize for adding a few inches to a thread that's already kind of "cooked".

I'm always struck by how rarely a forum like Ask Metafilter has comments to the effect of, "That's not actually not that great a question. Here's why."

Below their message field, they note: Ask MetaFilter is as useful as you make it. Please limit comments to answers or help in finding an answer. Wisecracks don't help people find answers. Thanks.

The comments in this thread that sent things the "wrong" way were certainly not wisecracks, but I think they're every bit as frustrating (and in some ways, more so) as wisecracks, spam, or rude comments. I wonder if there's some way of encouraging people to curb rebuttals and countering views that are really not of any substance, or so generic and self-evident as to be, in effect, off topic.

____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____

Toadling, each and every time someone expresses a need for a more elegant iCal integration, and/or a reminder system, someone like you says something like,

"Unfortunately, things are rarily that simple. Every added feature consumes finite engineering resources -- resources that might be better spent elsewhere.

So, by all means, send in your feature requests so Omni can evaluate them and plan accordingly. But don't expect other users to just accept your pet feature or ignore it if they don't see a pressing need for it."

That's your post – didn't have to paraphrase. As well, they also say,

"OmniFocus is not "meant" to do that".

The fact is, you could lob out either of the two above comments about virtually any feature, existing or proposed.

So at best, it's inane to read through those countervailing comments, because because they're an obvious generic consideration about any particular feature. It's particularly frustrating to see so many people go out of their way to comment about this need, and end up having a vacuous discussion.

About the tone of this thread, here's my answer to your question, "So why the animosity?".

You write: "But when pressed for details, you've been intractable and defensive, flaunt your credentials..."

This was your comment at the beginning of the thread:
"Maybe. But unless you've got the source code, it's hard to be certain. Either way, I'd still rather see the resources invested elsewhere. But that's just my personal opinion."

You should be aware that your post looks a heck of a lot like credentials flaunting to those who don't feel compelled to write posts like yours. To give you an idea of why they're so vexing, they read something like this:

"Even though I'm saying I don't personally need the thing that you think you need, I'm going to insert comments into this discussion whose subtext signal my pretty impressive insight into "source code", and into "the investment of resources" of a complex product, and the successful organization that designed it."

So yeah. Maybe the solution would be something like this: start a discussion entitled, "Where I think OmniFocus should invest their resources", and it'll be both easier to seek out your opinion on the matter, and easier to avoid it when looking for substantive replies to a post about alarms and calendars.

About the topic, it looks like Brian is aware of the interest – and of course, the technical issues. Hopefully someday we'll see little alarm check-boxes next to the words "Start" and "Due" in the inspector!