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So this is the Romanian guy who was called out for blaming his "family member" for spamming the app store with paid ratings of his apps, while using his bank ac

So this is the Romanian guy who was called out for blaming his "family member" for spamming the app store with paid ratings of his apps, while using his bank account for the Apple Developer connection? ... All after pretending to be innocent and causing many, many developers to rally for him, without knowing he manipulated them? How about we just ignore him and don't continue to reward him with attention?

4ad 10y ago
> So this is the Romanian guy What relevance does it have that he is Romanian?
- johansch 10y ago
  Why is it an issue to mention someone's nationality? Do you have perhaps have any pre-conceived ideas around that particular nationality? (Edited out things that should not be offensive, but could be perceived as such.)
  - heisenbit 10y ago
    What victims were there? My understanding is that there was some game playing with two accounts violating the terms of service. The affected relationship was developer - Apple and Apple has asserted itself here. There was also to the degree I know some misrepresentation of the conflict by the developer. Afaik. this has not gone to court and both developer and Apple seemed to want to stop talking about it. I believe we should respect this. As we also should respect the nationality and contribution of developers giving away something for free.
    - johansch 10y ago
      Anyone who has used the Apple Appstore is fractionally speaking the loser/victim - he spammed it. Do you ever wonder what the appstore would be like without spam bullshit? How quality software studios could make money instead of some hack like this buying ratings from a third-party on cookie cutter apps?
      - duaneb 10y ago
        For a cookie cutter app, there are zero alternatives with feature parity. It's also notably much, much higher quality than the median app.
  - drinchev 10y ago
    Aaah, come on. Putting labels on people based on the country and statistics is a bit stupid. Same as all arabs are terrorists thing. Yeah sure lots of people from my country ( Bulgaria ) are statistically dodgy, but there are also legitimate ones. Law says : "Person is innocent, until proven guilty."
    - johansch 10y ago
      You kinda said it yourself, there.
      - drinchev 10y ago
        Said what? If I understood your sarcasm correctly, I would assume that according to you statistics describe what people are. For example. Statistically Sweden right now has the highest amount of rapes in Europe [1]. So it means that most of the Swede are rapist. Hmm. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden
        johansch 10y ago
        And 99% of the Bulgarian visitors to Sweden spend their time sitting on the ground in front of supermarket entrances. So I guess that is what the 99% of people inside Bulgaria do as well?
        4ad 10y ago
        > And 99% of the Bulgarian visitors to Sweden spend their time sitting on the ground in front of supermarket entrances. So I guess that is what the 99% of people inside Bulgaria do as well? Wow. I never saw anyone on HN get so low. Ever. In more than 9 years. It appears I was right about you.
        johansch 10y ago
        Your account is five years old, not nine. Anyway, good night.
  - 4ad 10y ago
    > Why is it an issue to mention someone's nationality? It's not an issue to mention someone's nationality. Intent matters. That is why you don't say "he's just a black murderer from NYC" or "he's just an arab terrorist". > Do you have perhaps have any pre-conceived ideas around that particular nationality? No, it seems that you have. What a lame attempt to spin it around. Funny how you edited your post after people called foul, this is your original post: http://i.imgur.com/HaejrYq.png http://i.imgur.com/HaejrYq.png. This link you posted is amusing: http://blog.siftscience.com/2013/global-e-commerce-fraud http://blog.siftscience.com/2013/global-e-commerce-fraud. Those American scammers!
    - johansch 10y ago
      Yes, it's such a surprise that there would be scamming going around inside the US.
maglavaitss 10y ago
Yeah, the guy's a fraud, just don't give him any attention.
- purple-dragon 10y ago
  Despite his past actions, isn't releasing this as an open source project ultimately a generous act? Many people have paid for this product in the past—ergo it has value—and now, it is free for use and modification.
  - johansch 10y ago
    He's not able to sell it now, so it is essentially worthless. He is now trying to salvage his brand/reputation by this "noble" act. I say we should have longer memory than goldfish when it comes to issues like these.
    - purple-dragon 10y ago
      Yeah, I'm not suggesting he's a saint or deserves a parade, but I am happy to have another real-world, full-wrap iOS project to review (whether it's well written or not, I don't know) or repurpose. Edit: My point is: you say that it's worthless, and perhaps it is now to him, but not necessarily to others.
    - fnord123 10y ago
      He also used GPLv3 which Apple hates. They even stick with a ridiculously old version of bash (3.2.57 from 2007!) since it had since began using GPLv3 in subsequent versions. It's the details that matter. :)
- misnome 10y ago
  If the app is functional and actually useful... which seemed to be the case when the whole furore came up, I'm not sure what past activity/scamming of apple reviews has to do with anything. He got taken off the app store for those activities, doesn't change the fact that a lot of people find it useful.
- 10y ago
flixic 10y ago
Let's not judge so quickly and surely. There are still many things we don't know, and we have heard a story from him that makes sense, and I find plausible. What if he really is mostly innocent? More importantly, Dash app is still great, probably the best for documentation browsing, and now iOS counterpart is restored in some way. Isn't it a great move from his side, considering the circumstances? Shouldn't we celebrate his efforts instead of blaming him?
- sxg 10y ago
  He recorded and released a phone conversation with an Apple representative that confirms a lot of the details of this story. Sure not everything is clear, but if I'm remembering right, the phone call confirmed that Kapeli and his family member used the same distribution account, and that the family member bought fake app reviews. Apple banned the whole account because of the fake app reviews, but they did give Kapeli recourse and offered to reinstate his app if he publicly apologized and cleared up the issue. Kapeli decided not to do that and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. I'm pretty sure that killed any chance of Dash getting back on the app store.
  - pkamb 10y ago
    > Kapeli decided not to [publicly apologize and clear up the issue] and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. Kapeli wrote the blog post Apple requested and sent it in for review. https://kapeli.com/apple_draft https://kapeli.com/apple_draft Apple never got back to him, and instead went to the press with statements that did not mention any of the circumstances, making clear that this was their final statement on the matter. Only then did Kapeli come out with his side of the story and the recorded phone call.
    - johansch 10y ago
      That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, even after bending backwards to work with him. (And I'm really not an Apple apologist; please do checkout my post history if you're so inclined.)

4ad 10y ago

> So this is the Romanian guy What relevance does it have that he is Romanian?

johansch 10y ago
Why is it an issue to mention someone's nationality? Do you have perhaps have any pre-conceived ideas around that particular nationality? (Edited out things that should not be offensive, but could be perceived as such.)
- heisenbit 10y ago
  What victims were there? My understanding is that there was some game playing with two accounts violating the terms of service. The affected relationship was developer - Apple and Apple has asserted itself here. There was also to the degree I know some misrepresentation of the conflict by the developer. Afaik. this has not gone to court and both developer and Apple seemed to want to stop talking about it. I believe we should respect this. As we also should respect the nationality and contribution of developers giving away something for free.
  - johansch 10y ago
    Anyone who has used the Apple Appstore is fractionally speaking the loser/victim - he spammed it. Do you ever wonder what the appstore would be like without spam bullshit? How quality software studios could make money instead of some hack like this buying ratings from a third-party on cookie cutter apps?
    - duaneb 10y ago
      For a cookie cutter app, there are zero alternatives with feature parity. It's also notably much, much higher quality than the median app.
- drinchev 10y ago
  Aaah, come on. Putting labels on people based on the country and statistics is a bit stupid. Same as all arabs are terrorists thing. Yeah sure lots of people from my country ( Bulgaria ) are statistically dodgy, but there are also legitimate ones. Law says : "Person is innocent, until proven guilty."
  - johansch 10y ago
    You kinda said it yourself, there.
    - drinchev 10y ago
      Said what? If I understood your sarcasm correctly, I would assume that according to you statistics describe what people are. For example. Statistically Sweden right now has the highest amount of rapes in Europe [1]. So it means that most of the Swede are rapist. Hmm. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_Sweden
      - johansch 10y ago
        And 99% of the Bulgarian visitors to Sweden spend their time sitting on the ground in front of supermarket entrances. So I guess that is what the 99% of people inside Bulgaria do as well?
        4ad 10y ago
        > And 99% of the Bulgarian visitors to Sweden spend their time sitting on the ground in front of supermarket entrances. So I guess that is what the 99% of people inside Bulgaria do as well? Wow. I never saw anyone on HN get so low. Ever. In more than 9 years. It appears I was right about you.
        johansch 10y ago
        Your account is five years old, not nine. Anyway, good night.
- 4ad 10y ago
  > Why is it an issue to mention someone's nationality? It's not an issue to mention someone's nationality. Intent matters. That is why you don't say "he's just a black murderer from NYC" or "he's just an arab terrorist". > Do you have perhaps have any pre-conceived ideas around that particular nationality? No, it seems that you have. What a lame attempt to spin it around. Funny how you edited your post after people called foul, this is your original post: http://i.imgur.com/HaejrYq.png http://i.imgur.com/HaejrYq.png. This link you posted is amusing: http://blog.siftscience.com/2013/global-e-commerce-fraud http://blog.siftscience.com/2013/global-e-commerce-fraud. Those American scammers!
  - johansch 10y ago
    Yes, it's such a surprise that there would be scamming going around inside the US.

maglavaitss 10y ago

Yeah, the guy's a fraud, just don't give him any attention.

purple-dragon 10y ago
Despite his past actions, isn't releasing this as an open source project ultimately a generous act? Many people have paid for this product in the past—ergo it has value—and now, it is free for use and modification.
- johansch 10y ago
  He's not able to sell it now, so it is essentially worthless. He is now trying to salvage his brand/reputation by this "noble" act. I say we should have longer memory than goldfish when it comes to issues like these.
  - purple-dragon 10y ago
    Yeah, I'm not suggesting he's a saint or deserves a parade, but I am happy to have another real-world, full-wrap iOS project to review (whether it's well written or not, I don't know) or repurpose. Edit: My point is: you say that it's worthless, and perhaps it is now to him, but not necessarily to others.
  - fnord123 10y ago
    He also used GPLv3 which Apple hates. They even stick with a ridiculously old version of bash (3.2.57 from 2007!) since it had since began using GPLv3 in subsequent versions. It's the details that matter. :)
misnome 10y ago
If the app is functional and actually useful... which seemed to be the case when the whole furore came up, I'm not sure what past activity/scamming of apple reviews has to do with anything. He got taken off the app store for those activities, doesn't change the fact that a lot of people find it useful.
10y ago

flixic 10y ago

Let's not judge so quickly and surely. There are still many things we don't know, and we have heard a story from him that makes sense, and I find plausible. What if he really is mostly innocent? More importantly, Dash app is still great, probably the best for documentation browsing, and now iOS counterpart is restored in some way. Isn't it a great move from his side, considering the circumstances? Shouldn't we celebrate his efforts instead of blaming him?

sxg 10y ago
He recorded and released a phone conversation with an Apple representative that confirms a lot of the details of this story. Sure not everything is clear, but if I'm remembering right, the phone call confirmed that Kapeli and his family member used the same distribution account, and that the family member bought fake app reviews. Apple banned the whole account because of the fake app reviews, but they did give Kapeli recourse and offered to reinstate his app if he publicly apologized and cleared up the issue. Kapeli decided not to do that and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. I'm pretty sure that killed any chance of Dash getting back on the app store.
- pkamb 10y ago
  > Kapeli decided not to [publicly apologize and clear up the issue] and released the private phone call with the Apple representative instead. Kapeli wrote the blog post Apple requested and sent it in for review. https://kapeli.com/apple_draft https://kapeli.com/apple_draft Apple never got back to him, and instead went to the press with statements that did not mention any of the circumstances, making clear that this was their final statement on the matter. Only then did Kapeli come out with his side of the story and the recorded phone call.
  - johansch 10y ago
    That is not an excuse. I can understand why Apple went forward, even after bending backwards to work with him. (And I'm really not an Apple apologist; please do checkout my post history if you're so inclined.)