Funny....I read that exerpt as quoting 'Brad Wardell' for its intrinsic relevance to this site, and its potential impact on SD and other 'third party' companies where presumed OS content ie a 'common' media player would be a significant handicap if lost.

Not once was there a hint of "vainglorious, and self-aggrandizing.", but rather a "hey look...I found this issue significant enough to comment on publicly and to re-iterate here within our forum."...

CygnusXII ...in reference to an 'ombudsman' I guess the closest animal to fit that bill would be me.  I have editorial control over Wincustomize, can edit or remove anything considered inappropriate, AND I am not Stardock, or even remotely 'near' them.  The day to day 'running' of Wincustomize.com, outside of its actual coding and financing is down to a group of people NONE of whom is connected to Stardock.

Frogboy has the right as a member of this site to post news/articles/comments related to Wincustomize.com and skinning in particular and 'computing' in general, just as anyone does/can.

The FACT that Frogboy is coincidentally CEO of Stardock is immaterial. 

Re your comments....the article being allegedly  "Self-aggrandizing" can simply be a reality...a causual thing.  Saying something important, or being seen to say something important is not 'self-aggrandizing' in itself.  THAT interpretation belongs to the observer ...it is an interpretive failing.  Example.....I have the prefix 'Admin'. Is this self-aggrandizing or is it a statement of truth/reality?  Those with societal 'issues' will claim it as an ego-trip or 'self aggrandisement', when the reality is it's needed to assist newcomers to indicate who might or might not be good to be 'heeded'....eg 'please desist on personal attacks, etc'.

Moving on to 'intrinsic'....I personally think that a default systems-wide media player SHOULD be intrinsic to the OS ... for the same reason/s that Frogboy, and I bet many others have agreed....in exactly the same argument that applies to a notepad proggy and an image/fax viewer.

The Windows OS should not be crippled to be nothing more than a Kernal and Explorer.exe shell/GUI or maybe we can leave the latter out as well...afterall, there's Litestep....

Some things are 'needed' in an OPERATING SYSTEM .....yes, it's not called that for no reason....'system' is the salient point.

Anyway...something that always strikes me as cloying....

Think about it in reference to your prior comments......

"I'm not racist, but......"

'But' is an extraordinarily powerful word that requires careful respect....

CygnusXII ....the issue here is with unfair competition, not with the actual bundling of the player.

IF MS were to give equal access to its competitors to enable them to create an equitable Media Player then it [WMP being bundled] would go away as an issue.  However it seems that'd be too intrusive of MS's Intellectual Property so they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

None of this has anything to do with whether or not the article is appropriate here or not...or "self-aggrandising" or not.  That is entirely within your perception as an issue.

Also....the copy/paste of entire swags of another's article treads the close line of plagiarism rather than a 'quote of relevance', or 'fair use', so it's probably better to keep them 'short'....