Great career move, run around telling people to grow up.

depends on what kind of relationship you have with your colleagues.

In this case, it’s a different team reaching out to me for advice. So zero, and they potentially would have used Anubis, but given the URL and mascot, I doubt it.

There is a corporate friendly way to handle this discussion. Here, I’ll even write it for you:

“Hi [Team],

Thanks for reaching out again about this issue.

I have made two previous attempts to provide guidance on this matter, but my recommendation was dismissed without appropriate consideration due to first-impression aesthetics of a product that is provided for free by a small team of dedicated nerds.

I attempted to explain that a corporate-friendly paid version exists but never got that far in our conversation due to your team’s outright dismissal of the product I know to be both effective and appropriate for your use case.

Due to these circumstances, and your team’s apparent priorities, I recommend you pursue an expensive contract with CloudFlare.

If you change your mind and would like to revisit this matter, I’m happy to set up a meeting to present the details.

Best of luck,

-Ek-Hou-Van-Braai

It is WILD that someone from another team asks for help and replies with “lol” to dismiss your response. You need to correct that behaviour or they will treat you like shit going forward.

No, they are replying about the tld .lol, lol

They didn’t reply “lol” they replied “.lol?” because of the tld. I agree it sounds unprofessional though, who would choose that for their domain if its meant to be a legit/serious tool?

Nerds have dorky humor. Deal with it.

See here’s the thing - the mascot and URL are serving their purpose to deter the software author’s outsiders. They don’t want your business, it is a social signal being sent and the reception from your coworker? - did it’s job.

End result: Anubis loses a paying customer and big client that throws tens of millions each year at software projects.

Working as intended. Their goal is not a payday.

If it is a different team, why wouldn’t you just say that’s your recommendation? Your story isn’t making sense

Being assertive IS important in your career. Your colleagues are the unprofessional ones here. I would not tolerate someone sending me “lol” in a professional context and would quickly correct that behaviour.

A factual reply is all thats needed “you asked for a solution, this is the solution. Please do not be dismissive or rude. If you want an alternative please look for yourself, just expect the cost to be significantly higher. Otherwise I’m happy to discuss any concerns which are easily addressed such as branding”.

There is a huge difference between being rude and beibg assertive. They’re clearly being rude. You need to be assertive in response.

I think the “lol” is reference to the top level domain being .lol

Arguably even more stupid…

EDIT: removed my previous incendiary statement. See below.

holy shit are we already stepping down to “the creator is a pedo for liking anime”?

I’m going to retract my statement above, but I do believe that anime fetishizes cuteness and creates an unrealistic view of sexuality and creates bad expectations. It blurs lines and I think many people have an unhealthy obsession with it.