The rejection reason was that the option did not exist. It was the very first option. Calling that Kafkaesque is fine, and there is no reason for you to act so smug.
I'm not smug. I'm battle-scarred. I'll lay odds that I've had a lot more rejections than you have, and probably gotten a lot more pissed off at Apple.
Being an experienced Apple developer (since 1986), means that I have been incandescent with rage at Apple -many times. All of us have. Apple can be a real pain to work with.
I still develop for Apple, but I am not a "fanboi."
BTW: The rejection reason says that, because it's canned. It covers a lot of areas. I have received many such vaguely-worded rejections, and had to figure out why they bounced the app. In a couple of cases, I have been able to get people on the horn (PROTIP: Don't be calling them "smug," and be polite, even though you want to throttle them), where they have explained the issue.
[EDIT]: Also, branding is something that a lot of geeks don't understand, but it is very important (and valuable). Many of the seemingly insane moves by Apple are because they are building and/or protecting their brand. That "smugness" is actually a deliberate part of their brand. I don't think that it's a good idea for their fans to reflect it.
In terms of branding, a corrupted branding element is exactly the same as no branding element (except it's legally actionable).
Speaking of which, did anyone see this week's John Oliver show? I get the feeling that HBO is a bit peeved with Disney.
> In a couple of cases, I have been able to get people on the horn (PROTIP: Don't be calling them "smug," and be polite, even though you want to throttle them), where they have explained the issue.
> That "smugness" is actually a deliberate part of their brand.
I wasn't calling Apple smug, though?
I was calling your comment smug, because of 1. implying it's unreasonable to say "kafkaesque" despite Apple setting up a system where you need to "read tea leaves" instead of believing what they tell you, and 2. phrasing it as that they "couldn't understand" the problem.
Your advice, as far as saying they use canned messages that merely resemble the actual problem, is very useful. But don't be mean to someone that doesn't know that. It's a major failing on Apple's part.
Then I'd gently suggest doing a bit of research on what type of person I am, before immediately assuming that I am being mean. I'm a pretty decent chap.
I understand that you are one of the most senior members of this community, and I certainly appreciate the work that y'all have done, trying to keep this from turning into an ugly community.
I really (truly) appreciate the decorum here, and sincerely do my best to respect that. It is my goal to be a positive, contributing member here. I may be mistaken, but I do believe that I have some contributions to make, here.
I may come across as a stuffy old fart, but that is a deliberate departure from my earlier days, when I was ... not that way.
