Apparently there are some WebForms lovers in the ASP.NET community who love the technology soooooo much that they were "not without a tinge of anger" when discussing the situation at PDC with Phil Haack, the program manager for the Microsoft MVC.  Can an online petition a la the oh-so-successful "Keep VB6 around because I'm tired of learning new stuff" be far behind? 

I had to laugh when reading the post, and not because of the image of a legion of "professional software developers" standing in front of Phil, looking down at their feet, hands in their pockets muttering, "If you don't stop progressing the industry, I'm going to burn my pocket protector".  No, I laughed because I know how Phil Haack *really* feels about WebForms development despite his public stance.  Let me share with you a heretofore-*confidential* exchange between myself and Phil:

From: Phil Haack (haack420_ForLife@Microsoft.com)
To: Justice Gray [E-mail censored because I get enough unsolicited offers for sexual favors]
Subject: I need your advice
So there was a homeless guy wandering outside the 7-11 tonight and what a sob story this guy had.  "Excuse me, sir...but I used to have a job doing ASP.NET WebForms development..."  I didn't even hear the rest of his sentence but when I heard the word "WebForms" I just snapped.  Kicked that dude in the nuts *17 times*, poured a can of gasoline on him and then SET HIM ON FIRE, yelling,
"Burn!!!!  Burn like the careers of everyone who still does WebForms development!!!" 

So do you think I went too far?*"

I had originally sent this E-mail to the local authorities but the Seattle police simply told me that they don't have the manpower to handle the sheer outbreak of people crying their eyes out on the streets about
a) how they do WebForms development
b) they feel "betrayed" by the very *existence* of the Microsoft MVC
c) they fear change.  I don't mean the change people throw at them while yelling "Get a *REAL* job" either.

There's not really much I can say to this reaction.  We talked about it briefly a couple of months back when "Mr. Drag and Drop" GridViewGuy dropped by Rob Conery's to say, "BOOOOO HOOOOO TESTING IS HARD STUFF, hold my hand so I can start doing competent work".  There's pretty much no way I can possibly relate.  What I can tell you however, is that if you like sleeping on a bed of money, you should learn the MVC.    If only you knew how much people like me make cleaning up WebForms projects gone wrong!!!  With every half-assed DotNetNuke implementation I save somebody from, it's another *10 billion dollars* in my pocket.  Hey, to all of you people soiling yourselves because WebForms is dying: maybe some of you suckers should spend less time doing this:


and more time doing this: