So our post earlier in the week with all the Wave 3 download g-links may have annoyed a few people. Or more than a few people. But hey, we’re only fulfilling our roles as both fans and bloggers. Translucency versus transparency only gets you so far. And to keep that spirit, here’s how the download links came about:

• Softies clicked through to us from http://home-beta.live.com
• We’re sneaky, and started visiting the IP address
• We found a bunch of photos and the download buttons
• We right clicked and selected view source
• We kept checking back until the links went live, and even then we waited for a few days before posting

Hopefully this will now end the “OMGZZZZ lets go on a witch-hunt for the internal leaker” effect we’ve been seeing.  We stick to our manifesto, so our delay in posting is more than you’d get from any other blogger. Courtesy and respect work both ways, and in this current climate of silence, DMCAs and takedowns, the Windows and Windows Live teams don’t earn much of that. Plus, we don’t see Apple, Facebook, HTC or Google keeping many secrets right up until launch. Times have changed, your PR should be evolving with it.

(Full credit to the WL Hotmail PR team for putting up this teaser site we posted about last month, and for this week emailing it around to Hotmail subscribers.)

I’d like to hope this honest post means we don’t get the choke-grip from He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. Unfortunately I think its too late for that.