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Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

techcrunch.com

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Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#111

Post by blhack »

edw519 wrote: post #18

I once had a friend who never forgot a birthday or holiday. I always got a card from him. The problem was that it was always a card that someone else had sent him . He scribbled over their message and wrote his own, then added a lame message, "I'm doing my part by recycling." This went on for years and I hated it. It wasn't funny anymore and I didn't want to read what others had written to him. Then it hit me... Who…

Pointless attack on Arington aside, what are you wishing your friend would send you?

Are you looking for a card, or a friend acknowledging that it is your birthday?

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#112

Post by techiferous »

billswift wrote: post #110
techiferous wrote: post #89

This looks like a routine miscommunication that happens all the time in business. Usually you just patch up the misunderstanding and move on. I think Arrington loves to fight, so he escalated it. So what? Why is this on Hacker News?

He didn't escalate it, he was just stubborn. The S&S lawyer escalated with threats of a lawsuit. Then he countered by making the disagreement public.

He escalated it by refusing to comply with a simple request to shorten the original excerpts. Sure, it was not his fault that he would have had to fix the blog post, but that would've been the civil and practical thing to do, in my opinion.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#113

Post by bmelton »

yosho wrote: post #5

I'm going to side on Arrington on this one, even though sometimes, he likes to make a big deal out of something small like removing a few words from his post.

I would be inclined to agree, but for this one line:

"I declined on the grounds that I was pissed off I was being called so many times"

That, and that he then seems to take offense when they call him unprofessional? Love him or hate him, but at least come up with a better reason than that to your (business partners|vendors|partners|sources) when trying to work out a dispute.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#114

Post by rbanffy »

danudey wrote: post #65
rbanffy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those were ugly in comparison. And also ruined what could have been a very nice tablet platform.

A lack of quality control certainly didn't help.

I believe it became harder to secure funding after what Arrington published.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#115

Post by edster »

dhimes wrote: post #81
aarongough wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I laughed pretty hard when I read the definition you gave for 'pigeon management'. That's one of those phrases that perfectly sums up what can otherwise be difficult to explain..

...also known in some circles as "seagull management."

we always called it seagull management too. Especially when the manager makes an appearance, eats all the "snacks" around the office and then shits all over everything before taking off.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#116

Post by hitonagashi »

megablast wrote: post #71
billclerico wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a better technique would probably have been to apologize to techcrunch for telling them the wrong thing, and then asking to take it down. as opposed to telling arrington that he misunderstood.

That would be admitting you are wrong. You can never admit you are wrong, it makes you look weak. If you look weak, you will not get anywhere. This is really how some people think.

If you admit you are wrong in paper/email, isn't it entirely possible that you can then be quoted on it later in an accusation of negligence?

In this specific instance for example, wouldn't admitting you are wrong in an email to Arrington immediately give him a solid case to defend himself with in the event he chose not to take it down?

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#117

Post by parfe »

neilc wrote: post #40
gte910h wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, I think you're wrong on both accounts. Fortune is jerking him around. Calling them on it is not a bad thing, because a working relationship on those terms will likely cost more than it will benefit. Additionally, bloggers (and others in Attention Media) often make more from douchebaggery than from evenhandedness. (And I honestly don't think Arrington is being a douche here.

Fortune is jerking him around. I don't see how: at least in the emails posted, Fortune never authorizes Arrington to post the full excerpt: they talk about writing a post "on the book excerpts". In any case, I think it is more likely to be a simple miscommunication. It would be more mature for Arrington to simply concede that -- the excerpts are their copyrighted material, and they have the right to control its distr…

I agree. Fortune wanted TC to write a story about Fortune having the excerpts to drive traffic to Fortune. By posting the exclusive content himself Arrington essentially stole the exclusive.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#118

Post by JabavuAdams »

SkyMarshal wrote: post #86

Sometimes shit just happens. Let it go, move on. The mistake here wasn't a miscommunication, it was in not realizing the cat was out of the bag and just cutting your losses. Just like you can't get unpregnant, you can't retract stuff once it's posted on one of the web's top blogs. Fortune's type A control freak lawyers still need to learn that it seems. The correct response from Fortune: "Oops, that's not what we int…

> Just like you can't get unpregnant

Um. There are several legal and safe-enough ways to get "unpregnant".

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#119

Post by antipaganda »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #118
SkyMarshal wrote: post #86

Sometimes shit just happens. Let it go, move on. The mistake here wasn't a miscommunication, it was in not realizing the cat was out of the bag and just cutting your losses. Just like you can't get unpregnant, you can't retract stuff once it's posted on one of the web's top blogs. Fortune's type A control freak lawyers still need to learn that it seems. The correct response from Fortune: "Oops, that's not what we int…

> Just like you can't get unpregnant Um. There are several legal and safe-enough ways to get "unpregnant".

Yes, but often there's no way to entirely remove the effects thereof from your life thereafter.

Re: Arrington : "You’re Welcome, You Bastards"

#120

Post by fleitz »

jrockway wrote: post #78
fleitz wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man expects the world to adapt to him, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

All regression also depends on the unreasonable man.

Touche.
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