The Dropbox Foundation

#1

Post by mdu96 » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 7:20 AM UTC

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#2

Post by smackay » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 9:41 AM UTC

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors?

Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image problem. The choice of War Child UK just rubs more salt into the wound for me however.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#3

Post by shaki-dora » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:05 AM UTC

smackay wrote: post #2

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors? Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image p…

I'm as critical of the Bush administration as anyone. But I think Condoleezza Rice is just too complicated a person to place her on a one-dimensional "evil scale" and boycott everything she touches.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#4

Post by philliphaydon » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:10 AM UTC

shaki-dora wrote: post #3

smackay wrote: post #2

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors? Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image p…

I'm as critical of the Bush administration as anyone. But I think Condoleezza Rice is just too complicated a person to place her on a one-dimensional "evil scale" and boycott everything she touches.

I don’t trust her at all. I have more trust in Microsoft than her so I moved to OneDrive the moment it was announced she was joining Dropbox.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#5

Post by matt4077 » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:15 AM UTC

So I guess they'll be sued any second now? Because people on the internet keep telling me companies can't just give away shareholders' money? /s

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#6

Post by probably_wrong » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:15 AM UTC

smackay wrote: post #2

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors? Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image p…

I don't think there's a consensus. I've stopped using Dropbox due to that choice, but their success tells me that this is not too problematic for most of their users. I think it's one of those things were the product is just too good for people to quit, even if they disagree with the business practices.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#7

Post by mateuszf » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:20 AM UTC

probably_wrong wrote: post #6

smackay wrote: post #2

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors? Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image p…

I don't think there's a consensus. I've stopped using Dropbox due to that choice, but their success tells me that this is not too problematic for most of their users. I think it's one of those things were the product is just too good for people to quit, even if they disagree with the business practices.

> I think it's one of those things were the product is just too good for people to quit, even if they disagree with the business practices.

This or most users don't even know/care about the company / software. They just installed it to solve a problem and it works fine

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#8

Post by shaki-dora » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:29 AM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #4

shaki-dora wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm as critical of the Bush administration as anyone. But I think Condoleezza Rice is just too complicated a person to place her on a one-dimensional "evil scale" and boycott everything she touches.

I don’t trust her at all. I have more trust in Microsoft than her so I moved to OneDrive the moment it was announced she was joining Dropbox.

I'm having trouble finding a single position of her that I agree with. I'm actually listening to Brahms now, to see if maybe her choice of favourite composer is at least sensible.

But I do get the impression that she's the kind of person that one can have a deep discussion with even while disagreeing; that her positions, while wrong, are within the realm of possibilities, especially given her rather impressive biography. In other words: she's frequently wrong, but she's not batshit crazy and filled with hate like the current administration.

On a more practical note: I doubt that a board member has the power needed to single-handedly set company policy in the way implied by the criticism. If anything, her appointment is more of a symptom of the problem.

I guess it is cooperation with the national security apparatus people are worried about? With the increased scrutiny post-Snowden, especially in the EU, I'm not sure how much leeway companies have left, anyway. Yes: Dropbox almost certainly cooperates when presented with a "National Security Letter". But I would take Rice to actually be more concerned about limiting her liability than, say, Yahoo, and push back at requests that are in legally grey areas.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#9

Post by bad_user » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:29 AM UTC

philliphaydon wrote: post #4

shaki-dora wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm as critical of the Bush administration as anyone. But I think Condoleezza Rice is just too complicated a person to place her on a one-dimensional "evil scale" and boycott everything she touches.

I don’t trust her at all. I have more trust in Microsoft than her so I moved to OneDrive the moment it was announced she was joining Dropbox.

Moving to Microsoft due to Condoleezza Rice being hired by Dropbox makes absolutely no sense.

I'm not a US citizen, so I don't know about Condoleezza Rice and personally I don't care that much. But I do care about:

1. the Halloween documents

2. their NSA partnership

3. them being happy about censoring content on China's whims, which allegedly is also affecting international users

4. Windows 10 being a privacy nightmare

5. their ongoing racketeering practices, forcing a tax on Android phone makers for patents

Yes, please lecture me on how other companies are doing it too, blah, blah, I don't care as these are things that have a measurable impact on my everyday life.

Don't get me wrong, I'm actually not boycotting Microsoft, I just choose not to use them given the choice. And I would use OneDrive given its price, if it would be reliable, but it isn't. I tried it multiple times actually, always noticing unacceptable limitations or bugs.

And so your choice is dubious at best.

Re: The Dropbox Foundation

#10

Post by nicolas_t » Wed, Feb 21, 2018, 10:29 AM UTC

probably_wrong wrote: post #6

smackay wrote: post #2

Open Question: What's the consensus of opinion regarding Dropbox while they still have Condoleezza Rice on the Board of Directors? Personally, I want to love them. I think Drew has built up a decent company. However choosing Dr. Rice for the board, although she probably brings a lot to the table, was an unforgivable act. The creation of the foundation is laudable but feels a bit of a band-aid to solving their image p…

I don't think there's a consensus. I've stopped using Dropbox due to that choice, but their success tells me that this is not too problematic for most of their users. I think it's one of those things were the product is just too good for people to quit, even if they disagree with the business practices.

I also dropped dropbox because of that but I doubt it has much of an effect on their user base. Most people I know don't care that much (even people who care about politics)