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Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

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Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#131

Post by rhizome »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #127
justin wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, there is. You should tell customers to go away when they cost you more than they earn you. Costs come in many forms, both monetary and emotional. If dealing with specific complaining users damages team morale, then perhaps the company should consider whether those few users are worth it. Further, I doubt very much that bad PR like this affects Tumblr. 1) The vast majority of Tumblr users will never hear about th…

There is a difference between "We will understand it if you choose to go with a different company. However you should know and we are working hard at resolving these issues." and "... Please go Away." Seriously, it is not as if the guy insulted them.

He did insult them (or at least paint himself into a luser corner) by saying they had no export functionality.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#132

Post by kmfrk »

samengland wrote: post #129
kmfrk wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should, amongst other things, definitely write a disclaimer that describes your friendship with William, as he reveals[1]. It might as well be a hit piece as plain sloppy, speculative writing - if Karp had a nickel for every (unanswered) question mark in that article, he'd secure himself another $40 million. [1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2152210 : > prestia: > If this is William, what relationship do y…

The fact that William knows the owner of PostDesk makes no difference to the speculations made in the article about the future of Tumblr under Karp's leadership. Disclosure isn't really needed when the only difference is that he came to us to break the story as opposed to any other news outlet who would have said the same, or similar.

William is friends with the owner of PostDesk according to his description - knowing the owner is very different, and I think it's important to hold on to that distinction. You may, of course, be of a different opinion about the relationship - and know better about it than I do - but I think it's relevant that William himself describes the relationship as a friendship.

If there is a conflict of interest that should stop you from writing a story in the first place, you don't write the story.

If you are affiliated in some way with one side in a story, you write a disclaimer, so people don't jump to conclusions when they discover the relationship after reading the piece. Case in point.

Disclaimers/disclosures are as much about journalistic objectivity as PR on the writer's/s' behalf.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#134

Post by pyre »

masklinn wrote: post #47
rriepe wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Steve Jobs could kick a puppy as his next "one more thing." It doesn't mean shareholders would be happy about it. "We can afford it" is a terrible response to bad PR. He needs to act quickly and make this right. Apologize. Give the guy a free account or something. Everything is (mostly) better. I'm convinced that half of a PR person's work is convincing others to get over themselves.

> It doesn't mean shareholders would be happy about it. Actually, shareholders would probably be ecstatic.

... And Apple forums would be rife with explanations about how kicking is a better way to interface with puppies than petting them.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#135

Post by ugh »

masklinn wrote: post #47
rriepe wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Steve Jobs could kick a puppy as his next "one more thing." It doesn't mean shareholders would be happy about it. "We can afford it" is a terrible response to bad PR. He needs to act quickly and make this right. Apologize. Give the guy a free account or something. Everything is (mostly) better. I'm convinced that half of a PR person's work is convincing others to get over themselves.

> It doesn't mean shareholders would be happy about it. Actually, shareholders would probably be ecstatic.

Apple’s stocks haven’t grown very rapidly in the last months, at least compared to Apple’s earnings. Apple is making shitloads of money, giving shareholders every reason to be ecstatic but they don’t really seem to be. Apple’s stock is growing conservatively.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#136

Post by catshirt »

catshirt wrote: post #95
rationalbeaver wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One very important point that William fails to mention about his email to us - he spent the time to track down every Tumblr employees email and sent it to the entire team. It was way over-the-top, and yes, discouraging to the team." Assuming that is true, your comment deserves more attention. It changes the situation significantly.

Surely. After having read this response I pivoted (had to) my reaction. The original post clearly intends to have the reader believe "go away" is a poor off-the-cuff defense to "your site is down". Which especially given the down time is a bad defense. That said, at this point I'm much more likely to believe "go away" is a valid defense to harassment.

(had to make a pivot joke, that is)

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#137

Post by petervidani »

rriepe wrote: post #35
spolsky wrote: post #30

Give David a break. First of all, he's a very nice guy. Secondly, he's not running a corner greengrocer, he's running a site that's growing supernaturally fast and which has completely, utterly displaced myspace as the place where high school kids share. Tumblr has five MILLION visitors every single day, almost none of whom pay a dime. You can't run a service like that the same way you run an enterprise software comp…

I heard from an article that I read recently that he wasn't, in fact, a nice guy. Maybe you had different experiences with him, but now most people who have read about him just think he's some 24-year-old punk trying to be Steve Jobs. That's just how this stuff works. Startup, LLC and HugeCorp, Inc. alike can't afford bad PR like this. It was an incredibly stupid move on David's part and he should patch this up as qu…

I've worked for David for two years. I can honestly say he is the nicest person I've ever met. Genuinely kind and thoughtful, and wants the best for the site and the people that use it.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#138

Post by iPadDeveloper »

nhangen wrote: post #64
spolsky wrote: post #30

Give David a break. First of all, he's a very nice guy. Secondly, he's not running a corner greengrocer, he's running a site that's growing supernaturally fast and which has completely, utterly displaced myspace as the place where high school kids share. Tumblr has five MILLION visitors every single day, almost none of whom pay a dime. You can't run a service like that the same way you run an enterprise software comp…

The guy sent an honest and respectful email asking for help...I don't think his email was unreasonable. What was unreasonable was the "go away" line in David's response. That is simply juvenile and more importantly, completely unnecessary.

Exactly. It's funny that some people are 'blaming the customer' for loving a service so much that he gets upset when the people who run it act like this.

Not only can they not be trusted to run the service, but they act unprofessional when you complain. Customers complain, get over it. Learn to deal with it constructively.

David's response is not constructive and William's feedback is very valuable. Period.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#139

Post by wtildesley »

rhizome wrote: post #131
rokhayakebe wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between "We will understand it if you choose to go with a different company. However you should know and we are working hard at resolving these issues." and "... Please go Away." Seriously, it is not as if the guy insulted them.

He did insult them (or at least paint himself into a luser corner) by saying they had no export functionality.

How exactly did I insult them? And please point to anywhere on tumblr's website where I can export my content? Even Facebook, one of the most closed eco-systems on the web lets users download their own content.

Re: Should Tumblr care? David Karp tells users who complain to "go away"

#140

Post by wtildesley »

catshirt wrote: post #95
rationalbeaver wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One very important point that William fails to mention about his email to us - he spent the time to track down every Tumblr employees email and sent it to the entire team. It was way over-the-top, and yes, discouraging to the team." Assuming that is true, your comment deserves more attention. It changes the situation significantly.

Surely. After having read this response I pivoted (had to) my reaction. The original post clearly intends to have the reader believe "go away" is a poor off-the-cuff defense to "your site is down". Which especially given the down time is a bad defense. That said, at this point I'm much more likely to believe "go away" is a valid defense to harassment.

Please explain how emailing (some) of tumblr's staff to express my disappointment with the level of service can be classed as harassment?
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