It's kind of irrelevant, since both services are handily beaten by Assistly.
Well, Assistly before they got bought and couldn't keep their service up.
Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
91–100 of 198 posts
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#92Interestingly enough, Freshdesk apparently got started when Zendesk raised their prices - and a comment on HN about how this created a market for a cheaper competitor gave them the initial idea. So, at least partly a rip-off in my book.
Source: http://blog.freshdesk.com/the-freshdesk-story-how-a-simple-c...
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I think that's the problem with these kinds of flame wars. Is freshdesk right that the criticism about them was out of line? Yes. Does responding by saying the criticism "reflects poorly on the intellectual ability of the person making the judgement" and "[criticizer should] exercise better judgement and ethics when making negative comments about a company" seem heavy-handed and just as ridiculous as the initia…
The full statement is: > Passing judgement on Product innovation based on the founder’s nationality reflects poorly on the intellectual ability of the person making the judgement. They are complaining that nationalist insults or racist insults make the speaker look like an idiot. Is this ridiculous, heavy-handed, and unfair? Perhaps it is simply reflective of the fact that current culture looks down on racists.
Look, I hate racism. I grew up the midwest and saw the terrible things that racism can do to a culture.
But my argument is, what does Freshdesk gain from going back and forth with @cloudgroupsyd? Beyond that, @cloudgroupsyd apologized but still they chose to bring up this quote to rabble-rouse and make personal attacks against him. We all say stupid stuff, we all make mistakes. Especially in this world of 140 characters or less. What more do they want the dude to do? Become a crusader for Freshdesk? Apologize to them in person?
I'm a firm believer in forgiveness. Someone wrongs you and they apologize. What do you do? You move on. You don't write a blog post about.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#94Regarding the initial dispute over trademark: The "desk" part of the name is 'descriptive' and so isn't the strong part of each trademark. The "zen/fresh" parts are arbitrary so are the strong part of each mark. These are distinct, so I don't think there is a valid claim to trademark infringement here. One could argue that "desk" is 'suggestive' in trademark law which makes it a bit stronger, but I don't think that w…
Absolutely. And zendesk is a play on "help desk" anyway. Now the paring of those two words together means something and a rip off might be closer to something like "zendeskr" etc.
And of course there is a long history of companies doing similar things. Say ending a domain in "ly.com" as only one example.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#95HackerNews readers, watch and learn. I'm about deconstruct what is going on. Anybody who brushes off FreshDesk because of its Indian roots is doing FreshDesk a favour. This is a sharp mind at work and it is lethal. FreshDesk is executing the standard modus operandi of upstart against an incumbent. Jobs is a master at it (I'm Apple I'm Microsoft), Calacanis too (remember the SEO controversy, and then the Angel controv…
Thank you for pointing out this obvious PR campaign. The whole point of highlighting this exchange, the surrounding publicity, the custom url/etc is to raise the profile and get people to pick sides to generate discussion. This PR technique is as old as the sex tape and about exhausted as it gets. It's the online equivalent of reading "britney spears vs lindsay lohan".
"custom URL"
which was just created yesterday (12/3/11):
Domain ID:D164025278-LROR
Domain Name:RIPOFFORNOT.ORG
Created On:03-Dec-2011 14:26:48 UTC
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something about the whole freshdesk attitude really rubs me the wrong way. Not saying zendesk is in the right either. I just feel like I read the whole ripoffornot page and cringe. Definitely doesn't seem like the type of company I would want to give my time or money. A couple people complained about their product on twitter and they built a whole page responding to it? In it, they respond to the criticism by making…
How on earth did you get to freshdesk making personal attacks based on this page? I'm gobsmacked you managed to so severely misread the whole thing. The entire point of the page is to point out personal attacks made against them and then respond to the rip-off comment. Supposedly they did make a decent product already.
My point is, they respond to the personal attacks by making personal attacks against the people who made them. An eye for an eye. In my opinion, they sunk down to the level of the people who were criticizing them. Making a good product speaks for itself, you don't have to have this petty back and forth.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#97If you're on the right track, competitors are going to rip you off. If you're on the right track, competitors are going to try to poach your customers. If you're on the right track, some competitors are going to talk trash about you when they think no one's looking. Or even when everyone's looking! Using profanity in their Twitter feeds, even! But just because you're on the right track doesn't mean you can't derail;…
How is FreshDesk ripping off or poaching the customers of ZenDesk? Last time I checked, it was people connected to ZenDesk who are the one's talking trash.
> How is FreshDesk ripping off or poaching the customers of ZenDesk?
Read some of the other comments in this thread.
> Ignoring the interface and naming similarities, you can't complain about ZenDesk on Twitter without multiple Freshdesk spammers bombarding you.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#98HackerNews readers, watch and learn. I'm about deconstruct what is going on. Anybody who brushes off FreshDesk because of its Indian roots is doing FreshDesk a favour. This is a sharp mind at work and it is lethal. FreshDesk is executing the standard modus operandi of upstart against an incumbent. Jobs is a master at it (I'm Apple I'm Microsoft), Calacanis too (remember the SEO controversy, and then the Angel controv…
"This is a sharp mind at work and it is lethal.
FreshDesk is executing the standard modus operandi of upstart against an incumbent."
Agree. Compete.com numbers (no bashing please) show 1.28 million monthly for zendesk to 2.4k for freshdesk. Should be interesting to revisit this in 3 to 6 months and see what has happened.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#99HackerNews readers, watch and learn. I'm about deconstruct what is going on. Anybody who brushes off FreshDesk because of its Indian roots is doing FreshDesk a favour. This is a sharp mind at work and it is lethal. FreshDesk is executing the standard modus operandi of upstart against an incumbent. Jobs is a master at it (I'm Apple I'm Microsoft), Calacanis too (remember the SEO controversy, and then the Angel controv…
I've used ZenDesk. It's not the worst, but if things are as you say I would have thought the FreshDesk folks would have picked a different target.
One judgment I can make is that the cloudgroupsyd comment was xenophobic on its face. I wouldn't stand for that, defend it or excuse it. If there's any kind of software in this world that ranks high on the Global Village factor it's the kind with Desk in the name. The kind of attitude that permits someone to utter stuff like that publicly is toxic to this environment.
Suppose the recipient is trying something underhanded—does that make it okay?
Edit: correct an attribution.
Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds
#100This whole spat just highlights one of those truths that's evident to those in the industry: There is no such thing as a good idea, only good execution. Being first doesn't count for anything. Having a vaguely similar name doesn't count for anything. In the end, only how well your product works, how many users you can attract and retain, and how much value it provides matter.
There is such a thing as a good idea, it's just not very defensible, because once it appears to be working well as a business, the copycats come out of the woodwork.