Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal • Hacker News Board

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#11

Post by ElDiablo666 » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:01 AM UTC

It's pretty embarrassing for them that their response is incredulousness. Facebook is largely regarded as a necessary evil by many people, especially technical folks, and yet these guys are surprised that people might worry that you'll need a Facebook account in order to use it? Or that Facebook will insert some microcode or firmware doing satan-knows-what and requiring authorization for any usage? That's not paranoia or irrational hand wringing; it's exactly the kind of thing these folks are up to because their business model isn't charging for a service, it's selling people's information to other businesses.

But death threats are not acceptable. I just wanted to respond to my shock at learning the Oculus guys were so surprised. Clearly they do not understand how Facebook is regarded outside of some wine parties in the Valley.

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#12

Post by DerpDerpDerp » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:02 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #7

pekk wrote: post #6

Death threats are obviously inexcusable. This shouldn't even have to be said. But this is a classic PR strategy. When you do something that makes many people very angry, all you have to do is wait for someone to say something incivil. Then make headlines with whatever it is they said. Then the message shifts to how you've been wronged. And any time anyone complains or argues against what you did, associate the critic…

[deleted]

It doesn't require that Ars be in on it - or even necessarily Facebook.

But why do you think it's improbable for a company and their acquisition to plot a PR move?

PR people for corporations lie all the time - look at the Sim City release for EA, and the obvious lies about the online component from their PR person.

Edit: For the record, I don't think that it's what happened. I think it was just crazy people being crazy. However, your objection is nonsense and doesn't preclude what the GP was alleging to be the case.

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#13

Post by JDDunn9 » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:02 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #7

pekk wrote: post #6

Death threats are obviously inexcusable. This shouldn't even have to be said. But this is a classic PR strategy. When you do something that makes many people very angry, all you have to do is wait for someone to say something incivil. Then make headlines with whatever it is they said. Then the message shifts to how you've been wronged. And any time anyone complains or argues against what you did, associate the critic…

[deleted]

- Oculus founders have an interest in tuning out the negativity

- Ars (or the media) has an interest in hyperbole and sensationalism to get views

- No one has anything to gain by making death threats...

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#14

Post by DerpDerpDerp » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:04 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #5

Jesus Christ. Death threats ? Harassing phone calls to their families ? I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from. But death threats ? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??

There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people responding to this news - why wouldn't some of them just be crazy?

There's no reason to think that this is widespread or representative of the general response. However, they're expecting that people like you will distract the conversation from their terrible business move by worriedly talking about how a small portion of the response is from crazy people, and surely we must do something about it!

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#15

Post by pekk » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:05 AM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #7

pekk wrote: post #6

Death threats are obviously inexcusable. This shouldn't even have to be said. But this is a classic PR strategy. When you do something that makes many people very angry, all you have to do is wait for someone to say something incivil. Then make headlines with whatever it is they said. Then the message shifts to how you've been wronged. And any time anyone complains or argues against what you did, associate the critic…

[deleted]

No collusion is necessary. It works with any number of people.

Even if just one person receives* a single death threat then they can change the subject. Everyone in that person's tribe, already disclined to listen or accept any criticism of their partisans, will line up to condemn the death threats and welcome the change of subject. They might recognize this as part of a PR strategy, or not, it doesn't affect the execution.

That's assuming there is no intent to handle the PR disaster. Most organizations in this position will have or appoint someone to come up with some messaging strategy, whether that is a spokesman or PR firm or private mailing list. But the effect is really the same.

No conspiracy required.

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#16

Post by JohnnyBrown » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:08 AM UTC

adamredwoods wrote: post #10

I'm not surprised. I quit playing multi-player online games (Starcraft) because of excessive violence threats and verbal abuse. It's an unfortunate side effect of the gaming community, and I feel the Oculus appealed to that community.

Actually my first thought was also, "well, it is targeted toward gamers". But Starcraft? Was your handle "uglyblacklesbianexxonexecutive"? I play starcraft II almost every day and I find the community very polite. The worst I ever see is occasional gloating after a victory or accusations of cheating in defeat. Most matches the only chat is "glhf" and "gg".

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#17

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:08 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #5

Jesus Christ. Death threats ? Harassing phone calls to their families ? I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from. But death threats ? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??

[deleted]

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#18

Post by clef » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:09 AM UTC

Another widespread phenomenon the internet and after it social media facilitated, the ability to send death threats to people "hiding" being a computer (or a fake identity). Much easier than doing it in person. It is unfortunate that for every good discovery or invention, there is always a way to exploit it for less compassionate means, like greed, bullying (death threats included), criminal activities.. True that if we stopped in our innovation tracks just because of possible negative effects, we'd still be using sticks and stones, but it seems that as much as technology as a whole has greatly evolved, common sense and compassion is still not something that comes instinctively to a lot of people in this world.

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#19

Post by Zigurd » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:11 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #5

Jesus Christ. Death threats ? Harassing phone calls to their families ? I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from. But death threats ? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??

In the 80's when source code for programming books was distributed on floppies I had irate people track me down and spew vitriol at me because they thought my examples didn't compile. Of course it was because they were too cheap to buy the diskette and they had typos. So, yeah, I expect somebody made threats. Whenever you do something in public some people are going to say intemperate things. As others here have pointed out, making yourself out to be a martyr because of that is a ploy to get sympathy.

Re: Oculus founder didn’t expect “so many death threats” after Facebook deal

#20

Post by whatusername » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 1:15 AM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #5

Jesus Christ. Death threats ? Harassing phone calls to their families ? I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from. But death threats ? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??

This happened: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/03/19