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

#31

Post by logicallee » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:08 AM UTC

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #14

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…

Because crazy people generally don't know what an Oculus is? You have to be an early adopter, independently rich and well-enough off to be involved in a super early-stage company at the dev kit/vision stage. Also, you have to be supportive of a new enterprise, both in deed and with actual dollars.

It is very hard to imagine any of them turning around and making a death threat to an employee's family member. It's just a different sort of group.

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

#32

Post by Gatsky » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:09 AM UTC

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…

I don't agree with this at all.

I am a person. I have never had a death threat. If I get a death threat, I would probably be rather upset, and inclined to say something about it. I don't think there is too much else going on here.

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

#33

Post by manicdee » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:14 AM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #31

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Because crazy people generally don't know what an Oculus is? You have to be an early adopter, independently rich and well-enough off to be involved in a super early-stage company at the dev kit/vision stage. Also, you have to be supportive of a new enterprise, both in deed and with actual dollars. It is very hard to imagine any of them turning around and making a death threat to an employee's family member. It's just…

[citation needed]

The corollary of Sturgeon's law is that there is a significant portion of everything which is so crap that you wouldn't believe it actually exists.

The more people you have interested in any subject (flowers, stamps, virtual reality equipment), the more likely it is that you have "crazy people" who become emotionally attached to a particular product and react quite irrationally to any news about the product.

I'd love to hear your explanation of why "crazy people generally don't know what an Oculus is" that doesn't work on the flawed assumption that everyone who knows about virtual reality is perfectly sane and in all other respects just like you.

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

#34

Post by LandonAB » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:15 AM UTC

ElDiablo666 wrote: post #11

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 paranoi…

Completely agree. That's all I got out of the article. Those guys are so out of touch with why people are pissed.

Death threats are obviously unacceptable regardless.

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

#35

Post by DerpDerpDerp » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:16 AM UTC

stan_rogers wrote: post #21

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really hard to get people to understand something their paycheck requires them not to.

What, precisely, is it that you think they don't understand (and a bunch of random gamers do)?

I think they're turning a blind eye to the way many people view Facebook, Facebook's habit of making decisions that compromise user privacy (since that's how they make money), and so on because it's in their financial advantage to be bought out like that.

Zuckerberg's comments about potential paths that VR will take (with Facebook's backing) already admit that he's planning many of the things that people are saying they're worried about, and the Oculus people are just going "Huh? What? I don't know what you mean...."

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

#36

Post by DerpDerpDerp » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:17 AM UTC

logicallee wrote: post #31

DerpDerpDerp wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Because crazy people generally don't know what an Oculus is? You have to be an early adopter, independently rich and well-enough off to be involved in a super early-stage company at the dev kit/vision stage. Also, you have to be supportive of a new enterprise, both in deed and with actual dollars. It is very hard to imagine any of them turning around and making a death threat to an employee's family member. It's just…

Your premise is wrong, as another commentator pointed out.

If anything, there's an above average correlation between the early adopter tech crowd and crazy people who drastically overreact to news of things.

Also, because of things like Minecraft associations, a widely popular Kickstarter (which generated news), and the general media love of new technologies (such as VR), I think more people are aware of Oculus than you're admitting.

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

#37

Post by daviding » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:29 AM UTC

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…

I agree with you that it looks like a legitimate PR strategy, but in this case I don't buy that.

Look at the context of how this info was delivered. This wasn't some response to a journalist or a press release, it was a reply to a reddit thread that Palmer has frequently chatted on. At around about the same time that evening he also went in to if Star Wars lore about the Expanded Universe was being killed by Disney or not, or if Yuuzhan Vong was a force power in the balance prophecy. It seems unlikely this was a centrally masterminded PR strategy but just someone saying what was on their mind at the time. He may have good PR instincts, although even thinking that seems cynical to me, and it seems random enough to be an honest comment.

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

#38

Post by stephenaturner » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 2:37 AM UTC

The combination of some very intelligent people with often very poor social skills will give a greater chance of things like this happening...

That said, they could be a little more honest about recognising why people don't like this deal...

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

#39

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 4:09 AM UTC

clef wrote: post #18

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…

[deleted]

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

#40

Post by misingnoglic » Mon, Mar 31, 2014, 5:17 AM UTC

teamonkey wrote: post #26

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…

Unfortunately death threats are a very real and toxic problem in the gaming community. I'd say not only is it believable, but both Oculus and Facebook were somewhat naïve for not expecting them. Or perhaps they weren't expecting the stalking and harassment to be serious . Either way, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because it does commonly happen and they have every right to be annoyed about it.

Hell, even the creator of /flappy bird/ received death threats, that's how common they are online.