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Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

engineering.groupon.com

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Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#11

Post by revelation »

joshstrange wrote: post #2

Hmmm.... This doesn't seem to line up with what Gnome said [0]: > It was almost inconceivable to us that Groupon, with over $2.5 billion in annual revenue, a full legal team and a huge engineering staff would not have heard of the GNOME project, found our trademark registration using a casual search, or even found our website, but we nevertheless got in touch with them and asked them to pick another name. Not only di…

It's like squatting on someones reserved parking and then trying to strike up a conversation on alternative parking options with them. The only reasonable answer is get the fuck off.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#12

Post by kstrauser »

trjordan wrote: post #6
joshstrange wrote: post #2

Hmmm.... This doesn't seem to line up with what Gnome said [0]: > It was almost inconceivable to us that Groupon, with over $2.5 billion in annual revenue, a full legal team and a huge engineering staff would not have heard of the GNOME project, found our trademark registration using a casual search, or even found our website, but we nevertheless got in touch with them and asked them to pick another name. Not only di…

It's not always about simple existence. I suspect they thought they could get away with doing something that's totally different -- but the reaction they saw way that their users wouldn't see it that way. They knew it existed, but they didn't know how much of a backlash they would be. Hindsight is 20/20.

It's not surprising that people were confused:

> ...said Eric Lefkofsky, CEO. "When it's complete, Gnome will serve as an operating system for merchants to run their entire operation and enable them to create real-time promotions that bring customers into their business when they need them the most."

I can understand GNOME being upset that a product described by its CEO as "an operating system" would pick their already well established name.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#15

Post by johngd »

Interestingly, their largest publicity bump since July was largely negative, at least among those that that would read tech news: http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=groupon

Considering that their point-of-sale platform was largely targeted at small businesses that assumingly would follow this type of news, I am curious how long it takes for them to rebrand this product and how long they wait to roll it out... if at all.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#16

Post by Udo »

aDevilInMe wrote: post #5
thoughtpalette wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Either way Groupon made the right decision here imo

Yet I do not see Groupon apologising for their behaviour, which was evil.

I don't think you can characterize it as being evil. There's also no clear ulterior motive for pushing through with the name, and "capitalizing on the name recognition of the Gnome project" is not a valid hypothesis since that name doesn't mean anything for 99% of Groupon's customers.

It looks more like they were just being a typical stubborn corporation. Some product manager got really attached to the name and they tried to hang on to it as a matter of course, because they're massive and feel they don't have to budge to anything. In the end, they caved to negative publicity, as any company in their position would.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#17

Post by SwellJoe »

How is it that every time I see any article, blog post, whatever, about Groupon, including posts by Groupon themselves, I find myself feeling kinda like I need a shower? Some of their sliminess gets on me every time I come in contact with anything they do.

It takes incredible chutzpah (and not in a good way) to operate the way they operate. They wanted to trademark "Gnome" for a software product, and expected the GNOME project to just roll over and let it happen! It's as though no one else on the planet even exists or matters, in their estimation.

How is it that so many seemingly reputable investors are involved in this thing again? Groupon should have died on the vine six months into the story, but it didn't, and now we have to deal with their bullshit forever, I guess.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#18

Post by herge »

rasengan wrote: post #10

Groupon lies. However the end result is good either way for GNOME and open source. Now the only question is why was the fastest up voted post in HN history which was Gnome vs Groupon in favor of Gnome moderated to the second page while this Groupon post is at the top of the front page with almost no votes! Does someone at HN have stock in groupon or something? Either way it's time for a transparent Blockchain based H…

> Either way it's time for a transparent Blockchain based HN/reddit.

I'm sure you could drum up something along with the group from comp.lang.lisp who are trying to write reddit back in lisp.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#19

Post by valarauca1 »

rasengan wrote: post #10

Groupon lies. However the end result is good either way for GNOME and open source. Now the only question is why was the fastest up voted post in HN history which was Gnome vs Groupon in favor of Gnome moderated to the second page while this Groupon post is at the top of the front page with almost no votes! Does someone at HN have stock in groupon or something? Either way it's time for a transparent Blockchain based H…

>Blockchain based HN/reddit. This moderator bias crap is bs.

Problem you'll run into is that storage space isn't free. And every single miner having a mirrored copy of HN wouldn't exactly burn though storage quickly, but wouldn't exactly be a very good way to create this transparency.

Re: Gnome Foundation and Groupon product names – Updated

#20

Post by couchand »

Udo wrote: post #16
aDevilInMe wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet I do not see Groupon apologising for their behaviour, which was evil.

I don't think you can characterize it as being evil. There's also no clear ulterior motive for pushing through with the name, and "capitalizing on the name recognition of the Gnome project" is not a valid hypothesis since that name doesn't mean anything for 99% of Groupon's customers. It looks more like they were just being a typical stubborn corporation. Some product manager got really attached to the name and they…

You don't say anything that's not exactly right, but you're still missing the point.

They had the opportunity to own up to their mistake and seek the goodwill of the community. They missed that chance. Perhaps not "evil", but certainly worth some continued indignation.

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