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When Sued Don't Tweet

jacquesmattheij.com

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Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#61

Post by cookiecaper »

masklinn wrote: post #27
michaelq wrote: post #11

While that may help you in the courtroom, the court of public opinion doesn't wait for a verdict. It confuses silence with guilt. Acquittals are less likely to make front pages than acquittals.

> While that may help you in the courtroom, the court of public opinion doesn't wait for a verdict. It confuses silence with guilt. No, it confuses silence with confirmation of its prejudice. If the court of public opinion does not think you're guilty your silence will support that, if the court of public opinion thinks you're guilty your silence will support that.

It's almost impossible to overcome the public's prejudice. Is it better to remain silent and allow people to make their assumptions or put out new statements that will also likely be misconstrued and potentially make things worse?

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#62

Post by personZ »

zavulon wrote: post #24
motters wrote: post #21

If someone makes a spurious allegation against you then I think you should defend yourself as much as possible, including via tweets or any other communication channels. Refuse to go quietly into the night.

Did you read the article? The point is you're making it worse by tweeting and making other public statements. You may win in court of public opinion, but you're making it easier for your opponent to beat you in actual court.

The blog post is pure speculation by what appears to be a layman. It has no more weight than any random comment on HN.

It's worth stating that because people are treating it as if a famed IP lawyer has made a pronouncement of fact, when in actuality it's just someone giving, like, an opinion, man.

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#63

Post by personZ »

I am very confused that Carmack finds himself in such a position.

Carmack quite famously made "Fuck You Money" over a decade ago. He was driving garages full of super expensive cars. He should have been the one with the levers.

Instead he became, effectively, an employee again. Why? Why would he do that?

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#64

Post by nailer »

ilamont wrote: post #29

An interesting counterpoint to this is Julie Ann Horvath, who leveraged Twitter to expose a toxic culture at Github (1) and eventually forced the CEO and his wife to leave the company (2), and has kept Github and certain employees on the defensive (3). She may have to deal with legal repercussions because of her actions on Twitter, but I can't help but think that nothing would have changed had she kept silent or quie…

Horvath's professional standing would be greater if she took on GitHub in court, proved they were harassing her on the basis of her gender, and won.

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#65

Post by jacquesm »

personZ wrote: post #63

I am very confused that Carmack finds himself in such a position. Carmack quite famously made "Fuck You Money" over a decade ago. He was driving garages full of super expensive cars. He should have been the one with the levers. Instead he became, effectively, an employee again. Why? Why would he do that?

funding Armadillo can't have been cheap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#66

Post by nailer »

zavulon wrote: post #24
motters wrote: post #21

If someone makes a spurious allegation against you then I think you should defend yourself as much as possible, including via tweets or any other communication channels. Refuse to go quietly into the night.

Did you read the article? The point is you're making it worse by tweeting and making other public statements. You may win in court of public opinion, but you're making it easier for your opponent to beat you in actual court.

I can see both sides to the argument. Someone who was subsequently cleared of charges but whose name is still mud probably has a different value on the court of public opinion.

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#67

Post by bchjam »

jacquesm wrote: post #65
personZ wrote: post #63

I am very confused that Carmack finds himself in such a position. Carmack quite famously made "Fuck You Money" over a decade ago. He was driving garages full of super expensive cars. He should have been the one with the levers. Instead he became, effectively, an employee again. Why? Why would he do that?

funding Armadillo can't have been cheap. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillo_Aerospace

pretty much, he said Armadillo had drained all of his 'crazy money' at a QuakeCon a couple years ago

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#68

Post by TodPunk »

This article has some flaws. For instance, Carmack isn't getting sued, Oculus/Facebook is.

Also, I didn't get the impression that Carmack was "angry" when he tweeted that. I always get the impression that he is pretty calm about all of the things he's saying, and the two tweets being referenced are just statements about his perception on the case. Since anger is the tone of the entire "mistake" from the article's perspective, it seems the article author is the one jumping to conclusions and writing things on the internet before they're due.

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#69

Post by peterwwillis »

What to do when people make you angry online:

1. GET OFF SOCIAL MEDIA. Everything you say and do will make you a target. The only things you can say that might help you would be contrition, so if you're not willing to do that, get the hell off social media. This is also good because it removes you from having to read things about yourself that people are saying. People's talk will not harm you; your reaction to people's talk will harm you.

2. GET AN OFFLINE JOURNAL. If you have strong feelings, write them out. Write until you can't feel anymore. But don't put it online; keep it offline. The purpose is to have an exercise that gets your thoughts out, and to be able to read through your thoughts and clarify them later. Write letters to the people you're angry with, then review them and edit them many times, and never send them.

3. TALK TO FRIENDS. It's incredibly easy to let internalizing your feelings change how you think, change your memories, and turn you into a shell of your former self. You can even develop anxiety disorders or PTSD if this gets out of hand. Talk to people who understand and love you and let them keep you in check. You need positive outside influences to keep yourself sane. Talk to a good psychiatrist if you can.

4. KEEP THE BIG PICTURE IN MIND. It's easy to confuse yourself and wrestle over details. Start by considering the intent of your actions, and work from there to understand the whole chain of events, impartial and without emotion. It takes a while to get there. Be totally honest with yourself, but don't convince yourself of things that you didn't do.

Re: When Sued Don't Tweet

#70

Post by nailer »

buro9 wrote: post #8

A possible exception: When you have no means to afford a lawyer and the case is obviously frivolous. Whilst I would nearly always go for shutting up, we've probably all witnessed the David being sued by a Goliath and their only viable action is to make it know and get support. That isn't what's happening here though... but no rule is black and white.

Also: if you're a game developer, and Zenimax offers you a job, and you know this is how they treat people people who've moved on, you might consider taking a different role.
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