An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried] • Hacker News Board

Basecamp made a questionable policy change, then the CEO started mass blocking everyone who said anything remotely critical of him no matter how kindly and politely they said it, then a third of the company took severance package offers. Paraphrasing one of the viral jokes: they hate when people take 30% from them, so it looks like they stepped back to rethink their actions.

Re: An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried]

#6

Post by nomdep » Wed, May 05, 2021, 2:48 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #5

replwoacause wrote: post #4

What happened?

Basecamp made a questionable policy change, then the CEO started mass blocking everyone who said anything remotely critical of him no matter how kindly and politely they said it, then a third of the company took severance package offers. Paraphrasing one of the viral jokes: they hate when people take 30% from them, so it looks like they stepped back to rethink their actions.

DHH is the CTO, not the CEO. And, like you, most of the Twitter mob had no idea what Basecamp was before starting to call him Nazi, white supremacist, racist, etc.

Someone (you?) blocked on Twitter is inconsequential and not relevant.

Re: An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried]

#7

Post by nomdep » Wed, May 05, 2021, 2:54 PM UTC

replwoacause wrote: post #4

What happened?

tl;dr: Basecamp decided to ban political/societal talk not related to work on its web internal group chat. Some people where outraged. 18 of their 56 employees resigned. This post is the aftermath of all of that.

For more details read the latest posts at https://world.hey.com/jason, https://world.hey.com/dhh, and the last article about it in The Verge.

Re: An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried]

#8

Post by Kye » Wed, May 05, 2021, 3:06 PM UTC

nomdep wrote: post #6

Kye wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basecamp made a questionable policy change, then the CEO started mass blocking everyone who said anything remotely critical of him no matter how kindly and politely they said it, then a third of the company took severance package offers. Paraphrasing one of the viral jokes: they hate when people take 30% from them, so it looks like they stepped back to rethink their actions.

DHH is the CTO, not the CEO. And, like you, most of the Twitter mob had no idea what Basecamp was before starting to call him Nazi, white supremacist, racist, etc. Someone (you?) blocked on Twitter is inconsequential and not relevant.

I used Basecamp's free tier for a personal project and have listened to quite a few podcast interviews with DHH. I used to respect him and the company culture he helped build. I never called him any of those things. Don't be so presumptuous just because I got CTO and CEO mixed up.

Re: An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried]

#9

Post by quotemstr » Wed, May 05, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

minimaxir wrote: post #2

Note that there's no what-actions-we-will-take-to-fix-this statement in this update, which is unusual given the scope of this controversy. They're quadrupling down.

And they should. A ban on politics at work is good and reasonable. Everyone should emulate it.

Re: An Update [Hey/Basecamp – Jason Fried]

#10

Post by nomdep » Wed, May 05, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

Kye wrote: post #8

nomdep wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DHH is the CTO, not the CEO. And, like you, most of the Twitter mob had no idea what Basecamp was before starting to call him Nazi, white supremacist, racist, etc. Someone (you?) blocked on Twitter is inconsequential and not relevant.

I used Basecamp's free tier for a personal project and have listened to quite a few podcast interviews with DHH. I used to respect him and the company culture he helped build. I never called him any of those things. Don't be so presumptuous just because I got CTO and CEO mixed up.

Sorry, I didn’t meant to accuse you of calling him something, just to point out blocking aggressive strangers on Twitter is the rational thing to do instead of something reprehensible