Six Apart: Wow, what a fool.

[icarus]

When I suggested LJ might dig itself to China, I was kidding. But Six Apart's VP anildash's response to the ValleyWag article (I take it the gossip hit an all-too-accurate nerve?) suggests China, and possible lift-off once LJ hits the other side.

Quote: 'Thanks and good luck to Brad -- can't wait to see what you do next. And a big hearty fuck-you to rumormongers who stir shit up just to demoralize people who do good work. If you don't have enough drama in your life, go make something that millions of people think is valuable.'

Because giving the gossipmongers more to gossip about is always a good idea. I've got to talk to my friends in PR. This is one for the textbooks.



P.S. The rumormongers in question are ValleyWag: Six Apart Fails To Spin and Valley Wag: Six Apart Funnels Donations to Backer's Pet Charities.

ETA: Oh yeah. Really bad idea to piss off the rumormongers.

Son of ETA: Aha. Apparently this is corporate politics (vagueness alert) aimed at screwing brad over. And reading through the comments on ValleyWag makes the motives of the commenters pretty damned clear. anildash's post is very stupid, but I don't like being manipulated by ax-grinders.

Comments

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Having been involved in the corporate politics of a fortune 50 firm, I've seen stuff like that in action. So you're making a lot of sense to me.

However, having worked in advertising, been around advertising and PR my whole life (dad's an art director) -- this is a terrible move on anildash's part. They needed to have done the corporate handshake and hand-off already.

Right about now, instead of responding to the fire from Valley Wag they should be doing a "cutting the wedding cake" photo op and their own articles that have nothing but sunshine and roses for Brad. Details of the great work he's done. An insider "interview" of the corporate wags at Six Apart.

Responding to it directly just puts the gossipmongers on an equal footing with the people who know the real story.

Icarus

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Oh, no question -- anildash's response is about par for the rest of lj/6a, who needs to hire a net-savvy pr person today.

But I get frustrated when fandom people are passing this off like it's relevant, the way they have the last few days, because Brad's leaving is truly, truly not.

Although, now that anildash has responded, I suppose the whole thing is :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

All you need to do is read the comments.

Does this sound like a personal agend to you? "Is SixApart falling apart because you haven't done jack for two years, cause that's the word on the street - your reputation precedes you, you know" and "You hear that Google engineers? This guy is coming to boss you around, next."

Sound personal?

Because that doesn't even make sense. Brad's not been in charge for two years. "Your reputation precedes you" -- hmm. That seems to be the aim of SHMOOTH's entire comment.