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

[elf]

I'm with oulangi: I think LJ bought all the surplus stupid they could lay their hands on and are planning the IPO in order to raise funds and run out to buy more stupid.

They've gone out of their way to convince even the non-fen that they think their paying customers are a pile of whiny, bitchy idiots who don't deserve so much as a "we're working on it" email.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Okay, here's where I say things I probably shouldn't, but -- he's right.

1) the deal for Brad to move was finalized in april. 6A knew. It was sat on for contractual reasons.

2) the person who leaked this info and yes, it was leaked and yes, I do personally know who that is (yay for a brother in interesting places) is a fricking douche who did it for reasons that have nothing to do with 6a and have everything to do with Brad. I can't and won't go into them but -- yeah, look, I know the timing is bad, but you gotta understand that this absolutely is corporate rumormongering.

And no, I can't extrapolate. I wish I could, because I'd love to wave names and details around but, basically? Someone decided to fuck Brad over, and it's working. The fact that 6A got caught in the crossfire? Is just bonus for this asshole. He doesn't know or care anything about 6A.

I know this is the weirdest post ever, and of course you don't have to believe me -- I'm hardly inspiring with my "somebody told me" stuff, but... but this is industry combining with gossip rags and it's starting to really annoy me because it genuinely has nothing to do with 6A.

Other than having suck-ass timing.

[aerynvala.livejournal.com]

oh good lord *sigh*

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh. My god.

It's looks like they've pissed off ValleyWag now Email if you have information on the Six Apart mess (http://valleywag.com/tech/six-apart/six-apart-mess-258830.php).

Posted at 8:41pm today. I don't know what time zone. anildash posted his bit on the 6th.

wildernessguru comments (I love his perspective): "The guy's clearly out of his league."

[lauramcewan.livejournal.com]

Classy, OMG.

[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

[florahart]

Want to be even more unable to parse what the hell they are using for sense over there?

http://news.livejournal.com/100331.html?thread=62408171#t62408171

There is not enough what the fuck in the WORLD. They're saying pro-ana communities (those comms which encourage people to continue being anorexic, okay, NOT support groups for getting healthier or anything) are good support groups and people who don't like them should not look, so even though they promote self-harm, they are okay.

[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 :)

[enname.livejournal.com]

*facepalm*

Hi, please to be learning the thinking part of 'think before you speak'. Especially in public about a company and ... gah. Even my cat knows better than this and he is, well a cat!

[photosinensis.livejournal.com]

And yet, f'locked Snarry fic, which doesn't actually hurt anyone, is being TOSsed? Man, 6A, you are really stupid.

[florahart]

No, I totally believe you that this in particular is just a matter of someone leaking something that makes the timing look really bad, but the responding to it this way is just foolish. It's completely unbelievable to me that 6A hasn't sent out a memo to ALL EMPLOYEES (and volunteers) that said, seriously, SERIOUSLY, do not engage regarding this mess on a personal level using ANY LJ you use to speak for the company unless you are making an official statement or unless it is locked to people you know really damn well.

[ladycat777.livejournal.com]

Definitely agreed -- once anildesh opened his mouth, all bets were off. That was dumb, along with a long line of OH MY GOD HIRE A PR PERSON FAST.

But this post was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, not because of anything in the post, it was just the most recent that talked about Brad and I finally had to talk about it, because... because for the past few days speculation on my corner of lj has been insane and I don't think people understand (not you or icarus, but a lot of posts I read, yeah) the kind of corporate gossiping that goes on, particularly for computer-related companies.

These people are all online and pretty much as vicious as fandom on its nastiest days. And that's what this was. Hell, it's basically professional sockpuppeting.

Or, at least it was until anildesh had to say something.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The need for a simple, consistent policy has never been more clear.

Icarus

[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.

[cheshyre]

The whole place has left the league far, far behind.

Folks were really excited yesterday when they started getting form-letter responses from Support promising something would be in lj_biz last night.

And yet there's still nothing new out of official channels.

If they weren't prepared to deliver, they shouldn't've made promises.


The sucky thing with everybody closing up shop and moving elsewhere is that backing up my LJ isn't enough. I've had fascinating discussions in many other journals, personal and community, and I don't want to lose those either...

[cheshyre]

And, lo, the lj_biz response has appeared. And it's already got 129 comments...

[amalthia]

For some reason their response left me feeling completely cold.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I think wildernessguru hit the nail on the head when he thought for a moment and said, "This guy is out of his league."

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm reading it.