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This sounds like someone at Fortune trying to do something industrious and then getting smacked by the higher-ups. I wonder how many good ideas are quashed sim

by nopal 16y ago

This sounds like someone at Fortune trying to do something industrious and then getting smacked by the higher-ups. I wonder how many good ideas are quashed simply because of policy.

gte910h 16y ago
Yeah, I agree, they're trying to jerk Arrington around here. Now fortune may have not had rights to let Arrington post it, but that's their issue most likely, as they misrepresented it, not Arrington The first emails from them clearly are talking about excerpts in their entirety.
- greyman 16y ago
  Hard to say...they wrote to "post on excerpts", but not "post excerpts". But obviously, what would Mike gain by only posting excerpt of the excerpt? Anyone can do that without asking permission from Fortune, it's just normal blogging practice. Now when I think about it, Fortune looks even more ridiculous in my eyes. They basically asked TC to blog about their promotional article for free. ;-)
  - dkarl 16y ago
    I agree; to me, the email says that the post would be about the excerpts, and the excerpts themselves were provided simply because they weren't live on the Fortune site yet. The email quotes in the post do NOT say he is going to post the excerpts. In fact, referring to Fortune's "exclusive excerpts" clearly implies that they'll only be available on Fortune's site, i.e., not on Techcrunch. He simply misread the emails. With the benefit of hindsight, he should see that they don't confirm his side of the story, which makes the blog post seem... weird. (Usually when you read just one guy's side of an issue, you don't come out of it thinking he's probably wrong.) At best, they're ambiguous. I think the natural reading favors Fortune, and I would say that if they're the best evidence he has, and he posted the excerpts based on these emails, then he's clearly wrong. But maybe he was misled by other communication.
    - nostromo 16y ago
      Well, except the part where they email him saying, thank you great post.
      - dkarl 16y ago
        And six minutes later, after they actually read the post, they had a substantive response. It's the classic email pattern of respond, then read, then really respond, aka, "I just noticed your email is full of words and decided to take a closer look." Except here the initial email was actually a blog post.
    - Alex3917 16y ago
      "In fact, referring to Fortune's "exclusive excerpts" clearly implies that they'll only be available on Fortune's site, i.e., not on Techcrunch." The actual email says that he is offering TC the rights to use the exclusive material: "I’d love to chat with you about FORTUNE’s exclusive excerpt of David Kirkpatrick’s book on Facebook, which I’d love to offer for tomorrow."
  - megablast 16y ago
    The advantage Michael got was that he got early access to the excerpts, so he could write about them and link to fortune, before anyone else. This is the standard way things work. But I love Michaels repsonse, good on him. Unless they explicitly say, DO NOT USE THE ENTIRE EXCERPT, go for it. I mean, fortune and the author sent thank you emails just after they were posted, either they did not read it properly, or they were not clear themselves on the licensing situation. It looks to me like the contact at fortune made the mistake, didn't check properly, and is trying to lay the blame on techcrunch. This is also, the standard way things work.
fleitz 16y ago
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man expects the world to adapt to him, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
- jrockway 16y ago
  All regression also depends on the unreasonable man.
  - fleitz 16y ago
    Touche.
  - DougBTX 16y ago
    Entropy wins all by itself.
billclerico 16y ago
a better technique would probably have been to apologize to techcrunch for telling them the wrong thing, and then asking to take it down. as opposed to telling arrington that he misunderstood.
- cglee 16y ago
  I've met so many of these management types who come in during the middle of a crisis and just demand things be fixed. Those are the worst, and one of my coworkers termed it "pigeon management" - they fly in, shit all over the place, and then fly away. Roth sounds like he pigeon managed the situation (from this one-sided account).
  - aarongough 16y ago
    I laughed pretty hard when I read the definition you gave for 'pigeon management'. That's one of those phrases that perfectly sums up what can otherwise be difficult to explain..
    - dhimes 16y ago
      ...also known in some circles as "seagull management."
      - edster 16y ago
        we always called it seagull management too. Especially when the manager makes an appearance, eats all the "snacks" around the office and then shits all over everything before taking off.
- megablast 16y ago
  That would be admitting you are wrong. You can never admit you are wrong, it makes you look weak. If you look weak, you will not get anywhere. This is really how some people think.
  - 16y ago
cherif 16y ago
That's the first thing I thought. An intern or junior PR person taking initiative and then getting slammed by their boss. Now they (junior PR) have to backpedal to avoid getting shit from their old-school boss and, as a result, all of Fortune look like idiots.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

by nopal 16y ago

This sounds like someone at Fortune trying to do something industrious and then getting smacked by the higher-ups. I wonder how many good ideas are quashed simply because of policy.

gte910h 16y ago

Yeah, I agree, they're trying to jerk Arrington around here. Now fortune may have not had rights to let Arrington post it, but that's their issue most likely, as they misrepresented it, not Arrington The first emails from them clearly are talking about excerpts in their entirety.

greyman 16y ago
Hard to say...they wrote to "post on excerpts", but not "post excerpts". But obviously, what would Mike gain by only posting excerpt of the excerpt? Anyone can do that without asking permission from Fortune, it's just normal blogging practice. Now when I think about it, Fortune looks even more ridiculous in my eyes. They basically asked TC to blog about their promotional article for free. ;-)
- dkarl 16y ago
  I agree; to me, the email says that the post would be about the excerpts, and the excerpts themselves were provided simply because they weren't live on the Fortune site yet. The email quotes in the post do NOT say he is going to post the excerpts. In fact, referring to Fortune's "exclusive excerpts" clearly implies that they'll only be available on Fortune's site, i.e., not on Techcrunch. He simply misread the emails. With the benefit of hindsight, he should see that they don't confirm his side of the story, which makes the blog post seem... weird. (Usually when you read just one guy's side of an issue, you don't come out of it thinking he's probably wrong.) At best, they're ambiguous. I think the natural reading favors Fortune, and I would say that if they're the best evidence he has, and he posted the excerpts based on these emails, then he's clearly wrong. But maybe he was misled by other communication.
  - nostromo 16y ago
    Well, except the part where they email him saying, thank you great post.
    - dkarl 16y ago
      And six minutes later, after they actually read the post, they had a substantive response. It's the classic email pattern of respond, then read, then really respond, aka, "I just noticed your email is full of words and decided to take a closer look." Except here the initial email was actually a blog post.
  - Alex3917 16y ago
    "In fact, referring to Fortune's "exclusive excerpts" clearly implies that they'll only be available on Fortune's site, i.e., not on Techcrunch." The actual email says that he is offering TC the rights to use the exclusive material: "I’d love to chat with you about FORTUNE’s exclusive excerpt of David Kirkpatrick’s book on Facebook, which I’d love to offer for tomorrow."
- megablast 16y ago
  The advantage Michael got was that he got early access to the excerpts, so he could write about them and link to fortune, before anyone else. This is the standard way things work. But I love Michaels repsonse, good on him. Unless they explicitly say, DO NOT USE THE ENTIRE EXCERPT, go for it. I mean, fortune and the author sent thank you emails just after they were posted, either they did not read it properly, or they were not clear themselves on the licensing situation. It looks to me like the contact at fortune made the mistake, didn't check properly, and is trying to lay the blame on techcrunch. This is also, the standard way things work.

fleitz 16y ago

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable man expects the world to adapt to him, therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

jrockway 16y ago
All regression also depends on the unreasonable man.
- fleitz 16y ago
  Touche.
- DougBTX 16y ago
  Entropy wins all by itself.

billclerico 16y ago

a better technique would probably have been to apologize to techcrunch for telling them the wrong thing, and then asking to take it down. as opposed to telling arrington that he misunderstood.

cglee 16y ago
I've met so many of these management types who come in during the middle of a crisis and just demand things be fixed. Those are the worst, and one of my coworkers termed it "pigeon management" - they fly in, shit all over the place, and then fly away. Roth sounds like he pigeon managed the situation (from this one-sided account).
- aarongough 16y ago
  I laughed pretty hard when I read the definition you gave for 'pigeon management'. That's one of those phrases that perfectly sums up what can otherwise be difficult to explain..
  - dhimes 16y ago
    ...also known in some circles as "seagull management."
    - edster 16y ago
      we always called it seagull management too. Especially when the manager makes an appearance, eats all the "snacks" around the office and then shits all over everything before taking off.
megablast 16y ago
That would be admitting you are wrong. You can never admit you are wrong, it makes you look weak. If you look weak, you will not get anywhere. This is really how some people think.
- 16y ago

cherif 16y ago

That's the first thing I thought. An intern or junior PR person taking initiative and then getting slammed by their boss. Now they (junior PR) have to backpedal to avoid getting shit from their old-school boss and, as a result, all of Fortune look like idiots.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]