5 ms·

Just three months ago Dropbox was the darling of the tech world. Now they're putting out fires every other day. Just goes to show you how tightly you have to co

by phillco 15y ago

Just three months ago Dropbox was the darling of the tech world. Now they're putting out fires every other day. Just goes to show you how tightly you have to control your image — and how quickly things can slide out of control.

chrisledet 15y ago
Just like what happened to Digg.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- sgrove 15y ago
  They're handling it considerably better than Digg. They've been phenomenally responsive on the issues, and you can actually see them learning from each of these iterations. The language change here is fantastic - it's easy to understand and isn't overly broad.
sliverstorm 15y ago
It's funny how quickly you can go from being everyone's favorite underdog to big enough to scare people / make them want a piece of you.
staunch 15y ago
Dropbox is my absolute favorite YC company by far. This appears to be their biggest weakness to date. They've done a piss poor job of having a public voice. They don't respond to things quickly and when they do they're somewhat defensive and dismissive. The truth is most of the noise actually is bullshit. They know that. The problem is public perception isn't fair. You can't ignore false hysteria and expect it to go away. People will form opinions based on headlines alone. They need to humanize the company. Make sure everyone knows Dropbox is run by good people who have good intentions. More Google, less Microsoft. They still have a ton of momentum, but it's all based on word of mouth. If they lose the warm fuzzy feeling people have about them they will suffer badly in the long term.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- c4urself 15y ago
  Exactly this. And it (partly) comes down to something someone else has mentioned already here on HN: Hire a good PR person.
- ma2rten 15y ago
  Actually, I think outside of tech tech world Google might have a worse image then Microsoft does. The controversy about Microsoft is long forgotten by most people. Google on the other hand can come over as quite creepy to non-techies: They offer something for free, which is always creepy, they harvest all this information about you and they come of as quite emotionless. I think Google might have a little bit of the same problem with the general public, as Dropbox does now in the tech-world. Even though Google is working on it, with their recent ad campaigns.
  - Kylekramer 15y ago
    You really think people outside of the tech world are think offering something for free is creepy (they seem 100% fine with major TV networks)/know Google is harvesting info/even think of websites as being emotional? All three of those seem to be exclusively tech nerd complaints.
- duck 15y ago
  More Google, less Microsoft. Actually, I think they shouldn't be either and just be Dropbox. That is why I have stuck with them through all of this. They're like the Mom & Pop store that doesn't exist in so many towns these days. Yes, they have done a terrible job with their "voice" of late, but I'm sticking with them because I know there isn't some huge corporation behind it and they are trying hard to put out a great service.
mlinsey 15y ago
You die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Facebook, Google, Microsoft...all were everybody's favorite scrappy insurgents at one point. Once perception shifts the other way, it's hard to turn things around because everyone starts assuming the worst. This incident is a perfect example: the old ToS were standard boilerplate that appears in a bunch of other places, and had most other companies done it, it would have been seen as a non-issue. However, since Dropbox has been receiving other negative press lately (some centering around real issues, some centering around similarly trivial nonsense), that changes how every new story about them is perceived.
- staunch 15y ago
  Not all companies suffer this fate. As long as people are aware that you have good intentions and have great products they will remain quite loyal. Apple has the best products and basically good intentions. No one believes Steve Job's cares more about money than making good stuff. Google has the best products and undeniably great intentions. No one believes Larry Page wants anything more than to improve the world. Facebook's product is sort of mediocre (as Google+ proved) and their intentions have always been kind of borderline acceptable. Microsoft hasn't had good products or good intentions in a very long time.
  - sambeau 15y ago
    "Microsoft hasn't had good products or good intentions in a very long time." Apart from: XBox XBox 360 Numerous XBox Games XBox Live Kinect (and controversially, perhaps Expression Design now, sadly, no longer developed)
    - staunch 15y ago
      Okay, fine, one good product in 10 years and bad intentions...
      - cubeboy 15y ago
        Sun had good intentions
dskhatri 15y ago
That's somewhat of a sensationalist comment. What they're doing is actually very positive and different. TOS are generally viewed as complex legal verbiage that shouldn't be touched with a 10m pole. Many startups avoid dealing with the issue by adopting existing TOS without questioning the harsh and extreme language used. To me, it appears that the Dropbox team is setting an important precedent by questioning, through user feedback, the need for unfriendly terms that have become the norm. To that I say: Good job, Dropbox!
- CWuestefeld 15y ago
  I agree, but that doesn't say anything about the perception that the hubbub causes with Joe Public.
JamieEi 15y ago
This is exactly how you should put out a fire. As a user I now feel better about Dropbox than I did before the ToS confusion.
sunchild 15y ago
If you're running a service like Dropbox, you need to be paying equal time to security and legal issues. It's the nature of their business. I'm impressed by how they handled this TOS issue, but I'm also disappointed that they didn't see it coming a mile away.
hnsmurf 15y ago
It's very tempting to read HN and TechCrunch and think that the complaints you see there are representative of the overall population. They're not. I'd bet at least 90% of Dropbox users don't know either exist. They didn't know there was a change of terms, they don't even know Dropbox has a blog. I don't think anything has slid out of control for Dropbox. They're simply making an incremental improvement to their Terms for the 10% of users who do care, the same way they would any small feature.

by phillco 15y ago

chrisledet 15y ago

Just like what happened to Digg.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
sgrove 15y ago
They're handling it considerably better than Digg. They've been phenomenally responsive on the issues, and you can actually see them learning from each of these iterations. The language change here is fantastic - it's easy to understand and isn't overly broad.

sliverstorm 15y ago

It's funny how quickly you can go from being everyone's favorite underdog to big enough to scare people / make them want a piece of you.

staunch 15y ago

Dropbox is my absolute favorite YC company by far. This appears to be their biggest weakness to date. They've done a piss poor job of having a public voice. They don't respond to things quickly and when they do they're somewhat defensive and dismissive. The truth is most of the noise actually is bullshit. They know that. The problem is public perception isn't fair. You can't ignore false hysteria and expect it to go away. People will form opinions based on headlines alone. They need to humanize the company. Make sure everyone knows Dropbox is run by good people who have good intentions. More Google, less Microsoft. They still have a ton of momentum, but it's all based on word of mouth. If they lose the warm fuzzy feeling people have about them they will suffer badly in the long term.

deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
c4urself 15y ago
Exactly this. And it (partly) comes down to something someone else has mentioned already here on HN: Hire a good PR person.
ma2rten 15y ago
Actually, I think outside of tech tech world Google might have a worse image then Microsoft does. The controversy about Microsoft is long forgotten by most people. Google on the other hand can come over as quite creepy to non-techies: They offer something for free, which is always creepy, they harvest all this information about you and they come of as quite emotionless. I think Google might have a little bit of the same problem with the general public, as Dropbox does now in the tech-world. Even though Google is working on it, with their recent ad campaigns.
- Kylekramer 15y ago
  You really think people outside of the tech world are think offering something for free is creepy (they seem 100% fine with major TV networks)/know Google is harvesting info/even think of websites as being emotional? All three of those seem to be exclusively tech nerd complaints.
duck 15y ago
More Google, less Microsoft. Actually, I think they shouldn't be either and just be Dropbox. That is why I have stuck with them through all of this. They're like the Mom & Pop store that doesn't exist in so many towns these days. Yes, they have done a terrible job with their "voice" of late, but I'm sticking with them because I know there isn't some huge corporation behind it and they are trying hard to put out a great service.

mlinsey 15y ago

You die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Facebook, Google, Microsoft...all were everybody's favorite scrappy insurgents at one point. Once perception shifts the other way, it's hard to turn things around because everyone starts assuming the worst. This incident is a perfect example: the old ToS were standard boilerplate that appears in a bunch of other places, and had most other companies done it, it would have been seen as a non-issue. However, since Dropbox has been receiving other negative press lately (some centering around real issues, some centering around similarly trivial nonsense), that changes how every new story about them is perceived.

staunch 15y ago
Not all companies suffer this fate. As long as people are aware that you have good intentions and have great products they will remain quite loyal. Apple has the best products and basically good intentions. No one believes Steve Job's cares more about money than making good stuff. Google has the best products and undeniably great intentions. No one believes Larry Page wants anything more than to improve the world. Facebook's product is sort of mediocre (as Google+ proved) and their intentions have always been kind of borderline acceptable. Microsoft hasn't had good products or good intentions in a very long time.
- sambeau 15y ago
  "Microsoft hasn't had good products or good intentions in a very long time." Apart from: XBox XBox 360 Numerous XBox Games XBox Live Kinect (and controversially, perhaps Expression Design now, sadly, no longer developed)
  - staunch 15y ago
    Okay, fine, one good product in 10 years and bad intentions...
    - cubeboy 15y ago
      Sun had good intentions

dskhatri 15y ago

That's somewhat of a sensationalist comment. What they're doing is actually very positive and different. TOS are generally viewed as complex legal verbiage that shouldn't be touched with a 10m pole. Many startups avoid dealing with the issue by adopting existing TOS without questioning the harsh and extreme language used. To me, it appears that the Dropbox team is setting an important precedent by questioning, through user feedback, the need for unfriendly terms that have become the norm. To that I say: Good job, Dropbox!

CWuestefeld 15y ago
I agree, but that doesn't say anything about the perception that the hubbub causes with Joe Public.

JamieEi 15y ago

This is exactly how you should put out a fire. As a user I now feel better about Dropbox than I did before the ToS confusion.

sunchild 15y ago

If you're running a service like Dropbox, you need to be paying equal time to security and legal issues. It's the nature of their business. I'm impressed by how they handled this TOS issue, but I'm also disappointed that they didn't see it coming a mile away.

hnsmurf 15y ago

It's very tempting to read HN and TechCrunch and think that the complaints you see there are representative of the overall population. They're not. I'd bet at least 90% of Dropbox users don't know either exist. They didn't know there was a change of terms, they don't even know Dropbox has a blog. I don't think anything has slid out of control for Dropbox. They're simply making an incremental improvement to their Terms for the 10% of users who do care, the same way they would any small feature.