8 ms·

How did Replit respond to this blog post?

300 points by mindB 5y ago

diogenesjunior 5y ago
Amjad seems to be apologizing because he fears what others think about him.
ggoo 5y ago
Not a real apology when it only happens because of public pressure, this is just saving face. And not a very good attempt at that.
- eptcyka 5y ago
  It doesn't have to be real, and it's probably impossible to squeeze a real one out of this individual. Getting egoists to not do what they want is a good enough compromise IMO.
  - ggoo 5y ago
    So we've succeeded in making an egotist feel uncomfortable for a bit? They're very unlikely to change.
MikeDelta 5y ago
Yeah, seen this before: people apologising not because they suddenly care about what they did to their victims, but because they care about what the world thinks about them. Edit: not responding to guilt but to shame.
- chipgap98 5y ago
  Exactly this. He's only acknowledging that the legal threat was wrong when that was one of only several troubling behaviors.
  - bredren 5y ago
    In my experience, evasiveness and “baffling” behavior of this kind can indicate a deeply rooted in personality trait. Personalities like this exist across the social stratum. They are something to take careful note of as quickly as possible and avoid.
    - hluska 5y ago
      I agree with you - humans have thousands of years of experience figuring out who and what to trust. It’s kind of amazing how easy it is to destroy a reputation, especially when you consider how hard it is to build one.
- threatofrain 5y ago
  > still refused to list any specific part of Replit he thought I had copied, even when I asked him for such details multiple times during the phone call, despite his continuing to claim both privately and publicly that I copied Replit unethically And unwilling to backup their public accusations with detail or receipts. The CEO was also on Twitter doubling down on the accusation that Radon is a thief even after posting on HN.
eh8 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
- emc3 5y ago
  > Streisand Effect Not when someone can banish it from the front page[1]. See this comment timestamp[2] and compare it with the sudden drop in ranking on the upvote tracker chart. [1] https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/27437665 https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/27437665 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27438258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27438258
  - dang 5y ago
    This story spent the entire day yesterday at #1 on HN. It got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was by far the most prominent thread of the day: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07. That's the opposite of "banishing". We bent the rules considerably to allow this, for reasons I've explained at length here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27427198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27427198 https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Not having the same story repeat itself two days in a row is standard HN moderation. p.s. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27433981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27433981. If you could please stop creating accounts to break HN's rules with, we'd really appreciate it.
artembugara 5y ago
"I give you permission to publish Riju". Emm. Really? Since when does he hold such a power?
- kiwih 5y ago
  I agree. It should be worded as "I won't attempt to sue you if you publish Riju", which is a completely different message.
  - minimaxir 5y ago
    Granted, that particular phrasing could imply that Repl.it would never sue the OP ever (for issues unrelated to this IP keruffle), which could lead to an issue down the road. Everyone hates it, but this is why you involve lawyers from the start if possible. It's better for everyone in the long run.
- mikepurvis 5y ago
  Yeah I think this should have been "I withdraw my request for you to take it down, and the corresponding threat of legal action if you didn't do so."
  - CheezeIt 5y ago
    That phrasing doesn’t give permission or remove the possibility of future legal action. Giving permission expressly removes that.
- rackjack 5y ago
  Off-topic, but does anybody remember the name of the emancipated slave that said something along the lines of "You can't give me freedom, you can only give it back"? I really love that quote but I can't find the original source.
  - hluska 5y ago
    I’m not familiar with the quote but it sounds like Frederick Douglass. My favourite Douglass quote is, “What to a slave is the Fourth of July?” If you find the quote, let me know! I’m always looking to expand my mountain of unread books...:)
escot 5y ago
I understand the feeling of being taken advantage of, but this seemed clearly like an over-reaction. A 100% apology was in order from my (sideline) opinion. He's just an ex intern having some fun, probably trying to impress his former boss even. I was reading through the replit blog to see what kind of things are trade secret vs public, and noticed that they didn't go out of their way to highlight that Bret Victor's "Learnable Programming" is clearly the complete inspiration for replit's debugger (time travel, no hidden state, etc). They have a small link to Bret's work but don't mention him by name. Considering Bret's article is basically THE piece to read w.r.t. programming environments, and the gif that replit shows looks pretty identical, it seems right to have his name/article clearly at the top. https://blog.replit.com/debuggest https://blog.replit.com/debuggest http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/
toomanyducks 5y ago
Honestly, this is about what I expected. I have the admittedly niche and somewhat impractical opinion that it's within no one's rights to have ownership over an idea, an implementation, or a solution to any problem at all. When businesses try to base themselves off of that type of ownership, of course they'll be threatened by someone putting together a small side project for the fun of it. Ideas aren't something you can totally own: someone else will come up with them simultaneously, make a derivative work, or just have fun with it in a way you can't physically stop. I think I'm seeing that play out as a business in a bad position and a person trying their best here. I mostly just feel bad for the OP and a bit irritated at capitalism, as always.
- songzme 5y ago
  I also have the same opinion that its within no one's rights to have ownership over an idea, implementation, or solution to any problem at all! All good ideas should be shared as the good idea itself, without any ties to ownership or credit where its due.
qwertox 5y ago
I hereby grant you premission...
2bitencryption 5y ago
The craziest part, to me, is how the CEO could have expressed his view in a way that would have been much more compelling. "Hey, really cool project. Though honestly, not sure how I feel about a former intern of mine publishing a project that is so similar to what they worked on as an intern. But on that note, we'd be happy to have you back on the team if you want to continue the project with us :) What do you say?" or something along those lines. I still wouldn't agree with him, but at least I'd sympathize. instead he went full-on attack mode, lawyers and all. sheesh. talk about tone deaf.
- swyx 5y ago
  not defending his action here at all but the psychology of being a startup founder is interesting here. he couldve "seen this movie before" and jumped to conclusions. he couldve just had a rough day. sometimes you spend entire adult life feeling like the whole world is against you and you lash out without thinking it through. everyone is armchair quarterbacking here on what was the rational thing to do. but we are mostly not rational creatures esp when our "babies" are involved.
  - threatofrain 5y ago
    The CEO Amjad Masad was on Twitter doubling down on his accusations that Radon is a thief, even after his post on HN. Even now Amjad refuses to provide any detail or receipts to Radon for his public accusations of tortious behavior. > everyone is armchair quarterbacking here on what was the rational thing to do. Do you seriously prefer your web psychoanalysis?
    - ncmncm 5y ago
      BTW, a habit of spurious legal harassment is called "barratry". It is harder to demonstrate it to the satisfaction of courts than it perhaps should be, possibly because the habit is profitable for lawyers.
      - hluska 5y ago
holman 5y ago
His HN response is pretty baffling to read. Saying he's "no longer the struggling kid from Jordan" who now needs to "be kind and model better behavior" is oddly focused on him, but it also kind of points to... people from Jordan are incapable of being kind? The whole approach he took here is just very poorly thought out.
- patcon 5y ago
  Haven't been following this except for reading the post yesterday, but these words strike me as kinda vulnerable for him to admit (in the good way), and I want to applaud it. It seems like he's admitting that his environment shaped him, and his hustle mindset and "me against the unfair world" might not always be appropriate. * shrug * Though yes, he seems to have some personality flaws. I hope he's working on them, but also don't think he should get a pass just for admitting them.
  - darkhorse13 5y ago
    Please. We all have struggles in life, all of us. Nothing can justify bad behavior, and straight up bullying. I do believe anyone can change though, so here's hoping that he does so for the better.
    - tuscanevenings 5y ago
      The opportunity to demonstrate that he could change was in the follow up call. I had considered ceasing my company's use of Replit after the original HN post; the supposed olive branch message that was really to elicit underdog sympathy, the phone call and his behaviour on Twitter was the nail in the coffin.
  - lobocinza 5y ago
    Looks like victimism to me.
- istorical 5y ago
  To me your interpretation seems to miss the point RE: struggling kid from Jordan. I think the point the founder was probably getting at was to recognize that he is no longer in a underdog / position of no power / have no resources (aka struggling kid from Jordan) but is now in a position of power and needs to reset his mindset and no longer have the 'do anything to win' mentality that it often takes to get out of poverty / fight as David against Goliath, etc. Not sure why you would think he is implying anything about people from Jordan not being kind rather than just state you don't get what he's trying to get at.
mellosouls 5y ago
I'm in the minority (I think?) of people who felt that while there was an overreaction from Replit, there was some merit in their original complaint. I think that the situation has escalated though partly due to the approach of the former intern here, who - while rightly calling out the non-apology aspects of the apology is aggressive themselves now that the power is with them courtesy of the public exposure and general backing of HN. The blogpost here drilling down into every perceived slight and human failing lacks grace and magnanimity and doesn't seem much better at handling the favourable side of the power balance than Replit did in the original correspondence. Maybe time to move on.
- luffapi 5y ago
  I really respect that the author wrote this post. He may be just an intern but he was trampled on and exposed the true nature of the “leadership” at Replit. I will never use the service again and thank the author for speaking out and this follow up. I’d hire him in a heartbeat.
- threatofrain 5y ago
  > still refused to list any specific part of Replit he thought I had copied, even when I asked him for such details multiple times during the phone call, despite his continuing to claim both privately and publicly that I copied Replit unethically The CEO Amjad Masad was still doubling down on claims that Radon is a thief on Twitter even after he apologized. And he still refuses to provide details or receipts to his public accusations, despite Radon's willingness to provide receipts. But you are asking for Radon to be gracious?
- JadeNB 5y ago
  > The blogpost here drilling down into every perceived slight and human failing lacks grace and magnanimity and doesn't seem much better at handling the favourable side of the power balance than Replit did in the original correspondence. I think it's fair to forgive some lack of grace. Sure, the post could be more generous, but the whole handling could have been, and the poster wasn't the one making the legal threats.
- Igelau 5y ago
dev_by_day 5y ago
The parting jab in the closing email is classic: "you said 'I will not be copying more stuff' " (OP didn't say that and given their current stance of not copying anything, I doubt they would admit that) "Arrive at new ways of doing things -- make new mistakes" Egotistical people always try to get the last word in. Even when apologizing.
- jonny_eh 5y ago
  It certainly seems like he's trying to weaponize that "apology" call against the intern. This continues to be so gross.
- faefox 5y ago
  That was so icky and I'm glad Radon didn't let the remark go unanswered. It's hard to take Amjad's apology seriously given the continued verbal gymnastics seeking to paint himself as the victim.
- Humdeee 5y ago
  Yep. One last twist of words knowing it would be screenshotted. He had his fingers crossed that would be the last of it -- and it was not. Like a used car salesman sliding in some hidden fees after the deal is done. All of this is poorly saving face anyhow.
borski 5y ago
The problem here is the unreasonable reaction off the bat. Look, I’ve faced issues like this before - I’ve even done dumber things in response, in my past. But, and this is important, just stop. For five minutes. When something upsets you, and you JUST WANT TO SEND THIS EMAIL - don’t. Wait five minutes. Take a walk. Tell someone else about the issue. Then, and only then, after you’ve not thought about the email for a bit, erase it and write it from scratch. It helps. It’s therapeutic. You don’t end up with your emails screenshotted and posted to the top of HN for two days in a row. Assume the best intentions. I find far fewer people are looking to take advantage of you than are simply looking to be liked.
- sillysaurusx 5y ago
  Tell someone else about the issue. This would solve a lot of problems, I think.
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bluefox 5y ago
IANAL, but if Radon is reading this: in such situations, don't discuss things over the phone like the other guy proposed (you can see it was a mistake, with him "quoting" stuff you may not have said or that were taken out of context), only in writing.
jaredcwhite 5y ago
Glad to see this outcome. However, too little too late for me. I'll look beyond Replit for ways to author and share runnable code in the cloud…non-VC-funded and open source extremely preferred.
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ctvo 5y ago
Every time there's a thread on this I want to bring up the fact that Amjad still has not listed what this open source project stole. You cannot go around accusing someone trying to start their career (this intern) of IP theft and not present evidence. Release a statement clearly stating NOTHING was stolen or release evidence. We have the public commit history of the project. Feel free to go through each commit and point out what was stolen from you.
- nrmitchi 5y ago
  > You cannot go around accusing someone trying to start their career (this intern) of IP theft I'm not saying that I agree with threatening legal action here, but this isn't really a fair classification. You are implying the the CEO put an ex-intern on blast in the community. There is a huge difference between making a statement in a private email (which the other party then releases), and making a public accusation (which is what you're implying).
  - heavyset_go 5y ago
    > making a public accusation (which is what you're implying). These are the words Masad used on Twitter to describe the situation in the OP: > As a matter of principle, when someone goes into your home and steals from you, even if it's not material, you have to respond. That's a direct public accusation of IP theft.
  - ctvo 5y ago
    I understand what you're saying, and I agree to an extend. But this is a thread about the apology after these accusations were made public. Instead of the apology Ajmad gave, clearly stating that nothing was stolen would be much more beneficial.
  - hluska 5y ago
    If Amjad had left it at the email, all would be fine. He went way too far on Twitter and behaved like a brute.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
temp8964 5y ago
Wow, not enough apology from the guy. The apology is not sincere. That guy is flawed. All the perfects are judging a flawed guy. Man, this is a strange world we are living in.
reducesuffering 5y ago
All people make mistakes and need to learn to introspect and learn from their mistakes to not make the same ones. Really, this was a great opportunity to acknowledge and learn from aggressive mistakes while still running just a series A company. It was a blessing to the CEO to be highlighted now before the real weighty damage occurs. Unfortunately, it's pretty apparent to most of us and future investors that his public persona will get eviscerated if his company proceeds to ever become more in the public spotlight.
Keyframe 5y ago
"I apologize, but not really. I am still right, you're not." This only happened because of the public eye. Immature apology is reflected in evocation of a sob story about a (presumably struggling?) kid rising from whatever - that's manipulation, an excuse. Guy didn't learn anything but at least there's a close.
dang 5y ago
This is a follow-up to the huge thread from yesterday: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195 - June 2021 (1234 comments) (Edit: I'm adding some text here because people have been linking to this comment.) This story was at #1 all day yesterday, in contradiction to HN's normal rules. That is, we bent over backwards to allow this story to have much more attention on HN than it would have gotten in a normal case. That's why it got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was the #1 story the entire day (https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07). Why did we do that? Because we moderate HN less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the story: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... That is literally the first principle of HN moderation, and we stick to it strictly. Less moderation does not mean no moderation, however. It does not serve the community, or the quality of HN, to repeat the same thing all over again the next day. Not having the same story repeat itself two days in a row is standard HN moderation. Downweighting follow-ups in order to avoid repetition, is a bedrock principle of HN; otherwise the front page would be dominated by the same few stories every day. There are lots of past explanations about that at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22significant%20new%20information%22%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... We bent the rules considerably to allow the story to keep a prominent position it would not otherwise have had, for an entire day. I don't think it would be proper to do the same thing two days in a row, and indeed many users were emailing us to complain, when they thought that was about to happen.
brhsagain 5y ago
For those calling Amjad's apology insincere: what would convince you otherwise? He's stated plainly that he did x, x was wrong, and he's sorry for doing x (x being making legal threats and abusing his power). Do you need him to concede his entire point of view 100%? If Riju really did copy repl.it, are you saying he should let that go in order to make a proper apology? Why is that a reasonable demand? I think I see one part of the problem, though. Many people implicitly believe the claim about Riju copying repl.it is itself ridiculous. So I want to talk about this. It's famously said that execution is worth more than ideas. Meaning a large part of a company's value is in its acquired knowledge from iterating on designs and the paths they landed on. Imagine everyone who sets out to create an online code runner starts at the same point in the online-code-runner problem space. Every decision you make is uncharted territory, and every choice, small UI changes, how you serialize messages, how you orchestrate containers, has consequences. When you take the result of those learnings -- a very specific design path -- and copy it, it can seem like you were just doing the obvious thing, precisely because the first company carved that path first. It seems like nothing, and you'll never enforce it in law. But what you're doing is basically pirating the encoded knowledge from all those iterations and trial-and-error cycles; instead of starting from the initial point in the problem space and independently reasoning at each point what direction to "step" in, you teleport right to the same spot as the company, getting for free any progress they've made. Saying there are a bunch of repl.it clones, etc. misses the point. The "online code runner" idea is cheap. That's not what Amjad is saying. It's not even about individually patentable trade secrets. It's more like, we've been iterating in this problem space for a long time, an intern comes in, sees the path we took, leaves and releases something that takes largely the same path, then tries to claim the path is just "the obvious route." But anyone who's worked on a long, hard problem knows that's not how it works. A million micro design decisions go into eventually arriving at the path you take. It's all the more suspicious if they made all the same micro-mistakes you did (as Amjad claims). What are the odds they started at the initial point, independently reasoned through each sub-decision, and made the same "steps" in the problem space you did, mistakes intact? It may not be legally enforceable, but I think it's very morally shady. I'm not saying Riju did copy repl.it, by the way, just that it's not a completely crazy accusation. And I don't think Radon's blog post definitively proves he didn't. It goes through his tech stack in a very accounting-like, line-by-line breakdown. But it doesn't address my point above, the point I think (can't speak for him) Amjad was trying to make. So if Amjad saying "I still think you crossed a line ethically, but I apologize for reacting by making legal threats and abusing power" -- which is, actually, the entire thing he did wrong -- strikes you as insincere, what's the right way for him to assert his own moral grievance here before this whole matter wraps up?
darkhorse13 5y ago
The ego and hubris in all of this is absolutely insane. Replit is a cool product no doubt, but my God, people need to take themselves less seriously. I seriously put some of the blame on the culture here. If we keep on acting like these companies and founders are God's gift to mankind, we will continue to see this type of egotistical, narrow-minded behavior.
yepthatsreality 5y ago
Was this removed from the front page because Replit has taken money from Ycombinator? EDIT: Just to clarify. This post has gained over 200 points and 70 comments on the last hour. It jumped from top 5 posts to low end of the top 50 posts in seconds and is rapidly sinking. Just curious what decision led to the hiding of a popular post.
- brhsagain 5y ago
  I don't think so. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20yc%20%22less%2C%20not%20more%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
    That’s for the previous thread though. Unless I’m missing something every thing he says doesn’t necessarily apply to this thread.
    - dang 5y ago
      From my perspective it does apply. Please see my comment upthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301. If there's something there you feel I haven't addressed, I'd be happy to hear what it is.
      - yepthatsreality 5y ago
        Thanks for your reply and explain.
- minimaxir 5y ago
  Usually updates are penalized, which this is.
  - yepthatsreality 5y ago
bitwize 5y ago
I fail to see how Amjad was in the wrong in the first place. He is well within his rights to assert copyright, which OP probably violated at least on an SSO level. The only things left to quibble over are how much the infringement was and how it may have affected, or have the potential to affect, Repl.it's business -- matters to be settled in court if both sides do not agree to terms. Never, ever, EVER release an open-source version of your current or former employer's product. If you do, the employer can establish you had access to their code and they can argue that your work is substantially similar to theirs, meaning THEY CAN AND WILL SUE YOU for copyright infringement.
cbsmith 5y ago
I think the disappointment in the CEO's response to the blog post is understandable, but I think much of it is a reflection of different contexts. I'm sure from the information at their disposal, the CEO thinks their IP was stolen, and feels obligated to defend it vigorously. Yes, he did not provide specific claims, but often it considered unwise to be specific in these situations (both when threatening legal action and when backing down). What's described as "misquoting" could be deliberate, but given how all of this seems to be in the context of two parties not communicating effectively, it is far more likely a case where what was heard from the CEO's context was very different from what Radon intended to communicate. Like I said, I don't begrudge Radon's feelings and perceptions of the situation, and he may well be perceiving things accurately, but with disagreements like this, the norm is that all parties have a distorted perception. I'm just glad it has been resolved without going to court.
madsmith 5y ago
Wow… someone just nuked this right off of the front page.
- dang 5y ago
  Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301. It's very important to understand that this story was at #1 all day yesterday, in contradiction to HN's normal rules. That is, we bent over backwards to allow this story to have much more attention on HN than it would have gotten in a normal case. That's why it got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was the #1 story the entire day (https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07). Why did we do that? Because we moderate HN less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the story: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... That is literally the first principle of HN moderation, and we stick to it strictly. Less moderation does not mean no moderation, however. It does not serve the community, or the quality of HN, to repeat the same thing all over again the next day. Downweighting follow-ups in order to avoid repetition, is another bedrock principle of HN moderation; otherwise the front page would be dominated by the same few stories every day. There are lots of past explanations about that at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22significant%20new%20information%22%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
kemonocode 5y ago
A very empty non-apology all in all, and not nearly addressing what Masad did wrong. Very disappointing. Masad, if you're reading this, get off your high horse. Bullying and scaring people into compliance with lawyers does work, but you pay it dearly in PR, especially when you're working on products oriented towards highly opinionated people.
technicolorwhat 5y ago
If the author is here, could we get the code, I would like to hack on a not-clone of replit :)
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  If you look in the original HN thread and on Twitter, people have posted forks and backups of the original project.
rasikjain 5y ago
Masad response does not seem to have the tone of apology. He is apologizing to the legal threat only. He is still not ready to accept about open source Project. Good that Radon has responded well to that criticism and made communication transparent in his blog. Setting the wrong tone from the position of CEO.
hashbig 5y ago
From the wording of this “apology” it’s clear that this is just meant to save face and damage control. I don’t think he would’ve reached out had the author not published the first blog post. “Virtue is what you do when nobody is looking. The rest is marketing”. – Nassim Taleb
theiafan 5y ago
Given that Amjad seems particularly worried about people encroaching in this space, let me again say that nothing about Replit is unique, the use of Nix for Replit is literally an idea years past its prime. Nothing remotely unique. Amjad, if your securing your moat via threats, you better look out. To anyone else, go grab Theia. In about an hour you can get something better than Replit going, and if you combine with Nix/Guix, there's just no reason to deal with people that behave like Amjad.
- fdiskl 5y ago
  this fiasco reminds me of those YouTube guys who started sending notices to people doing reaction videos about stealing "their format"... when reaction videos had existed long before YouTube and certainly before those guys got involved. Kinda the same thing here
dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago
Still better story than SCO vs IBM.
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rexreed 5y ago
This interaction is why I don't do things that involve legal matters via phone. there needs to be a paper trail for all correspondence to avoid he-said/she-said situations.

300 points by mindB 5y ago

Amjad seems to be apologizing because he fears what others think about him.

ggoo 5y ago

Not a real apology when it only happens because of public pressure, this is just saving face. And not a very good attempt at that.

eptcyka 5y ago
It doesn't have to be real, and it's probably impossible to squeeze a real one out of this individual. Getting egoists to not do what they want is a good enough compromise IMO.
- ggoo 5y ago
  So we've succeeded in making an egotist feel uncomfortable for a bit? They're very unlikely to change.

MikeDelta 5y ago

Yeah, seen this before: people apologising not because they suddenly care about what they did to their victims, but because they care about what the world thinks about them. Edit: not responding to guilt but to shame.

chipgap98 5y ago
Exactly this. He's only acknowledging that the legal threat was wrong when that was one of only several troubling behaviors.
- bredren 5y ago
  In my experience, evasiveness and “baffling” behavior of this kind can indicate a deeply rooted in personality trait. Personalities like this exist across the social stratum. They are something to take careful note of as quickly as possible and avoid.
  - hluska 5y ago
    I agree with you - humans have thousands of years of experience figuring out who and what to trust. It’s kind of amazing how easy it is to destroy a reputation, especially when you consider how hard it is to build one.
threatofrain 5y ago
> still refused to list any specific part of Replit he thought I had copied, even when I asked him for such details multiple times during the phone call, despite his continuing to claim both privately and publicly that I copied Replit unethically And unwilling to backup their public accusations with detail or receipts. The CEO was also on Twitter doubling down on the accusation that Radon is a thief even after posting on HN.

eh8 5y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect

emc3 5y ago
> Streisand Effect Not when someone can banish it from the front page[1]. See this comment timestamp[2] and compare it with the sudden drop in ranking on the upvote tracker chart. [1] https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/27437665 https://upvotetracker.com/post/hn/27437665 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27438258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27438258
- dang 5y ago
  This story spent the entire day yesterday at #1 on HN. It got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was by far the most prominent thread of the day: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07. That's the opposite of "banishing". We bent the rules considerably to allow this, for reasons I've explained at length here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27427198 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27427198 https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Not having the same story repeat itself two days in a row is standard HN moderation. p.s. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27433981 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27433981. If you could please stop creating accounts to break HN's rules with, we'd really appreciate it.

artembugara 5y ago

"I give you permission to publish Riju". Emm. Really? Since when does he hold such a power?

kiwih 5y ago
I agree. It should be worded as "I won't attempt to sue you if you publish Riju", which is a completely different message.
- minimaxir 5y ago
  Granted, that particular phrasing could imply that Repl.it would never sue the OP ever (for issues unrelated to this IP keruffle), which could lead to an issue down the road. Everyone hates it, but this is why you involve lawyers from the start if possible. It's better for everyone in the long run.
mikepurvis 5y ago
Yeah I think this should have been "I withdraw my request for you to take it down, and the corresponding threat of legal action if you didn't do so."
- CheezeIt 5y ago
  That phrasing doesn’t give permission or remove the possibility of future legal action. Giving permission expressly removes that.
rackjack 5y ago
Off-topic, but does anybody remember the name of the emancipated slave that said something along the lines of "You can't give me freedom, you can only give it back"? I really love that quote but I can't find the original source.
- hluska 5y ago
  I’m not familiar with the quote but it sounds like Frederick Douglass. My favourite Douglass quote is, “What to a slave is the Fourth of July?” If you find the quote, let me know! I’m always looking to expand my mountain of unread books...:)

escot 5y ago

I understand the feeling of being taken advantage of, but this seemed clearly like an over-reaction. A 100% apology was in order from my (sideline) opinion. He's just an ex intern having some fun, probably trying to impress his former boss even. I was reading through the replit blog to see what kind of things are trade secret vs public, and noticed that they didn't go out of their way to highlight that Bret Victor's "Learnable Programming" is clearly the complete inspiration for replit's debugger (time travel, no hidden state, etc). They have a small link to Bret's work but don't mention him by name. Considering Bret's article is basically THE piece to read w.r.t. programming environments, and the gif that replit shows looks pretty identical, it seems right to have his name/article clearly at the top. https://blog.replit.com/debuggest https://blog.replit.com/debuggest http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/ http://worrydream.com/LearnableProgramming/

toomanyducks 5y ago

Honestly, this is about what I expected. I have the admittedly niche and somewhat impractical opinion that it's within no one's rights to have ownership over an idea, an implementation, or a solution to any problem at all. When businesses try to base themselves off of that type of ownership, of course they'll be threatened by someone putting together a small side project for the fun of it. Ideas aren't something you can totally own: someone else will come up with them simultaneously, make a derivative work, or just have fun with it in a way you can't physically stop. I think I'm seeing that play out as a business in a bad position and a person trying their best here. I mostly just feel bad for the OP and a bit irritated at capitalism, as always.

songzme 5y ago
I also have the same opinion that its within no one's rights to have ownership over an idea, implementation, or solution to any problem at all! All good ideas should be shared as the good idea itself, without any ties to ownership or credit where its due.

qwertox 5y ago

I hereby grant you premission...

2bitencryption 5y ago

The craziest part, to me, is how the CEO could have expressed his view in a way that would have been much more compelling. "Hey, really cool project. Though honestly, not sure how I feel about a former intern of mine publishing a project that is so similar to what they worked on as an intern. But on that note, we'd be happy to have you back on the team if you want to continue the project with us :) What do you say?" or something along those lines. I still wouldn't agree with him, but at least I'd sympathize. instead he went full-on attack mode, lawyers and all. sheesh. talk about tone deaf.

swyx 5y ago
not defending his action here at all but the psychology of being a startup founder is interesting here. he couldve "seen this movie before" and jumped to conclusions. he couldve just had a rough day. sometimes you spend entire adult life feeling like the whole world is against you and you lash out without thinking it through. everyone is armchair quarterbacking here on what was the rational thing to do. but we are mostly not rational creatures esp when our "babies" are involved.
- threatofrain 5y ago
  The CEO Amjad Masad was on Twitter doubling down on his accusations that Radon is a thief, even after his post on HN. Even now Amjad refuses to provide any detail or receipts to Radon for his public accusations of tortious behavior. > everyone is armchair quarterbacking here on what was the rational thing to do. Do you seriously prefer your web psychoanalysis?
  - ncmncm 5y ago
    BTW, a habit of spurious legal harassment is called "barratry". It is harder to demonstrate it to the satisfaction of courts than it perhaps should be, possibly because the habit is profitable for lawyers.
    - hluska 5y ago

holman 5y ago

His HN response is pretty baffling to read. Saying he's "no longer the struggling kid from Jordan" who now needs to "be kind and model better behavior" is oddly focused on him, but it also kind of points to... people from Jordan are incapable of being kind? The whole approach he took here is just very poorly thought out.

patcon 5y ago
Haven't been following this except for reading the post yesterday, but these words strike me as kinda vulnerable for him to admit (in the good way), and I want to applaud it. It seems like he's admitting that his environment shaped him, and his hustle mindset and "me against the unfair world" might not always be appropriate. * shrug * Though yes, he seems to have some personality flaws. I hope he's working on them, but also don't think he should get a pass just for admitting them.
- darkhorse13 5y ago
  Please. We all have struggles in life, all of us. Nothing can justify bad behavior, and straight up bullying. I do believe anyone can change though, so here's hoping that he does so for the better.
  - tuscanevenings 5y ago
    The opportunity to demonstrate that he could change was in the follow up call. I had considered ceasing my company's use of Replit after the original HN post; the supposed olive branch message that was really to elicit underdog sympathy, the phone call and his behaviour on Twitter was the nail in the coffin.
- lobocinza 5y ago
  Looks like victimism to me.
istorical 5y ago
To me your interpretation seems to miss the point RE: struggling kid from Jordan. I think the point the founder was probably getting at was to recognize that he is no longer in a underdog / position of no power / have no resources (aka struggling kid from Jordan) but is now in a position of power and needs to reset his mindset and no longer have the 'do anything to win' mentality that it often takes to get out of poverty / fight as David against Goliath, etc. Not sure why you would think he is implying anything about people from Jordan not being kind rather than just state you don't get what he's trying to get at.

mellosouls 5y ago

I'm in the minority (I think?) of people who felt that while there was an overreaction from Replit, there was some merit in their original complaint. I think that the situation has escalated though partly due to the approach of the former intern here, who - while rightly calling out the non-apology aspects of the apology is aggressive themselves now that the power is with them courtesy of the public exposure and general backing of HN. The blogpost here drilling down into every perceived slight and human failing lacks grace and magnanimity and doesn't seem much better at handling the favourable side of the power balance than Replit did in the original correspondence. Maybe time to move on.

luffapi 5y ago
I really respect that the author wrote this post. He may be just an intern but he was trampled on and exposed the true nature of the “leadership” at Replit. I will never use the service again and thank the author for speaking out and this follow up. I’d hire him in a heartbeat.
threatofrain 5y ago
> still refused to list any specific part of Replit he thought I had copied, even when I asked him for such details multiple times during the phone call, despite his continuing to claim both privately and publicly that I copied Replit unethically The CEO Amjad Masad was still doubling down on claims that Radon is a thief on Twitter even after he apologized. And he still refuses to provide details or receipts to his public accusations, despite Radon's willingness to provide receipts. But you are asking for Radon to be gracious?
JadeNB 5y ago
> The blogpost here drilling down into every perceived slight and human failing lacks grace and magnanimity and doesn't seem much better at handling the favourable side of the power balance than Replit did in the original correspondence. I think it's fair to forgive some lack of grace. Sure, the post could be more generous, but the whole handling could have been, and the poster wasn't the one making the legal threats.
Igelau 5y ago

dev_by_day 5y ago

The parting jab in the closing email is classic: "you said 'I will not be copying more stuff' " (OP didn't say that and given their current stance of not copying anything, I doubt they would admit that) "Arrive at new ways of doing things -- make new mistakes" Egotistical people always try to get the last word in. Even when apologizing.

jonny_eh 5y ago
It certainly seems like he's trying to weaponize that "apology" call against the intern. This continues to be so gross.
faefox 5y ago
That was so icky and I'm glad Radon didn't let the remark go unanswered. It's hard to take Amjad's apology seriously given the continued verbal gymnastics seeking to paint himself as the victim.
Humdeee 5y ago
Yep. One last twist of words knowing it would be screenshotted. He had his fingers crossed that would be the last of it -- and it was not. Like a used car salesman sliding in some hidden fees after the deal is done. All of this is poorly saving face anyhow.

borski 5y ago

The problem here is the unreasonable reaction off the bat. Look, I’ve faced issues like this before - I’ve even done dumber things in response, in my past. But, and this is important, just stop. For five minutes. When something upsets you, and you JUST WANT TO SEND THIS EMAIL - don’t. Wait five minutes. Take a walk. Tell someone else about the issue. Then, and only then, after you’ve not thought about the email for a bit, erase it and write it from scratch. It helps. It’s therapeutic. You don’t end up with your emails screenshotted and posted to the top of HN for two days in a row. Assume the best intentions. I find far fewer people are looking to take advantage of you than are simply looking to be liked.

sillysaurusx 5y ago
Tell someone else about the issue. This would solve a lot of problems, I think.

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bluefox 5y ago

IANAL, but if Radon is reading this: in such situations, don't discuss things over the phone like the other guy proposed (you can see it was a mistake, with him "quoting" stuff you may not have said or that were taken out of context), only in writing.

jaredcwhite 5y ago

Glad to see this outcome. However, too little too late for me. I'll look beyond Replit for ways to author and share runnable code in the cloud…non-VC-funded and open source extremely preferred.

deleted 5y ago

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ctvo 5y ago

Every time there's a thread on this I want to bring up the fact that Amjad still has not listed what this open source project stole. You cannot go around accusing someone trying to start their career (this intern) of IP theft and not present evidence. Release a statement clearly stating NOTHING was stolen or release evidence. We have the public commit history of the project. Feel free to go through each commit and point out what was stolen from you.

nrmitchi 5y ago
> You cannot go around accusing someone trying to start their career (this intern) of IP theft I'm not saying that I agree with threatening legal action here, but this isn't really a fair classification. You are implying the the CEO put an ex-intern on blast in the community. There is a huge difference between making a statement in a private email (which the other party then releases), and making a public accusation (which is what you're implying).
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  > making a public accusation (which is what you're implying). These are the words Masad used on Twitter to describe the situation in the OP: > As a matter of principle, when someone goes into your home and steals from you, even if it's not material, you have to respond. That's a direct public accusation of IP theft.
- ctvo 5y ago
  I understand what you're saying, and I agree to an extend. But this is a thread about the apology after these accusations were made public. Instead of the apology Ajmad gave, clearly stating that nothing was stolen would be much more beneficial.
- hluska 5y ago
  If Amjad had left it at the email, all would be fine. He went way too far on Twitter and behaved like a brute.
heavyset_go 5y ago

temp8964 5y ago

Wow, not enough apology from the guy. The apology is not sincere. That guy is flawed. All the perfects are judging a flawed guy. Man, this is a strange world we are living in.

reducesuffering 5y ago

All people make mistakes and need to learn to introspect and learn from their mistakes to not make the same ones. Really, this was a great opportunity to acknowledge and learn from aggressive mistakes while still running just a series A company. It was a blessing to the CEO to be highlighted now before the real weighty damage occurs. Unfortunately, it's pretty apparent to most of us and future investors that his public persona will get eviscerated if his company proceeds to ever become more in the public spotlight.

Keyframe 5y ago

"I apologize, but not really. I am still right, you're not." This only happened because of the public eye. Immature apology is reflected in evocation of a sob story about a (presumably struggling?) kid rising from whatever - that's manipulation, an excuse. Guy didn't learn anything but at least there's a close.

dang 5y ago

This is a follow-up to the huge thread from yesterday: Replit used legal threats to kill my open-source project - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27424195 - June 2021 (1234 comments) (Edit: I'm adding some text here because people have been linking to this comment.) This story was at #1 all day yesterday, in contradiction to HN's normal rules. That is, we bent over backwards to allow this story to have much more attention on HN than it would have gotten in a normal case. That's why it got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was the #1 story the entire day (https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07). Why did we do that? Because we moderate HN less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the story: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... That is literally the first principle of HN moderation, and we stick to it strictly. Less moderation does not mean no moderation, however. It does not serve the community, or the quality of HN, to repeat the same thing all over again the next day. Not having the same story repeat itself two days in a row is standard HN moderation. Downweighting follow-ups in order to avoid repetition, is a bedrock principle of HN; otherwise the front page would be dominated by the same few stories every day. There are lots of past explanations about that at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22significant%20new%20information%22%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... We bent the rules considerably to allow the story to keep a prominent position it would not otherwise have had, for an entire day. I don't think it would be proper to do the same thing two days in a row, and indeed many users were emailing us to complain, when they thought that was about to happen.

brhsagain 5y ago

For those calling Amjad's apology insincere: what would convince you otherwise? He's stated plainly that he did x, x was wrong, and he's sorry for doing x (x being making legal threats and abusing his power). Do you need him to concede his entire point of view 100%? If Riju really did copy repl.it, are you saying he should let that go in order to make a proper apology? Why is that a reasonable demand? I think I see one part of the problem, though. Many people implicitly believe the claim about Riju copying repl.it is itself ridiculous. So I want to talk about this. It's famously said that execution is worth more than ideas. Meaning a large part of a company's value is in its acquired knowledge from iterating on designs and the paths they landed on. Imagine everyone who sets out to create an online code runner starts at the same point in the online-code-runner problem space. Every decision you make is uncharted territory, and every choice, small UI changes, how you serialize messages, how you orchestrate containers, has consequences. When you take the result of those learnings -- a very specific design path -- and copy it, it can seem like you were just doing the obvious thing, precisely because the first company carved that path first. It seems like nothing, and you'll never enforce it in law. But what you're doing is basically pirating the encoded knowledge from all those iterations and trial-and-error cycles; instead of starting from the initial point in the problem space and independently reasoning at each point what direction to "step" in, you teleport right to the same spot as the company, getting for free any progress they've made. Saying there are a bunch of repl.it clones, etc. misses the point. The "online code runner" idea is cheap. That's not what Amjad is saying. It's not even about individually patentable trade secrets. It's more like, we've been iterating in this problem space for a long time, an intern comes in, sees the path we took, leaves and releases something that takes largely the same path, then tries to claim the path is just "the obvious route." But anyone who's worked on a long, hard problem knows that's not how it works. A million micro design decisions go into eventually arriving at the path you take. It's all the more suspicious if they made all the same micro-mistakes you did (as Amjad claims). What are the odds they started at the initial point, independently reasoned through each sub-decision, and made the same "steps" in the problem space you did, mistakes intact? It may not be legally enforceable, but I think it's very morally shady. I'm not saying Riju did copy repl.it, by the way, just that it's not a completely crazy accusation. And I don't think Radon's blog post definitively proves he didn't. It goes through his tech stack in a very accounting-like, line-by-line breakdown. But it doesn't address my point above, the point I think (can't speak for him) Amjad was trying to make. So if Amjad saying "I still think you crossed a line ethically, but I apologize for reacting by making legal threats and abusing power" -- which is, actually, the entire thing he did wrong -- strikes you as insincere, what's the right way for him to assert his own moral grievance here before this whole matter wraps up?

darkhorse13 5y ago

The ego and hubris in all of this is absolutely insane. Replit is a cool product no doubt, but my God, people need to take themselves less seriously. I seriously put some of the blame on the culture here. If we keep on acting like these companies and founders are God's gift to mankind, we will continue to see this type of egotistical, narrow-minded behavior.

yepthatsreality 5y ago

Was this removed from the front page because Replit has taken money from Ycombinator? EDIT: Just to clarify. This post has gained over 200 points and 70 comments on the last hour. It jumped from top 5 posts to low end of the top 50 posts in seconds and is rapidly sinking. Just curious what decision led to the hiding of a popular post.

brhsagain 5y ago
I don't think so. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20yc%20%22less%2C%20not%20more%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
- yepthatsreality 5y ago
  That’s for the previous thread though. Unless I’m missing something every thing he says doesn’t necessarily apply to this thread.
  - dang 5y ago
    From my perspective it does apply. Please see my comment upthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301. If there's something there you feel I haven't addressed, I'd be happy to hear what it is.
    - yepthatsreality 5y ago
      Thanks for your reply and explain.
minimaxir 5y ago
Usually updates are penalized, which this is.
- yepthatsreality 5y ago

bitwize 5y ago

I fail to see how Amjad was in the wrong in the first place. He is well within his rights to assert copyright, which OP probably violated at least on an SSO level. The only things left to quibble over are how much the infringement was and how it may have affected, or have the potential to affect, Repl.it's business -- matters to be settled in court if both sides do not agree to terms. Never, ever, EVER release an open-source version of your current or former employer's product. If you do, the employer can establish you had access to their code and they can argue that your work is substantially similar to theirs, meaning THEY CAN AND WILL SUE YOU for copyright infringement.

cbsmith 5y ago

I think the disappointment in the CEO's response to the blog post is understandable, but I think much of it is a reflection of different contexts. I'm sure from the information at their disposal, the CEO thinks their IP was stolen, and feels obligated to defend it vigorously. Yes, he did not provide specific claims, but often it considered unwise to be specific in these situations (both when threatening legal action and when backing down). What's described as "misquoting" could be deliberate, but given how all of this seems to be in the context of two parties not communicating effectively, it is far more likely a case where what was heard from the CEO's context was very different from what Radon intended to communicate. Like I said, I don't begrudge Radon's feelings and perceptions of the situation, and he may well be perceiving things accurately, but with disagreements like this, the norm is that all parties have a distorted perception. I'm just glad it has been resolved without going to court.

madsmith 5y ago

Wow… someone just nuked this right off of the front page.

dang 5y ago
Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27439301. It's very important to understand that this story was at #1 all day yesterday, in contradiction to HN's normal rules. That is, we bent over backwards to allow this story to have much more attention on HN than it would have gotten in a normal case. That's why it got 4000 upvotes and 1300+ comments and was the #1 story the entire day (https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2021-06-07). Why did we do that? Because we moderate HN less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the story: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20%22not%20more%22%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... That is literally the first principle of HN moderation, and we stick to it strictly. Less moderation does not mean no moderation, however. It does not serve the community, or the quality of HN, to repeat the same thing all over again the next day. Downweighting follow-ups in order to avoid repetition, is another bedrock principle of HN moderation; otherwise the front page would be dominated by the same few stories every day. There are lots of past explanations about that at these links: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=%22significant%20new%20information%22%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

kemonocode 5y ago

A very empty non-apology all in all, and not nearly addressing what Masad did wrong. Very disappointing. Masad, if you're reading this, get off your high horse. Bullying and scaring people into compliance with lawyers does work, but you pay it dearly in PR, especially when you're working on products oriented towards highly opinionated people.

technicolorwhat 5y ago

If the author is here, could we get the code, I would like to hack on a not-clone of replit :)

heavyset_go 5y ago
If you look in the original HN thread and on Twitter, people have posted forks and backups of the original project.

rasikjain 5y ago

Masad response does not seem to have the tone of apology. He is apologizing to the legal threat only. He is still not ready to accept about open source Project. Good that Radon has responded well to that criticism and made communication transparent in his blog. Setting the wrong tone from the position of CEO.

hashbig 5y ago

From the wording of this “apology” it’s clear that this is just meant to save face and damage control. I don’t think he would’ve reached out had the author not published the first blog post. “Virtue is what you do when nobody is looking. The rest is marketing”. – Nassim Taleb

theiafan 5y ago

Given that Amjad seems particularly worried about people encroaching in this space, let me again say that nothing about Replit is unique, the use of Nix for Replit is literally an idea years past its prime. Nothing remotely unique. Amjad, if your securing your moat via threats, you better look out. To anyone else, go grab Theia. In about an hour you can get something better than Replit going, and if you combine with Nix/Guix, there's just no reason to deal with people that behave like Amjad.

fdiskl 5y ago
this fiasco reminds me of those YouTube guys who started sending notices to people doing reaction videos about stealing "their format"... when reaction videos had existed long before YouTube and certainly before those guys got involved. Kinda the same thing here

dvfjsdhgfv 5y ago

Still better story than SCO vs IBM.

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rexreed 5y ago

This interaction is why I don't do things that involve legal matters via phone. there needs to be a paper trail for all correspondence to avoid he-said/she-said situations.