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T-Shirt Hell Claims It Will Shut Doors After One Too Many Hate Emails
- furyg3 18y agogenius marketing campaign
- icey 18y agoIndeed - this seems like the first time I've read a "We're closing down" press release that included the fact that they were bringing back MORE products for sale.
- nihilocrat 18y agoOh hey, did you hear? The McRib is back! ...again!
- eli 18y agoMy crystal press release ball says, "March 1, 2009--Thanks to all loyal fans, we're back! And we're telling all our haters to fuck off! [...]"
- Zarathu 18y agoI don't particularly understand why he would care if he gets hate mail or not. Actually, scratch that. Hate mail means he's achieving his goal, ergo making more money. Clearly, this is trickery. Trickery, I say.
- khafra 18y agoHope it's trickery, but he did almost shut down once before due to a more-credible-than-usual threat of violence. I'll have to get my "May the Horse Be With You" shirt framed in an oxygen-free case with uv-blocking glass.
- scott_s 18y agoI imagine it takes a toll. It's easy to say "Don't listen to them, they don't get it." It's harder to actually ignore constant hate mail.
- eli 18y agoYeah, but for someone explicitly trying to push the limits of good taste? Isn't offending people the whole point?
- fallentimes 18y agoAgreed. And most the time the people that are offended are the outraged people who always like to be outraged about something.
- aantix 18y agoIs Zed Shaw his ghost writer?
- Goronmon 18y agoI find it kind of distressing that I can easily imagine someone resorting to physical violence against someone wearing (or in this case, making) t-shirts slogans they don't agree with. Also, it's cool to see someone who cares enough about their business to be willing to forego any monetary gain by selling it off to someone else.
- unalone 18y agoI never looked at T-Shirt Hell before this, but they've got some incredible ones. "Slavery gets shit done" "Women are like parking spots. They're whores and liars." I wish I'd known about this store before. These are hilarious.
- dgabriel 18y agoEh. I think they're childish. This guy enables real-world trolls, and somehow is surprised that people respond negatively.
- unalone 18y agoIt's not trolling, it's shock. When you wear something unexpected, then it's a lot funnier and more effective. Nowadays, offense is the most shocking thing there is. Not to say this is as good as A Modest Proposal, but wouldn't you say that suggesting people in Ireland sell babies as food is a similar thing? I wouldn't call that trolling. I'd call it satire. EDIT: The reason it isn't trolling is that you have to put your name behind it. One of the essential elements of trolling is that what you say can't be tied back to you whatsoever. The minute you say it with your own name, it's not trolling. It's an offensive statement made by an actual person.
- dgabriel 18y agoHey, wear whatever you want, sell whatever t-shirt you want, no sweat off my back. This kind of humor is cheap, and possibly hurtful. If you're cool with that, it's your business. I've never heard that trolling had to be anonymous by definition, and I've been kicking around the internet for 15 years or so. Trolls aim to be deliberately disruptive, and if you're in public wearing a shirt with any of the slogans on TSH, then you are aiming to be disruptive. One reaps what one sows. ps - I'm watching our points go up & down depending on who agrees with us. It's kind of amusing.
- fallentimes 18y agoI thought anonymity was why trolling was/is so prevalent.
- eli 18y agoIf you really want to push the envelope all the time AND you can't deal with mild email-based criticism then yes, you should shut down.
- akd 18y agothere's mild email-based criticism, and then there's "Your wife's name is XXXX and she works at ______. Shut down your site or else."
- jasonlbaptiste 18y agoSomehow I was expecting to see a shirt that says: "Ghandi Wouldn't Fucking Trade Places With You Or Matt Maroon"
- TomHod 18y agoSurely the best 'fuck you' would be to sell for millions. Closing the company will make the people who hate him happy - I say he's staying open...
- edw519 18y agoWhat's next, "I'm Not an Asshole if I Blog that I'm Not an Asshole"?
- sanj 18y agoSimply making offensive statements doesn't count as social commentary.
- alecco 18y agoSome of the shirts are very clever.
- mattmcknight 18y agoIf there were a TechCrunch that covered TechCrunch they would dump out a headline focusing on the closer- "Arrington announces he is going to shut down TechCrunch".
- hat 18y agoI think the guy should have just hired a few people to go through his hate email daily and respond to everything. The other half of the website's ingenuity could have been intelligent responses to senseless bantering.
- noonespecial 18y agoHe announced one too many times how much money he had made. To me this just screams "I didn't make very much money." Which I'm going to hazard a guess is the real reason he's shutting down.