5 ms·
> On July 7, the company dismissed the lawsuit against McNally instead. > Proven also made a highly unusual request: Would the judge please seal almost the ent
by rdtsc 1y ago
> On July 7, the company dismissed the lawsuit against McNally instead.
> Proven also made a highly unusual request: Would the judge please seal almost the entire court record—including the request to seal?
Tough at first then running away with the tail between their legs. Typical bullying behavior.
> but Proven complained about a “pattern of intimidation and harassment by individuals influenced by Defendant McNally’s content.”
They have to know it's generated by their own lawsuit and how they approached it, right? They can't be that oblivious to turn around and say "Judge, look at all the craziness this generated, we just have to seal the records!". It's like an ice-cream cone that licks itself.
> the case became a classic example of the Streisand Effect, in which the attempt to censor information can instead call attention to it.
A constant reminder to keep the people who don't know what they are doing (including the owners of the company!) from the social media.
- embedding-shape 1y ago> A constant reminder to keep the people who don't know what they are doing (including the owners of the company!) from the social media. I'm just guessing based on the contents of the article, but it sounds like a typical "hard-fist founder-run company" so good luck convincing the founder to not sit on social media and argue their points.
- dekhn 1y agoalso known as the 'double down on stupid' and 'triple down on stupid'
- seanhunter 1y agoThis is known as the “Randy Pitchford” social media strat.
- jeltz 1y agoWe recently had an example of that with Automattic and the WordPress drama. Where the founder was here on HN hurting his own legal case despite people here repeatedly told him to stop posting for his own sake and asking him to talk to his lawyers.
- jalapenos 1y agoSeeing someone post here a screenshot of case filings that included a screenshot of that founder's HN comments thereafter was golden.
- SacToHacker 1y agoIf you want an extreme example of this; go look at the Sacramento startup Sircles. 7+ year old "startup" that has sub $100k revenue after several years but 9 million in debt. The founder has an account there under u/Sirclesapp where he goes off on toxic and insane tirades to anyone who dares say anything but utmost praise at his app. Apparently he stalks their reddit accounts and sends threatening letters to their personal home addresses from his lawyer for "defamation". That I understand he sent one to some ex employees and one to some woman who I think is a paralegal and is now suing them in civil court. He partnered with some radio program called radradio where the host had a lot of personal issues and the show ultimately got axed. The radio host was known for having issues with alcohol, but they kept partnering with him because he kept shilling their WeFunder. They've raised over $6m in SAFEs but considering they are $9m in debt, haven't broken $100k lifetime revenue after 7 years, and seem to have over a million a year burn rate, it's doubtful that the shares from those SAFEs (if ever executed) would ever be in the money.
- samtho 1y agoI’m from Sacramento and I know of people who worked at Sircles. It’s comically mismanaged and run by a comic book villian.
- karlgkk 1y agoWow, it seems like the whole purpose of the product is grievance based against yelp. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of yelp, but I get the vibe that maybe this person would be even more extractive if given the opportunity
- eru 1y ago> [...] go look at the Sacramento startup Sircles. 7+ year old "startup" that has sub $100k revenue after several years but 9 million in debt. Going on a tangent: Depending on your industry, taking a while to see any revenue is common. Eg look into biotech or the people trying to make atomic fusion a reality. Debt is just as valid a way to finance your company as equity is. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modigliani%E2%80%93Miller_theorem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modigliani%E2%80%93Miller_theo... for the theory.
- anitil 1y agoThey also made sloppy mistakes like naming the Proven owner's partner un-redacted in a document they submitted to the court (which is then available through legal search engines). If they were concerned with privacy they could easily have withheld her name.
- bux93 1y agoThe one time security through obscurity would have helped them?
- Brian_K_White 1y agoGuy who paid someone to throw a brick through his ex wife's window is insensed at being intimidated.
- ljm 1y agoThere is delicious irony in the owner of a lock company being so insecure.
- DecentShoes 1y agoThe company who sued him is, still, embarrassingly, attempting to hold a social media presence, despite getting exposed as fraudsters and bullies: https://m.youtube.com/@provenindustries8236 https://m.youtube.com/@provenindustries8236
- 7moritz7 1y ago> Proven Is so secure that if they detect a robber trying to lock pick they sue them. Incredible
- qwertox 1y agoThat article just kept getting better and better. Also: > “Sucks to see how many people take everything they see online for face value,” one Proven employee wrote. “Sounds like a bunch of liberals lol.” So when a great product is not a great product, it turns out to be great alone for the fact of being built by republicans.
- hnlmorg 1y agoI think their point was that the lock picking videos were faked. But it’s still a silly comment from the Proven employee. I’ve also seen people use “liberal” as a literal curse word before. On one “reality show”, a member of the cast broke down while highly intoxicated and started screaming at other people saying: “You’re worse than a beep! You’re a liberal” It’s insane just how far the political divide has become.
- 0xEF 1y agoOthering is easier than improving. An old philosophy professor taught me that at a community college when we started getting on the subject of philosophy in politics. This was probably 20-something years ago, now, but one of the many things that stuck with me from his teaching, and makes even more sense now than it did then.
- cassepipe 1y agoSurely this philosophy has great value if you still believe your adversary is misguided but still well-intentionned But if your adversary is lying knowingly to everyone saying you are a criminal and should be locked up or deported then I wonder what's there to improve The game of cooperation only works if you're not playing with someone who is constantly trying to exploit your cooperation attempts
- cassepipe 1y agoSurely both sides are responsible even though it only started happening once a certain political figure popped up started calling his meekest opponents murderers and criminals and having crowds chant for them to be locked up
- itchyjunk 1y agoShushh, don't tell people about Streisand Effect.
- strangattractor 1y agoOne thing Proven might have done is to analyze the attack. Then see if the lock could be improved to prevent it. Offer exchanges for the old locks (most of which are unlikely to be requested). Instead they resort to Lawyers, refuse to solve the problem and waste everyones time and money.