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Saying that someone is trying to extort money from you and that their behaviour is "mafia-like" and tantamount to "blackmail" is very heavy-handed criticism, es

Saying that someone is trying to extort money from you and that their behaviour is "mafia-like" and tantamount to "blackmail" is very heavy-handed criticism, especially on a public forum. It is intended to injure, if only their reputation. Publicly whipping someone in a town square will cause more mental anguish than physical pain. It's intended to embarrass that person, as well as scare anyone else watching. Please point out where I have gone wrong with the drawing of these parallels.

Semiapies 18y ago
Publicly criticizing someone, even outright denouncing them in stern but entirely truthful terms, is not even in the same league as publicly whipping someone. This public criticism elicited awareness of the behavior for people who might have gone to GS unaware of their practices. It elicited GS to amend at least some of their practices. The only observers plausibly "scared" by this are people who want to build a business that involves impersonating other companies.
- batasrki 18y ago
  Had the phrases referring to Mafia, blackmail and extortion been left out of the piece, I'd totally agree with you. Including such words, however, is not "publicly criticizing" someone nor "outright denouncing them in stern but entirely truthful terms". They're meant to incite the other side. They're there to show righteous anger and having as many readers as 37Signals does, it's completely out of bounds. Combine that with the complete and utter lack of professionalism displayed by Jason and that post can, and will be, taken as public shaming of GS. Public shaming is not criticism nor denouncement. But yes, you're right. The only companies scared will be the ones who want to follow a similar model. Of course, I'd have preferred to have the technical issues pointed out so that those up-and-coming companies can learn from this debacle, but I guess appealing to people's fears is much better. After all, that's what most of the world's governments have been doing to their people, so why expect more from our technical leaders.
  - Semiapies 18y ago
    I'm afraid I have nothing further to say to you; we are speaking very different languages.
    - batasrki 18y ago
      And for that, I apologize.

Semiapies 18y ago

Publicly criticizing someone, even outright denouncing them in stern but entirely truthful terms, is not even in the same league as publicly whipping someone. This public criticism elicited awareness of the behavior for people who might have gone to GS unaware of their practices. It elicited GS to amend at least some of their practices. The only observers plausibly "scared" by this are people who want to build a business that involves impersonating other companies.

batasrki 18y ago
Had the phrases referring to Mafia, blackmail and extortion been left out of the piece, I'd totally agree with you. Including such words, however, is not "publicly criticizing" someone nor "outright denouncing them in stern but entirely truthful terms". They're meant to incite the other side. They're there to show righteous anger and having as many readers as 37Signals does, it's completely out of bounds. Combine that with the complete and utter lack of professionalism displayed by Jason and that post can, and will be, taken as public shaming of GS. Public shaming is not criticism nor denouncement. But yes, you're right. The only companies scared will be the ones who want to follow a similar model. Of course, I'd have preferred to have the technical issues pointed out so that those up-and-coming companies can learn from this debacle, but I guess appealing to people's fears is much better. After all, that's what most of the world's governments have been doing to their people, so why expect more from our technical leaders.
- Semiapies 18y ago
  I'm afraid I have nothing further to say to you; we are speaking very different languages.
  - batasrki 18y ago
    And for that, I apologize.