For every action, there is a consequence. What we do today will determine what happens tomorrow. This can be easy to forget when writing on the internet when the assumption is: you’ll never see the person you are writing about face to face.
A quote from Mike Arrington:
Yesterday as I was leaving the DLD Conference in Munich, Germany someone walked up to me and quite deliberately spat in my face. Before I even understood what was happening, they veered off into the crowd, just another dark head in a dark suit. People around me stared, then looked away and continued their conversation.
What I found particularly disturbing: “People around me stared, then looked away and continued their conversation.”
That’s a cold thing for people to do and it clearly sends a message: In the technology/start up niche, Arrington is “needed”. He is a necessity to get publicity. He is not liked and one could question if he is respected. To put this into perspective, how many people go to their jobs because they need the job, but detest the work or detest the people they work with? It’s the same thing.
Consequences
In everything we do, there are consequences to our actions. Arrington has done some questionable things (not like we all haven’t at some point in our lives) and some seemed very vindictive. Of course there are things that happen in the background the public knows nothing about. It has been said many times by people behind start ups that they felt they “had” to get on TechCrunch or they would not thrive. Not to knock TechCrunch but the site should have healthy competition, there should not be “one” site that dominates because it isn’t good for the niche. It gives one entity too much control and that is never a good thing.
Unfortunately, the resentment seems to have built up without doing anything to mitigate the damage it was creating. The person who did it knew Arrington wasn’t going to fight back because he rarely does. He admitted in the article that he didn’t respond to negative comments/articles (understandable considering the volume) and I can understand the position he was/is in but it’s like being on the playground and letting someone kick your butt. I have no doubt it would have been tough to respond to all of those things but saying nothing sent out the message that there are no consequences for malicious behavior (there is a difference between negative criticism and attacking someone verbally).
About Those Consequences….
You reap what you sew. Do I agree with someone spitting on Arrington? Absolutely not. It’s cowardly, despicable behavior. Do I agree with the people who stood there and said nothing? Absolutely not. If I knew who they were I’d make sure I’d never buy their product, visit their blog, or aid in their success at all. However, whether one wants to admit it or not, the actions Arrington made over the years led up to the spitting incident. People continuing their conversations when he was spat on shows the animosity that has been brewing for years. It’s great to take some time off but the problems will still be there.
Dave Winer recently realized he is one of the most hated people on the internet. He’s right, he is…right up there with Arrington. Hated. Resented. Ridiculed. I don’t agree with those adjectives and I don’t agree with everything Winer (nor Arrington) says but I respect his accomplishments just as I respect Arrington’s.
The difference between the two is that Winer is actively attempting to do something to change his reputation. Arrington is taking a vacation. Eventually, if Arrington wants things to change, he will have to make an effort to undo the animosity and dislike people in his niche feel towards him.
Or it will happen again. Or worse.
Tyme the online people can be some of the most two-faced I’ve encountered. Your point is a good one. One person is trying to help his situation. The other isn’t taking responsibility.
What goes around comes around. He never stands up for himself so of course someone felt it would be easy to pull off. Oh well, maybe he’ll come back more humbled.
It’s not surprising. He’s lucky most technology males are cowards and someone didn’t punch him.
No point in him returning unless he changes his ways.
When is enough…enough? | Shablogs
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He had to know it was coming, eventually. Did they find out who it was?
Spot-On. The options are PREVENTION and CURE. Going on vacation provides neither, in and of itself.
Hmm…his first response wasn’t to find out who did it. Kick some butt. Sound off. Cuss some people out. Instead he took it. Not many men in my life would have done that. They aren’t violent men but they do protect themselves.
It would take a lot of changing on Mike’s part for him to be liked. I used to read his site when it first started but he changed. I don’t think the old Mike would have been spat on. He was liked back then.
He’ll go back to doing what he always did. If he had to work now, while all of this was happening, he might change. Taking a month off and relaxing, he isn’t solving anything.
You’re probably right. I hope that is not the case but you’re probably right.
Actually I hope some other sites get in the arena so there is competition. The only time the end-user gets a good deal is when there is competition. It forces business owners to do the right thing if they are not compelled to do it naturally.
Yeah, he’s changed a lot. Matter of fact, Dave Winer just implied something like that:
http://twitter.com/davewiner/statuses/1155201702
No it doesn’t. For a month? Take a couple of days, dust yourself off, and kick some butt coming back.
Not meaning to be maliciously cruel…I mean change.
To my knowledge, no they didn’t. And I’m playing with reply feature and formatting. I’ll be going back to my round up reply in one comment method shortly.
**Off-topic** I’ll be adding the “your comment is in moderation” message and adding trackbacks. I had to ask the theme developer how to do it without removing the formatting.
I think it is going to be business as usual for him once he returns. People do not change overnight. Did he change when his site became big or was he always this way and no one realized it?
One problem is that people don’t think they have a brand worth maintaining. They shoot off at the mouth or make dumb decisions.
In Arrington’s case, when he doesn’t report a start up, why not? Why should he lord over whether a start up is discovered? Maybe I had interest in something he decided not to write about.
Isn’t this the man who made his conference the same time another conference was? On purpose? Companies had to pick which one they were attending?
If that is true, that wasn’t helping the community and it wouldn’t be a surprise someone spat on him.
Well done Tyme. There are articles popping up all over but most are about whether he deserved it or not. You tried to use his situation to point out how others don’t fall into the same trap.
It’s easy to become cocky when you’re sitting at the top of the mountain.
Yes, that sounds about right. I remember there was a big stink about it and he had some sort of explanation. I don’t remember which conference people ended up going to.
When you start receiving death threats and people spit in your face, it is time to straighten yourself out. Like you said you reap what you sew. Dave Winer is throwing his two cents in I see.
No one is questing anything. He got spat on, oh well, what’s happening today? Let’s talk about more boring internet stuff! I would be highly insulted. The stuff floating around doesn’t show anyone pissed off. They are tailgating the story.
So far Tyme’s is the only one I’ve seen, and I haven’t seen nearly close to all of them, that tried to put a spin on it that could be useful to anyone. The ones I’ve seen basically report what happen.
tyme (Tyme White)
New Entry: When is Enough…Enough? http://is.gd/hyfs Another “you don’t want that to happen to you…”