TechCrunch Design Saga
UPDATE
Having seen the response in the crunchnotes article from Mr. Arrington, which I previously missed (due to WP’s hidden next previous links) I have decided to pull my article. The real story here isn’t what Mr. Arrington “did’ but the fervor and the anger that this seems to have brought about. While I didn’t agree with the situation as I saw it, I just don’t think the fans need flamed, not when people are making threats and saying what they are. You can dig for the thread on your own.
So my article is gone and now you see a bit of the darkside of open, social media. There is something to be said for leaving yourself and possibly your business interest so exposed. A discussion had out in the open, for all to see has the power to turn smart people into raging lunatics, to create planets out of molehills. Apparently it also has the power of making my words on this modest blog darken someone’s day, for which I’m sorry.
The person who submitted the design to me is the founder of a startup I’d written about and I know him. We talked on IM before I posted it. The “steal” comment wasn’t serious and Jeremy was both aware of the post and thanked me for it.
If someone goes to the trouble of mocking up a design for me, I am likely to post it along with my thanks. If that broke some religious rule of designers, I didn’t know about it, obviously. All I’ve gotten out of this entire process is hate, threats and more hate. I was just getting to the point where I was putting it behind me, but thanks to you, I’m thinking about it again. I doubt you thought you’d make someone’s day a little bit miserable today, but you did. I hope it was worth it.