[sbuccini]

The fact that this story was broken by Darcy is just *chef's kiss*:

From the Atlantic piece:

"Licht was still coming to terms with the ferocity of the backlash later that night when CNN’s popular Reliable Sources newsletter landed in his inbox. He read the opening line in disbelief: 'It’s hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening,' Licht’s own media reporter, Oliver Darcy, wrote.

Licht could handle being ridiculed by his media rivals. But being publicly scolded by someone on his own payroll—on the biggest night of his career—felt like a new level of betrayal. Licht, who just hours earlier had expressed ambivalence to me about how the event played, went into war mode."

[jackmott42]

I have had a few interactions with "high level" or "big shot" executives in my life and it seems like their minds operate in a totally different universe. How Licht could not have felt the same way as Oliver about the whole situation is totally alien to me. At a much smaller and more petty scale my interaction with an executive was similar, in that he wanted me to add a feature to our shopping website, where if a user clicked the back button to leave, we would interrupt that with a popup trying to get them to stay.

I said that I would not do that as it is unethical and rude. And he looked at me like I was the alien. Like why would anyone think that or care?

If anyone reading this feels like I am an alien here, keep in mind Licht just got booted. The world cares, even if your sociopath CEO self doesn't.

[netsharc]

Since we all live on a gradient, I would think that feature is rude, but not necessarily unethical. Yeah, I suppose that's me being used to obnoxious software features, like what Microsoft has been doing the last few years (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36222006 ).

Funny how many software and online services now blatantly act like abusive partners, "Oh yeah, we're cunts, but what are you going to replace us with?".

Edit: the name Adobe just popped into my head.

[EA-3167]

I'd tend to call it both unethical and rude, but even more than that, it's counterproductive. Far from encouraging people to stay, it would stick in their minds as a reason to avoid that site forever.

You can appeal to potential customers, but guilt, harassment and bullying lose you customers.