| One thing I was struck by, when I read yesterday's Gizmodo report[1], was how haphazardly the decision was made to add the Firefox blocker message to the site. OKCupid founder Christian Rudder essentially said that they made the decision in a hurry, in the span of about 36 hours, and had no concrete plan about what they would do next. In fact, when Gizmodo asked him what outcome he expected, he said, "I don't have a good answer for you." Let's step aside, for a minute, from the divisive social issue that inspired the stunt, and consider what this says about OKCupid's ability to make business decisions. If I'm IAC, OKCupid's owner[2], should I really have confidence in Rudder and other OKCupid decision-makers if this is the way they make far-reaching, very public business decisions? "Hey, let's slap something together and see what happens!" I think that it is possible for a business to make a bold stand on social issues, even if it means calling out another business for its conduct. But if you're going to do it, you'd better have thought it out well and have a game plan. OKCupid did not ... and that says a lot about the people in charge there. [1] http://gizmodo.com/why-okcupid-took-a-stand-against-mozillas... [2] http://iac.com/brand/okcupid |
That isn't the sort of thing you can come out and say in a gizmodo interview.