7 ms·

Zee again. Full response: http://bit.ly/JxoWae http://bit.ly/JxoWae

nowarninglabel 14y ago
"keep your mouth shut until you know all the facts" I think you learned a hard lesson here, but it's one that many of us had to learn the hard way. It's good to see an apology.
- Juha 14y ago
  "It's good to see an apology." After reading the response I feel he was avoiding giving a proper apology. Only thing he apologizes is that he didn't have all the information at first, which is a kind of non-apology.
  - dkersten 14y ago
    Yep, sounds like the usual issue-dodging non-apology damage-control bullcrap to me.
petercooper 14y ago
Good lessons learned. We've all been there at some point in life (the rash response thing). TheNextWeb usually has plenty of good, timely posts and it'd be a shame to consider it sullied so I, and hopefully others, hope some good can come out of this drama long term. (I've been in the role of editor and got the blame for sloppy fact-checking by one of my charges; it definitely helped me get my eye back on the ball :-))
Devilboy 14y ago
So are you going to fire the offender or what exactly are you doing to prevent this happening again?
turar 14y ago
"Finally... Lesson learnt? Don’t respond while emotions are running high" Wow, after all the drama you still don't get it. Lesson learned should have been: do not copy/paste, especially to such a degree where a majority of your "content" is actually not yours.
Braasch 14y ago
This should be published on both on your Twitter page and should be a post on The Next Web, not Google Docs. And you learned the wrong lesson.
chris_wot 14y ago
You have got to be joking. A Google doc that can be taken down and that isn't easily indexable to be associated with thenextweb. Why isn't this on TNW? As for the comment "The debate on paraphrasing, rewriting and quoting we should save for another post" shows a remarkable level of cluelessness. That is the substance of the matter!!! I can't even say that the title is not an attempt at dissembling. Making the title "Plagiarism?" indicates that you don't believe you plagiarised. This is the worst non-apology apology I've ever seen.
epaga 14y ago
Wow. This entire thing from start to finish is like a textbook example on how NOT to handle PR crises. Let me get this straight: you're telling us the lesson you've learned is to not respond when emotional? You're posting this as a read-only Google Docs? As a CEO of a major tech publication? Seriously? Wow.
ChristianMarks 14y ago
A Google doc, very interesting. The use of bit.ly is also interesting--someone may unwittingly click the link and reveal himself through his Google account. Perhaps the intention is to discover who is reading it (for what purpose I can only speculate). It isn't posted on TNW for reasons that are unclear (as others have noted). Perhaps the intention is to crowdsource the editing until the statement eventually converges to what passes for a sincere apology, which could then be posted on TNW. Of course the use of bit.ly and Google Docs could be entirely innocent.
- skore 14y ago
  > innocent Yeah, well, after reading his responses here, I wouldn't go with that word, but rather with another one that starts with in - and ends with competent.

"keep your mouth shut until you know all the facts" I think you learned a hard lesson here, but it's one that many of us had to learn the hard way. It's good to see an apology.

Juha 14y ago
"It's good to see an apology." After reading the response I feel he was avoiding giving a proper apology. Only thing he apologizes is that he didn't have all the information at first, which is a kind of non-apology.
- dkersten 14y ago
  Yep, sounds like the usual issue-dodging non-apology damage-control bullcrap to me.

petercooper 14y ago

Good lessons learned. We've all been there at some point in life (the rash response thing). TheNextWeb usually has plenty of good, timely posts and it'd be a shame to consider it sullied so I, and hopefully others, hope some good can come out of this drama long term. (I've been in the role of editor and got the blame for sloppy fact-checking by one of my charges; it definitely helped me get my eye back on the ball :-))

Devilboy 14y ago

So are you going to fire the offender or what exactly are you doing to prevent this happening again?

turar 14y ago

"Finally... Lesson learnt? Don’t respond while emotions are running high" Wow, after all the drama you still don't get it. Lesson learned should have been: do not copy/paste, especially to such a degree where a majority of your "content" is actually not yours.

Braasch 14y ago

This should be published on both on your Twitter page and should be a post on The Next Web, not Google Docs. And you learned the wrong lesson.

chris_wot 14y ago

You have got to be joking. A Google doc that can be taken down and that isn't easily indexable to be associated with thenextweb. Why isn't this on TNW? As for the comment "The debate on paraphrasing, rewriting and quoting we should save for another post" shows a remarkable level of cluelessness. That is the substance of the matter!!! I can't even say that the title is not an attempt at dissembling. Making the title "Plagiarism?" indicates that you don't believe you plagiarised. This is the worst non-apology apology I've ever seen.

epaga 14y ago

Wow. This entire thing from start to finish is like a textbook example on how NOT to handle PR crises. Let me get this straight: you're telling us the lesson you've learned is to not respond when emotional? You're posting this as a read-only Google Docs? As a CEO of a major tech publication? Seriously? Wow.

ChristianMarks 14y ago

A Google doc, very interesting. The use of bit.ly is also interesting--someone may unwittingly click the link and reveal himself through his Google account. Perhaps the intention is to discover who is reading it (for what purpose I can only speculate). It isn't posted on TNW for reasons that are unclear (as others have noted). Perhaps the intention is to crowdsource the editing until the statement eventually converges to what passes for a sincere apology, which could then be posted on TNW. Of course the use of bit.ly and Google Docs could be entirely innocent.

skore 14y ago
> innocent Yeah, well, after reading his responses here, I wouldn't go with that word, but rather with another one that starts with in - and ends with competent.