Dave Winer still can’t understand why so many people have an intense dislike for him,
About a year ago talking with John Robb I lamented that I get so much hate mail. John said “Dave you’re a rock star.” I didn’t like that answer, but he was right. With thousands of readers, there are a couple of dozen who think I write just for them, and they hate me and what I say, and express it constantly and in great volume.
No, Dave, the reason they dislike you so much is your longstanding habit of attacking your own customers when they point out bugs and other problems with Userland software.
Normal users do not like being told to go to hell when they try to report bugs or complain about longstanding problems with software that never gets fixed before Userland moves on to its next project-of-the-moment.
But rather than look at his own business practices, Winer prefers sychophantic nonsense like “Dave you’re a rock star” to explain away the animosity.
And the sad thing is that Winer has created so much stop energy of his own, that people are moving on to other software packages simply to develop a relationship with companies who know how to provide decent customer service.
Most companies would look at the numerous Radio and Manila blogs that say something like “We’ve had it with Dave, we’re moving our blog to Movable Type” and step back to try to figure out what they’re doing to drive people away. But Winer simply chalks it up to abusive people who just hate him because he’s a rock star.