December 31, 2007...1:06 am
Why I sucked when talking about Dave Winer
Earlier this year I flamed Dave Winer about Facebook. The gist of the post was that Dave was complaining about Facebook lock-in and rather than disagreeing with Dave on the issue I flamed Dave. It was a stupid thing to do and the kind of thing that contributes to the muck and the sludge that has become common in blogging. Of course I got some Techmeme flow out of it, making the issue bigger than it should have been. If Dave had attacked me personally, it would be different. I’m willing to stand up for myself and call someone out when needed. But Dave didn’t criticize me (he doesn’t even know me well enough)- he criticized Facebook and in looking back, he was right and I was wrong. The contact data on Facebook is locked into that platform and not usable, even through the APIs.
When I was thinking about what kind of blog I want to have in 2008, that episode stood out as the type of thing I want to avoid going forward. So I extend an apology to Dave and make a commitment to avoid this kind of bullshit in 2008.
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