Rollyo - Roll your own search engine
Michael Arrington
19 comments »
Company: Note: Due to a misunderstanding, I posted a profile of Rollyo while the company was in private beta and did not want any publicity (the misunderstanding was that I didn’t know this when I posted). They have requested that I remove the post for now, and I am complying. Nothing heavy, I just received a very polite email request from a very smart employee of the company. In my opinion, all this controversy just adds more buzz and is ultimately good for the company. And I also understand that Rollyo would like to keep things a little quiet for now as they work through the beta. I look forward to re-posting when the time is right. In the meantime, I’m going to keep testing the site. Good things are going on over there. Check it out (by requesting a beta invite).
Michael,
I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we asked folks not to blog about this until we had the kinks worked out. It didn’t seem like that much to ask to have a private beta (especially not to have our about section reprinted). And no one was “invited” - all one has to do is sign up at rollyo.com.
We have many bloggers involved and all have kindly managed to do us a solid by not sharing these details yet. I was really hoping we could keep it that way for a couple of weeks.
Again, I do appreciate you testing the service. Not as much as I’d appreciate you postponing this post though.
Dave
Um, you’re welcome?
Sorry you’re unhappy that I just told thousands of people about your service. I wasn’t invited to the beta, I saw no requests on the site not to post/blog/etc., and so I wrote a profile. I’ve never had the experience of a founder telling me off for writing about his site.
I am currently involved in a number of private betas (3), and am respecting the requests of the founders not to post. I understand that sometimes people want a little privacy while they work through things. In this case, none of that happened. There’s lots I didn’t do though…I didn’t post the login credentials that you are using for the site. I didn’t post screen shots of all of the pages. And in general I only pointed out the positive things about your service.
How about this - I promise never to write about you again?
Hmm. It was just a gentle request as we’re not quite ready to share it broadly, that’s all. As I said, I appreciate your enthusiasm. All of our invite emails requested that folks not blog about it quite yet and that was the way I figured most people would be entering the site (probably should’ve put a note on the site). So seeing my about section and a screen shot posted came as a bit of shock.
I’m not sure I told you off, though? Didn’t mean to anyway.
As I said in my first comment, I do appreciate your interest.
Ok good. Still friends?
The service is awesome by the way.
Keith just told me I am “sounding like a high and mighty jerk off.”
Keith, you’re right. Dave, I’m sorry.
I still think you’re awesome though Mike
Someday, after the lawsuit is settled, we’ll all get together for a beer and laugh about all of this.
I deleted the About text.
FWIW, I disagree about the high and mighty comment.. I would have initially replied much like you did Michael
This is the nature of informational blogs. People are so eager to get a scoop and the traffic it brings that they’re not willing to ask themselves a simple question before publishing a post like this:
“If the company I’m writing about were *my* company and *I* wasn’t ready to announce and announcing might actually be harmful to my business in some way, then how would *I* feel about someone blogging about it?”
It’s one thing if you’re trying blow the whistle on some wrong-doing, but this is a little start-up trying to launch a modest product in a controlled way. As a sympathetic entrepreneur hoping to launch my own modest startup in the future, I think I’d rather have you not write about me than breaking a story at my expense.
I just notice the “Archimedes Ventures” website and it appears that only yesterday you put up Archimedes’ initial post about it. Knowing that you invest-in and consult-for startups, surely you understand the desire for a timed and planned “go to market strategy.”
No offense intended, this is just a simple difference of opinion.
Just to re-clarify:
1. someone sent me credentials for a website I had never heard of.
2. I went to the website, saw stuff, checked for terms of use (I’m a lawyer and always think like that), and saw that there were none.
3. I posted a very positive review.
4. I am involved in multiple private betas and have not posted a word about the companies, per founders’ requests
I do this every day. Most (all until now) companies are really happy about it. This person wasn’t. I took down part of the stuff he had an issue with.
Bottom line, if you put up a website with generic credentials you shouldn’t be angry when people go to the site and see what is there.
Nevertheless, yes, I know what it is like to be an entrepreneur and want to release things in stages.
In this case I don’t think what I did was wrong given the facts. In fact I don’t even think it was questionable.
And if Dave had sent me a private email (my email is all over the site) and simply asked me to take it down, I would have immediately. He didn’t. He made his comments public, and sort of accused me of something, and I responded.
And I wasn’t “eager” and this post didn’t exactly blow my traffic to the roof. Nor did I intend it to. I just wrote about a company that I liked, like I do every single day.
At least there are still details on this mysterious project available elsewhere!
http://www.johnlawrence.net/vi.....;type=post
Michael,
Thanks for taking down the post. I really appreciate it (and sorry for the delayed response, I was offline for a few days).
I actually searched for your email on the site before posting but couldn’t find it? Could be me…
Anyway, I do appreciate you taking the post down for now and I really, really appreciate your kind words about the site.
Dave
Geez, what a total joke. I’m right behind you on this one Michael, me being a freelance journlaist - 99.99999% of businesses are dying to get free publicity or some exposure and do almosty anything to get it.
If it’s a private Beta then do it behind closed doors and if it’s out in the public domain then clearly state it.
And then to go public rather than via a private email: PR mistake #1 - sort out issues privately.
And the funny thing is, is that once they go “live” they’ll be pitching you their story for …. guess what: some publicity and exposure.
I’d suggest such comapnies/start ups check out Amazon and buy a Public Relations Handbook.
Saw Arianna Huffington, Debra Messing and Rosario Dawson on the site. So does this mean that 1) they are internet search geeks, 2) are buddies with Dave Pell, or of those involved or 3) were made up by someone else?
oh,i like here
and http://www.heyjokes.com
have a nice day with you