Misunderstandings and Web Drama

Well, here's a follow-up post (hopefully the only one!) to the whole KL affair below.

First of all, thanks very much for your comments guys. As much as I don't want to see anyone getting bashed, it was really nice to hear your encouragement, and in particular that you guys didn't think I was ever misrepresenting the photos. Thanks for that. The 'free advertising' comment was something I was thinking to myself. Also, worth bearing in mind, is the viral-type way that information spreads around the internet and within groups of people. In the time that I've had pics of my own (and other's) synth gear on Flickr, I've had countless emails from people wondering "what is that all that crazy gear??". Remember, there's far more people in the world who could not recognize a modular synthesizer, than those who could. These pics have allowed me to introduce our anacronistic little hobby to many of the un-initiated, some of whom have returned back to me with fascinating stories about childhood memories, or the first time they heard a Moog. Very cool stuff.

Anyway, I have a plane to catch in a moment, and I want to cut to the chase here. I received a very nice email from Kevin this morning, one that I imagine wasn't easy to write. Kevin started and ended the email with a very nice and heartfelt apology. I'm not going into details or quoting it here for you, however, in a nutshell I can tell you that he was having a very bad day, and as chance would have it, he came across my Flickr sets at all the wrong time.

Kevin has lost an enourmous amount of bandwidth to people remote linking his files, using them as MySpace wallpapers, etc etc etc. He was very clear that my usage on Flickr did not contribute to this. Anyway, the percentage of HTTP requests for his images that actually originate from his own website visitors is alarmingly tiny. And it costs him a fair bit of money to keep his site online.

Well, as he was trying to figure out where all his bandwidth was being used, and looking at all the places online where other people are showing off his images, he came across me. Wrong place, wrong time. While it was a mistake, I ended up being the last straw, and he vented on me pretty hard.

Do I blame him? I know he's had PR issues with other bloggers in the past. I don't want to get into that, I don't know the details and it's none of my business. But I can say that, while I didn't like his initial approach, I don't blame him. As stated, I fucked up the 'all rights reserved' thing on Flickr, I take responsibility for this, and realize how it would piss him off (I've had my own personal family photos stolen and reposted, and it sure as hell pissed me off). The guy is only human, he was having a bad day, and his mistake componded with mine, and he got really really irate.

Hey, I'm sure we've all been there. I know I have. It takes a big man to come clean and write to someone and say "Hey man, I fucked up. I'm sorry." You get a lot of points in my book if you can do this. From reading his email this morning, I really get the impression that he's not a bad guy. Probably a guy who can get pretty stressed, but I'm guilty of the same thing.

Anyway, I kind of wanted to put an end to the mud-slinging. Bad timing, bad coincidence, bad day, bad reaction. Apology accepted (and my own still offered), and personally I'm moving on with no hard feelings. I think that Kevin and myself both learned some things about 'life on the web' from this whole affair. Now guys, please stop sending me photos of your dogs. Really not interested.

cheers