What the hell is going on over at 37Signals?
It looks like less has turned into a bit too much for Jason Fried over at 37Signals. In the companies Signals vs. Noise (SVN) blog they announced today that comments to their posts have been shut off. The entire post is available here, I’ve grabbed the juicy part that I’d like to discuss. However, I do encourage you to read the post and the comments for an even better perspective… After you read all of this of course… 
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For the past few months we’ve been pretty disappointed by the noise. The readership on this blog has grown five fold in just the past year or so. It would be great if the quality of the comments and perspectives increased as our readership increased, but instead comments quickly fly off topic. Mud flinging is the norm, not the exception. An occasional cynical comment is good (and welcome!), but when 75% turn negative then it’s just no longer fun. We think that’s a shame and, frankly, we’re tired of the negative energy filling up the threads.
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I guess they dont remember their post on September 30th of this year: Site Persona: Your site better be your best employee.
I’d like to draw your attention to the part that Jason actually blames his readership for the deterioration of the site. They are the bold letters that appear in the above quote. I think its right to say that when your blog does get to the “tipping point” that the trolls do tend to come out of the woodwork. And with a readership of 16,000+, I think that it is safe to say that they have tipped. However, to blame the readership for the trash that appears on their pages is simply irresponsible.
On November 15th Fried posted about buying an $1800 desk. This post is cleverly disguised as a “Hey isnt this a great design” musing. His readership quickly caught on:
Poster:
OMG! $1,800?! I hope that’s not the desk Jason’s referring to. For that price I could buy a full-size Tempurpedic bed with frame and two pillows! Yeah the desk looks cool, but not $1,800 cool. Eff that noise.
Fried:
“I didn’t want this thread to turn into a rant on pricing, etc. Can we focus for a second on something other than price? Maybe utility?�
Poster:
Most americans aren’t spending $1800 on a desk Jason, know your audience. That’s business 101.
Ok, so perhaps he was just impressed with the desk and wanted to show everyone a cool design feature. But what about this post.
This post was completely self serving and self promotional. I’m sorry, but I do not buy the “Hey, I was being sarcastic.” excuse after the fact. The funny part is that this post came after one on copyright infringement… My thought on all this, KEEP IT REAL! You left yourself wide open on at least 2 counts and you are wondering why you got demolished in the comments?
Finally I think this post is what sent some people over the edge… In this one, Jason asks the simple question, Have we “jumped the shark“? For those that do not wish to click the links, jumping the shark refers to going past your prime, and the answer he got boiled down to a lot more Yes votes than No…
The funny part is that through out some of these nonsensical posts by Jason, his customers have been telling him what they want:
Poster:
I miss the 37Better project, too. It’s not that not having it is shark-jumping, but I’d love to see more design posts here, too. The 37Better project was what really made me sit up and go “Wow.�
And this is what really gets me… Instead of embracing the criticism (mainly that his ego has gotten too big) Jason decides to give his fan base the big middle finger and shuts them all up. He’s drank way too much of his own Kool-aid, thrown on a tie, and has become more concerned about perception than his customers. If that isnt selling out and going corporate, then I dont know what is… It’s sad to see the underdog turn into the man.
AND NOW FOR THE CONSPIRACY: Here’s the kicker… I have this gut feeling that turning off comments was not something that Jason wanted to do. Go through their archives and their current posts. He loves to respond to the comments. He adds to the noise that he hates!
I would guess that his partners tackled and told him that his blogging had to be “done” for while. They just realeased “The Deck“, and this back lash against Jason could impact ad sales… Instead of making him quit completely though, I think he is being allowed to save some face and post fluff pieces to keep his name out there… I’d imagine that this is closer to the truth than what has been posted…
Disclaimer: If you want to disagree with me, then please feel free to in a logical way. However, if you have Kool-aid stains around your lips and are looking to flaunt your love of 37Signals in some desparate hope that they might notice and want to become your instant best friends please think twice and go back to writing Jason love notes on your write boards.
In all fairness: 37Signals is (was ?) a pretty cool company with some interesting employees and products. Backpack is a neat idea. From what I’ve seen, Basecamp can be very useful. They even have David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails, on their staff. So, they are talented and can do TOP OF THE LINE work… I’m just hoping that the ego factor gets surgically removed… and soon.
Charles Miller wrote:
Any open Internet forum will, as it gets more popular, see a marked reduction in the signal/noise ratio. As a point of comparison, I remember how I first found Slashdot in 1995 - because contributors to the newsgroup alt.sysadmin.recovery were saying that the newsgroup sucked, and Slashdot was where all the intelligent conversation was happening these days.
You could choose to develop mechanisms to moderate the discussions and promote the (increasingly rare) valuable comments. This will leave you open to a lifetime of bitter criticism from people who think their opinion is more important than it is, and people who get a cheap thrill from gaming the system.
Or you can turn comments off once they become more depressing than they’re worth.
Take a look at the desk discussion: Why shouldn’t someone be able to post in their webblog about a cool new toy they have at work, and why they chose it? You seem to be representing the whole thing as a boasting exercise, but the original post didn’t link to the desk or mention its price precisely to avoid that irrelevance, something that would be clearer if you had supplied the full context from this quote:
Similarly, in the second post… all the commenters seem to be going out of their way to find something to whine about.
If anything, reading these posts explains perfectly why they’d want to turn off comments. They try to make a point about thoughtful design, and the discussion gets hijacked by an irrelevance. They try to make a joke, and they get swamped by a humourless audience.
Personally, I read SvN in my RSS reader. I never found enough value in the comments there to make me want to click through to the original site more often. I don’t necessarily agree with the 37Signals guys all the time, but to cry “conspiracy” because they don’t want to waste time on pointless flaming in their own blog is a bit rich.
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 4:17 pm | Permalink
Ripley wrote:
I don’t disagree with the idea that as a site get larger the trolls tend to find their way in. However, I do not agree with blaming a reader base for 100% of the problem.
The fact that people seem to be “going out of their way to whine” is a good indication that the audience is not happy. It is a reflection of the author.
The conspiracy idea is partially tongue in cheek. I would be very suprised to find out that the negativity is not upsetting to the other 37signalers though…
Thanks for a constructive comment.
–Ryan
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 5:15 pm | Permalink
Coudal wrote:
I would guess that his partners tackled and told him that his blogging had to be “done� for while. They just realeased “The Deck“, and this back lash against Jason could impact ad sales…
Here’s a better conspiracy theory for you Ryan. As one of JF’s nefarious partners, I can assure you that we actually forced him to shut off comments so that bloggers like yourself would write long, idiotic rants about it, thereby building traffic back to SvN and increasing the value of The Decks ads. But you were sort of close. Sheesh.
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 5:18 pm | Permalink
Ripley wrote:
No one on this site called you or anyone else at Coudal or 37Signals nefarious. It was tongue in cheek to say you guys stopped him. As far as driving ads to your site, cool… Like I said, you guys make interesting tools, and personally I think creating the deck was a brilliant business move. What I don’t think is brilliant is for a guy to completely open up his blog to negativity through his own actions and then essentially take the proverbial ball and go home.
Thanks for stopping by though, its cool seeing someone big leave a comment.
–Ryan
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 5:25 pm | Permalink
Coudal wrote:
I’m actually just under six feet Ryan. Not really that big.
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 5:27 pm | Permalink
Ripley wrote:
Cool. Thanks again.
Posted on 19-Nov-05 at 5:32 pm | Permalink
Charles Miller wrote:
My theory is a little different. 37Signals problem is that it’s perceived as being cool. On one hand that’s great marketing, and leads to all their new products being broadcast across the Internet within hours.
On the other hand, anything that is cool tends to attract the attention, and stop energy, of people who feel the need to demonstrate how much cooler they are.
Posted on 20-Nov-05 at 12:02 am | Permalink
Ripley wrote:
I agree. They have an excellent marketing engine going right now. And they deserve every bit of success that it brings. I also agree with you about the “jealousy” factor involved. However, it is a two way street. In other words not 100% the fault of the commenters…
–Ryan
Posted on 20-Nov-05 at 12:07 am | Permalink