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Comment by w1ntermute | Hacker News Reader

Yeah, I didn't even know who he was before the Svbtle debacle. Now I know that he's some elitist who got pissy when his (not all that special) blog theme got copied.

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He also got a designer at American Airlines fired when he ranted about their design on his blog. (The designer sent him a polite reply about what he was doing to improve the state of the design, but then AA fired him for no apparent reason.)

Wow, what a douchebag. There is no excuse for getting someone fired over something as petty as this. When he got that guy fired, he could have also been affecting that guy's wife and children, who are completely innocent and depend on the guy's salary to live.

He didn't set out to get the guy fired. There's no way you can justify calling him a douchebag for criticising a website's design.

He did say:

  Fire your entire design team, if you have one.
  Hire an outside design firm ... as quickly as possible.
  Your in-house team is obviously incapable of building a good experience.
  Get outside help. [1]

Then backpedaled [2] after he got a response outlining that he has no idea how large companies operate.

[1] http://www.dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html

[2] http://www.dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html

I think it is safe to justify calling someone a douchebag when they attempt to claim ownership of a very generic style and concept.

I'm not familiar with this situation - was it a public comment? If so, discussion of the work you do for your employer - their intellectual property - could get you fired.

OP was confusingly worded. Curtis complained about AA's design, and the designer was fired.

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