Turning a hiring mistake into linkbait -- you stay classy, JCal.
John was actually convicted for identity theft, fraud, and stealing bank account info. So the charges were pretty serious. Infoworld makes it sound like he just used the bank account info to pay for domain registration and web server space. It seems from the report the biggest victim was a company he scammed 19k out of for installing software on people's computers. So while it looks like the damage could have been a lot worse, the charges are very serious.
But anyway, for whatever reason, Jason decided to keep John on as an employee. People deserve second chances, so I'm willing to believe that John might be a good guy who just really screwed up. So I could accept that Jason might have good reason for keeping John on.
Since the story just broke, the information is pretty basic, and right now the only link between Mahalo and John is from Jason's blog. But of course that would change. Soon journalists are going to be mentioning that John was employed at Mahalo. And now Jason has taken charge of that bit of the story. He has been relatively open and defended his decision. So I see the blog has a good attempt to minimize the negative P.R. from John Schiefer getting convicted.
Info World:http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/12/17/50FE-busted-botmen...
We decided to submit letters to the judge in order to have John's sentence reduced from 60 years to something more reasonable. In order to do that we had to go on record, and those records came out yesterday at the sentencing which I attended.
The Register called today and I thought it would be best for me to explain our position in an honest and upfront way, rather than just having one quote posted here or there.
Yes, my CTO screwed up the hiring process by not doing a basic Google search.
Yes, the easy choice would have been to fire John.
However, after getting to know John I thought the best thing for John and society would be for John to work until he went to jail. He's a good person who did very stupid things.
My only goal at this point was to help reduce John's sentence and help him become a functioning member of society.
all the best, Jason
As I said before I think the charges against John are serious. I don't know what is fully going on and I don't know know John personally. So I really don't have enough knowledge to form an opinion of his character. So since you know John and say that he is a good person, I believe you. He obviously has technical skill and knowledge, so I see no reason that he can't become a productive member of society once he gets out of jail.
Although no news reports currently mention that John worked at Mahalo, that will probably change. As you mentioned, the Register called you today. And once people see that John worked at Mahalo, they are going to link Mahalo to a convicted cracker. Naturally that is going to raise some questions about your company.
Sure you could have not made a statement and refused to answer any questions. That is your right. I really don't see how using Mahalo could put my identity or computer at risk (My level of computer knowledge might be making me overconfident). So some of the questions people raise about Mahalo are probably going to be invasive and will not have much to do with a user's experience using the site. But the P.R. is bad, and if you hadn't made any statement, people will probably have assumed the worst about your company.
Also, I am sure that John needs any support he can get right now since I am sure that he is going to be attacked. So I'm sure John appreciated your public support of him.
So basically an open and honest explanation helps mitigate that bad P.R. Now if people are curious about why you hired John, they can get answers directly from you. And you posted the blog before news reports reports came out about you hiring him, so it really does not come across as defensive. I made that comment about your blog post being smart P.R. because that post and its timing is one of the best responses that I can think of to any questions about your company.
All the best, Chris
It seemed clear to me that the title was deliberately worded to be provocative. This is a common characteristic of linkbait.
Given Calacanis' past history of search engine spamming, I'm far less forgiving with him than I would be with someone else. Forgive me for "misinterpreting" his intent.
Even extreme self-promotion doesn't go this far. People may be bad at calculating risks, but the risk of negative PR is one that we seldom underestimate.