As an example, have you ever heard anyone say "I don't want to name names, but a certain local cleaning service has been very disappointing to me." No of course not, they'll say the name of their cleaning wo/man and trash them, because why should they give a shit? I mean it's "just" the cleaner. The waitress at the bar? Screw her, what do they care about her reputation, trash her if you are unhappy with your service.
But deal with someone in a position of authority and suddenly its all kid gloves and politeness. "Oh I don't want to be unprofessional and name names, but I worked for a game company where I did 8 months of unpaid OT and then was laid off after release." Great, that helps exactly no one avoid the same situation you found yourself, so now another college grad can be exploited. If you worked for EA Tiburon and they screwed you, say it! If they treated you well say that too! Bad actors should be named and shamed or else they never have to pay for their actions.
Thanks to this post I can avoid O'Reilly as a publisher, and more importantly I can know that working with the editors named is a good idea as they were honorable people, but if I see that this Laurie person is involved with a potential publisher I can avoid them too.
I have a theory that this excessive deference to authority is why you can see so many people in upper management skate from one failure to the next, as no one has the balls to name them as poor performers, so they never have to reap consequences of their actions.
Good on the author for actually having the integrity to call things as they are.
One of the benefits of there being a company involved is the company can take responsibility for the imperfect acts of its employees. Blaming a bad author experience on a publisher is entirely appropriate. Connecting the names of individuals to a disgruntled report in the public record is usually not.
Disclaimer: I'm a satisfied O'Reilly author. I'm considering self-publishing for my next project, but not because of my experiences with a publisher. For my (non-design-oriented) tech book, O'Reilly did far better by me than other major publishers did by other authors I know.
Sounds good in theory. Just be damned sure that someone is really a "bad actor", and not a good person with their hands tied, being manipulated by an upper management socio-path.
If your goal is to embarrass and piss off the people who have annoyed you, naming names will accomplish that goal.
If your goal is to make a broader point about an industry, naming names will just distract.
If your goal is to criticize a particular company, naming names again distracts from the objective.
I can't read the OP's mind, so I don't know his goals.
There's all the difference in the world between public praise and public criticism. I can't explain it to you, but maybe think back to when you've been on the receiving end of both.
In this case you couldn't be more wrong. Pointing out to a crowd who mostly knows how awesome Tim O'Reilly is that Tim is still great, but is not really involved anymore, is genuinely useful and constructive criticism.