Digital Ocean said it would shut down my blog if I didn’t edit a blog post. | Hacker News Reader

Digital Ocean said it would shut down my blog if I didn’t edit a blog post.

vpsexperience.wordpress.com

39 pointsminimaxir12 comments

Just so people who only read the headline or skimmed the post know the whole story, the author of this blog ambushed a random Google employee with questions about the treatment of Google contract employees in a private chat room and proceeded to publish quotes from the conversation out of context.

See post here: http://vpsexperience.wordpress.com/2014/01/05/googler-speaks...

This is clearly done with the intention of embarrassing Travis Collins on the internet, which is in express violation of Digital Ocean's policy which forbids using the service to harass or embarrass others. The author makes a bunch of terrible, incoherent excuses for his disgusting behavior and tries to rally support for his cause on Hacker News.

Pretty embarrassing and deplorable behavior on the OP's part, all considered.

Publishing a candid conversation is a slimy thing to do. If you were going to write an article you should have told him up front. The entire page reeks of oppressed language when the reality is you did something obnoxious to a friend of an exec at digital ocean and he had no interest in helping you publish an article about it using a service he has a modicum of control over. I would have canceled your account personally.

Hmmm, your blog post only shows quotes out of context and does not even include your own question that prompted him to mute you. What do you have to hide?

I get the distinct feeling your post was published not because of what you felt about the issue, but as some sort of revenge for shutting you out ('muting').

Their request wasn't to take down your post, but to remove the name of a person. I don't know him, nor do I work for google, but I know quite a few people who do, and I know this is definitely not a topic they're authorized to speak on, so your post was bound to cause trouble. Since you did not want to comply, they were within their right to take steps.

Your follow-up post says more about you than it does about DO.

Clarification: This isn't my post, I'm just preserving the original article title per HN rules.

I saw the Googler Travis Collins turn up and decided to ask his opinion about a story that Gawker had published about how Google treats its contract employees. I gave him the link to the story and he provided some very candid responses, which I took screenshots of and used to write up this blog post. Travis had no idea that I intended to write up a blog post

What a dick.

There seems to be a trend of singling out young successful professionals and publicly shaming them for page views. I think this is disgusting. Is it such a bad thing that young people who chose to work hard and get a valuable (and relevant) education are paid adequately in a booming industry?

The whole article reminds me of IRC in the 90s....

They should just get it over with and start DOS'ing each other.

For whatever reason, I have no sympathy for the author. Seems their (he or she?) just looking for opportunity to create FUD on the back of other people.

The author's style reminds me of a stalker I once knew who'd just annoy people in chatrooms and forums to try and extract information he could use to make up dramas and shame people.

So all in all, while it sucks if DO did take side because of friendships, in this situation I don't care because Author seems to be a troll.

Actually, I shouldn't post this comment as it gives credit to the submission, and thus visibility to Author.

Unfortunately, the realpolitik of the situation is that when you're paying less than $1,000/month the vendor's response to any potential issue will be to throw you under the bus.

I've had good customer support with vendors listed on LowEndBox and I was paying just a few dollars per month.

Maybe DigitalOcean are just crap?

this was already flagged off the frontpage yesterday. hacker news is not your soapbox. please stop resubmitting this.

coupled with their recent security fiasco, you really do get what you pay for..

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