Brian Carnell (01/09): I’ve been in that...

Non-Paying Advertisers and Customers: How Dare They?

on The Blog Herald from 25 weeks ago

I’ve been in that situation in reverse … paid for projects and then the programmer falls off the face of the Earth.

The thing about public outings, though, is the sheer fact that once you pull the trigger on that you can’t take it back. The power the Internet has to ruin a reputation over a simple misunderstanding or even a non-simple one is, frankly, a bit scary sometime.

I’ve been in a related situation recently, for example, with a non-profit that created a Wiki to discuss people in a field I cover. Anyway, I wake up one day to find Google has indexed a gynormous 20 page article someone’s written about me that is filled with glaring errors and outright libelous falsehoods. It was clear the author had no idea what she was talking about.

Now because the industry covered is small enough my page rank high enough and the offending author obscure enough, I could respond on my site and after a week or so the first link that will come up on a Google search of the author’s name would be my takedown. But again, that’s almost a scary ability to screw with people’s lives even when one might be in the right to do so.