Advertise here with Carbon Ads
This site is made possible by member support. ❤️
Big thanks to Arcustech for hosting the site and offering amazing tech support.
When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. Thanks for supporting the site!
kottke.org. home of fine hypertext products since 1998.
Reader comments
Ryan SchroederJul 07, 2003 at 11:57PM
yeah, that was quick wasn't it. I thought it was odd when dave didn't link to jrobb in his post and then even wierder when his site came up blank. s'pose we'll find out what's happening sooner or later.
Rubb DubbJul 08, 2003 at 12:06AM
It's sort of depressing watching Winer melt down.
ChrisJul 08, 2003 at 1:17AM
Dave still has a link on scripting.com "John Robb said a few days ago what I believe will turn out to be true..."
Didn't Dave invent the permalink? :)
I love Winer and see where he's coming from with the whole Echo thing -- but I don't get this.
lukeJul 08, 2003 at 8:43AM
http://www.feedster.com/cache.php?id=2876569
Chris ThompsonJul 08, 2003 at 9:35AM
For those of us who don't closely follow the soap opera that is blog software, could someone tell me who John Robb is?
Based on the cache that luke pasted, it appears he was a UserLand employee, but I'm not entirely certain why this is news.
Winer MafiaJul 08, 2003 at 9:44AM
It's an ongoing argument about Winer--either he's a quirky, misunderstood genius with rough edges, or an annoyingly quirky overgrown child who demands recognition and crushes anyone who doesn't agree with his standards, technical or otherwise. After x years of reading him (and I don't any more) I am leaning toward the latter.
BruceJul 08, 2003 at 12:02PM
Yeah, for someone who routinely rants about how disrespectful it is to take down archives and so on, you'd think Dave wouldn't have acted in such a fashion. Must have been one hell of a final argument.
MikeJul 08, 2003 at 12:56PM
Latter here as well, Mafia. I'm tired of hearing about him.
pbJul 08, 2003 at 2:02PM
I love how Dave says he doesn't work at UserLand anymore. John Robb was UserLand's COO (not sure what that really means) for a year or two but there wasn't much discernible activity outside of the blog.
GeneJul 08, 2003 at 5:59PM
From JRobb's final post:
Also, if any company is interested in hiring (as a consultant, part-timer, or as a full-timer) somebody who has sold over $1/2 m in weblog software to companies, small businesses, educational institutions, and individuals, please send me a note (emphasis mine)
Is $500 k in weblog software a lot of money? I guess it's ~12,500 Radio licenses. But in the world of non-blog software it doesn't seem like all that much.
WilhelmJul 08, 2003 at 8:06PM
OK. Picture this. You're the figurehead leader of a company selling a product that can for all intents and purposes be duplicated in a few pages of perl (and often is). You give it away mostly for free. The actual boss of the company is a certified, full-blown, out-and-out schizophrenic whose on-again off-again rantings against all and sundry, while amusing, are not exactly corporate in tone.
YOUR MISSION IS TO SELL OLD BUGGY CLIENT/SERVER SOFTWARE TO A TECH CLIENTELE THAT IS EXTREMELY, EVEN PATHOLOGICALLY, SOPHISTICATED. OH, YOU HAVE TO COMPETE AGAINST YOURSELF AND SELL IT FOR BEANS. GO.
John Robb, bless his paramilitary little heart, deserves the medal of honor with gold clusters for selling $500K worth of weblog software. None of the special operations missions he was ever on could be more nail-bitingly thrilling than the mission to attempt to run a company under Dave Winer. Who among us, I say, would dare step forward over that volunteer line?
Disregard if you must the piddling sums that have kept Userland and its mad blackhearted captain Ahab afloat on the seas of the Internet for the last few years...but give praise and thanks to jrobb, whose selfless jump-on-the-grenade-stylee actions in "running the company" have helped save you, me, perhaps a loved one from accidentally running Userland. Misguided? Certainly...heroic? You bet. History will write the name of John Robb large, mark my words.
Bill KearneyJul 14, 2003 at 10:08AM
Have you seen my weblog?
ip addressFeb 13, 2004 at 6:41AM
Congratulations. This is a nice blog.
area codeMar 04, 2004 at 8:46AM
Very quiet in this thread since last post. More comments please.
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.