Sigh… here we go again… it seems the people from 2Clix haven’t attended any of my talks over the last couple of years where I have explained why jumping the gun and suing a blog/forum/podcast for a couple of negative comments about your company/product/people is just plain STUPID.
I heard about this via Daniel Bowen’s GEEK RANT blog (well via his Twitter post actually) but the original story is up here on Whirlpool.
Here is the substance of the blog post on Whirlpool:
Whirlpool founder Simon Wright is being sued by accounting software firm 2Clix Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 118 044 198) for alleged “injurious falsehood”.
The Statement of Claim from the company alleges that Simon Wright allowed statements “relating to the Plaintiff and its software product that are both false and malicious” to be published on the Whirlpool forums.
2Clix is suing for at least $150,000 (plus costs), and is demanding that two forum threads be removed from the site.
Whirlpool believes the action has no merit and will defend the matter vigorously, despite being a community website with little resources.
Does anyone remember Warren Kremer Paino Advertising? The same thing I said to them back in April 2006 I say now to the folks at 2Clix:
Take some free advice – retract the charges and get on with business. This is a no win situation for your company. You will forever tarnish your reputation. Every time someone Googles your company in the future all they are going to read about is how you sued a small-time online forum over a couple of negative comments. This isn’t a winnable situation for you. Your Googlerank will be screwed FOREVER. No amount of money can buy it back. Bail out now.
You’ve got two choices:
1. You can pursue this matter and try suing the entire blogosphere who will comment on it. It won’t even matter if you win against Whirlpool – there will be ten thousand blogs talking about the case.
2. You can accept that negative feedback is a part of doing business and learn how to manage the online process effectively. Call me (+61 400455334). I can advise you.
Oh and everyone else – you can digg the original Whirlpool post here.
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heh..
It’d be funnier now if they also sued you for talking about how they were being sued by 2clix.. G’day world could then be the next in the law suite chain-suite thingy..
It could then cascade forward, each law suite getting smaller and smaller until someone swaps your the suite for a paperclip?
When you’ve got 180k Whirlpoolians, who love ‘their’ Forum automatically boycotting 2clix for their rediculous behaviour, that’s gotta be a massive drop in plausable and possible future sales, not to mention every other forum out there talking about it.
IMO; Shut your doors now 2clix, save yourself loosing more money.
2Clix – fire your PR people, they should have handled this better from the beginning.
See PR Squared for how to deal with the blogosphere )an environment where every word you say is archived and searchable forever.
The number 2 result in a search for @Clix on Google is the Whirlpool forum, which should tell you something if you know anything about the internet.
NOTE: Anyone reading this, see the way 2Clix speak to their customers in a public forum, and don’t EVER speak to your customers like that. That’s a really good way to reduce your market share.
I think the Whirlpool comment that shows up in Google was already there and started this whole thing. Apparently 2Clix think by suing Whirlpool over that comment they will make it disappear and don’t understand they have just magnified the issue 1000x.
Can you believe a company can be this stupid in this day and age .. Sheesh!!!
Rather than interacting with their customers and building relationships they go for the old sledgehammer approach.
And you know what: I’ve never even heard of 2Clix before this. And sometimes first impressions count.
There could be a positive in all this if PRIX, I mean clix pursue the case. Sooner or later our legal system will have to set a precident on published public opimion via the blogosphere, or as it’s known in Europe, the wogosphere.
Is negative public opinion liable? Cause if it is and it becomes part of our law, then blogs, forums and dare I say public opinion polls are in big trouble.
For my money PRIX are being very short sighted on this issue and of all people to take on. they picked Whirlpool. Probably one of the IT savviest sites on the planet with a user base that can make or break any software package, at least in this country.
Either way, PRIX is screwed and so they bloody well should be.
If you’re a company in this situation and you’re considering going down this path, get yourself a copy of the book Naked Conversations. This issue should have been resolved politely, between company and valued customers.
They really are stupid. How many people would have seen the comments that were made, maybe a few who regularly visit Whirlpool on a regular basis but that would have not done as much damamge as the suit has done.
Also how many people had heard of the before this lawsuit? People remember first impressions and they are gonna be in big trouble. Cam said earlier on Twitter that this is 10th rank find in Google atm for 2Clix. That can’t be a good thing.
Apple and Microsoft have had plenty of bad comments made about them over the years, I am sure they haven’t sued everyone hwho made such comments. An opinion is only 1 persons voice. You sue someone who runs one of the biggest forums in the country then your gonna be in trouble as your gonna get thousands of people against you.
Quit while your behind.
2clix (reminds me of 2 dogs) has had bad news and is going to shoot the messenger.
Great article summing up the issue at ZDnet http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/2Clix-scores-own-goal-with-Whirlpool-case/0,130061791,339282041,00.htm
Very good article. Nice to see she read my comment above and used my Microsoft analogy in her article.
Had a discussion with a guy at work and he argues that they are right to sue as to who to say that person making intial bad “review” isn’t a rival trying to harm the company. Almost valid but I don’t buy it.
Well, I hopped onto whirlpool for the first time a month and have been fascinated by the whole thing. 2clix always had the right of reply in the forum. I believe that is called free speech. A serious re-buttle from 2clix on the thread should have been the end of the matter. Instead it’s lets make the highly paid lawyers richer.
The whole thing reminded me of the old school yard “I’m going to tell my mum on you” attitude. Sometimes you needed your mum, the other times it would make you look like a wimpy spoilt brat loser.
A correction to my last entry, 2clix did exercise their right of reply in the forums. Serves me right for not having read the entire forum before opening my mouth.
A desperate act by a desperate company which is already in the last throes of its own death. 2Clix should have shut up and continued to quietly move assets to its new company Platinum1 before bankrupting 2Clix and letting all the staff go. Maybe they wanted to go out on a bang? Maybe they wanted to try one last money-grab before they left?
In any case, suing someone who runs one of the most popular IT forums in Australia is probably the worst thing that 2Clix could have ever done in their life. Well, apart from releasing what appears to be a fairly crappy piece of software in the first place….
Whirlpool might have appeared to have been defenceless prior to the action being filed, but they have sure come out and showed that they have big teeth and they are willing and able to use those teeth if the sutiation warrants. Look out the next company who is stupid enough to try the same tactic when a number of customers come out to advise that their product is not as good as advertised.
Very perceptive of you.
But you miss one crucial fact.
Before they decided to sue, the thread was already in the top 3 of the google results.
So yeah, you’re absolutely right. They are shot. But they were shot before they decided to sue.
Funny how that makes so much more sense doesn’t it?
Radagast – yes, they had some bad stuff at the top of Google before all this, but that could have been handled had they consulted an expert in dealing with such matters.
Now, however, they have damaged their Googlerank beyond all repair. A week ago I could have helped them. Today they are royally screwed.
I totally agree. Before you could have definitely padded it out.
I think what they have done is very logical though, if you know nothing about SEO you wouldn’t know it was possible to get rid of it.
2Clix have a lot more than 2 options.
Your blog entry could not have been more ill-informed and basic even if you tried.
Your self importance makes me smile..
Yawn..
Well Stan, as you are so wise and superior, please tell us – what are their other options? And how was I ill-informed? Don’t leave us in suspense, oh wise one. Bestow upon us the splendor of your far-reaching wisdom, oh magnificent one.
Cameron – you really think “Stan” is gonna reply??? 🙂
I love those commenter’s who tell you what you have done wrong, yet fail to offer anything useful to the conversation.
I, too, would love to hear what those other options are, “Stan”.
I am not the one on my high-horse telling the world I can fix all of 2Clix’s problem if they only phoned me.
I just wanted to point out that you are posting blog entries with absolutely no experience in this area at all.
I have to lol and your response to my post, as I obviously hit a sore point.
I feel no need to point out anything else to you; You can work that out.. Maybe actually do some research before posting such nonsense.
Well let’s play tit-for-tat Stan. My experience includes building Australia’s largest new media company, with over 100 blogs/podcasts and a monthly audience of over 500,000 people. So I think I know a tiny bit about new media. What’s your experience? I’ve googled you and found nothing. So either you have zero presence online or you are using a pseudonym here which means you are chickenshit.
Largest? lol
Mate, you do not seem to deal with criticism well. I wont be back, so to save your ego, perhaps you could delete these comments.
oh, and don’t double park if you cant deal with the consequences.
And one more thing, those glasses make you look like a bigger try-hard wanker than you sound. (sorry, I couldn’t resist)
Haha Stan, that was quite…. pathetic. I’m going to set up a prize for the most pathetic rebuttal and call it “The Whimpering Stan Doverman Award”.
Oh by the way Stan… thanks for demonstrating my point about 2Clix perfectly. If this is your real name, your googlerank just took a serious blow. Try googling yourself.