A Call for Diplomacy
Oct 16th, 07 | 5 remarksThe hornet’s nest has been disturbed, and it’s not pretty. Small Potato, of WP Designer recently wrote a very unfavorable review of Nate Whitehill’s business site, Unique Blog Designs, and subsequently Adriaan Pienaar’s commissioned work for that site. After reading through the first and second parts of this drama in its entirety, I think a call for diplomacy is in order.
The fact that SP chose to review the service in such a glaringly honest way is not the problem, and I even agree with some of what he said. However, I believe the review was written in a wholly unprofessional manner. What’s more, he insisted on defending his position with this logic: “Oh well it’s honest, and it’s my blog so I can say what I want”.
To a degree, he’s right, but come on. The “review” was borderline defamatory. Interestingly enough, I had a conversation with Brian just this afternoon about being careful what you say, and how you behave in the blogosphere. This rings true no matter what you do in life.
Just being honest does not grant a license to say whatever you want about someone!
We all have different strengths to contribute. Small Potato leans toward minimalism. Adii’s style tends to be bright and iconic. Nate has shown that he’s a clever entrepreneur. Granted his business model needs improvement, but Nate (and SP’s readers) would’ve been better served by a review explaining how improvements could be made - rather than simply “UBD themes suck”.
That said, much was made clear to me when I discovered SP is only 20 years old. That’s very young, and I think the tone of his reviews are often indicative of that. Most people learn by the time they hit their 30’s that it just doesn’t pay to be so abrasive. You catch more flies with honey.
To Small Potato and Adii - as a regular reader and fellow theme designer, I offer a friendly suggestion - step back from this and think about what you can learn from it. Rather than burn bridges, try to focus on building relationships. You’ll go farther in the long run.
“step back from this and think about what you can learn from it”
Amen! I mentioned this in my address of it. Like you, Charity, I appreciate the work of both guys, and I too, would like to see them resolve it in some way.
Oct 16, 07 | 10:58 pmWhile my age does come into play, I meant what I said and I did offer suggestions for improvements.
It’s unfortunate that you’ll factor in my age from now on, but I have to say the following to end this thing once and for all.
I did say that it was an honest review and am aware that I can say what I want on my own blog, but I don’t think I’ve abused that privilege. Please correct me if I’m wrong here as I am not above criticism.
Truthfully, I didn’t think the word “suck” was that big of a deal. And saying Adriaan was design-flow-intolerant and etcetera was a bad joke. I don’t know if you’ve been following my blog and Adii’s blog, but we considered each other friends and both have taken jabs at each other before.
It’s interesting that the styles of both designers have been brought up over and over again. Accurately, it was a review based on quality. Like you mentioned, you agreed with some of my points. I do not believe those points were based on personal preference. Whether I prefer minimalism does not matter here. For example, the apparent alignment problems in those designs that I used as case studies.
And please don’t forget that my critiques also cover Unique Blog Designs custom blog design service. I understand that developers often recycle structures for a speedier process. However, there’s no excuse for them to recycle designs. For example, reviewing John Chow’s, Nate’s, and Mike Pederson’s golf blog proves my point of design recycling.
It’s a shady practice and they’re marketing to uninformed customers.
Like I explained in Part 2, I don’t mind burning bridges with those type of people. I realize that statement might be viewed as immaturity or a lack of respect for hindsight, but that is exactly how I live life. I don’t care much for fake and shady people and would prefer to not receive help from them in the future.
As for Adii, I understand he was frustrated. Again, like I said, I haven’t taken any of his comments to heart. It’s just that he expects me to withdraw my review and apologize for my actions. I will not do that.
For the past several days, I learned a lot about friendship, how people deal with problems online, profressionalism, and that my choice of words are often offensive.
Of course, I’m not apologizing for that. Being blunt is a part of who I am as a person and I can only keep learning as I get older, take everything with a grain of salt, and carefully consider my words to get my point across without offending so many people because offending most of my readers and the service / person / site being reviewed is not an effective way to get your point across. (Although, I personally prefer brutal honesty over for myself as that continues to motivate me.)
Last thing (promise) I recently had an exchange with Unique Blog Designs co-owner (Matt) and you can be sure that I will not add more fuel to the fire.
Like I’ve told him, I appreciate his professionalism as you cannot say the same for me and I offered to write another review if he chooses to show me UBD’s entire portfolio or decides to take up my suggestions to add real improvements to UBD.
That’s pretty much it and thank you for your tip Charity. (I’m a youngin’ and an honest jerk. I know.)
Oct 16, 07 | 10:58 pmI was a little set back by the melee going back and forth… one gets attack, one responds… the wp design world crumbles (not really).
I, like you, agree with some of what SP said… but he could’ve went about it a better way. As for the being 20 years old thing, I’m 25 now and still think I would have shown a bit more tact in dealing with such a review.
Oct 17, 07 | 8:32 amNo one said you’re a jerk SP. I think you have a lot to offer and that’s the only reason I decided to post about all this. You’re young - that’s not an insult just a fact - and you have some things to learn about dealing with people. Sounds like you’re willing to admit that, and you’ve learned something from this experience already. That makes it a positive thing in the end.
You ask to be corrected, and say you’re not above criticism - but I’ve noticed on many occasions that you don’t take very well to anyone trying to correct you (or point out flaws). No one likes it when that happens, of course, but it’s how you react when it does that makes a difference in your professional image and in your reader’s perception of you.
There were some very valid points in your review, I’m not disputing that. I’m also not aiming to fan any flames. But as Randa pointed out - you can critique someone in a constructive (honest) manner without leaving a lot of enemies in your wake.
I’m learning all the time - in regard to both business and design, and I’m excited about learning more. We all have room for improvement, and that’s what a review should focus on. The point is, first do no harm. :)
Oct 17, 07 | 9:08 amI think SP will learn (through this WordPress Soap Opera) that he doesn’t always have to be brutal to be honest.
Oct 17, 07 | 11:24 am