Website Company Threatens To Sue Guy Who Criticizes Quality Of Gordon Brown's Website
from the how-not-to-win-fans dept
Glyn Moody points us to a bizarre story of a thin-skinned exec at a UK company, called Tangent, who apparently has some sort of web content management system, which is used by many politicians in the UK, including former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who uses it for his website. A guy named Luke Bozier saw the website, and thought it looked pretty bad for the website of a former Prime Minister, and wrote a blog post about it and tweeted:Gordon Brown's WebCreator website is not befitting of a former Prime Minister. Tangent should be ashamed.Apparently, someone from Tangent was not impressed and sent Bozier an email threatening legal action against him if he didn't remove the tweet:
I respectfully suggest you delete that tweet, issue no more similar ones and generally try to sell your products in a more professional way. I really don't like the prospect of either a public slanting match or legal action, but if I need to protect my company's business and reputation, I will.Of course, even with the ridiculous state of UK libel laws, it's difficult to see what's libelous about expressing an opinion about the quality of a website, and then suggesting that the company behind the tools used to create the website "should be ashamed." And, as the blog post linked above notes, this effort to silence Bozier to "protect" Tangent's reputation, has done exactly the opposite:
The word on the web is now that Tangent, previously unheard of by most, is an aggressively litigious PLC which employs threats of legal action in attempts to suppress the free expression of opinion. This is the result of the utter folly in believing that spurious controls can be put on the sheer democracy of social media.It really is amazing that people issuing such legal threats still don't realize how likely they are to backfire, though it is still amusing to watch.
Instant, online justice is now served on those heavy handed and mindless enough to attempt to suppress freedom of speech through impotent legal threats.
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Filed Under: defamation, gordon brown, twitter, uk, webcreator, websites
Companies: tangent
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It is hard to see why anyone would pay for such lackluster web page design, especially an elected official.
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Whose food exactly?
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I'm sure you meant "Mum's"....
Honest mistake....
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btw, ever been to a curry place in the UK? Hardly bland.
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FTFY
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FTFY"
You know....when you're wrong, you're wrong, and I have clearly been outdone on this one....
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Well - 50 years ago maybe. - but in my experience British food is now comparable to other European countries like France, probably not quite up to Italian standards or the far East - but all of these are better then "new world food" (as in US/ Oz/ SA).
Of course most good British food is not actually British - but Indian/Chinese/Italian/Thai etc.
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Please, our German immigrants gave the world the hot dog. That gift alone makes your argument invalid....
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And yet, it wasn't perfected until it made it to Coney Island.
Unlike in Chicago where they somehow think hot dogs are so bad they need to be covered in layer upon layer of gunk to hide the taste.
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Okay, see now you're just embarrasing yourself. The Chicago hot dog is the second closest man has ever come to perfection (the first being ninety feet between home plate an first base, as the saying goes). The sheer genius of condiment combination is only surpassed by the clearvoyance that was required to take ketchup and keep it off the list.
Here's a good test: count how many venues outside of Chicago sell Chicago style hotdogs, and how many venues outside of Coney Island sell Coney Island or New York style hot dogs, and that'll be your answer. I mean, at least when we had our pizza discussion, you had a semblance of a case. Here? Nahhhhh....
Oh, and btw, screw you for getting me addicted to OOTP Baseball. I never knew managing the Peoria Chiefs A ball team could be fun....
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Chicago: 2
Coney: about 25
Yeah, Coney dogs rock.
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Heh, heh. Well, as with the pizza discussion, I'm mostly joking around. I'm actually a fan of both styles.
Here's a good test: count how many venues outside of Chicago sell Chicago style hotdogs, and how many venues outside of Coney Island sell Coney Island or New York style hot dogs, and that'll be your answer. I mean, at least when we had our pizza discussion, you had a semblance of a case. Here? Nahhhhh....
Hmm. I'm not sure what you're implying. Almost everywhere I go I see NY style hotdogs. I can't think of anywhere outside of Chicago that I've seen Chicago style hot dogs. Frankly, I didn't even know they existed until a few years ago when I first made it to Chicago and my sister-in-law explained the Chicago style hot dog concept to me.
Oh, and btw, screw you for getting me addicted to OOTP Baseball. I never knew managing the Peoria Chiefs A ball team could be fun....
:) I did warn you that it was better than Baseball Mogul, yes? Maybe we should start a Techdirt OOTP league.
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If you gave me another week or so to get completely in tune with the game, I'd would be 100% down for that. The question is, who would be your team? Yanks? Mets? Giants? A's?
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That's okay, most communists don't....
;)
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As for British food being 'foreign', we have a tendency to adopt 'foreign' food and make it our own. In fact, one of the most popular Indian dishes in the world (outside of India) is Chicken Tikka Masala, invented in Britain - and I believe it has become pretty popular in India as well since!
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Correct. I was shooting from the hip.
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From Mr Bozier's blog: "Tony Blair’s is far better, and it isn’t a Tangent website". I can't find who did design Blair's.
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(Trivial sure, banal even, but new nonetheless.)
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It does have some good points though - navigation is easy, and it's not too cluttered.
I would expect something a little more professional, I suppose. It looks like not much more than a wordpress blog, and some of those (even the free templates) have a little more finesse.
I'd think that one person's opinion would be of little importance if Gordon Brown (or his staff) find it functional.
Tangent needs to suck it up. Everyone isn't going to like their stuff, so it's time to get over it.
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That's how I know this is a just publicity stunt. All press is good press.
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More Crap!
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Ah yes, the noble tradition of updating websites manually. Did I say noble? I meant stupid.
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As Tangent is obviously "well connected",
Perhaps that isn't clear enough for you culinary wits. -- Politicians are *nothing* but gangsters these days, and they and their favored consultants have ways to revenge an insult, no matter if trivial, many of the ways being illegal.
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