
Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg: Step Down - pier0
http://globalneighbourhoods.net/2010/06/open-letter-to-mark-zuckerberg-step-down.html
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philk
_Tech history is filled with former champions such as IBM and Microsoft who
were pretty damned sure their customers would find it too difficult to abandon
them, only to wake up one morning to find themselves abandoned by millions of
formerly "owned" customers._

Microsoft has a $231 billion market cap and makes ~ $17 billion a year.

IBM has a $162 billion market cap and makes ~ $13 billion a year.

One day I hope to have started a company that this guy views as a 'former
champion abandoned by millions of formerly "owned" customers.'

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rokhayakebe
Seriously, people need to cool it off with all these MZ critics. The guy does
9 things right, no one cares. He does one thing differently and a handful of
bloggers start screaming "privacy, privacy". This is the internet, how private
do people want it to be?

A handful of people shouting will always make more noise than the rest of the
world singing together. This is exactly why the quit facebook day was a
disaster.

Have a problem with Facebook? Just use it less or not at all. But please, Mark
is only 26, Give the guy a break.

~~~
yurisagalov
I really don't understand the "Mark is only 26" argument. I'm not arguing
against you in specific, rokhayakebe, I've just seen this argument come up
time and time again. The "Mark is only 26" argument may be strong if Mark went
and got drunk one night and had some candid/unfortunate photos taken, but the
man is trying to build a multi billion dollar franchise. I don't think anyone
should get a break using this excuse. IF he's too young (and I'm not saying he
is), then he should just step down. If he's not too young, then let's not talk
about his age :)

~~~
rokhayakebe
What I am trying to say is that everyone makes mistakes. At 26 he only had 5
years to learn how to run a multi billion dollar company. And he is learning
on the fly. Like Farb Nivi says, "jump of the cliff and build a plane on the
way down".

When you are dealing with this size of companies you are going to make
mistakes. You are going to make great decisions. Your best hope is to make
more smart decisions than bad ones.

Now if you are a 20 year industry veteran, than I can get it. And let's be
honest, social networking, social graph, friending, following, the stream
etc... are all new and we should not expect any of the contenders to get it
right the first time.

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jimfl
_...the best way to build an ENDURING franchise is to do right by your
customers above all else._

This ignores the fact that Facebook users are not necessarily Facebooks
customers, for which Facebook is doing right by aggregating as much personal
information as possible about the users.

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danielnicollet
I agree that Facebook privacy issues are a pressing and downright threatening
issue for the company. They are just a complete turnoff for many users. But I
thought Mark Z. answered pretty candidly and saying to him that he should step
down (of off to the side as the post suggests) now is ignoring the realities
of the choices he probably faces as an entrepreneur.

~~~
SamAtt
This post is just the same old Facebook privacy issues repackaged as link
bait. The problem Facebook has isn't Mark Z. it's the fact that they need
revenue and every privacy feature they implement makes them less likely to get
it. That puts their needs at odds with their customers wants and that's going
to be true no matter who the CEO is.

It's all about striking the right balance and I think Facebook will eventually
get there.

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iamwil
Step down for what? Because he interviews badly? I'd rather have someone that
knows how to run facebook, rather than someone that interviews well.

As for the privacy thing, I think Zuck's right. In a coupld of years, people
will wonder what all the fuss was about, just like how people made a huge fuss
about the news feed. He's dragging us kicking and screaming into
personalization and open-ness of personal data in the future. Because if he
doesn't, someone else will.

~~~
dhume
My initial impression on the first question was that he didn't really have an
answer. If it was a completely new issue, I might consider being slow and
deliberate in his response a point in his favor (I often prefer no statement
over a poorly prepared one). However, this is not a new issue, and he's been
telling the Facebook users that they don't actually want the privacy they're
asking for. He didn't repeat that answer this time, but he evidently hadn't
thought about a different answer. At a quick glance, it seemed that on being
confronted with it like this, he realized that people aren't buying it.

Whether this impression is true is still an open question. If it is, the
problem goes beyond "not interviewing well," and Facebook may be better off
reducing his direct influence. If not, he just needs PR staff to take the
questions.

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jacquesm
With all the open letters adressed to Mark Zuckerberg you'd think his email
address is hard to find or something like that.

~~~
sosuke
Open letters in general seem childish to me. As if they were saying "Hey
internet! Look over here at me. I'm putting Mark Zuckerberg on notice!
Officially!"

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jpdbaugh
"Perhaps, you think that because we users don't pay for your Facebook service,
then our wishes and our rights, such as choices over our own privacy settings
can be disdained or even abused."

Am I the only one who wishes most things weren't free and instead charged a
small fee and was devoid of advertising? I am just tired of everything I do on
the internet being about shoving better and better ads in my face. I would
happily pay a few bucks a month to use a Facebook like service without ads.
Too bad none of my friends would though...

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Jun8
This is wrong on many points; First, AFAIK, Zuck is not just another founder,
he is a major driver of internal FB culture, which is intensive, akin to
Brin&Page. You can't just oust him and replace him with a corporate raider MBA
type that the troops won't respect.

Second: "Because Facebook has treated us so badly, there is still the
possibility that we can just turn and walk away." Can we just put this
misguided idea to rest, nobody's leaving FB, at least for now. Checkout the
recent post on HN about "leave FB day" and how very few people actually did
it. People have invested greatly in their social networks, this is not
something you switch _individually_ , e.g. like your search engine choice, the
majority of your network has to do so, too. FB has to make much larger snafus
than the recent one to provoke large scale user drops.

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schlichtm
Mark Zuckerberg has grown incredibly fast with Facebook and has maintained
both control AND growth. No matter who is running the company they will always
be in uncharted territory.

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adamilardi
That article was a little mean I have to say. First off he's a techie not a
Steve jobs. He was clearly nervous and is totally not a politician. The fact
is he's been doing a great job and he's been screwing up privacy since the
beginning. Beacon anyone. He was honest and came off as weaselly(not a
politician). The news feed comment was very fair. People hated it but now love
it. I got the impression we will be seeing tons of new news feeds like
features in the future. The market will decide. It's his company and I got the
impression that he'll do with it as he pleases. He's had countless
opportunities to step down or sell and hasn't. Personally I think he's
overstepping his bounds....but I haven't canceled my account yet. I'm curious,
did the author of that post cancel their account?

~~~
zck
>First off he's a techie not a Steve jobs. He was clearly nervous and is
totally not a politician.

I believe that's the point.

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dasil003
The author should have left out the 7 condescending "Mark"s within the letter.
He comes off as arrogant and perhaps a little jealous.

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erikstarck
Steve Jobs was 30 when he was pushed out from Apple. He was 28 when he asked
John Sculley to take over the CEO seat. Probably because people told him to
"step down".

~~~
mistermann
Mark Zuckerburg is no Steve Jobs.

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TotlolRon
"And the cucumber rose to hit the gardner" -- folklore

