
Gfycat stops Archive.org volunteers from archiving content - rahuldottech
https://mobile.twitter.com/textfiles/status/1192518085997137920
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coconutrandom
Looks less menacing than it sounds.
[https://mobile.twitter.com/mceleney/status/11925194405181071...](https://mobile.twitter.com/mceleney/status/1192519440518107141)

~~~
BoorishBears
The tone of the people who replied...

Gfycat should just delete the data and be done with it. Trying to play the
helpless victim while slinging that ridiculous "holier-than-thou" "for the
public good" attitude.. for trying to "preserve" a bunch of images that were
probably never meant to be shared with more than one person.

I'm reading more of the tweets, some cringey vague threats about Verge wanting
a story. I'm guessing the reason that doesn't go anywhere is because Verge
wasn't impressed once they had the whole story that the Archive Team was
taking down someone's API with bulk downloads of unwanted images.

Followed by some ham-fisted insult about deepfakes? Thank god I don't have to
work or even interact with people like this on a daily basis.

~~~
scrollaway
That's Jason Scott for you. He does great work, but he's an awful, awful
person to work or generally communicate with.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I can't fault Jason Scott for his attitude considering how passionate he is
about his work. With enough age and time in tech, your tolerance for bullshit
of any kind rapidly falls to zero. Agree he does great work.

It's ArchiveTeam's fault a company that took $10 million in VC funding to
provide GIFs to the internet couldn't properly implement a publicly exposed
API (including rate limits)? Hardly. Gfycat should be appreciative that there
will be a Wayback archive of the site after it goes bust (who pays for GIFs?).

EDIT: Disclaimer: ArchiveTeam participant, full supporter of their activities
to preserve digital culture.

~~~
BoorishBears
>your tolerance for bullshit of any kind rapidly falls to zero

I've seen this sentiment and I don't get it.

I've worked with older people in tech who had plenty of tolerance for
"bullshit" like showing a modicum of cordiality in a situation like this, on a
public forum especially.

To me this mentality just sounds like... inverse ageism? I mean, most people I
know would not want to work with someone who acts like this.

The brilliant but abrasive people are usually the ones we hear about the most,
but are plenty of brilliant people who aren't proudly proclaiming "Problematic
Guy" in their twitter profile.

So if you convince yourself it's ok to act like this because you've just dealt
with so much "bullshit" over the course of your career, and you've been doing
it so long, are you just saying you don't want to be hired because of how old
you are (or how long you've been in tech) unless people are ok with a toxic
work partner, in a round about way? It sure sounds like that to me.

I'd rather work with someone 8 tenths brilliant and _not_ problematic, than
someone 10 tenths brilliant and problematic, and in my experience, the team
with the 8 tenths guy will be a more fulfilling environment to contribute to.

~~~
toomuchtodo
You might get it eventually, you might not. Everyone's life experiences will
be different. It's not a problem if you work someplace where they care about
the skill more than your bedside manner (which is a lot of places!). If you're
brilliant and abrasive, you're still brilliant. If you're kind but not so
skilled, you're still not so skilled. Enough employers to go around for those
who want to work with cordial people, brilliant people, or cordial brilliant
people (if you can find them).

People with dark histories of abusing their coworkers get hired into positions
of power because they deliver results (not good of course). It should be no
surprise that someone who is only abrasive will always be able to find work if
they are a domain expert. If you generate revenue (or in a non-revenue role,
are a subject matter expert), and can pass a background check (and sometimes
even not!), _someone_ will hire you.

Disclaimer: None of this comment is about an individual, only workplace
logistics in general and my opinion on the topic. If a mod ventures into the
thread, consider detaching this entire subthread as it's off topic.

~~~
BoorishBears
The problem is:

a) A lot of kind people are skilled people. There are so few roles where the
pool of skilled people is so small you just _have_ to settle for someone
abrasive, yet there are so many people using the excuse of "I'm old so I get
to be abrasive", or "they're old so they get to be abrasive".

b) Abrasive people take away from everyone else. More time will be spent
building up "thick skin" against each other than needed and at the end of the
day it's easy to drain any additional benefit of this "10x guru who doesn't
know how to interact with people"

So much of value generation at a workplace is in "meatspace". Having the most
technically brilliant product ever isn't enough to make it work. If the
"genius" behind all of it is so abrasive your ability to react to needs is
being cut down, you don't necessarily have a stronger _product_ just because
you have a domain expert and stronger _tech_.

-

> People with dark histories of abusing their coworkers get hired into
> positions of power because they deliver results. It should be no surprise
> that someone who is abrasive will always be able to find work if they are a
> domain expert.

I have optimism that this is changing. More and more companies are putting a
stronger emphasis on their core values and actually defending them. And I'm
not naive enough to think it's just out of the goodness of their hearts or a
suddenly growing of a conscious.

It's because more and more companies are figuring out these people are not
generating as much value as they appear to be. Spiking turnover, being
difficult to integrate into teams, giving workplaces a bad name, even the
compensation they receive combined with these other factors, the numbers just
don't add up. They make very impressive and flashy output, but then take away
from the ability of the company to turn that output into a strong product.

The realization being made is a team that meshes well can execute better than
a "cult of domain knowledge", even if the team that meshes well is not as
technically strong. The same way the realization is coming about CEOs who work
based on a "cult of personality".

Similarly between CEOs and engineers, some of the most well known players end
up being those that lead a cult of personality, so outsiders start to assume
that's what works, even though it only works when the stars align and is a
serious detriment when it doesn't...

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bn7t
It's ArchiveTeam not Archive.org which got blocked.

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HocusLocus
[https://gfycat.com/robots.txt](https://gfycat.com/robots.txt)

not

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aaron695
> Gfycat stops Archive.org volunteers from archiving content

No

Why do we keep creating bullshit internet drama. I guess cause it's fun. But I
suspect we all might lose in the end.

[https://mobile.twitter.com/mceleney/status/11925194405181071...](https://mobile.twitter.com/mceleney/status/1192519440518107141)

"As mentioned, we had offered to work with any group that wished to save the
content. I even offered to delay this, but this group continued to takedown
our service. We will work with any group that is willing to work with us using
legal and reasonable means."

