
Ask HN: Startup CTO using big Twitter following to harass me, what should I do? - FDSGSG
I recently noticed that hey.com started offering disposable email addresses. I made a couple pull requests to add hey.com to lists of disposable email providers.
In response to this, the CTO of basecamp has been tweeting out all kinds of allegations about supposed harassment.Ask HN: Startup CTO using his Twitter following to harass me, what should I do?<p>He tweeted a link to my github account to his 426k followers, resulting in several harassing messages and doxing attempts https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;dhh&#x2F;status&#x2F;1277805249147752449<p>He also appears to be trying to solicit information about me on twitter https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;dhh&#x2F;status&#x2F;1277825366149591041<p>What should I do about this?
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codingdave
I don't know how Basecamp is doing, but when I see leaders freaking out and
getting way too deep into online discussions about their products and
organizations, I tend to think that there are two things going on - poor
leadership skills combined with internal problems that are causing sufficient
stress to break down their ability to make good personal judgments. That
doesn't condone the behavior, but I'd recommend that you not take it too
personally.

On a practical note, if they are truly harming you or your business, have a
lawyer send a cease and desist letter, and find out whether you have any
actual legal course to pursue. On the other hand, if it is not harming you,
but just frustrating... let it go. Just because someone has a C-level position
does not invalidate the advice of "Don't feed the trolls."

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thecupisblue
Ouch, what a terrible response. I feel like the proper way would be to comment
on those issues and say "hey, we offer disposable emails to our paying
customers, we're not a burner email service".

Although, seeing this behavior doesn't surprise me - hey's product is built
around status signaling and it's marketing is "we're cool tiny hero vs big
evil giants" act with layer of better-than-thou arrogance.

~~~
easytiger
Suspect he's trying to leverage some of that Elon Musk style self generating
outrage publicity.

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claudiug
[https://github.com/wesbos/burner-email-
providers/pull/226](https://github.com/wesbos/burner-email-providers/pull/226)
more informations there.

In case anyone wasn't aware, @tuptuptuu is a throwaway account seemingly
created solely for the purpose of adding the hey.com domain to disposable
email lists. See similar pull requests this person has filed:

andreis/disposable#50

martenson/disposable-email-domains#244

wesbos/burner-email-providers#226

micke/valid_email2#153

so you are a liar.

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gas9S9zw3P9c
Wow. I actually agree with dhh on this one, but the way he responded to this,
freaked out, and made childish accusations and Bitcoin jokes does not speak
well for him. This really changed my image of dhh and his companies. This is
beyond unprofessional for someone with such a large following.

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tuyguntn
first of all, if you think you are right, why not use your real github
account, then discuss publicly what is your problem with disposable emails?
(there are some problems definitely, but it really depends on how company is
going to handle that issues, that's another topic)

it really feels you are trying to offend them by creating new github account
and making commit to fight against Hey email.

secondly, he is a co-founder of company, so he is trying in anyway to keep
their email reputation, why he should not? some companies might be fetching
that lists automatically every week and marking as a spam every email coming
from that providers, which hurts company.

regarding, disposable emails, I do think they might be used for spam or other
purposes, but there could be a ways to prevent these issues, why not give a
chance to company? maybe they will setup limits for disposable emails, you can
create 100 for read-only (for signing up in some phishing web-sites), 10 for
sending emails up to 10 per month? they will figure out. But as a community we
should give them a chance.

Just show your public face, make open public discussion, so that people will
decide at the end.

------
claudiulodro
I always assumed someone like DHH would have better things to do with his time
and a more level head, but looking through his responses on the GitHub PRs and
Twitter has really changed my mind about him. To me it looks to me like you
made a good faith effort at open-source contribution, and DHH weaponized his
followers against it because it wouldn't be good for his business. It's
certainly a weird situation. Unless you want to get into a Silicon Valley-
esque David-and-Goliath fight I'd just call it a day and leave it alone. You
tried.

------
rotterdamdev
Block everyone who is not kind to you. That's how I have been doing my
internet use for 6 years now, and I have not missed out so far.

------
maps7
It seems like you're spamming and harassing him. What am I missing?

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DanBC
It's weird just how entitled people who want to send email are.

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qppo
Use hey.com to create burner emails and start spamming DHH with them

~~~
biermic
How old are you?

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meiraleal
He is protecting his business and stating his grounding. You were "used" by
him for this, but he is not in the wrong.

------
verdverm
You can always report the event to the FBI if you feel threatened. They often
can't do much, but I had a GF who was being harassed. A llquick call from the
FBI agent to inform him he was borderline illegal behavior stopped it in its
tracks.

But if this is how their CEO operates, they won't last long. I've been hearing
only negative reviews and news. Hey is a fad and will go away, probably like
one of those startups that never quits their idea even though they lost from
the get go.

------
Sevii
From DHHs prospective you added his business to a list of spam email providers
and then sent him 13k emails harassing him.

Since you have essentially threatened the existence of his business it’s
understandable that he would respond this way.

Hey cannot afford to be associated with spam email providers.

What you should do is lay low and stop threatening to damage Heys reputation
as a legitimate email provider.

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trcollinson
So this isn't so much a "Startup CTO". This is DHH, CTO of Basecamp and
created of Ruby on Rails. Not that that entirely matters. But that's why he
has a large group of twitter followers and why he's well know.

You may not love this answer, have you thought of sending him a DM? Let him
know what you were doing and why. Have a discussion with him. Tell him what
his Tweets are doing to you. See what he says? He, and many of his employees,
are pretty open and well known. You might even get a call with him and be able
to have a real discussion about your concerns with hey.com and with his
Tweets. I have spoken to him many times, he's a pretty reasonable guy (if a
bit of an eccentric gent).

~~~
atmosx
I agree, DHH sounds like a reasonable guy. Everyone makes mistakes in
hindsight, which why this tweet from Benedict Evans puzzled me:
[https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1273871395479568386](https://twitter.com/benedictevans/status/1273871395479568386)

------
msh
Is adding providers to these lists not a form of harrasment?

You are trying to degrade the quality of the email service so that either
their customers leave them or they stop providing disposable email addresses?

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biermic
You might not like to hear that, but as an outsider it seems like you are
trying to harass DHH for personal reasons.

But also his reactions were slightly too emotional and unprofessional, why
I've unfollowed him on Twitter as a consequence.

------
kojeovo
Delete the burner account and forget about it

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randomchars
Why did you use a burner account in the first place? DHH's reaction is not the
best, you're not exactly helping clear things up here.

------
celloductor
looks like DHH is taking the ebay approach

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raihansaputra
Hey FDSGSG, the situation is definitely not ideal. DHH should not have
responded like this, but please consider from his point of view: he and his
company just had a moment of existential threat with the Apple IAP rules
enforcement, and the disposable addresses are the only way that they manage to
be able to still put updates on the App Store. The way you approach this
surely feels like another threat to his business. Especially done anonymously.

If I may recommend something that has been echoed in this thread, please try
to communicate to him or the company directly and discuss your concerns
calmly. Directly threatening to put their whole domain as a spam domain, even
with solid concerns, is not a friendly way to do it.

