
Skype’s Chief Development Officer Leaves Amid TechCrunch Comment Fiasco - desigooner
http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/18/skypes-chief-development-officer-leaves-amid-techcrunch-comment-fiasco/
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gyardley
Heh - this article should've been titled 'If You Threaten To Sue Us, You Will
Not Get What You Want'. You'd think people would know that already.

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flatulent1
Perhaps Madhu Yarlagadda would call this a "course correction"?

He wrote on the subject of course correction on his blog in a July 4th
posting. His writing may give deeper insight into him than a list of
accomplishments or complaints would.

<http://madhuyarlagadda.blogspot.com/>

About half an hour after the NYT story today, the position was added to his
Crunchbase profile

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/madhu-yarlagadda-3>

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cookiecaper
I don't really get how this became a big deal at any point in the process.
Yarlagadda should know to ignore random anonymous negative comments on
something completely unrelated. And the Skype executives should know to ignore
that too, and also ignore Yarlagadda's plea for positive testimonials. While
Yarlagadda obviously got too involved over the comments, I don't see how it
could or should lead to leaving Skype; it's understandable that someone would
want friends to counteract a lot of negative press. Seems Yarlagadda's mistake
was bringing too many soft acquaintances into the loop.

But I still don't get what any of it has to do with anything. If he spent all
day at Skype browsing that thread trying to counteract or report or drown out
that thread instead of doing any work, then I can see it, but so what if he
took a comment thread on the internet a little personally? It happens to the
best of us every now and again.

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TomOfTTB
I think Skype made the right decision. As someone who lived through one I can
tell you first hand that a company facing an IPO has to become all about image
for that brief period between announcement and offering. The game is all about
stability, professionalism and competence.

So the arguments you lay out are exactly why he needed to go. Because it
WASN'T a big deal and he made it in to one. He(and his wife) did the exact
opposite of what you should do and they did it publicly. The last thing a
company facing an IPO needs is a loose canon who melts down in public.

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z92
You hit it. His only mistake was in getting involved in that non-issue. The
only reason that the thread got into news was because he personally got
involved in it.

When you are a public figure, you should at least know to avoid anonymous
criticism.

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ohashi
So... what was said?

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desigooner
discussion here <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1615524>

