eMail from Francois now, reversing this action.
Dear feed member,
Yesterday, I made a decision that generated some publicity: If you are not aware, I announced that bloggers advertising competing news aggregators on their sites would no longer be listed in our newsletter.
From a business perspective, why should I do extra to help those who help promote my competitors? In retrospect, the language and tone of my email may have been misinterpreted or misunderstood, and I want to make my position clear to all.Today I have a strong advantage over my competition, but due to this fact I realized I also need to take care to not create a monopolistic situation. It’s mad to create a climate of injustice and I don’t want to give my
competition any possible issue by blocking the market.So this will be my revised and official position:
- Each feed participant can advertise any site he wants in his pages without impacting his exposure on Domaining.com
….
I consider this a small win to all. Thanks for participating and voicing your opinion about this important matter. If we do not take care of fairness within our industry, no one else will.
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Francois never understood why I never sent a reply privately. It is simple: The email was not addressed to me privately, nor personally. As it turned out, Francois sent the same exact email to others. Since then, as this issue is now in the public eye (as it should be), all communication is now public.
What is anti competitive behavior means?
Via Wikipedia:
Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent and/or reduce competition in a market
While I do not see eye to eye with Francois on many levels for a long time, this one was the one I felt I had to draw the line. There’s a big difference between what was done previously to this last event. While I did not like some of the ideas Francois implemented in the past, I admire his willingness to try new things, find what works, adapt. With that said, that last event was none of it. That last event basically told bloggers that in order to be included in syndication (site or newsletter, it is the same principle), a blogger must remove competitors from their site. While I’m not an attorney I’m quite sure this is illegal in many countries. But more than that for me, it is highly unethical business practice.
Many have said that Domaining.com is a good source of traffic therefore they will make the decision based on that. I highly disagree. I believe at times we all call our higher set of values, those that tell us what is right and what is wrong. This is plain wrong.
The only acceptable conclusion here is a sincere apology and reversal of this action by Francois. Anything else is selling ourselves short.
As I’m still on a blog break comments here are blocked. You may reply on the issue at the links below or on my Twitter page.
Further readings:
Domaining.com and anti-competitiveness, Too Many Secrets blog
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