Remember
the Monroi blogosphere fiasco? It came back to me today.
Sitting at work today, minding my own business, I got a call from Monroi complaining about my
"nasty post" about their company. I am not sure it wasn't a joke, but the caller ID was from the same area code in Montreal as the company.
It was sort of strange to be called in the middle of work about my chess blog. For one, I was at fricking work. Second, they obviously did a little homework on me, getting my work number, and she actually made positive comments about my
science blog at first. Then she started to talk about my Monroi post. Shucks, and I thought she was going to be a reporter (the 1980s called, it wants its ego back). She said she was from Monroi. At that point I told her that I didn't have time to talk about my blog while at work, that email is the best way to reach me. If you are reading this, Monroi (if that was really you), please email me at bluedevil ~dot~
knight ~at~ yahoo -dot- com.
For the record, the woman was very nice, and I'd be happy to discuss my anti-Monroi post via email with the company. I wonder how much money it would take for me to sell out and remove a post from my blog. I'm not even gonna pretend I don't have a price. If you were offered a million bucks to remove a post from your blog, wouldn't you do it?
Luckily, I didn't take any of the pictures at that post from the Monroi web site, but from my own personal stock of pictures. Plus, since the post is just clearly a parody, I think legally they won't have any way to make me take it down. That leaves two options:
1. Rational discussion in which they convince me I was a bit over the top and that it would be the Right Thing to do to take it down (on the other hand, I would try to convince them that parodies, even if a bit extreme, of companies serve the greater good more than the little guy bowing to corporate pressure--we'll see...I like a good argument).
2. The big bucks.
Obviously, neither 1 nor 2 are likely.
To Monroi, I'd say, "My blog is a tiny blip, if you google 'Monroi' my post doesn't show up for like five-thousand pages. It was months ago, and everyone has forgotten about it. Do you really want to stir this pot again? And aren't there better ways for you to spend your money to ensure the success of your product?"
