Entry tags:

business, davewiner, humancondition, stupid

Dave steps in poo, flings some at Rogers Cadenhead
I've talked before about Dave Winer's tendency to blame everyone else when he screws up. I mean, there are reasons to like the man; but the way he handles personal disagreements is not one of them...

Because I do know Dave a little bit, and because Rogers Cadenhead has shown himself to be a remarkably nice guy in the past, Cadenhead gets my sympathy in the current Dave Winer-esque train wreck. Don't know what I am talking about?

• Cadenhead's version of events
• Winer's version (warning, Dave tends to edit his posts without warning, so what you read may not be what I linked to)
• Scoble's limp defense of Winer
• Nick Bradbury being reasonable
• Shelley Powers being snarky
• Technorati Search for more

Don't want to read all of that? To summarize: As best I can tell, Dave Winer contracted with Rogers Cadenhead (who has stood up for Dave in the past when people piled on him) to do some work. The contract was a verbal one and included Cadenhead getting a percentage ownership of the results (a previous, similar, contract had netted Cadenhead ten grand and resulted in Winer making a couple million). While Cadenhead was doing the work, Winer was supposed to be putting together a written contract, plus he paid Cadenhead a deposit.

Later, when Cadenhead got the contract, he found the terms were nothing like what he thought the agreement was and he (rightly if his version of events is true) refused to sign it. About the same time Winer threw a fit at the RSS advisory board (which is led by Cadenhead) and threatented to take his ball and go home. Then he got angry when people explained it really wasn't his ball anymore.

End result? Dave had a lawyer send a nasty letter to Cadenhead threatening a lawsuit on rather shaky grounds (at least according to the contractual law I am familiar with, obviously IANAL). Cadenhead then posted the letter on his weblog with commentary (the link above) and ended the post with:

The archives of Workbench contain numerous examples of lavish praise I've given Winer over the years, including an effort I led among his admirers to pool their funds and buy him a get-well iPod after he underwent heart surgery.

I've never been more retroactively embarrassed to have paid someone a compliment in my life.

Compare that to something Dave Winer said to someone else in a similar dust up:

I don't do back channel discussions, I thought I was very clear on that, and I also don't want code submissions. And this kind of advice is not useful. You're not special. You need to hear that loud and clear. This is the last private response you're going to get from me. Over and out. Dave

(Emphasis mine.) Now, which takedown would you say had the most class?

My commentary?

1. Like I said, I actually know Winer a little; and because of my experience with him I would tend to discount his version of events
2. This isn't the first time Dave has done something like this
3. There are clearly no winners here, and Dave has managed to lose himself another friend
4. If this is what Scoble means by a Naked Conversation, then here is a wonderful reminder why some people should wear clothes
5. The moral of the story? Get it in writing first!