I’ve worked in publishing for more than a decade (quite a bit more, actually) and I’ve always followed an unwritten rule: never get involved in public mudslinging. Over the years I’ve often felt the urge to ‘out’ a competitor who pinched one of our ideas, or berate a PR for unprofessional behaviour, but I’ve always kept that rule in mind when temptation struck. Many designers and developers seem to have no such rule.

“For more than a decade I’ve followed an unwritten rule: never get involved in public mudslinging”

I’ve lost track of the number of times people, even contributors, have jumped onto social media platforms and launched a personal attack on us. Sometimes that criticism has had merit, at other times it was way out of order, but either way a simple call or email would have cleared up the matter. Yet they chose a public forum to air their dirty linen. Not cool.
Within the industry, this kind of public bitching about each other is happening more and more. Private discourse is almost always more rewarding and productive, and you don’t come across as an arsehole. Just something to think about.

This is an editorial intro, taken from issue 224 of .net magazine (on sale now)