Dear John, I Give Up

An open letter to @johnonolan and this blog post.

When I first saw your post about quitting Dribbble I thought you made some good points despite the misguided dramatic actions, it's understandable to be upset. When you invest yourself into something and it fails to meet expectations, it leaves a dark stain that's hard to overlook. It's like a pen leaking ink on your favorite jeans, you're bound to be a bit emotional.

Unfortunately, I've realized you're really not much different than the people you complain about.



Instead of having an actual conversation, it's become clear you're more interested in hearing your own voice. You've proved that with your persistence in defending your decision to keep comments closed on your post out of fear of trolling, the deletion of your Dribble shot due to said trolls (though I saw more back and forth than trolling) and our recent 'debate' over the continued use of RSS readers on Twitter.

Guess what, you can't claim to be interested in a dialog when you consistently shut it down. By definition, a dialog is a back and forth between two or more people exchanging opinions and facts.

To clarify the difference, your comment on Twitter that "RSS is dead. Fact." is not a fact but a statement of your own opinion and a comment a troll would usually make. Constantly shooting people down and making erroneous statements hardly shows an interest in civil conversation, but instead a self serving desire to be in the spot light.

I hereby give up trying to start a conversation with you. Unlike you, I will keep this conversation open by allowing comments and continuing to follow you on Twitter, but I probably won't start a new one.

I truly hope you are able to see the dark path of self indulgent and immature comments you've left in your wake and choose to grow up and respect the fact that everyone has a different opinion and most aren't the same as yours.

Good luck.
Jimmy