Comment by billpatrianakos | Hacker News Reader

Comment by billpatrianakos | Hacker News Reader

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billpatrianakos

People really got that upset over them knowing the name of the 100 millionth file? They're not going to look at the log anymore? I don't know how they operate on the server side of things but if no one is going to look at logs anymore then why have the log at all? I look up to 37Signals a lot but I think they were a little too apologetic this time. Why not apologize but explain that the log files tell you basically nothing about the contents of your files? How does anyone not make the connection between the cat joke and the file named cat.jpg? I mean, they even spelled it out in the original post! I'm not trying to be critical, I'm just kind of left wondering how something like this offended a single person. Weird.

Keep in mind that the original post said "it was the picture of a cat". It implied they looked at the content of the file.

No they didn't. They talked about how sharing pictures of cats was a running internet joke. All they said about that particular file was that it was named cat.jpg.

From http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3076-i-heard-you-like-numbers:

And a Basecamp user uploaded the 100,000,000th file (It was a picture of a cat!)

In the comments, they clarify that it was called cat.jpg, and that's how they knew it was a picture of a cat.

Yeah, I remember that. But they also mentioned the file name too so it wasn't really a secret as to how they assumed what was in it. I very rarely go into conspiracy land but now I'm wondering where the uproar came from? Does anyone know who started this backlash? Was it a group or an individual? I ask because for a fleeting moment I wondered if a competitor took their original post and used it as an opportunity to knock 37Signals down a couple of notches. I may be totally off in the deep end with that thought, however.

But they also mentioned the file name too

They only mentioned that it was from the filename in the comments. So initially at the start, it wasn't clear that's how they did it.

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