John Gruber wanted Marco Arment to whitelist The Deck, because “it’s not crap”. When someone asked Gruber what Arment should do about other “non crap”, his reply was to whitelist those too, as “This isn’t complicated.”
So what’s Arment to do when the email arrives from the guy in Brazil saying, “Hey, you whitelisted The Deck. Can you whitelist this Brazilian ad network as well? I know you can’t read the language, but take my word for it — it’s not crap either.” And then the request from Turkey. And then the request from China.
Gruber’s view on this issue seems a bit short-sighted to me—It IS quite complicated.
PS: Of course, we all know by now that Arment pulled Peace from the App Store. And as expected in his usual passive-elitist style, he writes (paraphrasing):
What a success Peace has been—amazing! But having earned a bucket of money in 36 hours, I decided to pull the app from the store because—it just doesn’t feel good. I’m getting heat from my buddies. I’m “winning”, but I’ve not enjoyed it. And fortunately for me, I’m in a position such that I don’t even need the success! And in case you’re wondering why I couldn’t figure all this out 36 hours ago—you know, before you all actually bought the app—don’t bother asking, because I’m not going to reply to any mentions on Twitter. (Of course, any of you that have ever emailed or Tweeted to me before with a question about any other product of mine you bought, already know I don’t reply — unless you’re a buddy.)
