You make a good case but I'm still torn. You may be partly right about why we're defending them but what's foremost in my mind when I defend them is how innocent what they did was. All they did was look at a file name of their 100 millionth upload. They were proud, wanted to brag about, and I really empathize as they meant no harm. I trust that they only did this a single time only to mark the special occasion and mentioning the name (or assuming the contents of, in this case) the file only happened because it lent itself well to the joke they referenced, otherwise I have no doubt they would have just said they hit 100 million uploads and left it at that.
When I talk about odds we're on the same page in a way. We absolutely should expect them to minimize the risk but let's not fool ourselves into believing that no one will ever take the opportunity to access one of our files. The best we can do is mitigate the risks and hope for the best. I don't feel that their pulling up the file name in this situation is a meaningful breach of trust. As programmers we like nice, neat, black or white answers, absolutes but in this case you have to take the circumstances and the company's track record into account. 37Signald has never shown itself to be untrustworthy and I really think this is much ado about nothing. I'm having a hard time arguing your point because I agree with you for the most part. I just think that this one instance is very obviously a special circumstance and any casual observer would certainly let it slide without a single red flag being raised.
I usually don't go down this road but I've yet to figure out what person or group made this an issue? Did 37Signals bring this up on their own? I know there were a few comments questioning them when the original post cake about but it didn't seem like anyone was that upset ver it to the point that a blog post was necessary. There are a lot of individuals who are just haters and take any opportunity to come out of the woodwork and point out any itty bitty flaw they see and make it into the end of the world. I hope that's not what started this. I also wonder if some competitor or "enemy" for lack of a better word decided to make this am issue. Or maybe it was really just some of their users in which case all I can say is, fair enough. I don't agree but a company does serve at the pleasure of its customers to a large degree.
I can respect your opinion, despite disagreeing with it. =)
> any casual observer would certainly let it slide without a single red flag being raised.
Casual observer, sure. But, I imagine it was more than just a casual observer making a fuss, as I suggest below.
> I usually don't go down this road but I've yet to figure out what person or group made this an issue?
From what I know of 37Signals, they aren't the type to bow to the pressures of haters. I imagine there was some real concern here brought forth by people not in the public eye.
When I talk about odds we're on the same page in a way. We absolutely should expect them to minimize the risk but let's not fool ourselves into believing that no one will ever take the opportunity to access one of our files. The best we can do is mitigate the risks and hope for the best. I don't feel that their pulling up the file name in this situation is a meaningful breach of trust. As programmers we like nice, neat, black or white answers, absolutes but in this case you have to take the circumstances and the company's track record into account. 37Signald has never shown itself to be untrustworthy and I really think this is much ado about nothing. I'm having a hard time arguing your point because I agree with you for the most part. I just think that this one instance is very obviously a special circumstance and any casual observer would certainly let it slide without a single red flag being raised.
I usually don't go down this road but I've yet to figure out what person or group made this an issue? Did 37Signals bring this up on their own? I know there were a few comments questioning them when the original post cake about but it didn't seem like anyone was that upset ver it to the point that a blog post was necessary. There are a lot of individuals who are just haters and take any opportunity to come out of the woodwork and point out any itty bitty flaw they see and make it into the end of the world. I hope that's not what started this. I also wonder if some competitor or "enemy" for lack of a better word decided to make this am issue. Or maybe it was really just some of their users in which case all I can say is, fair enough. I don't agree but a company does serve at the pleasure of its customers to a large degree.