Some Clarifications On Our Lones Group Post from Friday

I wanted to clarify a couple things regarding our post on the Lones Group lawsuit on Friday.

First of all, Daniel Rothamel is a friend of Jim and mine. I can speak for both Jim and myself when I say that Daniel’s one (of many) class acts in this industry. I’ve personally never heard a negative thing uttered about him – by anyone over the course of the last five years. That said, I wrote that post for 2 reasons:

1. I happen to think frivolous lawsuits are a crazy waste of everyone’s time and money
2. I wanted to defend my friend Daniel from his attackers.

On point number 1, it’s my personal opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less. No good whatsoever will come from lawsuits like the one Daniel is facing now. It’s a waste of time, money, and effort for all of society to endur — and the lawyers win no matter what in the end. I would feel the same way on that subject whether or not I knew the defendant.

Regarding point number 2, think of it this way. Imagine someone ran up to your friend and sucker punched them in the stomach Ask yourself two questions. 1) Would you defend your friend? And 2) if you were talking about the matter with another friend a day later, would you give them a neutral account of the incident? I hope the answer to number 1 is yes, and absolutely know the answer to number 2 is “no”. Those who know me well know I’m loyal to a fault, and that certainly played a factor in writing the post as well.

There were some strong comments voiced by Kevin Tomlinson and a few others regarding the fact that we were bullying the Lones Group by taking a SEO angle. Everyone makes mistakes, and we’re more than happy to admit we were in the wrong if that’s the case. On careful reflection, we have decided that although we feel strongly that the post itself was well intended, the SEO comment may not have been. Thanks to all for your input and thoughts left in the comments — this is what makes social media such a powerful medium.  I  have modified the original post as a result.

What we were doing with our blog post is defending. What the Lones Group did to Daniel and his family IS bullying.

Lastly, please do contribute to the ZebraDefenseFund if you can. Our thoughts are with Daniel and his family and hope this lawsuit is laid to rest soon.