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Nilay Patel of the Verge Twitter temper tantrum after criticism of his watch review

vi2867 said:
The Verge is a life style website. It is not a technology website anymore. It is all about hits and main stream...
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Exactly, every damn headline on their site has a "-est" somewhere in the title. I'm waiting for the day when a Huffington Post clickbait article at the bottom links to a Verge article. The Verge has gone downhill since Topolsky left.

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Arran said:
Pack mentality.
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How was he harassed? Someone made a comment in jest about the irony that a guy wearing a spiked bracelet is criticizing another bracelets fashion appeal. If anything Patel did most of the harassing with his twitter rant.
 
Why have more people not called him racist. He clearly is a racist. If someone said old black jackass it would be race race , but he can say old white jackass. What does being white have to do with anything , was he opressed by this man

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JonnyIreland said:
Once he referred to race ("old white man"), he instantly lost all credibility for me. This is 2015. Hopefully his career heads south after this.
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Just saw this
 
Everyone,

You've got this all wrong. You're supposed to know that this spikey thing is a "studied" reminder of Nilay's distaste for "suits". So sophisticated.

And by "suits", I'm assuming he doesn't mean the clothes. He means the mindset and lifestyle of a suited gentlemen.

You see, Nilay, also known as @reckless, is a rebel. He's smarter than you, parties harder than you, and isn't afraid of publicly slinging (racial in this case) slurs at the establishment.

How dare you giving him a dose of reality.
 
Pinksteady said:
Someone who's style involves wearing a spiked bracelet is perfectly entitled (and likely) to consider wearing a milanese loop ridiculous, just like a punk would consider wearing polished black formal shoes ridiculous. Yet everyone seems to think that because he wears one thing that they consider to be ridiculous, he can't have an opinion on anything else.

Anyway I'm out. This isn't going anywhere.
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When you are part of a site with a wide audience, you have to consider the audience. "The Milanese band wasn't for me" or "wasn't my style" are ways to express such. Now if he intends his audience to be those that like spiky bracelets, that's another thing. Perhaps that is the answer.
 
How does somebody who actively writes about and I assume is familiar with the tech industry not realize that time and time again tweets like this typically back fire.
 
Pinksteady said:
It is saddening to see so many people here taking pleasure in the harassment of someone, just because he wrote a review they didn't approve of. Shameful really.
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This has nothing to do with it as I have made clear. I think it's good to call people out for extreme douchery. Having said that I am now a fan, too entertaining.
 
profmatt said:
I haven't read all of this thread because I assume it'll be the usual villagers-wielding-pitchforks mob mentality that is at the heart of the internet.

It's no doubt very easy to criticise someone's fashion choices publicly and then poke fun at their reaction. Which of us wouldn't be hurt if someone criticised a favoured object? And then the mob piled in to add their own derision?

How much did The Verge's review cost you? Oh yeah. Nothing. Was the review useful? Yes, I think so. Does Patel's wrist thingy look a bit incongruous? I wouldn't wear it. Does he deserve to be savaged on the Internet for it? Hell no.

Nothing to be proud of here.
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It was more the fact that he claimed wearing the milanese loop felt ridiculous, but was wearing that spiky bracelet. It just comes across as ridiculously contradictory. That's what started this and he then threw his toys out of the pram, which is why he's been savaged....

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glxyjones said:
How was he harassed? Someone made a comment in jest about the irony that a guy wearing a spiked bracelet is criticizing another bracelets fashion appeal. If anything Patel did most of the harassing with his twitter rant.
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This is spot on!

If anything, Patel was the one banging on about 'old white guy'.
 
MH01 said:
Are you saying apple fans are not trolling him as a result of the review? Do tell.

Never heard of the guy, until I saw multiple posts having cheap shots at him on MR after the verge review.

Yeah the guy lost it, so why is it posted here...... That's right, he gave the Apple watch a 7/10.

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Once his review went live, members on MR were taking cheap shots at his bracelet etc. He has been trolled by Apple fans, and took him a while to loose it. Check the posts on MR, you will find our members were taking pleasure is ridiculing the guy before his meltdown.
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This case has nothing to do with trolling but with a valid criticism from a respected individual that was in jest. Patel then threw a tantrum like an unruly teenage girl, I once again thank you for the great laughs.
 
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What I found most atrocious about that review was the fake scene at the bar. It was like he had douche bag syndrome.

When you're talking to someone, engage in that conversation and ignore technology. It's really not that hard. Had his phone been buzzing from notifications in his pocket or on the table/bar in front of him, would he have ignored it? Who knows, but it's not the gadgets fault for choose to act like a prick. Give me a break!
 
profmatt said:
I haven't read all of this thread because I assume it'll be the usual villagers-wielding-pitchforks mob mentality that is at the heart of the internet.

It's no doubt very easy to criticise someone's fashion choices publicly and then poke fun at their reaction. Which of us wouldn't be hurt if someone criticised a favoured object? And then the mob piled in to add their own derision?

How much did The Verge's review cost you? Oh yeah. Nothing. Was the review useful? Yes, I think so. Does Patel's wrist thingy look a bit incongruous? I wouldn't wear it. Does he deserve to be savaged on the Internet for it? Hell no.

Nothing to be proud of here.
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Now that you put it that way I think his actions were totally justified. LOL
 
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Pinksteady said:
It is saddening to see so many people here taking pleasure in the harassment of someone, just because he wrote a review they didn't approve of. Shameful really.
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You are so wrong it isn't even funny.

It's like you're upset at people harassing Kanye West after the MTV Music Awards. 'He just spoke his displeasure of Taylor Swift - what is so bad about that.' - ummm.. if you have that opinion, you're missing the entire context, and so wrong.
 
Pinksteady said:
The Apple mob descended on him because he wrote a review they didn't like; his angry tweets came *after*.

They even mocked him for his choice of wristwear and tried to discredit him... just because he wrote a review.

Now he has retaliated and the mob are saying their feelings are hurt.

It is this aspect of the community that should be discredited, not the reviewers.
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Yeah we should all feel really sorry for the guy.
 
The original problem isn't so much that he doesn't like the Milanese band or that he likes the spike bracelet; it's that he wrote some poorly-thought-out criticism.

When you're a professional reviewer you're expected to put some reasoning behind your points. "I felt the Milanese was a little too shiny for my taste" is reasonable. We can agree or disagree, but we can understand where you're coming from. If I'm thinking of buying something as simple as a toaster and a review says "I thought it made terrible toast" it's maddening and unhelpful because I want to understand what's supposed to be terrible about the toast.

The blowup on Twitter exposes how this happened, because this man is under an unfortunate impression that his spiked bracelet is not jewellery. You can't really say "this is my personal style and I wear it for self-expression and self-reminder reasons so it isn't jewellery" because that's what jewellery is. Whether you wear diamond earrings because you think they're pretty or a nose ring because it says you won't take **** from anyone, you're engaging in the same universe of social signalling and it's jewellery. And more to the point, all those manly-man giant watches over at (ahem) the jewellery store are jewellery too. You aren't better than someone else because you think you don't wear jewellery.

It'd be good for Patel to think a little more carefully about the reasons other people wear all the things that they wear, rather than going along with the "all fashion is ridiculous, except for my personal fashion" meme.
 
The tip off was the use of the word "definitive" in his review title.
 
papa8706 said:
This was my thought. If you're gonna pass judgement on a band as "ridiculous" in your review, be prepared to take criticism when you're wearing something rather ridiculous yourself.

"Old man critiquing my spiky bracelet is juuuuuust my favorite" Accept you just criticized something thousands of people are going to be wearing so maybe they will defend their argument by questioning your fashion sense.

Childish. Dude is gonna regret all of that in the heat of the moment
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I can't believe he said that "thousands of people are going to be wearing" that fugly bracelet, that's the same argument that those Glass-holes made whenever someone criticized them for their pretentious behavior.
 
This thread is full of hate for Nilay Patel, which is fine, but to me, he just needs to behave better because he represents a major reviewer that wants to be taken seriously.

I don't give a crap about the JLG either.
 
Pinksteady said:
Someone who's style involves wearing a spiked bracelet is perfectly entitled (and likely) to consider wearing a milanese loop ridiculous, just like a punk would consider wearing polished black formal shoes ridiculous. Yet everyone seems to think that because he wears one thing that they consider to be ridiculous, he can't have an opinion on anything else.

Anyway I'm out. This isn't going anywhere.
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I don't believe his Twitter rage was entitled but this all comes down to simple entertainment take it or leave it
 
Arran said:
Interesting. That's not how it came across to me.

I thought he had some valid points. The discussion at the bar with constant interruptions particularly resonated with me because that's what my job can be like. Too many people "talking" at once and drowning each other out in meetings. So much so that nothing gets achieved. The review illustrated that situation quite creatively. It was supposed to be annoying and frustrating.

Personally, I prefer one-to-one conversations. I can mute the phone and IM and focus on the discussion at hand without other people butting in competitively. It looks like I'd now need to remove my watch too.
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I just want a normal review, not things that are staged or exaggerated to try and prove a point. It's exactly how I didn't like the short video Apple played before announcing Apple Pay. I love Apple Pay and think it's really slick but swiping a credit card isn't that difficult.
 
Nilay as Editor-in-Chief was a long stretch to begin with; this just proves the point.
 
Rogifan said:
Using the word "ridiculous" is just begging for people to comment on his choice of wrist wear. There are ways he could have said it's not for him without using the word ridiculous.
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Agreed. He could've just said he likes more substantial wristbands, then indicated that he preferred the leather loop.

Would've been no big deal.

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Robert M. said:
I've heard people rant about "old white men" before (like they're responsible for everything wrong in the world). But it sounds kinda racist if you aren't white. He probably didn't mean anything by it, but he should've thought that one through.

I'm black so I don't say stuff like that. Because it would sound super racist if a white person said, "Old black men," or "Old Indian men!" Everyone would jump down their throat. Being a minority doesn't give you a free pass IMHO.
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Yeah. His response to Gassé was completely out of line. He could have easily taken a playful shot at him, but he flipped out and made a comment that was both racist AND ageist. Not cool. I expect him to shave his head and beat up a car with an umbrella next.

So, he wrote a review and people have been critical of it. BFD. That's the breaks when you're a critic. You have to be open to being criticized.
 
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