Why no appreciation of the apology? If all people are going to do is find fault with people apologizing, why bother? How should Tumblr reacted? What are they supposed to do?
It doesn't matter to Tumblr if HNers boycott Tumblr the web site.<p>It might matter to Tumblr if HNers boycott Tumblr the employer or Tumblr the business partner.
The cynical reaction would be to say this is all about damage limitation to their brand since it appeared on HN, as they meant to do it rather than it being a 'clerical error'.<p>Good thing I'm not cynical.
"So I'll be bringing it online in a few weeks again."<p>Wait, what? He gets to keep his product but post-pones its availability by a "few weeks"? Opportunity missed. Or am I missing something?
> <i>...pursuing trademark infringers...</i><p>That's the part they should be apologizing for.<p>Unless their business is actually getting hurt in any way (is someone selling fake Chinese made Tumblr t-shirts on the black market?), this is just a systematic exercise in corporate bullying.<p>They shouldn't be engaged in this in the first place. Tumblr is not friggin' Nike.
This seems like a risky move for tumblr, no? Doesn't this mean they're not actively defending their trademark? In which case this could cause them legal problems in the future.
And by the way, this is not (mainly) because it was front page on HN.<p>HN users do not overlap (a lot) with the target audience for Tumblr. (not a lot at least)<p>HN is of course an important news outlet in the industry.