His second big mistake was sending out an email blast with the subject "Article slams IBM and Lotus Notes, Claims SaaS/Sun Microsystems Shall Inherit the Earth". The email implied this was DominoPower's editorial judgement and not just an editorial -- and that made DominoPower into an unwilling foil for a destructive and negative PR campaign, a campaign that completely misrepresented our professional judgement about IBM and Lotus Notes.

But, by far, Herardian's worst mistake was his seemingly purposeful alienation of the Lotus community. We always know that when we publish a controversial article, there's going to be pushback from the community. And when the inevitable pushback came regarding this article, the right reaction would have been to just let it go, to say nothing, to let the steam valve do its job, and to let the matter run its course.

But Herardian didn't do that. Instead, he left troubling messages on the LNotes-L list, insulting not only Lotus community members, but well-liked and influential IBM executives. This was wildly inappropriate behavior. Never in all my years of working with authors have I seen anything this unprofessional or, quite frankly, this rude.

Let the healing begin
To be fair, Herardian's article never explicitly claims Notes to be dead, although he does state the opinion that Notes and Domino can be described as "legacy" technology. In response to the online postings, Herardian claims he was only defending himself against attacks and, if you read the boards, you can see how the discussion degenerates rapidly. His mistake was in not shutting up when other people made challenging posts, and just let them get their concerns off their chests. Instead, he took out the big "I'm a dickhead" pen and started writing. He's alienated a lot of people and, sidestream, may have alienated some people to DominoPower as well.

As the Editor-in-Chief of the leading publication for Lotus products, I not only represent the community of Lotus users and developers, but feel a strong need to stand up for them (you) against abuse.

To begin the healing process, I asked Herardian to submit to me a formal apology for publication in the magazine and also asked him to stop sending out destructive mailings and to stop baiting the community. To his credit, he did respond with somewhat constructive statements, which I'll share here:

I am sorry to hear that any controversy resulting from my article or subsequent actions has caused you any difficulty and I sincerely apologize to you if that's the case.

To set the record straight, I've not issued any press release. I sent some email messages intended solely to promote the article, which I assumed--perhaps mistakenly--would be a good thing.

I do not personally believe that I have done anything wrong or inappropriate. Nonetheless, I apologize sincerely for having caused you any difficulties.

In his letter to me, Herardian does say he still feels attacked, and I'm sure that feeling may continue. However, I believe this incident, more than anything, shows how members of the Lotus community can band together and stand up for Lotus, IBM, and the Notes/Domino market -- all a sign of a vibrant and growing market.