[Note: Although I use the pronoun "you" throughout this post, I'm not generally referring to you all, but rather to the people who will read the post and realize, "Hey - he's talking about me."]

I told myself that I wouldn't get involved with or comment on all the noise surrounding Robert's "WMA Players Suck" post, but the noise is outlasting my patience, persisting like a drug-resistant strain of syphilis.

As someone who, every six months or so, gets himself involved with some stupid (really stupid) online controversy, I guess I'm a little sensitive about what's happening.

I mean, yeah, Robert's post was a little... well, not the greatest post he's ever written. His heart was in the right place, but it came out all wrong. That's fine. I'll admit it - I rolled my eyes when I read it. I disagreed with quite a bit of what he said. I cringed in parts. I cried in others. But then I moved on. It took all of twelve seconds.

What I'm seeing in response has floored me.

A sampling of the sort of quotes I've been reading (paraphrased, for the most part):

- "Robert's gone too far..."

- "Scoble should be fired..."

- "[Scoble is] representative of why people hate Microsoft..."

- "[Scoble is] arrogant..."

- etc.

Good god, people. This is a tad melodramatic, and that's coming from a total drama-queen.

You'd think he took the entire Windows Media team, cooked them, and then ate their flesh. I could see firing him for that.

But for a post in which he pointed out an area that Microsoft sucks (being “cool”)? And an area we seem to be having a lot of trouble with?

He's right, by the way - One thing that has been on my mind all year has been Microsoft's "cool factor." I've been talking to different people internally, trying to get a feel for why it is that the company has such an image problem, and that's just been out of curiosity. As a product evangelist, it's Robert's job to figure out the answers to these problems.

Yes - he's not on the media team, and he's digging into someone else's territory. I can't blame him, though, for being frustrated enough to do that. Windows Media is a great thing, and that isn't my Microsoft shirt talking - that's the part of me that knows, for example, that a WMA file with the same quality as the same song in MP3 format will be half the size of the MP3. I like that. For a market in which one of the competitive metrics is the number of hours of music we can stuff on a player, that's a great win for WMA.

Point being, there's a great product that isn't getting the traction it deserves, and that's driving Robert nuts. It's in his blood to market things - it's what he does for Microsoft. It's basically his life. He's doing what comes naturally, and he's pretty good at it most of the time.

So I can understand why Robert would be upset enough to post, and I can understand why the media team might be feeling a little bruised, but what I can't understand is why legions of people who are probably not stockholders, and who do not work with Robert are so bloody concerned about what happens to him.

It seems like people are being kept up at night over Robert's continued employment. They're tossing back and forth in bed, certain to the core that they could, nay, should be doing more to ensure that the company they don't work for is run properly, and that the product team on which they know absolutely ZERO people is not hurt any further.

These, my friends, are not the things that should be crawling against the inside of your brains at night. These are the things Robert ought to be thinking about. He dug himself into a little hole, and he'll dig himself out (I might add that one of his great talents is finding the good in things, and he's managed to crawl out of the hole with a bag of marketing gems slung over his shoulder).

The crazy thing about the comments is this: Have any of you thought about the likelihood of Robert getting fired? Do you really think Microsoft is going to fire him? He has the whole freaking blogosphere talking about Windows Media now. Whether he got us there by writing an expert dissertation or by slipping on a banana peel and falling on the keyboard is irrelevant. He did it. As a stockholder, I know I'd be upset if he were fired. I want these products talked about. As long as we aren't hearing stories of Robert taking people hostage and forcing them to switch product lines, then he's probably doing what I want him to do.

But, for kicks, let's suppose for a second that he were fired. What do you think would happen? Do you think Robert would spend more than three or four minutes without a job?

Recall the scene in Star Wars when Obi-Wan says to Vader: "You can strike me down, but I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Now, ask yourself this: Robert has been successful as a champion of technology - What would happen if he were to become a martyr by getting fired?

That's right! Robert can't lose. If Microsoft keeps him, then it's because he's seen as being an asset, and he will be rewarded. If Microsoft dumps him for blogging, then he'll be the most talked about thing in the blogosphere, and there will be companies clawing for him - he'll be able to pick and choose from any of a number of positions. You might argue with this, saying that he's too much of a risk, but that's crap - as a human conduit of tech news and names, what Robert could do for a small, no-name company trying to push a great product would be worth Money. Robert will be all right.

You can, therefore, stop with the melodramatic comments. I think it's awesome that he got so much feedback about Windows Media as a result of this thing, but I'm also a bit embarrassed that so many people saw fit to pounce on him at the same time, thinking that by kicking and biting like a bunch of brain-damaged lemurs they'd be able to change Robert's course for the worse.

I can't help but think of Gulliver's Travels when I picture all the bitchy commenters (many of them anonymous - that makes them twice as bitchy) trying to tie Robert down with petty concerns and a lack of tolerance...