I put up a dummy replacement for the Winona Chiropractic site yesterday. I didn’t expect many people to see it, except hopefully the client. It’s gone viral on Twitter in the meantime, and I just wanted to verify that yes, it was real.
I have waited for several years for this client to pay me. I have sent statements. I have been told that it would be “taken care of.” It wasn’t, so I took care of it. That’s all. I am not unprofessional, I am fed up.
Update: I’ve taken the site down entirely. This isn’t really what I want to be known for, and it got a little out of hand. The original site got almost no traffic in the last year, and I didn’t expect anyone but Winona Chiropractic to see it, and I didn’t even expect that to happen very quickly, given that they hadn’t updated it for at least a year. Anyway, Google indexed it, so I made my point, I guess. It’s funny how a few thousand hits all at once makes Google take notice of things. I’ll let you know if anything good actually comes of this.
For the record, I own and control the domain, the server is mine, and I wasn’t paid for the work. There was no hack involved, just me changing a site I built. It didn’t say anything slanderous. I just stated the fact that I hadn’t been paid. I’m not saying it was a brilliant move, but I was at least careful to try and avoid being sued.
For as long as I’ve been on the ‘net, I’ve never really been known for doing anything mean. Seriously. I’ve always made a concerted effort to be nice, albeit sarcastic and a little dry. I don’t like the inordinate amount of damage this thing has and will cause; it’s disproportionate to any damage to me. On the other hand, this whole thing will probably affect my credibility as well, so it kind of comes out even. Right?
I’m not saying I don’t want to get paid, I really do. I’m also not saying that anything I said was incorrect, but my method was a little off-kilter. Like I said, I didn’t really think that anyone other than the client and a few people I actually knew would even see it. I really should have known better. Lesson learned.
