(Update: this post is starting to have its own life; read the comments below the post.)
My Mozy is a Lifesaver post received a strange comment:
“I’m not arguing the author’s points. He’s nailed it, as far as he goes. However, the Online Backup Advisor has a different take on Mozy. It’s funny and very informative.”
I don’t particularly like anonymous comments and I believe in the common courtesy if signing one’s comment (even with a pseudo-name), but it’s really not the comment itself that’s strange, but the post it points to: a long, elaborate, and yes, sometimes humorous attack-post on Mozy.
(Update (8/26): The “OBA” proved my point about his blog being a one-time attack platform right: the blog no longer exists. However, he can’t completely disappear, which I’m sure being such an expert he himself realizes, too.
Here’s a copy of his post I saved from Google Cache to a public Zoho Writer document)
The author refers the him/herself as The Online Backup Advisor, or The OBA, in a style that’s meant to establish authority. (more about this later). Now, I don’t consider myself an authority (and am in no way affiliated with Mozy), so won’t attempt the address the detailed issues raised in the article, but the author makes a few generalizations, or simply skips fact-checking, which I certainly would not expect coming from an “expert”:
The referral model: “Mozy gives bloggers goodies in exchange for littering the Web with (fake) glowing reviews. If you click on the Mozy links in these blogs, the blogger gets things like extra storage space and even cash. “
Wow. There is clearly no cash incentive, and as for “fake reviews”, well if the only incentive is extra storage, that’s quite worthless to a blogger who does not actually like the service… so perhaps those reviews are not that fake after all. Disclaimer: I used my referral code in the previous post, and so did Chris Yeh, who led me to signing up for Mozy. We both disclosed it in our post, and, by the way, those who signed up using our referral also received extra storage. Sounds like a deal to me.
The business model: “OK, here’s something you are simply not going to believe, but I swear the OBA would not lie to you few of Mozy’s free backup accounts probably convert to their “Mozy Plus” account, which stores 30GB for $4.95/month.For one thing, $4.95/month for 30GB is far too cheap…”
Perhaps it is too cheap, I really can’t judge that. Perhaps “The OBA“, being such an expert has also heard that there are two major factors on the cost side of the equation: storage and bandwith. Mozy minimizes bandwith consumption by doing incremental backups (even below file-level) and limiting the number of free restores to 4 per month – something “The OBA” vehemently opposes. Why, is beyond me though: Mozy is clearly a “disaster-avoidance” service, and frankly, if you lose your data more than 4 times a month, you may be better off staying offline. For ad-hoc online storage, file-sharing.. etc there are many other services.
Ad-supported business: “Do you like SPAM? Would 30-40 per day be OK with you? Mozy will SPAM you with ads from not just themselves, but also from, “third parties via email.” “
Perhaps “The OBA” has heard about ad-supported businesses before. He seems to be repeatedly conflicting himself: first he makes the case that Mozy does not have a valid business model, than he has a problem with ads; he thinks the price is too low, but condemns bandwith-saving restrictions. I guess our “expert” wants it all free, unlimited, yet with a sustainable business model. And, for the record, I’ve been getting exactly one (1) newsletter per week from Mozy.
Competition: “Why yet ANOTHER inexperienced startup remote backup program?”
Gee, from such a renowned expert I would have expected to hear some recommendation on what I should be using instead of Mozy… but all I find is vicious mud-throwing at Mozy. You know, I am not married to Mozy, if something significantly better comes along, I might as well move. But until than, a less-then perfect but good-enough service is all I need.
There is a lot more in the article, and I certainly hope that someone from Mozy or a more technically-savvy user will pick up the glove and respond in detail. What really bothers me here isn’t so much the actual content, but the blatant attempt to create authority out of nothing, pretending to be an entity/analyst/expert. The funny thing is, the author may really be an industry expert (or not), but how should I know? As long as he stays anonymous (you know, there is that section called “About me” in most blogs), comments anonymously, and his/her one-and-only attack-post is in a brand new blog with no other post – well, I’m sorry, you are NOBODY for me. Credibility, respect needs to be earned, even on the Blogosphere. 
Oh, here’s one more gem. Our “expert” finishes by saying:
“That’s it for now. Corrections, comments and hate mail welcome.”
Yeah, right. Commenting is turned off, and there is no email link. Talk back if you can. 
Update (9/21): Although only remotely related, the story of the anonymous but recently “outed” Dead 2.0 is definitely worth reading.
Tags: advisors, blog authority, crediility, ethics, mozy, Zoho Writer
I’m not involved in that Mozy mess at all, but I still wanted to leave a comment here. I think you’re absolutely right that bloggers should try to establish their credibility — especially when they try to position themselves as experts, which is what OBA was clearly doing. I wouldn’t take that person’s word as anything more than opinion, but others might. It’s just very misleading overall.
Spot on Zoli – I really find it disingenuous of people who claim expertise yet hide behind anonymity. Even when they’ve got intelligent things to say. Which is plain mad. Sadly, I find most of them eventually fall into Bob Sutton’s definintion of Assholes and if they turn up at my place they get one chance to speak in a reasonable tone, I email them and if they continue then they get banned.
My place, my attention, my rules = No Assholes Here.
Zoli,
In general, I agree with your ‘maxims of blogging etiquette’ – but I find it interesting that you choose the OBA as the object of your wrath. In fact, it seems that the OBA might have actually embarrassed you a bit, judging by the fierce way in which you feel you have to defend your position regarding Mozy. Have you considered that the OBA might actually be a bona-fide authority on online backup, but that he/she might also have a good reason for maintaining anonymity? As far as I am concerned, it is refreshing to hear a different opinion about things (this is what blogging is about, isn’t it?) as I’ll do my own research to validate or disprove the information – as will most reasonable people.
As far as the cash incentive aspect of all of this, your comment that there is ‘clearly no cash incentive’ is really rather interesting. Mozy depends on affiliate marketers to spread the word about their service. These guys, like you, are being compensated for their referrals, period. Free storage space equals cash money in the backup industry – so I guess I don’t see your point. Seems that there ‘clearly is a cash incentive’ to me. Your comment that you are ‘in no way affiliated with Mozy’ is not true. You ARE affiliated with Mozy. Remember this comment? “…Disclaimer: I used my referral code…” Duh. Referral affiliates are usually affiliated, unless I am missing something here.
Most of the referrers in this network don’t know if Mozy is a particularly good service, how the service works, of if it even works at all. Their incentive is to spread the word, via the referral network, and get paid/compensated for their advertisement effort – just like they would for any other widget. Many of these referrals are listed in blogs that are unsigned and have no first-hand information about their authors – and comments are turned ‘off’ on many of them. They seem to be maintaining their anonymity while getting paid to act as a reference point for something they could actually know nothing about, at all. Do you have a problem with this practice too, or is it only anonymous voices of dissent that you disagree with?
Secondly, your point that “…Mozy is clearly a “disaster-avoidance” service, and frankly, if you lose your data more than 4 times a month, you may be better off staying offline….” is as unintelligent and disingenuous of a comment as you are damning in your own posts. I think it is safe to say that limiting the restore capabilities of any backup service is just… well… wrong. Who are you, or the OBA, or anyone else, for that matter, to dictate what I should be able to do with my backed up data? What if I lose only one critical file each time, but it is a critical file that I need to restore immediately? Only companies or individuals who offer me a service for free can get away with that kind of service limitation. Oh wait… I see… you really DO get what you pay for.
Regarding the ad-supported (Spam) nature of Mozy, I don’t think anyone will argue that they are paying the bills via advertisement revenue, not service levels or sales. In fact, their own affiliate program is probably one of their highest expenses from an advertising perspective – and even that probably isn’t very expensive, from what I can discern.
Another comment you make here sends up a flag. “…I guess our “expert” wants it all free, unlimited, yet with a sustainable business model…” I doubt very much that this is true. The OBA, if he/she really is an industry veteran, views Mozy and their ilk much like others of us in the online backup services market. We don’t like it. Like with the ‘hosting wars’ of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, these ‘free’ services are seeking to commoditize a market segment that has lots of potential for long term revenue by actual service providers. Many of these services begin by advertising “Free, unlimited backup!” – then begin to scale the definition of ‘free’ and ‘unlimited’ based on actual reality, as opposed to virtual business planning. See http://www.nickstarr.com/2006/06/29/carbonite-when-unlimited-is-limited/ for a current example of this phenomenon.
Rest assured that ‘free’ services, or even those that are very cheap (like Mozy?) will figure out what dozens of startups before them have figured out in bankruptcy court or arbitration meetings. Free doesn’t pay the bills. Neither does ‘almost free’. Advertisers will figure out that the users of the service are filtering the newsletters and emails to the trash mail, and their clickthroughs and revenues, or rather lack thereof, will prove it. Mozy will have to adjust their advertising model to compensate, or the advertisers will leave, or both will happen. Users will be expected to flex with the changes in their marketing plan, and will absorb a greater number of GUI ‘enhancements’ or a larger volume of junk mail, or both – or they’ll simply leave. This is simple e-marketing economics, not the opinion of someone with an agenda.
In fact, the only players large enough to support this kind of model are the search engines themselves. They are already in the advertising business, and will make ads an integral part of their GUI and service from day one. GDrive, LiveDrive, S3, etc., will kill Mozy, almost overnight, without a doubt. Why? Because they really will be “…all free, unlimited, yet with a sustainable business model…” These will be ideal for consumers who don’t want to spend a dime to protect their pictures. The problem will continue to be, as it is with Mozy, and etc., that the privacy, contractual, and service levels will be less than adequate for businesses, where the lion’s share of online backup service revenue resides. Google Earth is a cool service that is fun to play with, but I won’t be using it for anything of any consequence, if you see what I mean.
Unlike you, I share the OBA’s amazement at another startup offering ‘free’ backup services. I wonder what the venture capitalists had to drink at lunch the day they agreed to this turkey. Hey guys! I have a program that will allow you to instantly message people on their computers without using email… let’s invest a couple of million to get her off the ground! It’s a bold new direction for e-services!
Also, it seems that your counter-attack on the OBA is borne of something completely different than what you write about here. In researching your own credibility and qualifications, it seems that you have little to offer, at all, except for hundreds and hundreds of blog entries. I assume that you are a ‘consultant’, as these are the only people I know that can produce nothing, speak incessantly, and chastise other people for not wanting to join in their high-profile, high-flying ways. I can understand why, for someone who builds their own credibility by continually espousing it online, you would be miffed by the OBA. The OBA strikes me as someone who has experience and obvious industry knowledge, but yet doesn’t want to debate the finer details of their opinion with everyone with a browser and 10 minutes to kill. I applaud the OBA for offering their opinion as a counterpoint to the tiresome marketing hype which currently surrounds a second rate backup service.
My name is Fred Whatley, but that is all I am comfortable sharing with you in this forum. You see, I am in the backup business and I have been for many years. My opinion is my own, and I’d rather not publicly take a stand on a company that I believe will be out of business quite shortly. I am not the OBA, nor do I know who the OBA is, nor do I particularly care who the OBA is – or what motivated them to post their opinion on Mozy. As a result of my time in this industry, versus your apparent short-term infatuation with a cut-rate service within it, I do understand some of his/her points. I don’t have an axe to grind, nor a position to defend relative to the OBA’s opinion.
If you simply don’t like their opinion, or that they choose not to publicize themselves in a manner that you seem to have become expert at – that’s another thing all together. It seems that the objectivity and professionalism that characterize the best ‘consultants’ has failed you in your haste to assassinate someone with a differing opinion. Perhaps you and the OBA need to hug and make up over lunch some day – you might actually learn something from each other.
Fred Whatley
fredwhatley@gmail.com
Hi Fred,
Thanks for your comment, and sorry for the delay in posting it, I can’t figure out what triggered the spam filter…
It’s not the OBA’s opinioin that bothers me, but the fact that he claims authority without providing any credentials. Differences of opinion are OK, but he really goes further, not even you can deny the fact that he is attacking Mozy with big guns – which would still be OK if he did it “in the open”.
To answer your question, yes, I considered the fact that he might actually be a bona-fide authority, you just have to read my blog:
“The funny thing is, the author may really be an industry expert (or not), but how should I know?”
There are a number of ways to establish credibility online, and one of them is through those hundreds of posts you consider worthless. That’s the long and slow way; another one is by referring to one’s professional background. In my case you have both, other than the blog posts, you can see my LinkedIn profile, companies I worked for or were my clients – top names in corporate America. If that’s “little to offer” to you, so be it – I really don’t care.
As for the cash compensation, you’re really stretching it: you point is essentially that money not spent has $ value, so it is cash. Well, #1: this is NOT what the OBA talks about, he clearly states: “the blogger gets things like extra storage space and even cash. “. He is clearly talking about cash payment on top of free space, which is not true. #2, money not spent has value if otherwise I would spend the money, which means I find the service useful, which defeats the argument that these endorsements are fake. If I don’t consider it a good service, why would I need storage with them? It’s that simple.
But you had to twist this argument to the point of painting bloggers paid agents: “getting paid to act as a reference point for something they could actually know nothing about, at all.”
I’ll repeat this one more time for you: I am not an expert in the field, nor do I claim to be one, as I stated in the post: “Now, I don’t consider myself an authority (and am in no way affiliated with Mozy), so won’t attempt the address the detailed issues raised in the article” Does it mean I know nothing about the sevice? No. I know that I am a satisfied user, and that’s all I claim to be.
Hugging the OBA – I can’t hug ghosts, for all I know, he/she does not exist.
The OBA attack-post is fantastic – we knew we would upset the traditional backup providers, we just didn’t know that they would react in such a desperate way. 😉
I’ve read through the tediously long OBA attack-post, and this is the conclusion I’ve come to:
Either the OBA is a woefully ignorant individual wrt technology and the market (in which case he/she has no business advising anyone of anything) OR the OBA is intellectually dishonest.
And, if I were a betting man, I’d say “Fred Whatley” is, in fact, the OBA or is closely associated with the author(s).
Zoli, I commend you for your intellectual honesty. Thanks for calling it how you see it.
And for the record, our business model is going great – we’re on track to be cash-flow positive by next year. It’s our innovative technology that makes the model work.
-josh
Founder, CEO
Berkeley Data Systems, Inc. / Mozy.com
josh@mozy.com
Great post, Zoli. Nicely written.
This is a great post, Zoli – I tried to read the “online backup advisor” blog but it just sounded like somebody whining about a free product for no reason. Then I saw the long, pointless defense of the backup advisor in your comments and put two and two together – I’m glad that somebody actually called him out.
I’m not as annoyed by people making free software and trying to make money with paid signups as I am with people trying to make themself sound like an expert by writing one blog post and then commenting on a bunch of blogs and linking to their own blog. I probably won’t use mozy because I don’t care that much about backup but I agree with your point that bloggers need to earn respect.
Hi Josh,
I concur with your comment. After years in the encryption and data storage/backup space–I’ve been following Mozy’s conception and success. I heartily cheer you up. If there is ANY industry that is in dire need of a shake up and will violently fight that disruption their convoluted status quo.
Congratulations ~ I encourage you to fight the good fight and truly protect your customer’s precious assets…its data.