Slashdot Mirror
CEO Questionably Used Pseudonym to Post Online
jpallas writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that court filings by the FTC about Whole Foods' plan to acquire Wild Oats reveal an unusual detail: The CEO of Whole Foods regularly posted to a Yahoo! stock bulletin board under a pseudonym. His alter ego was feisty, to say the least, and regularly disparaged the company that he later decided to acquire. A former SEC chairman called the behavior 'bizarre and ill-advised, even if it isn't illegal.' This certainly raises questions about online rights to free speech and anonymity, especially when the line between free speech and regulated speech depends on who is speaking as much as what they are saying."
Posting anonymously under a pseudonym, bah. Gill Bates.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
They should ban pseudonyms and anonymous posting to forums
It reflects poorly on him as he is just another one of the few lame shmucks to get caught. The other 99.999% did not. This is just a variation on the old saying that on the internet all men are men, all women are men and all children are FBI agents.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
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A friend of mine who used to shop there called the store "whole check" for obvious reasons.
I don't think you understand the big deal here.
This is a CEO who is paid by his company to acquire other businesses. Instead, he is wasting time on Yahoo message boards.
I think all slashdotters will agree that browsing online forums while at work is unethical.
Isin't that usually just called "turf"?
"I think an etch-a-sketch with an ethernet port would beat IE7 in web standards compliance."
I mean... that's pretty cool. He didn't hire PIs to stalk his foes, "pretext" their private records, bribe our elected leaders, or even bully his interns into doing it and cutting them and their "independent actions" loose when the investigation came. No. That man sat himself down, got on the internet, and told some lies.
Hands-on kind of approach. I like it. I don't think even the SEC can really complain about people believing anonymous internet posts.
(I also propose Slashdot rename "Anonymous Coward" to "John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, Inc." for the week, but that's because I don't believe in letting him off scot-free either.)
Yahoo! Pipes are awesome. How awesome? http://pipes.yahoo.com/jesdynf/slashdot
Mackey's not a loser. He has a cute haircut and I hear that he's very popular with the ladies. Also, anything you've heard about him having erectile dysfunction is just a rumor being spread by jilted ex-girlfriends and those jealous of his mojo.
I've searched and searched, but I can't find a Sea Nadams in any phone book. I'm pretty sure it is a made-up name.
I know what you mean, I totally love whole foods and think everyone should shop there, every other place sucks. The only downside of shopping there is that i eventually run out of money, but it's totally worth it!!!
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