Eegads, that's depressing.

I'd like to think that he'd find that engineers at Google are nowhere near as compliant as they are at Microsoft if he tried that, though. There've been times I've questioned VPs about whether their decisions really are in the best interest of users. Sometimes they explain and I'm satisfied that it really is, and other times I've just flat out refused to do it without an experiment to verify, and we run the experiment and find that it's not, and then the executive lets it drop.

I used to work at Microsoft and can say that acknowledging the existence of Android was for a long time absolutely verboten, even at the VP level. I believe this was abandoned when Android passed 50% market share or so. Google's monetization strategy terrifies Microsoft more than Apple- Microsoft understands Apple's business model.

If this is to be believed as anything other than rumor and innuendo, it would be productive if you could supply the manager's name. Both to prove that it's a real person, and so that anyone in a position to do so is better able to have them fired.

You deserve to be banned for this.

You don't attempt to publicly slander a person's reputation (on an influential site like HN no less) based on unsubstantiated heresay.

I'm sorry, what? My primary point is that the poster won't be able to supply any name because the story is exceedingly likely to have been spread by public relations flacks and no such person actually exists.

And if such a person does exist, then it isn't slander if it's true.

"And if such a person does exist, then it isn't slander if it's true."

It's slander if we have a name and the statement is false.

Also there is a, very possible, potential that the person isn't here to defend their reputation. Thus having a name provides us with no clarity and potentially harms an individual's reputation.

I think it's enough that you've made the point that this should be taken with a grain of salt.

OK, I should clarify, I am not looking for mob justice here. My intent in asking for the name is not for the purpose of publicizing it (again, I have my suspicions that it even exists), but rather so that if someone has actually done such a thing then the appropriate higher ups can be notified and some formal accountability can follow.

Maybe the thing to ask is not that it be posted here but that it be supplied to some officials at the company so that they can conduct an investigation and ascertain the truth. Would that be more to everyone's satisfaction?

(Technically, it'd be libel, not slander. Libel is written, slander is verbal, and we write on the Internet.)

Pedantry aside, I also don't think it's appropriate to name names. There's too much risk of not getting the full story when you name & shame on a public forum, and it can have very real consequences for people's lives. If you wouldn't want 4chan or SomethingAwful doing it to you, don't do it to someone else.

I stand corrected.