So I decided to spend some time with my beautiful girlfriend this morning as I have hardly seen her recently. Beautiful Sunday morning it was too. First time in months there has been no computer activity first thing in the morning with a coffee in one hand, keyboard the other and reading the latest test results, writing up code or even catching up on email. But all morning something has been in the back of my mind. Its just pushing there and it won’t go away.

Its the question of why do I bother? Why do I bother when people like Robert Scoble, whom are generally well received and their opinions generally well read, can come along and in one swift move attempt to destroy someones, dreams and hard work with one misplaced and possibly thoughtless comment.

I’m not a big blogger, and never will be, but reading Pat Phelan’s post this morning summed up beautifully for me what Scoble has done. He’s dropped on 70 companies with the weight of his ego from a height without taking the time to contact each and every one of them for comment simply because he can. He’s told the families of these companies employess, and the employees themselves, that in his opinion they all suck and that they should not waste their time, hoping, wishing, sacrificing everything for a shot at it.

When we launched TweetRush, we knew that the Rush Hour web site needed lots of love. But we made a calm and fully informed decision to leave it there with a holding page. Why? Because we want our actions to speak louder, we want to focus on what is important to us. We want to have our product built, tested and running. TweetRush was always a short term idea, a demonstration of what we can do, and are doing. With all that in mind, Mike Arrington was kind enough to take the time out to call us. What he thought of what we were doing was great to know, maybe he thought we’d suck too, but do you know what? At least he had the respect for us that we were all giving something a lash. He took the time out to call us and find out what we are about and why we are doing this. Robert, did you do such a thing with the 70 companies you claim suck?

Yes not every start-up has a great idea, yes they get it wrong, but now I know why I’ve bothered.

I bother because I want to be bothered, its because I have an ambition, its because I want to be in charge of my own destiny, its because I want my family to have a better quality of life, its because I want to discover new things, its because I want to build stuff, its because I am inquisitive, its because I like to take risks, I like to explore new technology, I like to cause a stir… the list goes on.

Robert, take the time the next time you feel like saying something sucks, find out why it sucks, tell us why their product sucks on multiple fronts, not just because you don’t like their website and understand the implications of what you are saying. Ohh and do avoid judging books by their covers and writing what was in the end, quite a sucky article.

Here’s hoping it gets better than worse, but prepared for the worst just in case.