I wish this was a joke. This is the text from an email I received from the CEO of Sys-Con Media, Fuat Kircaali after a series of emails where I offered some constructive criticism on ways I thought they could improve their site, and make it more useful for me as a potential advertiser (and consumer of content.)
My email:
“Here is what would help most, for the content on your site. Trim down the vendor lists to at least the ones relevant to the topic. (I always see companies like ours in the list following CRM articles) and them make the links function. Linking back to other content on your site, as a tag, or to the category. Of course this will help with the navigation, and also make these list useful items to support your content. As a vendor I LOVE coverage. But 90% of the time the coverage doesn’t count since it isn’t on topic pages relevant to my business. This new service looks like a good way to tie together all kinds of related content from your site, but at this stage, monitoring our traffic and marketing efforts, we haven’t seen much, if any traffic from your site. Maybe we can look into this in a few months to see if things change or improve. I really appreciate the prompt response and attentive service. This is also something that is critical for us in choosing advertising partners. Look forward to reviewing how you guys grow and change in the coming months. The update is definitely a huge improvement over the previous generation website.”
His response to the email above:
“Look forward to reviewing how you guys grow and change in the coming months.” (???)
Who the fuck you think you are, lady? Are you fucking out of your mind?
You are certainly mixing SYS-CON media with some other company. The reason you heard from the CEO of the “most powerful” tech media company in North America today is because he could not believe your email, out of more than 4,000 contacts who received the same email, you had to be the only bitch with a big fucking mouth.
Mind your own business and keep your ideas to yourself and the following.
I asked editorial to “trim down” your coverage.
Who do I think I am? A potential customer who deserves to be treated cordially with respect. Can’t say the same for you Mr. Kicaali.
So my request? Don’t reward them by following them on Twitter, or reading their articles or patronizing them with your advertising business. Anyone who thinks it makes good business sense to curse out any potential business partner, or really anyone else is clearly unprofessional and not worth supporting with my advertising dollars. So this is my last moment wasting energy (and $$$), and I hope you do the same.
I am happy to do business with mature vendors, who treat prospective clients with respect and dignity. Like every other trade publication out there.
— Jame Ervin
I'm Jame :) 
Wow. I wish had the following to expose this ridiculous behavior to the world. Mr. Kircaali should be ashamed of himself. ugh.
i’d like to see your whole email you sent him. something tells me you might have been super passive-aggressive and/or condescending. but i could be wrong.
Sure Mitchell: this is what I wrote, word for word. Guess what he has no right to curse me out. Under any circumstance.
Original email (which had a polite response, and prompted the chain)
“Please remove mefrom your list . Just some feedback on your publication/site. Since you all make a concerted effort to put every technology company in the industry in every post as a footer, your coverage loses credibility since it seems like a scam to increase traffic and search engine rankings with these mentions. On a related note, the number of pop-up ads makes it very difficult to read your articles to determine if you are a viable or credible news source. So typically I just ignore your coverage and avoid your sites. I would be more likely to consider these publications for my advertising dollars if I thought my audience actually felt your content was useful. Unfortunately that’s not the case, it comes across more like spam than tech journalism. So please exclude me from your mailings.”
The second, after reviewing their new service, which they tried to sell me:
“Here is what would help most, for the content on your site. Trim down the vendor lists to at least the ones relevant to the topic. (I always see companies like ours in the list following CRM articles) and them make the links function. Linking back to other content on your site, as a tag, or to the category. Of course this will help with the navigation, and also make these list useful items to support your content. As a vendor I LOVE coverage. But 90% of the time the coverage doesn’t count since it isn’t on topic pages relevant to my business. This new service looks like a good way to tie together all kinds of related content from your site, but at this stage, monitoring our traffic and marketing efforts, we haven’t seen much, if any traffic from your site. Maybe we can look into this in a few months to see if things change or improve. I really appreciate the prompt response and attentive service. This is also something that is critical for us in choosing advertising partners. Look forward to reviewing how you guys grow and change in the coming months. The update is definitely a huge improvement over the previous generation website.”
I liked his line being the “most powerful” tech media company in North America. Today was the first time I had ever heard of this guy or seen any of his pages. I do agree that the pages are far too cluttered and the pop-up advertising is really bad…they come up without you even scrolling over them. As a computer and network engineer I would choose to get my information for other sources (in fact I have always gotten my information for other sources 🙂
Ouch, looks like Fuat had bad day or maybe he is just a self centered bad bad man with a vindetta against intelligent women. I bet his staff loves him! Fuat must not realize that emails are forever – surprising since he is a self proclaimed tech media magnate. Maybe if Mr.Kicaali read his own media and attended his own trade shows he would know email 101 basics and corporate ethics. As a CEO and mogul of tech media you would also think Fuat would alread know this unsocial behavior is historically career ending. I call it AMATEUR – thanks for identifying a company not worth watching!
Yeah I would say with the current economic situation and such a CEO of a little known company such as this would likely be grumpy all the time. Plus a CEO of a company like his spends most there time, money, and effort to legitimize their company’s existence to potential investor instead of serving their customers. Unfortunately the tech bubble also put many people in the position of CEO that do not deserve to be there so this is to you Mr. Kircaali…just because you are the CEO of what you claim to be the “most powerful” tech media company in North America (a pretty specific category and I laughed when I read that line) doesn’t mean that you are a nobody in the tech community.
Love how his “unedited” email adds underlining that he added. My email was “plain text.”
I posted a comment on Sys-Con’s latest article that they wrote via their blogger Engin Sezici (who by the way sounds like a fake person) and they wouldn’t post it. I didn’t even say anything foul just told them that they were cry babies and weren’t treating this in a classy manner.
In there blog re-post I also noticed their clever use of quotations making it look like you said things you didn’t so I would going to suggest to Mr. Sezici that quotations are only needed when actually using the words of other people not when you are quoting your own thoughts (correct me if I am wrong on this). I was also going to clue them into the fact that both you and your employer/colleagues have friends that are in the tech industry and we don’t have any issues with taking advertising dollars and spending them else where.
To Josh: Engin is a real person but he is a fake name for the magazine. I don’t think he has even been in the country for years now. He is a relative of the publisher who never contributed anything to the magazine but Fuat used Engin’s name and picture as a “writer” – for articles written by other people. Several of the names on the masthead are people who are just friends of the publisher and have nothing to do with the magazine.
To everyone else: Fuat is a major rip-off artist. He oversees everything but will pawn the blame for his mistakes off on his staff. He lies to writers, customers, advertisers and his printer. Any stats you hear from this man is a straight up lie or at very least a huge exaggeration. He just says whatever he wants.
Josh: you are right, quotes are required when it is a direct quote. Otherwise you can paraphrase: So and so said……
I am glad they have plenty of time to monitor all comments! Wow, free speech in action.
Sys-Con clearly realized, the best way to not look stupid is to try and pass the buck to someone else. Mr. Sezici’s post is clearly contrived, because he claims he was looking on Twitter, and came to my page. Obviously he had to “search” for me, but he didn’t actually search for or reference my Tweet.
It’s probably more sad that the “powerful media company” had to waste column inches to discredit me and my professionalism. Who really has too much time on their hands?
“Sys-Con goes from bad to worse, launches Ulitzer, attacks community and content creators”
http://aralbalkan.com/2022/
Fuat launched a concerted effort to defame me using his media properties a few years ago. He’s a little b*tch, and probably a crook too.
This is astoundingly bad form. As unpleasant as it can to read an email from a truly informed, honest person giving clear feedback and examples for improvement (and opting out)… It’s a BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP 101 lesson that precisely these bits of feedback are often the most valuable. And how they are handled reveal quite a lot about the culture of the organization.
Epic fail. Next.
Folks, you really don’t want to associate with Sys-Con Media or any of the many affiliated publications/companies owned by Mr. Fuad Kircaali. He basically runs a rip-off operation preying on bloggers and freelance writers:
http://aralbalkan.com/2284
http://forums.writersweekly.com/viewtopic.php?p=61334
http://www.bit-101.com/blog/?p=2013
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Sys-Con-Media-Kircaali-Media-Internation/Book-Magazine-Publis/Sys-Con-Media-Kircaali-Media-X4999.htm
And to top it off, one of his publications was responsible for the infamous “stalker” smear article about Pamela Jones written by Maureen O’Gara (apparently one of the few writers whom Mr. Kircaali has actually paid for their work):
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/kircaali_interview
You know, the “Con” in “Sys-Con” is pretty appropriate, considering this outfits’ activities.