Okay - after a couple of blog posts on this topic, I think it's all come to a head when it comes to the weblogs.com situation. Over at Joho the Blog, Steve Kirks has made what is probably the most valid statement I've read on the topic, and I think it's not to be missed. You can find it here, dated "June 15, 2004 11:39 AM". I'll also post some of it here, as the comments have started to get lengthy.

Dave detractors:

I had many of the same thoughts until I thought about the problem from a technical perspective: notification isn't as easy as it seems. Manila has a the email address of all of the site owners, but how many of them are valid? If you sent an email to 3000 people at the same time, you run a good risk of blacklisting your servers, a risk that Dave at Harvard can't afford to take.

...

Basically, the situation sucked and Dave was willing to take the abuse that some are heaping on him. This way, UserLand can be left to focus on enterprise software and not free websites.

Thanks, Dave for taking it in the shorts so the web can move on.

After reading lots of comments, and seeing that Winer was there at the front lines, not sitting down on his hands about this, I'll have to agree with what Kirks said. At the end of the day, it doesn't help to flame Dave on this. I don't have a problem with the constructive criticism, but the personal attacks aren't necessary. Personally, I was much more concerned about the "how" in this situation - and Steve made it a little clearer for all of us.