Those of you that keep close tabs on all things Online Reputation Management related will probably have heard about 2Clix, the Australian accounting software provider, trying to sue Whirlpool, an Aussie online forum, for $150,000.

The thrust of the charges – Whirlpool owner Simon Wright allowing false and malicious comments to be made on the forums regarding 2Clix.

Well last week we heard that the lawsuit has been withdrawn. I think I’m not alone in breathing a sigh of relief at this. With no precedent on this kind of case a ruling in favour of 2Clix would have had some serious ramifications for the rest of the global online community

At the end of the day 2Clix now seems to be in a worse position that when it started. The efforts exerted by 2Clix in silencing its critics only seems to have damaged the company far more than the critics themselves ever could have done.

Doing a quick Google search for 2Clix I spotted 7 results on the first page relating to the Whirlpool case. Considering that 2Clix came out of this whole situation with egg on their face I can imagine them spending some serious SEO money in getting those results off the first page.

There’s a line in the ORM chapter of our eMarketing 101 series that I’m particularly fond of: “People like to be listened to, they hate to be silenced.” In fact 2Clix’s actions got such a bad reaction that the forum’s users started sending in donations to cover Whirlpool’s legal costs.

It’s such simple logic and yet so many companies still refuse to subscribe to this. You don’t need a doctorate in diplomacy to know that you should look to engage consumers on their turf instead of trying to hide behind a corporate suit of lawyers.

If the information is in fact false, why not shed some light and educate the consumers? Doing otherwise will only seem to confirm your guilt. Fine, there may be some instances where you don’t want to divulge certain information to the public but there are ways of communicating this without giving the game away.

Granted, 2Clix claims that it did try and get the facts right with Simon Wright first, and spent some seven months trying to get him to see their side and remove the comments. But for me this is the wrong approach – no matter the extent of the bad word of mouth that Whirlpool was generating 2Clix should have responded with a WebPR campaign. Ultimately, trying to silence your critics smacks of nothing more than insecurity and desperation.