I fully agree with Dan!
Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
101–110 of 210 posts
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#102Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#103It's tempting to dismiss this as just e-lebrity gossip, but I think that this kind of rottenness is probably more dangerous to the Valley than threats from Washington or talk of bubbles. If who you know and how well you can politic overshadows what you did and the results you got, then you're in trouble. If somebody is an unscrupulous douchebag, don't to business with them, don't read their blogs, don't upvote their…
In other words, stop visiting TechCrunch. I'm way ahead of you.
I read TechCrunch for a while. I stopped when I realized that I always felt dirty afterwards, much like I do if I look at a celebrity gossip magazine.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#104This sounds like a lot of bitching to me. Get back to work.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#105And now these writers occupy HN. 597+ upvotes. Seriously? Sigh.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#106It's as if people think that any journalist is unbiased. At least MG, MA, and SL all share their bias so openly. You don't think Dan is biased in his reporting? Please.
I don't think Dan shares a direct financial stake in the targets of his punditry like MG, MA, and SL do.
Money makes for a powerful conflict of interest.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#107I'm surprised by the amount of cheering going on over this article. I found it in very poor taste, resorting to ad hominem attacks and slander. Even if it were in good taste, I don't agree with the general idea behind the post. I don't understand this pent up hatred for Arrington, M.G. Siegler, and the other TechCrunch writers who, despite what people continually say, do genuinely seem to care about startups. Is this…
I'm surprised that you're surprised. Read the comments, it's pretty unambiguously spelled out here.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#108I'm surprised by the amount of cheering going on over this article. I found it in very poor taste, resorting to ad hominem attacks and slander. Even if it were in good taste, I don't agree with the general idea behind the post. I don't understand this pent up hatred for Arrington, M.G. Siegler, and the other TechCrunch writers who, despite what people continually say, do genuinely seem to care about startups. Is this…
I think a lot of this anger stems from the way many tech bloggers write - a combination of a "fuck the haters" and a "told ya so" attitude. It's easy to breed hatred with thinly-veiled disdain for those who criticize you, and I think that's a good part of what's happening here.
A lot of dislike for TechCrunch and affiliates also forms because these bloggers are part of a "good ol' boys" crowd in Silicon Valley. While the article casts this effect as one of VCs indirectly paying for stories and conflict of interest, I think personal ties are more important. Most of these tech bloggers spend a lot of time with a small group of VCs and founders-turned-investors, and it shows in what they choose to write about (and in who funds them when they go to found their own sites). For many, especially those outside this close network who are founding a startup or those who choose to eschew venture funding, it's frustrating to watch an already quite small echo chamber (tech startups in general) grow even smaller thru the lens of the VC-affiliate media.
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
Really? I remember reading about all the crap between Apple/Microsoft/Xerox (in the late 80s/90s) none of it could be described as even close a 'gentlemen's game". Are we that different to any other industry?
Or all the recent nonsense about non-compete hiring practices between top tech firms.
I wasn't aware of this issue. Do you have a link to a recent article/HN discussion concerning it?
Re: Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool
#110I was with him until this:
The real secret to Siegler’s traffic, however, is that he is pals with Gabe Rivera, who routinely drives traffic to Siegler by giving his pieces top billing on Techmeme. (That’s right, kids. Techmeme is rigged.)
Unlike his criticism of Siegler, Lacy, and Arrington, the statement about Rivera and Techmeme is not backed up by any evidence. If he has some -- an analysis of Techmeme placement of Siegler's posts, sources who have knowledge of the alleged "top billing", or some other information -- it should be stated or linked from the post.