Hit men, click whores, and paid apologists: Welcome to the Silicon Cesspool

Post by kmfrk » Tue, Feb 14, 2012, 3:25 PM UTC

VonGuard wrote: post #132

glyph wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that's the whole point of the article: the whole value of the CrunchFund (and its ilk) is that Arrington (and his ilk) will be a douche on your behalf. If it were just the money, it wouldn't be worth it for the companies they invest in: the amounts are too small. It's an alternative compensation scheme for a PR flack who masquerades as a journalist. There's no ethical way to run the fund, because it would be wort…

Yah, obviously that's the value he's adding. I think it's a zero sum game, however. Shilling isn't going to help a crappy product out in the long term, only the short term. And it brings up all manner of ethical grey areas: is blogging journalism? Do influencers lose influence when they lose objectivity? What the fuck is an influencer, anyway? If a journalist is ever an influencer, he or she is doing it wrong... Buh,…

    I think it's a zero sum game, however. Shilling isn't
    going to help a crappy product out in the long term, only
    the short term.

Post by funkah » Tue, Feb 14, 2012, 3:54 PM UTC

oldstrangers wrote: post #18

jwwest wrote: post #13

I've never understood the enormous popularity of M.G. Siegler. His articles are often published without any attributions or even basic spell checking. Yet somehow he's ridden on the coattails of Apple's ascent by positioning himself among the fandom as a "champion of good taste". In interviews he doesn't even come off as particularly pleasant.

Fanboys on either side of the aisle love to pat themselves on the back and reaffirm--almost daily--that yes, they did buy the best product imaginable. It's the same reason Gruber makes half a million a year writing snarky one liners. Some sort of subconscious need to find superiority in consumer purchases and brand loyalty. It's kind of disturbing.

Post by tucson » Tue, Feb 14, 2012, 4:31 PM UTC

grellas wrote: post #177

Silicon Valley once was home to scientists and engineers — people who wanted to build things. Then it became a casino. Now it is being turned into a silicon cesspool, an upside-down world filled with spammers, liars, flippers, privacy invaders, information stealers — and their grubby cadre of paid apologists and pygmy hangers-on. Silicon Valley has not fundamentally changed over the decades and I can say that from th…

Post by functionform » Tue, Feb 14, 2012, 4:44 PM UTC

vl wrote: post #116

And this is a click-bate title I'm not going to click out of principle.

Post by chauzer » Tue, Feb 14, 2012, 5:17 PM UTC

rjdagost wrote: post #87

jwwest wrote: post #13

I've never understood the enormous popularity of M.G. Siegler. His articles are often published without any attributions or even basic spell checking. Yet somehow he's ridden on the coattails of Apple's ascent by positioning himself among the fandom as a "champion of good taste". In interviews he doesn't even come off as particularly pleasant.

Siegler falls into the category of "irritainment", entertainment via irritation. He's the type of guy you love to hate and I believe a lot of his popularity stems from that. I can't stand the guy and I think he's completely full of shit. And yet I read almost all of his blog posts. The only other TechCrunch writer that I regularly read is Devin Coldewey and that's because he has interesting articles and actually seem…