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TechCrunch is a bully

lanewood.me

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Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#71

Post by famousactress »

xo wrote: post #49
famousactress wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, first off I don't give a fuck about the story, or the counter story, or people who photoshop themselves with celebrities, or people who care about whether people really know celebrities, or techcrunch. That said, I wanted to contrast the HN reaction to this story with the HN reaction to the kid who slept at AOL. I figure in both cases we're talking about someone who did something deceptive and wrong in the suppos…

using legality as an ethical corollary doesn't really cut it for me. you're invoking "the worst argument in the world" as seen here on hn. ( http://lesswrong.com/lw/e95/the_worst_argument_in_the_world/ ) now. there is a difference between those two articles. just ask yourself: who would i invest in? the guy deceiving to work more, or the guy working to deceive more? no contest.

You're absolutely right. Inferring legality==ethical is a fallacy and distraction. I got a bit of a twinge when writing that bit.

I think the reason I left it in is because lots of lots of people do make that correlation, and I was asking a question about other people's opinions, not mine. It's frankly surprising (sadly) when folks don't equate law and ethics so I was surprised at the contrast here.

It wasn't meant to suggest that I find the two tied together, or that I think you should.

As for your question, I have no idea who I would invest in (assuming I was forced to choose one of them, which would be necessary since I'm pretty sure I'd like not to invest in either). I have no idea what interesting things Shirley might be up to. All I have to go on is one techcrunch article for each of them, with obviously diametrically opposed editorial agendas... which is kind of my point.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#72

Post by famousactress »

option_greek wrote: post #51
famousactress wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, first off I don't give a fuck about the story, or the counter story, or people who photoshop themselves with celebrities, or people who care about whether people really know celebrities, or techcrunch. That said, I wanted to contrast the HN reaction to this story with the HN reaction to the kid who slept at AOL. I figure in both cases we're talking about someone who did something deceptive and wrong in the suppos…

May be its just too personal when you manipulate people ? As I remember, that kid was using his already expired id card to use the premises not lying outright that he is an employee to everyone.

I don't buy this. None of the specific instances are coming to mind, but I feel like we get stories that come across about folks pulling cheeky (read: manipulative put through a 'cute-hustle' lense) stunts in the name of getting up, and I think HN generally sees those 'outside the box' efforts favorably.

That said, maybe I'm full of it. The thread about the AOL kid was actually really awesomely balanced and there were plenty of reactions on both sides of the aisle. I might be attributing a tendency to the HN community that doesn't exist. My memory's not good enough to be trusted, frankly.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#73

Post by richardjordan »

uid wrote: post #47
richardjordan wrote: post #27

I thought the same thing when reading that article. Here was someone I've never heard of - and I'm pretty active at getting around the startup world; someone who seems to have got herself into a web of lies which probably started off with some exaggerations. Let's stipulate to the fact that it's not okay to lie about yourself to get a gig, even if you think it's harmless and you'll make up for it in work. I thought i…

pretty funny to read your elitis tirade there considering that a lot of these blogs are also startups with founders, CEO's, employees, investors etc.

Not sure what's elitist about getting annoyed at a self-appointed elite of tech journalists for a decline in standards - and also the use of a leading industry publication to attack an individual. Unless you mean elitist in the same way I want an elite pilot flying my plane and an elite surgeon doing my operation. Then, well yeah...

Tirade? Fair enough. Got a bit carried away. Why not? This stuff pisses me off. It's ridiculous that industry coverage has fallen towards the TMZ level over the last few years. I know for some reason I don't understand Arrington isn't popular around here, but when he ran TechCrunch it was must read stuff. Scoops were mostly real, and of some value. He personally wrote well, and held others to the same standard. Even post acquisition TC still puts on great events, and there's a lot to like. That's why it's so frustrating.

Startups? Not really, the specific blog in question isn't a startup - it was sold to a large corporation and its current focus is page views at any cost.

There's still good writing out there. There are tech journalists who I eagerly read everything they write, because it's well written and thought out. There are probably some I don't read because the style is not for me, but I'm sure they're great. However, there is also a parasitic element, feeding off the energy of the startups they purport to cover, having little appreciation of much of what startups do, or even the underlying technology they're writing about.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#74

Post by bugmenot »

samstave wrote: post #36
steve8918 wrote: post #12

I have no real interest in either side of this story, and Techcrunch isn't really on my rolodex of sites to read from. That being said, I don't think the original Techcrunch article was being a bully at all. The fact that she allegedly has gotten away with the simplest of social engineering tactics against a group that most likely thinks of themselves as at least smarter than average, was fairly interesting to me. It…

While I agree with your not being on a side - my personal opinion is this: Techcrunch was founded and run by a douchebag - thus douchebaggery is in its DNA.

"thus douchebaggery is in its DNA"

Let's play "name the logical fallacy"

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#75

Post by mikescar »

TechCrunch is just a joke.

I would never go there outside of HN posts, but it's really amusing to see how self-important a bunch of hipster bloggers can be when writing about people doing actual work.

The puff pieces that they run as the majority of what is published, those are pretty funny. It's the slag pieces that are most entertaining.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#76

Post by BrainScraps »

famousactress wrote: post #68
ChuckMcM wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a completely fair point. What is the difference? I see it as 'who is being scammed' and what is the harm done. Now in the kid's case he did use AOL resources which, had he not, they would have been used on AOL employees (thinking mostly food here, the energy/light/water usage is probably flat rate like it is in my facilities). He did not do monetary damage to AOL, nor reputational damage (he didn't represent…

Wildly lucid and I imagine if I'd reflected on the topic for longer this line of thinking may have occurred to me. I really appreciate you spelling out your thought process for both.

This comment branch is proof that all is not lost on HN. Thanks for being 'Good Guy Gregs' in the comments.

http://www.quickmeme.com/Good-Guy-Greg-/

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#77

Post by mikescar »

citricsquid wrote: post #4

The thing I don't get about the techcrunch article is in the comments Alexia Tsotsis wrote: > This is the story that no one was writing. Amazing work Anthony Ha. is his life in danger? is she some high power person that can destroy Anthony Ha's career? No... she's a person that lies...

Well yes, we are all very fortunate that TC can figuratively pat itself on the back for such groundbreaking journalism.

Alexia's comment is just a reminder about the article's high quality.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#78

Post by jlgreco »

chacham15 wrote: post #59
nameuserc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately this is true. I'm not sure all that many people know where the founder came from, i.e., the type of stuff he was doing before TechCrunch, and the company he worked for - a company responsible for a very large portion of some of the purest douchbaggery to be found anywhere on the web. The lowest of the low. They do some very dirty work. I'd even guess there are "innocent" people working at TC who do not…

Im sorry, but this is ridiculously unfair. Dont judge a company by what just one person in it has done. Everyone has made mistakes. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

That phrase really is not universalizable at all. Where would we all be if nobody called out anybody else for anything?

Consider me voluntarily opted out from that nonsense. Please call me on my crap, you do not have to be perfect yourself to do so.

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#79

Post by mikescar »

samstave wrote: post #36
steve8918 wrote: post #12

I have no real interest in either side of this story, and Techcrunch isn't really on my rolodex of sites to read from. That being said, I don't think the original Techcrunch article was being a bully at all. The fact that she allegedly has gotten away with the simplest of social engineering tactics against a group that most likely thinks of themselves as at least smarter than average, was fairly interesting to me. It…

While I agree with your not being on a side - my personal opinion is this: Techcrunch was founded and run by a douchebag - thus douchebaggery is in its DNA.

Furthermore, other sites jumping on this story are just as lame.

Gawker is also owned and/or staffed by douchebags like Nick Denton and Adrian Chen.

It's funny how much Gawker and Adrien in particular have slagged on 'content farms', when in fact they engage in the same SEO game they pretend to be offended by. Check out how many times the phrase 'Silicon Valley' is used in this journalistic gem.

http://gawker.com/5938904/notorious-silicon-valley-fraud-shi...

( my grep showed 6 counts of 'silicon valley' in the headline + article, with a bonus 'valley' mention. )

Re: TechCrunch is a bully

#80

Post by amorphid »

tomasien wrote: post #2

I seriously am considering swearing off TechCrunch because of this article. True or not, their hegemony gives them so much power, and to see it foolishly used in this way was disturbing. The people she was claiming to know are big boys/girls. This should have been handled socially in the valley.

I stopped reading TechCrunch about a year ago. There seemed to be an increasing.number of junky articles that just didn't interest me. I don't miss what it became, but I do miss the old TechCrunch.
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