The political environment should be change
Joseph Drug" rel="nofollow">http://www.drug-intervention.com/purpose.html>Drug Intervention
Some things need to change
21–30 of 209 posts
Re: Some things need to change
#22The spitting sounds more like a lack of social skills than anything else...
Re: Some things need to change
#23The spitting sounds more like a lack of social skills than anything else...
For all we know it could have just been someone from Wales...
"Never ask for place-names in Wales, Baldric. You'll be washing the spit out of your hair for weeks". (Blackadder)
Re: Some things need to change
#24This is terrible, worse than people speculating about Steve Jobs' health, as an example of how low folks in our industry can go. (I know they're unrelated but the 2 evoke the same emotions in me.) I desperately want Michael Arrington to cover my startup as well, but I still can't understand those that threatened or spat on him. Michael, I hope you return to regular writing after Feb, but if you don't, thanks for all…
I agree, it's a sad state of affairs, but "I desperately want Michael Arrington to cover my startup as well" I don't really get this... startups don't fall or succeed based on tc coverage. It might spike traffic for a day with some geeks. That's all at the end of the day. Seems like some of this is TC's own doing - they have made people believe you have to get techcrunched, or you won't succeed - which is completely…
This is true. If you don't get far more traffic from other sources than TechCrunch, I think you're doing it wrong.
Re: Some things need to change
#25Spitter was probably from a PR firm. Remember this post? http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/17/death-to-the-embargo/ A little spit never killed anyone, and I would say any controversial figure is going to encounter that every once in a while. But the death threat stuff goes way over the line. The police needs to find that guy and put him in jail immediately.
Or a disgruntled European entrepreneur who didn't like the opinions he expressed at Le Web... http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/961885
Re: Some things need to change
#26Wow. He shouldn't have to put up with that crap. The whole death threat thing is freaking scary. Hopefully Michael doesn't shutter Techcrunch, but he's right. Something has to change.
"I write about technology startups and news. In any sane world that shouldn’t make me someone who has to deal with death threats and being spat on."
Something definitely needs to change.
Re: Some things need to change
#27For a while now I've been wondering about the industry and the people in it, and this story just makes me question it all so much more.
It seems that the majority of people who work in IT (or at least, those that contribute to the various sites) are acting like they are still in high school. You've got to be associated with this person or that site to be 'cool' and a 'guru' and if you're not you're nothing. It's getting beyond a joke.
Congratulation, you got a mention on TC or HN, or you've been 'dugg' by lots of people. It doesn't mean your startup or product is actually good or useful you know. If that is all the marketing you are relying on then you've only got a 50% chance of success.
The whole thing even extends to people. I'm not going to name names but there seems to be some sort of god-worshipping to people just because they write a blog. Yes, I enjoy reading them, yes I pick up things from people who have done it before, but it doesn't mean they're some sort of superstar ... and I'm not even going to talk about the "we've just got a new CIO who used to work at Google brigade" (oh, he worked at Google, he must be a hero).
Thanks for reading.
Re: Some things need to change
#28Internet fame is like "rock star" fame but without the rock star security entourage.
People begin to treat folks like Arrington as an object and not a person but by the nature of the job they do they are inevitably in closer contact with those that would treat them that way - than (say) a Hollywood film star.
I suspect that we will see more such incidents affecting key technology writers and pundits - fame is dangerous in so may ways.
Re: Some things need to change
#29I always thought people attending a conference like this are civilized but no matter if you like MA or not, this is below all standards
Re: Some things need to change
#30Spitting in his face is going a bit far, but it's pretty difficult for me to feel sympathy for the guy. I struggle to think of a more dislikable, arrogant jerk. This belated plea for human-to-human sympathy falls on deaf ears, for me at least. In my group, Arrington symbolises everything we hate about the "Web 2.0" greed culture. He's relentlessly promoted himself as the gatekeeper to this bullshit world of easy VC m…
"He's relentlessly promoted himself..."
How is that?