Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#1

Post by andr » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:38 AM UTC

Ask YC: Ban TechCrunch?

I know this was discussed a few months ago, but I think TechCrunch has significantly changed for the worse over that time. It is too biased and unprofessional to serve the important role in the startup community that it has assumed. My 3 problems with TechCrunch are:

1) Strong negative bias

TechCrunch has started personal vendettas against Last.fm (http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/22/deny-this-lastfm/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/20/did-lastfm-just-hand-over-user-listening-data-to-the-riaa/ http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/23/another-blanket-denial-by-lastfm/) where they continously bring strongly trust anonymous reports but practically ignore official statements from Last.fm and CBS. Furthermore, all those posts were made entirely based on anonymous sources, without reaching the Last.fm/CBS parties for comment.

2) Strong positive bias

The last 500 posts on TechCrunch contain 1200 mentions of Twitter. Twitter is clearly getting more TC coverage than any other startup in existence. Twitter and Twitter Search are always mentioned as a source, but you'd never see the phrase "a Google search reveals..". On top of that, TC covers random and uninmportant events such as a 104-year old woman using Twitter (followed by a denial), an astronaut using Twitter (followed by a denial), a cat using Twitter, Kanye West not being happy with Twitter, ad nauseam.

3) Censorship

There are reports of people that had their comments deleted from TC because they argued againt TC's position. The most recent example is http://twitter.com/alexmuller/status/1903186356

Should TechCrunch be banned from News.YC?

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#2

Post by RiderOfGiraffes » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:42 AM UTC

Do you feel newbies are being misled? Isit not the case that older hands are sufficiently aware of TC's proclivities? Is it not enough simply to flag the contributions when they are clearly wrong, or down-mod stupid, irrelevant or content-free comments?

What would banning them add? Is it impossible that they might yet say something useful?

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#3

Post by axod » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:45 AM UTC

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #2

Do you feel newbies are being misled? Isit not the case that older hands are sufficiently aware of TC's proclivities? Is it not enough simply to flag the contributions when they are clearly wrong, or down-mod stupid, irrelevant or content-free comments? What would banning them add? Is it impossible that they might yet say something useful?

>> "Is it impossible that they might yet say something useful?"

I'm struggling to remember the last useful TC 'article'. Any example?

edit: It's quite hard to remember a TC article that didn't mention twitter also ;)

Maybe it'd be better to just create 2 front pages - one with everything, and one which removes some of the less useful gossip sites.

I agree with the OP - in the last few months TC seems to have descended into gossip and rumor.

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#4

Post by noonespecial » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:45 AM UTC

I'm gonna go with ban but not categorically. I'd guess most of us have TC in our RSS feeds. We don't need reposts to HN for every new blurb that comes along. Rarely there is an interesting tidbit that merits discussion here. Rarely. We don't really need to use HN as an aggregator.

That said, the voting system does a decent job of keeping excessive TC off the front page. Lets just agree to think about the kind of discussion that can be had about each TC submission and act accordingly.

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#5

Post by bakineggs » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:46 AM UTC

You could do what I do and just not click on any link to a TechCrunch article.

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#6

Post by aj » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:47 AM UTC

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #2

Do you feel newbies are being misled? Isit not the case that older hands are sufficiently aware of TC's proclivities? Is it not enough simply to flag the contributions when they are clearly wrong, or down-mod stupid, irrelevant or content-free comments? What would banning them add? Is it impossible that they might yet say something useful?

Agreed. But how much does that benefit outweigh the obvious negative? And is the amount of bile being spewed by the TechCrunch writers good for the startup community?

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#7

Post by aj » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:50 AM UTC

What's the bet that if this poll is for the ban, there will be a negative post about HN? :))

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#8

Post by markessien » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:52 AM UTC

TechCrunch is a value source of information. When you ban all different voices, you end up with a site where everyone is saying exactly the same thing all the time, and it will increasingly attract the same type of demographic. This will result in an intellectual mono-culture.

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#9

Post by ujal » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:52 AM UTC

What is the purpose of this ban? To tell: TC we dont like you!?

Re: Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?

#10

Post by alek » Mon, May 25, 2009, 10:53 AM UTC

RiderOfGiraffes wrote: post #2

Do you feel newbies are being misled? Isit not the case that older hands are sufficiently aware of TC's proclivities? Is it not enough simply to flag the contributions when they are clearly wrong, or down-mod stupid, irrelevant or content-free comments? What would banning them add? Is it impossible that they might yet say something useful?

You can't downvote submissions and TC is great at linkbait headlines, which get upvoted before people read the actual post. That's the problem.