51–60 of 108 posts
Michael, your apology is meaningless without a very clear statement that you have learned something too, and that is not evident from your post. If TC has posted guidelines on how its editors should behave and this person transgressed those guidelines then that's one thing. But if TC does NOT have posted guidelines it would be comforting to know that those will be put in place after this incident, and that you will m…
This was a friend of mine, really feeling bad for him. One mistake and he's paying for it. Fortunately it will eventually fade away. Edit: http://twitter.com/loic/status/8666998987 - Loic gave some good advice, I can't get ahold of him but hopefully he'll take it.
TC yanking the content to avoid tainting is one thing but it would be good to know what the extent of this is.
Another thing that bothers me about this is that I can't see how a 17 year old given the keys to the kingdom would come up with such a scheme, that's hardly the first thing that crosses your mind when you start your career.
If the first instance of this was initiated by the company written about then that would change my whole idea about this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're claiming it's worth in the neighborhood of $500. If it's actually only worth $5 that's a big difference. No reasonable person believes TC can be bought for $5. My guess is that exclusivity is more of an ego thing than anything else. Competitive people like to win, and in journalism that means scooping the competition. TC might make just as much money, with or without an exclusive (give or take a few dollars).…
exclusivity is definitely also a readership thing. the blog that breaks the news picks up more daily readers, which in turn makes them a bigger blog.
Michael, your apology is meaningless without a very clear statement that you have learned something too, and that is not evident from your post. If TC has posted guidelines on how its editors should behave and this person transgressed those guidelines then that's one thing. But if TC does NOT have posted guidelines it would be comforting to know that those will be put in place after this incident, and that you will m…
You don't need posted guidelines to know that this behavior is wrong.
So that's why every professional organization spells it out explicitly.
Attempts to give items worth in excess of 'x' are to be reported to management, all gifts beyond a ball-point pen or a base-ball cap are to be refused.
That sort of thing.
Have read here: http://www.nytco.com/press/ethics.html
For how it is done in a real news outlet.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"You're making it sound like it's some sort of minor slip-up that happened to get publicized." I think his point was (EDIT: I am just clarifying what I think his point was, not endorsing it) not that it was a "minor slipup" but that the person who committed this is a kid and not an adult (17 is a bit borderline but still pretty young)and he is asking for some compassion and discretion. At least that is how I read it.…
Well, as you say, he's not really that much of a kid. And I think filing it under "we all make mistakes" is kind of diminishing it. This isn't shoplifting candy from the corner store for kicks. I just don't think this is the sort of 'mistake' we all make or made.
I'm pretty sure the intern was Daniel Brusilovsky... he tweeted about "writing the hardest email he's ever had to write" and all his posts are 404'ing on TC. The tweet of his: http://twitter.com/danielbru/status/8523812779
I know he must be protected in some way because he's not of legal age but I do not agree with deleting all his posts. The writer has written several blog posts about milestones of important startups. I feel like I'm losing a sense of history here (though we can still find it on other blogs, google cache, etc). Here are some of his articles that do not exists anymore: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/23/twitter-acqui…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference is that an exclusive actually does have more news value. By definition, it's news.
If Bob Smith creates a tablet computer which runs Flash and cures cancer tomorrow, that has some news value N1 and some pageview value P1. If a particular media outlet gets an exclusive on that announcement, then it has news value N2 and pageview value P2. delta(N1, N2) is zero -- it is still news tomorrow no matter how many people report it. (See: iPad, which was apparently a story of staggering importance despite h…
Even if your only criterion in deciding what to print was how newsworthy it was, you'd still be more likely to print a story if you'd been given an exclusive.
To be very fair, I love how honest and forthcoming Mike was with this news. That was hard and he could have covered it up. To all the deniers and Mike-haters out there, I think this only goes to show the type of person he is. Also, I love how the identity of the intern wasn't disclosed. Not only does it allow him to make amends and learn from his mistakes, it also shows the level of professionalism that stems from Te…
Deleting the guy's account and leading with "Our attorneys have advised us not to disclose the name . . ." indicates that keeping his identity secret was very low priority. Expect a public apology from the kid in the next 24hrs.
To be very fair, I love how honest and forthcoming Mike was with this news. That was hard and he could have covered it up. To all the deniers and Mike-haters out there, I think this only goes to show the type of person he is. Also, I love how the identity of the intern wasn't disclosed. Not only does it allow him to make amends and learn from his mistakes, it also shows the level of professionalism that stems from Te…
screw that, unethical behavior like this needs to be exposed...if Mike won't say who it is, I will: if you want to know who it is go here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1102828
-> Deleted /var on a production system I had no right touching at a Fortune 500.
-> Drove my dad's car into a fence. Unlicensed.
-> Stole the street sign for Cobain St.
-> Plagiarised a philosophy essay (Hegel).
-> etc. etc. etc.
Seventeen year old kids mess up. Seventeen year old kids grow up.
Go easy tiger.