April 4, 2007

Trash TechCrunch And Win A Free Pass To The Web 2.0 Expo

Michael Arrington

124 comments »

We’ve gotten our hands on three free passes to the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco on April 15-18, valued at $1,500 each. We traded these passes for excess advertising inventory on our sites, and our plan is to give them away to readers.

I want to have some fun with giving these out. Last year we gave away a free pass to SXSW to the reader who had the best reason for going, but it turned out to be a massive competition for the biggest sob story. It was depressing.

So for the Web 2.0 Expo, we’re going to do something a little different. I want you to tell me how much we (occasionally) suck. Sometimes our predictions are, with the benefit of hindsight, way off. Or they had no logical basis to begin with. Or perhaps we got some crucial fact wrong. Whatever it is, I want you to dig out the worst post in TechCrunch history and write about why it’s so bad. A good place to start is our Company Index.

Here are the rules: You can attack any post published on TechCrunch (not MobileCrunch, CrunchGear or any of our other sites). But you can’t personally attack the writer unless it’s me (Michael Arrington). Points will be given for originality, creativity and humor, but deducted for outright and unsupported meanness and/or ad hominem attacks. The best entries, in my opinion, will be the ones that find us stating a one-sided opinion about the future of a startup or market segment that turned out to be flat out wrong.

To enter, you need to write your entry on your blog and either successfully trackback to this post or add a link in the comments to what you’ve written. If you don’t have a blog, I recommend starting one at Wordpress, Vox or Blogger. It only takes a minute to set up, and hopefully this will be the first of many interesting blog posts that you write.

We’ll pick the top ten or so entries and then let readers vote for the three winners. Entries must be written and added to the trackbacks or comments below by noon PST on Saturday, April 7 (comments and trackbacks will be turned off at that time). The voting will start on Monday, April 9 and go for 48 hours.

While this is mostly for fun, I’ll be reading every entry carefully and pulling out as much constructive criticism as possible. This will be a painful, but useful, way to become a better writer.

Update: Wow, I regret this already. Even our former writer Marshall Kirkpatrick is piling on. :-)

  • Sphere It

Comments

Can I add my name to the list of writers that you can personally attack? If anyone hates my TC contributions that much, and they’re funny, I want to read them! :)

 

HAH! Awesome.

 

I am sure you would never wanna try this again ;)

 

Yeah, well - I guess asking the pathetic to tell you how pathetic you can get makes some kind of sense if you are truly pathetic? The problem is that the pathetic are pathetically bad at judging how pathetic something actually is (or even the fact that they are as pathetically pathetic as they are in the first place). All pretty pathic, really.

 

ha, I have a good story/criticism to go along with a Tech Crunch post that I should tell. You’ll enjoy this one.

-JLB

 

It’s really pathetic that I couldn’t even key pathetic properly that one last time. Must be getting apathetic?

 

Prasad - I’m hoping this will give people a chance to just get it all off their chest. :-)

 

The Tech Crunch Chasm

There,
On the pedastal,
A great, shining light.

You,
Reviewed me,
Like a demi god might.

They,
Came running,
My numbers exploded.

Then,
They departed,
My growth eroded.

Love Mick! ;-)

 

I’ll drop off a box of tissues at the post-office today ;)

 

That’s the stupidest fucking idea I have ever heard of… can I have my pass now ;-) -chrisco

 

You should give it to the following people:

1. Allen Stern
2. Drama 2.0
3. Me

I will buy them all beers

 

Better yet, I will do this:

I was a TechCrunch reader a long long long time ago. What was nifty was that back then you began this site as a consistent company profile website. I browsed back all your past profiles and the one that really sticks out of my mind was your first post about Technorati.

What was outright hilarious was that you declared Technorati a Web2.0 old schooler. Jesus Christ. 2005… What do we call Technorati now? Web 2.0 geezer? Oh how simple those days were: a phone call a phone call there and you’re suddenly the savior the failed marketing VPs were desperate for.

Now we get insight and coverage such as: sites that spam your telephone numbers, sites that lets you draw Flash cartoons, sites that adds comic style dialog boxes on your videos and pictures, and sites that that aggregate aggregated data from news aggregators.

So hip hip hooray that we’re way past being old school in Web 2.0, hip hip hooray to burning ad money with cigars like it ain’t no thang, hip hip hooray to the shitty sites and pointless drivel.

Here’s to Web 3.0

PS: You’re lucky Nick Denton fired Douglas; The Valleywag/TechCrunch drama was the only high point of your little rollercoaster of a blog.

PSS: TechCrunch 7 kinda sucked too. I would have liked sushi instead of just hamburger finger food. Could have opted for some lobster too.

PSSS: I don’t know if this has enough hatorade yet.

 

Mike, in one word: brilliant.

I think this is a great idea just as I think you’re in for one hell of a read once the masses start going at it :P

 

Mick - great poem. Too many entrepreneurs (myself included) are looking for that TechCrunch post / review. The real question is, what is your target demographic. I would say that 98% most sites aren’t targeted to TechCrunch readers.

However, it certainly is a good way to see how scalable your site is!

 

is alaska miller a girl? other than that im game. -ooO

 

Here’s why you suck: I’ve been leaving comments here at TechCrunch for the last 2 months, and they haven’t been posted. I finally realized this recently, and narrowed it down to the Akismet comment spam filter. Evidently my email addy had been falsely blacklisted.

And it’s not just TechCrunch. Any blog running Akismet has thoroughly wasted my time as I commented and commented, wondering why my thoughts just disappeared into thin air.

And today… today I finally got the Automattic guys to fix it. And this is my first comment that (hopefully) will finally post, thus ending two months of wasted comments on this site. Thank you for wasting my time with a wonderfully hyperactive spam trap. You suck.

And now I will click submit. Will it post? We’ll… find… out… now…

 

YES!

It’s official! You totally suck.

 

Looking at those trackbacks - looks like I got the first critique posted, besided some strange poem about how TC love is too much to handle! Hoo ya - I’m first again! Speaking of being slow to the punch, I think TC’s really slowed down since…say December or so! ;) lol

 
 

Marshall, that was a good one, but I’m not sure you qualify since you are an ex writer of TechCrunch who occasionally still writes for TechCrunch. Plus, for extra points you should have trashed one of your own posts. :-)

 

Occasionally suck? Now that’s rich.

Is there a limit to our number of entries?

 

No Kewtr, go crazy if you like.

 
 

Damn, I really should have thought of that. I should have ripped on my own post “comparing 3 mobile comparison shopping services” but it was such a snoozer when I wrote it that I didn’t want to even bring it up again. Hmmmm…I’ll try and give it more thought!

 

lolzz…heights of creativity, I’d call it.
But, what made you think you (occasionally) suck?
Replace “occasionally” with “conclusively” and “convincingly”- the judgement of a new reader. :)

 

Worst post for me was April Fools joke. 2 reasons,

1.My son (7 yrs old) asked me “Daddy what is fuckedcompany.com?”..try explaining to a 7 year old that he shouldn’t swear..

2.I have had to read stacks of posts covering it..

 
 

Hi Mike,

If your looking for a poll to help decide the winners from the top 10 you know where to go!

 

great idea but I say make it harder and make people film themselves doing beat poetry to the subject.

I really can’t think of anyone post but maybe if someone wants to do one they should checkout all the digg releated ones and why Micheal won’t say a bad word about his secret love child Kevin Rose ;p

 

It’s true, I am a big fan of Digg.

 

I hate TechCrunch cause its so web 2.0 centric. Even if I got a ticket to go, why would I want to? Its like, “Hey look, isn’t that Justin”!

 

To add insult to injury, I will not only launch invective, I will do so on LiveJournal.

 

Interesting way to get a whole heap of trackbacks, I guess you guys subscribe to the school of thought that all publicity is good publicity.

 

Does a post on crunchnotes count?

 
 

Josh, it must suck not being able to share your intelligent comments with the world!

 

Mike you know valleywag is going to be onto this ;)
good luck!

 

Well aren’t you a brave one…you know, if you did it to yourself (what an idea), Michael, I suppose we could call it “blog hari kari”…

…with the way you’ve set up the competition, it’ll be “blog death by a 1,000 cuts”…

 

Only TechCrunch? Boring, I’m going shopping instead.

 

TechCrunch is no crunchy like google nor munchy like go2web20 nor crispy like digg.. Life is hell with it’s huge content in the RSS feeds.. Love will be in the air.. But technology will not be spared if the trend continues.. Wake up.. Wake up.. :D

 

I missed the instructions and created a “why techcrunch (the site) sucks” - oh well, I will save it for another contest :)

 

This one is the worst post. Gaming Technorati, Google and TechMeme. Anyone who participates in this is completely dickless.

 

This is actually a great idea. I ran a “send me your most creative” whatever contest once and it’s amazing the stories you get about how “I must win because my dog just died and my boyfriend has the clap.”

This embraces what you wrote about when you criticized the mainstream media, i.e.: letting the community correct anything that’s really wrong. I’m looking forward to reading the winning entries.

I don’t have a dog, and am happily married to a woman with a clean bill of health. I also have no complaints about TC, so I guess I’ll have to buy a ticket if I really want to go.

 

Criticism Of Arrington’s Prejudice Against My Religion

[to see embedded links: http://feeds.geek.us-freak.us/.....udice.html

I am a cultist and I am a firm believer in the benevolent omnipotence that is Google.

And you, Mr. Arrington, have a deep sated dislike for my most favored Deity. You take every opportunity to slander Google, rather than use constructive criticism to quell your doubts and lack of faith in Our Fearless and Glorious Leader.

Time and time again, your posts at the TechCrunch blog are full of smatterings of antagonistic persecution of my exalted Google. I have many times listened to the venomous sarcasm within your voice during the multitude of podcasts you have guest-appeared on, when the topic of Google was at hand. It is clear to any of devotee of TechCrunch, that you have it out against Google. (By all means dear readers, please comment with your support of my observation). Do you not know that skewing your reports with your obvious disdain and vexation of Google only discredits your integrity as trustful source of valid information?

Not that I have my own trials of faith with my Lord and Savior, Google.

My first tribulation was my being featured on an official Google blog and then having the fore-mentioned content was taken down by Google shortly afterwards. Another test of my faith, was my recent experience with a Enterprise Google Apps support rep. I called for help with an unusual configuration of my MX/DNS records. I emailed a screen shot. It took him 6 days to respond back with a canned response that wasn't any help. (mind that I emailed this to the rep while still on the phone.) Several calls back and forth between Godaddy and GAFYD support, each blaming the other... this was also a major test of loyalty for me.

However, it seems that fear, avarice, and jealousy must rule your heart rather than any true negative experience in being in the warm embrace that is Google.

Oh, why must you be so vile against an entity that promises to bear no evil against you?

After some much needed sleep, I will follow up with some actual examples of your subjective and hurtful posts against Google on TechCrunch. Perhaps I will pick the worse one so that I may qualify your challenge. (and I dare say... edit this original post without indicating that I made changes?!?)

For now I bid you peace, for the use of reflection and to repent your wicked Anti-Google ways.

Louis M. Privette III
lieumorrison@gmail.com

};]

[Cross-posted at Livejournal and Geek.us-Freak.us]

 
 

You wrote a glowing review of Adobe Apollo on March 18th. That kind of ticked me off, so I wrote 2 anti-glowing reviews of Apollo. These are the links:

“Adobe Apollo doesn’t quite cut it”
http://www.varunmathur.net/?p=24

“Been thinking more about Apollo”
http://www.varunmathur.net/?p=25

 

mikee…

gotta hand it to you.. you might be a shill in the ranks of the late/great pt barnum….

i can imagine your thought process..

“…. hmmmm got some passes… didn’t really cost me anything… need a way to kick up my site traffic numbers…. BINGO!! got it… i’ll offer the tix to the group members… provided they go back through old posts… yeah!!

this’ll get plenty of morons (i mean people) to go read old articles.. hell, my traffic should spike like the traffic of a cheap whore giving discounts in palo alto!!

and all for letting them write a simple article!!!

damm i’m good!”"

you go boy!!

gotta give props when pros are due!

peace

 

Huh - my trackback isn’t showing up here. So here’s my post:

http://techfold.com/2007/04/05.....orst-post/

enjoy!

NING 1.0 SUCKED!

 

Have you just been suckered by Mr. Arrington?

Cast your vote today at:
http://blog.culliss.com/?p=7

 

I’d go through the trashing, but I already have my pass to the expo. Therefore, some tech geek — here’s an idea for a post to trash. Honestly, I am most proud of this post’s title — out of any title I ever came up with for one of my posts… but I got burned by not diving into the facts of the story; instead I just took Business 2.0’s “word” and it was wrong. Then I felt the wrath of the TC commenting vampires — waiting to suck on my post like a pack of wolves. http://www.techcrunch.com/2006.....e-and-ibm/

 

@Marshall - strange poem? That was 11pm poetry at it’s best. I was going for the creative angle….

 

Matt — I don’t know how intelligent my comments were. I was just peeved that they kept disappearing. I feel like a new person, complete with the full freedom to talk smack. Hooray.

 

Hey Mike, your friends at PPP already fueled the TechCrunch-beating for you a while ago:
http://startupcrunch.org/getti.....ur_startup

-Zaid

 

Sadly I received a pass to it but cannot attend. :(

 

I was bored this morning, figured I’d play your games.. :)

http://www.daveberube.com/blog.....unch-1000/

In case trackback doesn’t want to work.

 

This is like the homeless guy on the subway that lets you yell profanities at him for $1…

 
 

Alaska Miller says-
You should give it to the following people:
1. Allen Stern
2. Drama 2.0
3. Me

Alaska - I (often) enjoy your posts, but I can’t picture you at the Web2.0 conf. “God, that’s so stupid. Wow that’s the dumbest idea I’ve ever seen. THIS is the future of the world? Before I attended this event I wasn’t sure, but now I can confirm it: Web2.0 Expo people are mostly idiots.” :)

 

My immense love for TechCrunch prevents me from saying anything bad about this website. I eat, sleep and drink TechCrunch. TechCrunch is my life, it is the sole reason I exist . . .

Michael, when should I send you my address for one of those passes? :-)

 

Check mine out: http://beasyoube.vox.com/. This is my first official blog post. I think Steve will like it. I’ve been meaning to start a blog for a while and this finally gave me the motivation to do so. I have a couple ideas on my mind so I intend to keep it going.

 

Hey Thanks Amy! - I hope Mike will let me post my (fun) video :)

 

I’m a total suckup offline. As long as all the web2.0 companies keep feeding my stickers and tshirts I’ll be nice. Then I’ll come back here to post scathing remarks about how much their site sucks, how their dev could have been auctioned off for pennies on Rentacoder, and how their CEO is a pompous jackbutt that doesn’t know the value of a dollar or sleeping in a car because I went for broke and lost all my money trying to start a business.

Yah, the stickers helps keep in the insulation in my car.

 

TechCrunch has always been shortsighted in their coverage of DRM and its utility value in the digital media distribution model.

DRM has put the music industry back on the path to profitability. Most significant is that it has enabled the record companies to better control distribution and has given them a tool to implement a discount pricing model for their products.

A discount structure is the foundation of most retail pricing.

Applied to online music, some consumers will pay a higher price for a song because they must purchase it in multiple formats. Whereas a consumer who buys a song in a single format essentially gets it at a discount and receives a better value. DRM is the leverage tool that makes this arrangement possible.

In traditional retailing, discount models abound. Think rebates and late fees. Cell phone plans (overages). Customer loyalty cards at grocery stores.

Even Arrington favorite, Amiestreet.com, implements a discount model. Early purchasers get songs for pennies, while latecomers pay a premium of .98 cents.

EMI’s announcement this week to offer songs through iTunes without DRM illustrates the value effect DRM has had. By removing DRM and offering songs at a higher bit rate, EMI has created greater intrinsic value for these new issues and can justify the premium price.

iTunes music coupled with DRM has actually made music cheaper and more accessible than ever before! You need to be thanking DRM.

Remember there a winners and losers in retail. Those who get great value are inevitably subsidized by those who pay too much.

TechCrunch, be a music winner not a whiner!

 

Hi Michael,
Rather than trash your startup predictions, I trashed your post on Seth Godin’s “Big Moo” for not fitting in with the rest of the TechCrunch strategy.

http://www.businesspundit.com/.....course.php

 

One word, Michael: Zooomr.

 

I am sorry guys, but nothing compares to the ZapZap disaster, and Michael I apologize in advance about the picture joke, you said you were free game though, hahaha. Enjoy!!

http://falkininvesting.com/blo.....pzap-what/

 

My trackback isn’t showing up either. Woe!
If anyone’s still reading this far down in the comments, here’s my entry:

http://neomeme.wordpress.com/2.....echcrunch/

In it you will find:
-An idea for a brilliant new Web 3.0 TechCrunch/Greasemonkey mashup
-Advice on how you should read TechCrunch
-Groundbreaking analysis of the hitherto untapped demographic of dead British playwrights
-
-And so much more!
-Well, not too much more. That actually sums up the post pretty well. Don’t even read it, you won’t learn anything new.

 

I actually wrote this a while back:

http://punchfire.com/2007/03/c.....ne-tv.html

I’m all for User Generated Content but there’s no way I’d want my TV experience to be like my browsing experience. Sidenote: Doesn’t really seem like trashing you guys though.

 

Michael: Where’s the disclosure requirement for this PayPerPost opportunity?

Glad to see you are recognizing the value of sponsored blogging, but I’d honestly like to understand where you see the difference between this and PayPerPost advertisers who request feedback/coverage in hopes of generating buzz (aside from the fact that PPP requires disclosure and you didn’t)? Are all of your past rants just the difference between a $5 guaranteed payout/post that bring attention to PPP and a $1500 contest payout/post that brings attention to TechCrunch? Spill the beans…

 

Michael,

In the 11/13/06 comparison of Vox and Multiply on TechCrunch, Marshall writes “If you are looking to share text, photos and video with some control over who can see your content - these are two services you should check out. With the launch of version 3.0, I think Multiply has taken the lead.” He also writes “If you seek logical and robust privacy controls and shelter from an online world of strangers then Multiply is better designed,” and that “Vox is beautiful, Multiply is more functional.”

For anyone that doesn’t have a blog yet, Multiply’s approach merits a recommendation as well.

Thanks.

 

VC Dan - How in the world did you convince people to let you invest their money? I really don’t mean this in a mean way, but you just don’t seem to be very good with putting a logical argument together. Did you marry into or inherit money?

 

Seems my trackback did not take, either.

Link: To All The TechCrunch Haters.

 

Hi Michael,

I am just a guy who reads your posts. Thinks about them and says to himself. Damn that guy is good. Well I love Web 2.0. I have no money and I want to go so plain and simple choose me. I am the first person here who honestly and really really wants to go !!!! So again choose me.

So now some techcrunch trashing. April Fools Joke on March 31st. Hahaha. That is a bit premature. Would I call this a screw up. 251 comments + a posting from Mr. Arrington himself.

****Update (April 2, 2007): For those of you still sending in emails pleading with me not to stop writing about startups - this was an April Fools joke. I do not in fact believe that there “just isn’t anything left to invent.” Thank you.****

When I first read it I thought it was pleading Mr. Arrington to STOP writing about startups.

Mr. Arrington, I like you trying to pull off a “google april fools joke” hmmmm … but timing is what makes it gooooooooooooodddddd. :-)

Me being a geek and loving what you write sooo much. I came across this post.

“”"”Redefining The IMG Tag”"”"” I was like WOW .. what just happened in the area of HTML. Let me go see. If Michael Arrington says its redefining then maybe it is. WOW.

This is what I get.

britepic_id = “297898″
britepic_src=”http://farm1.static.flickr.com/53/144942552_81a96c87cb_o.jpg”;
britepic_keywords=”Laguna, dog, pets, cute, perfect”;
britepic_show_ads=”1″;
britepic_caption=”Laguna: Attack Dog”;
britepic_width=”560″;

SCRIPT ?????????? hmmm …. No redefinition here. Disappointed. I closed the browser. Went to adbrite. Awesome product. But redefining tag :-( Far from it Mr. Arrington.

Trashing Techcrunch over.

P.S. I love TECHCRUNCH. Techcrunch is my crunchymunchyNestleBar to Technology. Choose Me ! Choose Me !

 

No idea why the website didnt come up. Hopefully this will bring it :)

 
 
 
 
 

@Michael: That’s the best answer you can come up with? Help me understand the difference you see between this offer and sponsored posting?

 

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, keep on writing your entries, but I can now safely declare TrashCrunch the absolute winner.

Why? First, what better URL for the trash-TechCrunch contest?
Second, the secret sauce: dynamic content. I can redirect it to whatever the winning entry is :-)

 

Oh, pleeeeeeeeze, VC Dan, do you really believe TC with 350K subscribers needs to raise buzz this way? Do you really think a 100 or so participants in this contest make change anything?

Mike did give away tickets / prizes on a contest bases in the past, why not have a little fun in the process?

 

Because I’m a moron and I’m not sure if the Trackback thing I put in Wordpress’s interface actually pinged this blog post, here’s the URL to my response:

http://metacircular.wordpress......-grandeur/

 

Mike, I’m not interested in attending the Web 2.0 Expo, but I do miss seeing Laguna. If I refrain from exposing some choice info relative to embarrassing mishaps in your younger years, can I swap the free Expo ticket for a visit with my favorite chocolate Lab and an IOU for you to call your mother more frequently? (Understand that when you don’t call her, she takes it out on me, saying that you are as inconsiderate as am I.)

Dad

 

@zoli: Don’t take my questions wrong. I know that sponsored blogging can be fun and I think this is a cool promotion. I’m just handing Mike a mirror and honestly want to hear how he distinguishes this from sponsored blogging.

 

VC Dan - I honestly believe you must have a very low IQ. At least DFJ doesn’t go around provoking fights. They quietly invested in the company and have kept a low profile. You should do the same, or at least show your ignorance on some other blog.

 

Only reason to go to this conference is to be able to rub Mike’s stomach for good luck.

 

Michael I accept the apology re swearing and 7 year olds.

Only thing is my son now associates graffiti with fuckedcompany.com as in “Dad, is that their website advertised on the wall?”

 

@Darren Stuart

That’s the first thing I thought of when I started to read this post! I took the idea and ran with it. Its not so much a “trashing of” but a parody of some Digg related posts. Ironically it came out very valleywag’ish Hope this counts!

http://socialham.com/2007/04/0.....iggcrunch/

 

Mike,

Look, you are right on the merits in this kerfuffle with VC Dan, but you break one of your own rules with an ad hominem attack.

Here’s what you might have said:

“VC Dan, I can see how a supporter of Pay Per Post would like to equate PPP with an open contest soliciting comments, but allow me to use an analogy:
Pay Per Post is like saying, “I’ll have sex with you for $5, and nobody has to know about the money part.”

This contest is more like a charity auction for a date with an eligible bachelor, everything is out in the open, and no money is changing hands between those going on the date.

So there, that’s my criticism of TechCrunch, combined with what would have been a much more effective way to undercut someone who makes his living with something so opprobrious. Attacking a guy personally, especially by bringing up his family, devalues your argument.

 

@Scott: Thanks, your analogy would work if PPP didn’t require disclosure and the whole TC contest happened here instead of spread across hundreds of blogs. However, those are not the facts.

Bloggers are being offered contingent compensation for creating linkbacks and TC buzz at their own blogs. There is no requirement for disclosure by the participating bloggers. Those are the facts.

This looks very similar to sponsored blogging transactions that Michael has attacked in the past. His ad hominem attacks instead of answering a direct question are eye-opening about him as a person, but don’t explain the distinction he sees between this promotion and similar ones via PPP.

 

Scott - I went personal with him with my eyes open. This isn’t our first exchange, and he tends to troll any blog that has anything negative to say about his precious startup. I tried the logical approach and it never works. Now I just want him to get the hell off my blog, and I’ll get mean to do it.

I’m not kidding about the IQ angle. He just doesn’t seem to be that smart, and I don’t have any more time to deal with him.

 

@Scott: I re-read your comment and realized I missed “no money changing hands between those going on the date”?? Did you miss Michael offering $1,500 tickets?

Using your analogy terms, this promotion is ““I’ll have sex with you for much more than $5 — I’ll buy you a $1,500 ticket(!), and nobody has to know about the paid part.”

Your direct answer is much better than Michael’s avoidance, but I think the details above get us closer seeing the same things…

 

Mike - Attacking a guy’s intelligence and his family on your blog is not going to get rid of him.

Here’s another analogy: He’s a lot like Ann Coulter on the right or Al Franken on the left. They both make a living by attacking much bigger names, and hoping that the bigger names take the bait and respond. That response raises the profile of the attacker.

You took Dan’s bait.

Your readers are savvy. The way I usually read the comments is to breeze over them and only really look at the ones you respond to. I never would have noticed VC Dan if you hadn’t responded.

 

I agree Scott, Ann Coulter is awesome.

 

VC Dan,

Getting in the math game may not have been such a good idea. You’re talking abut the $1,500 ticket as payoff, but it’s more like a raffle, since only one person will receive it. PPP may pay little (probably on par with the quality of posts) but it pays everyone, so it’s a direct deal.. and btw, they may very well spend $1500 or a lot more on a campaign.

Believe or not, a lot of those who responded (yours truly included) did it for the sake of doing a prank. In fact I spent the equivalent of your PPP payout just to buy a URL - again, for the fun of it.

Back to math - TC has 350K feed subscribers, at this moment 69,716 inbound links from 17,587 blogs: can you seriously believe that getting a few dozen links makes any difference? :-)

The facts are so obvious, I can’t believe you don’t see them. Unlike Mike, I don’t draw conclusions re. your intellect, but that only leaves one other option: you chose to ignore the facts. And that requires thick skin.

 

I must have been having a bad day…

 

I forgot the small issue of content:

PPP posters talk up a product or service.

Those of us who “trashed” Mike responding to this call did not promote anything, and typically created humorous posts explaning what it was all about.

VC Dan says there was no disclosure requirement: guess what, posts without a link back to this article, which explains what it’s all about are actually harmful to Mike: Trashing TC, not being taken as humor does no good to him, why would he want that? Besides, they don’t generate a link, which is what you think this whole sinister act is all about :-)

 

Dustin - Nice bait taking!

 

@zoli:

I believe the PPP issues Michael has raised in the past are 1) conflicted blogging and 2) disclosure of conflicts. This TC promotion contains both of those elements because 1) bloggers have a financial incentive to blog about TC ($1,500 tickets) and 2) Michael didn’t follow his own demands of PayPerPost to require disclosure (even though, unlike PPP as a marketplace, TC is the direct sponsor of this promotion). I’ve been asking pretty directly how Michael makes a distinction between the two.

As for the math, are you suggesting that it’s ethical for companies with plenty of traffic to generate buzz via sponsored posts, but not smaller companies? It’s possible that is Michael’s position, but I don’t know because he has yet to answer my direct question. I’d be interested to know if the whole debate is just about what a chosen few are allowed to do, but not the masses.

 

Oh, man, we’re getting into rhetorics. Others were right, this is anything but a conversation.
I’m done.

 

VC Dan: For someone who spends so much time shilling for PayPerPost, how the hell do you also find the time to troll TechCrunch? Shouldn’t you be, I don’t know, working or something? After your spectacularly bad track record at Draper Atlantic, one would think you would focus on evaluating your investments instead of attacking random bloggers.

How is anyone who is unable to distinguish between a contest and a salary allowed anywhere near money?

 

VC Dan is really killing the fun of the contest here when this article is probably more geared for him:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007.....urs-humor/

 

I still can’t believe I didn’t even get a laugh at my comment:-

“Michael I accept the apology re swearing and 7 year olds.

Only thing is my son now associates graffiti with fuckedcompany.com as in “Dad, is that their website advertised on the wall?””

Surely I must now win? Oh well, back to blogs!

 

yeah, vc dan, I retract. you aren’t dumb, you’re evil. all this smoke creation draws attention from the real damage PPP is doing.

 

Thanks for the retraction Michael. To be honest, it doesn’t really matter whether you insult my intelligence or call me evil. I’ve always worked hard in the trenches for the entrepreneurs I back and always will.

I’ll take your avoidance of the question not once, but three times, as an admission. Enjoy your sponsored blogging promotion, I like it and think it will deliver a nice ROI for you and fun for the bloggers. Next time you might try PPP for helping manage the entries (instead of trying to coordinate via comments/trackbacks) and to require consistent conflict disclosure. I’m sure we could arrange something… ;-)

 
 

Dan, my refusal to address your question is an admission of nothing. I simply will not play your game, in which you try to muddy the water enough to convince people that PPP is a reasonable business model. Yes, you fight for your companies. But the fact that you would back a company like PPP tells me that you are not an ethical person.