People who don’t follow Loren Feldman are usually surprised when he takes aim at their startup and lets loose. He combines valid points with a highly confrontational approach (he once called me a “pompous elitist asshole” and I still consider him a friend). The results are usually entertaining and combustive. Quite often they also cross the line and could be called offensive.
Today Feldman went off on new video startup Seesmic (I am an investor). Since Feldman is a video guy, I would have assumed he’d like Seesmic. But he most certainly doesn’t. He posted a video attacking the site, its founder and its users in a highly aggressive way. Apart from the parts making fun of Europeans, I found it to be funny and included some valid points. The video is below - it is definitely NOT safe for work.
Founder Loic Le Meur, hot off a very successful Le Web conference in Paris, didn’t take it very well. You can sense his frustration in his blog response. The frustration is warranted, but this kind of thing is going to be occurring regularly, Loic. Time to get used to it.
I just noticed that he used the french video aggregator Dailymotion for this “Crappy-Cast” … It stinks bad handling…
Funny guy, though showing an astonishing lack of self-awareness (probably part of his schtick).
Nice reverse psychology in the making…now I am dying to use Seesmic (when i blew it off before). You sure Loren isn’t also an investor?
To me it’s just the logical evolution of Stand-up comedy we should take it that way.
It’s quite interesting in my opinion because he uses new tools and talks about stuff that only tech geeks are interested in, but i still think it’s just suppose to be a joke.
I agree he’s not as subtle and funny as Seinfeld, mostly because he uses the easiest way to have fun, but still it’s no big deal.
the structure of the video is fun, the europeans/ french jokes are easy but funny (i’m french and still thought it was funny
many good points except the flash issue. i totally disagree. the flash/flex framework IS the future, especially with the new papervision3D implementation. while flash loaders might be so 90’s, ajax has proved its limits in cross-browsers compatibility. get over it : web 3.0 won’t be ajax, but AS3/flex/papervision3D.
Loren is a racist f**k. Dunno why he is still being given a platform here.
Loren…… funny post + great points
you got Hutzpah baby
In case you have trouble watching this video on DailyMotion, it is also available on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOSqTVeIHNQ
the seesmic controversy, nice! Seriously now a little hard that review its just an alpha man, relax and after all and I do find seesmic useful already. On the other hand Loic, I´ll take that kind of bashing anytime over the hacker attacks we had on erepublik.com within 10 day of launching the beta.
Pardon me French I’m English, just living in France, But WTF. I happen to know the Dailymotion CEO and he just told me that he has suspended Loren’s account on Dailymotion for violating European law, (by talking English with an American accent. Yes that’s now illegal in Europe!) and claiming that the English have an ‘accent’ is really beyond the pale.
You wanna cuss our (English) accent Loren, then go make up your own fucking language and stop butchering ours with your tangy twittering! Over and out 1776 Media.
So funny review! This guy wasn’t invited at the Davos Forum, sorry, at le Web3? Loic, if you only want positive reviews, just consider your tribe.
here’s my seesmic review from last month plus a video on seesmic which includes the first ever web 2.0 harmonica:
http://www.centernetworks.com/seesmic-review
I’M SORRY JULIA!
He talks about clicking on a video, and having to watching unattractive Douchebags talk… Its funny, because I just clicked on his video, and ended up watching an unattractive douchebag…
and wtf is “pre-alpha”. Do they not know, “beta” is the correct term for Web2.0
Besides if they were actually following software design standards, anything below beta, including alpha and pre-alpha, is considered an internal build subject to testing by the developers ONLY.
p.s. how he can rip into the design’s of sites and logos, when his own site is absolutely BRUTAL!? how can he talk about Flash sites being ’so 1987′, when his is looks like it would be twice as old as that (if the Web had been around then).
It’s almost 2008 pal, reflect it in your designs.
haha, an attention whore in the purest sense… bless his little inferiority complex, he really wants to be liked but knows he’ll only disappoint. Kind of endearing in a watch-the-vulnerable-little-boy-try-to-cover-up-the-fact-that-he-wants-his-papa-to-love-him-by-trying-to-be-acerbic kinda way.
The only pity is, he’s not actually funny
Anyone can write drivel that appeals to xenophobic adolescents…
Don’t cry little fella it’ll all be fine in the end.
Loren, your points are well taken but … can we at least have a constructive argument here? Video by its very nature will never be as spontaneous as chat/twitter. However, seesmic makes it super easy for me to post stuff on my blog, which makes it useful. And I believe they do have plans for other kind of shows, not just user content (and I am NOT an investor, wish I was …). Give creative people a chance, what’s the worst fracking thing that can happen?
PS people … get over yourselves, techies! There are children starving somewhere!
I love how he whines about having to hear things at the speed of video, but then makes a video review. I would have liked it much better if it were text, so I could read it instantly, and skip over the part about accents ruining the website.
Arrington - this isn’t his first overtly racist post, as you probably well know with his whole “Black Techcrunch” demeaning stereotype fest.
Maybe you should consider whether this particular junkie needs a primetime spot on your publication. I’m mean TechNigga… ffs!
I just believe he wanted to grab some attention .So what you do to be noticed?Say sth bad about a good person or steal a portion of the attention that some people or companies enjoy…simple marketing of himself and nothing else to comment on!
John you must be a rocket scientist. Regardless, many of his points are valid.
OH MY GOD ! Lamentable !
So arrogant… You may think that seesmic is totally crap but put some intelligent ideas on the table. I just see nothing here to debate. Or if you just want to create some traffic on your site, make it with dignity and humour and avoid that stupid red neck attitude.
Love him or hate him, Loren does a good line in irony. Seen his post about banning French people from his site?
As an aside, Loren reminds me of Lenny Bruce but without the drug addiction.
@Loic: you’ve gotta understand US humour (or as they mis-spell it - humor) to get much of what he’s saying. It also helps if you come from New York where being rude is the normal method of operation.
I refer to the comment, ‘I have observed it’ - thats not the same as ‘I have actually spent time getting to know this site and then formed a valid opinion.’ This story is clearly getting traction for the ‘in your face’ nature of the commentary but if you strip it down, there doesn’t seem too much basis for the argument.
Dennis, thanks, will learn the US humour then…
Why don’t we just ignore that guy (Lauren)?
In my opinion he got too much exposure for nothing … he does not deserve it, at all.
Not everybody can like Seesmic.. but if everybody (lovers and haters) talk about it, it’s very good for Seesmic in the end!
Yeh Julien, just like Edgeio.
Loren’s post is obviously for entertainment purposes only. If one would like to discuss the concept of a social media site like seesmic, then one should stir up relevant questions for debate. It’s important for us to discuss how we are defining and shaping community in this web2.0 world. Loic et al. have thrown a ‘conversation’ media idea into the mix. Why talk about the proletariat’s camera quality? Is this just the elite geek trying to weed out the unworthy masses again? Also, why talk about accents? It’s more helpful to talk about the new community-based building model that Loic and Johann are offering: building with users from the ground up instead of bringing users in at the very last minute.
Listen, I’m a seesmic tester/user but by no means have I imbibed the kool-aid. I’m watching and learning. We think we know coding, social networking, and media, but we don’t. There is a new way to push the innovation envelope everyday. I’d rather observe and adopt what is useful for me and the world than disregard tools based on their users.
It’s purely a NYC cultural thing.
I guess it shows that I’ve been in NYC too long, but I found this piece hilarious !!
Loic- don’t worry, this is the way he expresses love.
Seriously man. Why do you give so much importance to Loren? Seesmic is alpha and there is no point whining about it now. I do agree that Loic can get way too boring at times (like how he was enamored by Sarkozy and his white house visit). But he is trying hard to build an interesting idea. Let us wait till he is done with it before saying whether it is shit or the greatest innovation since wheel. Mike, unless you are using his whine to boost the value of Seesmic (to boost your investment), linking to Loren’s trash talk is a waste of TC’s resources.
After listening to his video, I am still wondering what Loren’s point is. If he wants to come off as an arrogant dick, he is a talented guy, but unless he actually makes a valid point, why would anyone listen a second time to anything he says?
- terrible? awful?
okay, you don’t like it. but so far your opinion counts as nothing
- flash loader/they use flash
okay, you don’t like it, but so far your opinion counts as nothing
- black/grey scheme
you really have no argument, no valid point to make, do you? still zero points.
- video quality, one step above unwatchable
if this is true, you may just have a first valid point, but is this Seesmic or the users that produce the low quality video?
- european/french/british/unattractive
you just lost a point for reminding us all that you are little more than ignorant and arrogant (a fine US quality these days but will get you nowhere)
You don’t like Seesmic? go elsewhere (you wont’ be missed) but you’re not professional, you’re not interesting and, in many ways, you’re a disgrace to your peers.
Give it a rest with the alpha crap Krish. Those software stages are thrown around so loosely these days, as a cop out for web products that don’t work properly.
Jason, I agree with you on that. However, this alone doesn’t legitimize Loren’s nonsense. I seriously think that Mike Arrington is doing this to boost Seesmic’s visibility :-). Since TC cannot write openly about Seesmic anymore, this could be a cover to get people talking about Seesmic. Just kidding!!
“the community” takes the bait! The whole thing is about starting “a conversation”
Krish is absolutely correct. 1938-seesmic-tc all are friends.
Is Loren really that stupid and desperate for attention? If he is that smart, why not simply come out and say: “here are 5 things that I would change in Seesmic”. Seesmic is early in it development cycle and mutating really really fast. I am looking forward to the day when Seesmic is going to be really really popular and this douchbag will have to go and create his own Seesmic channel!
Hilarious. Gave me a great laugh.
I hooked up with the CTO and some of the developers of Seesmic on the metro after Le Web. Apparently we were already connected on Facebook. Lovely people. Small world.
I haven’t used the service yet, so can’t comment.
Regarding the ‘European’ comment, I remember my startup days at AOL in Europe (I know, I don’t look old enough ;)). When we first started, a bug in the US client was an ‘unexpected feature’ in the Europe clients. It didn’t take long before we proved ourselves to be (much) smarter, but there was an assumption on their part.
Note: I’m referring specifically to AOL people and not all Americans. That said, do Americans have negative thoughts towards ‘Europeans’, or just people from specific countries? We are all completely different.
Loren–I don’t care who you are but the video was nonsense and just plain mean and he stuttered quite a bit, his video quality was not superb and who cares whether it’s Flash or not?
I have to agree with David’s comments.
In addition to that, I don’t really care what Loren has to say about the product (except he was quite provocative in a rude way). Like most social media products on the internet, his single opinion won’t matter as much as what the masses have to say about it by becoming regular users. A lot of these technologies in social media out there are “pull” based, meaning the user base will drive the product and the masses determine success.
I did my kind of … lipdub : http://seesmic.com/BWGz2IhSPp
@PaulWalsh - have you never been verbally assaulted by a New York cabbie? Makes Loren sound like a pussy. Anyway - Loren should know this - Loic is mates with the President of France who is also a mate of George W. I reckon that outguns Loren by a large order of magnitude.
Didn’t anyone notice that Loren is polishing his Tony Soprano approach. Except Loren’s Jewish which is always going to make the full comparison a tad difficult.
@Dennis - no, but I’ve been on the receiving end of extremely ignorant comments from taxi drivers in Manchester (that’s in the UK for those of you who don’t know). They seem to hate the Irish, I mean ‘hate’.
Regarding friends of friends - means little to nothing, or at least it should. Perhaps the .xxx team should have built a relationship with the white house to ensure it wasn’t canned by an individual ‘after’ it was given the green light.
is he kidding? loren feldman is complaining that people on seesmic are unattractive? i’m not really sure why he thinks anyone gives a shit what he has to say anyway. this was the longest, most rambling adolescent company review i’ve ever seen.