Today I read all the sordid details about the alleged sexual encounter between a notable technology visionary and a woman who appears to be looking for as much publicity as possible. Where did I read it? On the Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag. The posts include private IM chats and various rumors, all designed to make the person mentioned look like as much of a fool as possible. That’s not new, of course. Valleywag is making a business out of digging into people’s personal lives and publishing it for all to see (me included, regularly).
A lot of people I know read Valleywag, and say it’s fun to hear all the gossip. But all of those people change their tune the first time the blog turns on them and includes them in a rumor. An example: TED founder Chris Anderson, distressed over the publication of the TED attendee list, recently wrote to Valleywag owner Nick Denton that he “didn’t think [he'd] be on the receiving end” of Valleywag gossip. His email was promptly posted to the site.
Most of the gossip is harmless. Much of it, though, isn’t (like the sex incident above). Celebrities have had to live with this kind of nonsense for decades, which explains why some of them pull out of society entirely and become completely anti-social. Perhaps, some argue, they bring it on themselves by seeking fame.
But for people in Silicon Valley, who are not celebrities and who have no desire other than to build a great startup, a post on Valleywag comes as a huge shock. Seeing your marriage woes, DUI or employment termination up on a popular public website (permanently indexed by search engines) is simply more than they can handle. They have not had the ramp up time to build resistance to the attacks.
The New York Times today is reporting about the suicide of advertising exec Paul Tilley, saying that it that might be linked to heavy criticisms about the person on a blog. The blogger, an anonymous woman, takes no responsibility. She says “I’m saddened by Paul Tilley’s death, but I do not feel that my blog postings contributed to the events that occurred” and boasted about the sites traffic growth since the incident. The blog in question is owned by JupiterMedia and counts IAC and the Wall Street Journal as advertisers.
So how long will it be before Valleywag drives someone in our community to suicide? My fear is that it isn’t a matter of if it will happen, but when. Valleywag and Nick Denton, though, will likely look forward to the event, and the great traffic growth that will surely follow.
There’s a market for this kind of content, obviously. And nothing can stop it except significant changes to our libel and defamation laws. That isn’t something I support. But the valley was a much nicer place to live and work before the days of Valleywag.
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I, for one, would LIKE to be included in a ValleyWag rumor mill story. Too bad no one has no idea who I am. :wtc:
this is si sad
Btw, Mike, I think Juicy Campus will be the next deciding factor in someone’s potential suicide.
tmz is far more interesting..
VW sucks. i used to give them some juicy tips that they ran with. recently, i made a negative comment about VW (under a different ID) and now my account is “disabled”. i emailed them two weeks ago and have heard nothing.
i now give my tips to kara.
Necessary post Arlington. Thank you!
What an outlandish headline!
and by outlandish i mean appropriate.
I don’t read Valleywag. I wish others didn’t read Valleywag. It would make them irrelevant. They are one of a half dozen sites that serve no good purpose, but they certainly hurt and embarrass people who do not deserve it.
‘Wag’arrazzi?
It’s the Internet , you got to have thick skin!
When will we have our first Techcrunch suicide? Depending on the person’s stability, business/tech criticism could be just as, or more, traumatic. The bottom line is someone who pegs their will to live on what someone posts about them has waaay more problems, than VW, JC, or TC’s writings.
It’s a net centric tabloid with quicker turn around time than the National Enquirer. The NE gets sued all the time right?
I’d guess that Valleywag will fall out of favor like Pud’s FC or that VC oriented lawyers will apportion or trade in a legal war chests to bury sites like these (that have advertisers) with cease and desists, etc…
arguably people like Jakob Lodwick brought this upon themselves and then the rest of us.
Um, Arrington? Did you not notice the INCREDIBLE irony of the “technology visionary” at the center of this scandal and the nature of his visionary company? THOUSANDS of people have wound up with private details spilled out in the “encyclopedia that anyone can edit”, in which “anyone” also includes “obsessive stalkers” or “corporate rivals” or “batsh*t crazy ex-girlfriends”.
I could care less who he’s doing or with what plastic appendage, ValleyWag ain’t nothin’ but the second most popular Web 2.0 scandalsheet. Those who have had their dirty laundry aired on the first have been waiting for this comeuppance for a lonnnnnnnng time.
Significant changes to our libel and defamation laws? Uh… like what kind of changes? While some of valleywag’s posts might hurt feelings, they’re mostly true (and they tend to acknowledge when they’re not). Last I checked, libel/defamation _never_ apply to something that’s true, ever, without question. Changing that is kind of anti-everything-this-country-is-about…
I like Valleywag…It makes the Valley feel more like Hollywood…which I think is exciting. I mean, how boring would it be if all we had to occupy our minds was technology? That’s just not human.
One of the problems is enabling webless anonymous/pseudonymic trolls to publish comments.
In a tech blog especially, if you don’t have a website or blog, that others can respond to by posting comments on it, then you have no right to express your opinon.
Harsh? Hell no.
Why let a gutless, trouble-making ne’er-do-well internet hooligan vandal have your blog as a free billboard? Make the twerp start his own crappy little blog that no one will care about, and express his dumbass brilliant opinions on. Let him be vulnerable to flames, get a dose of his own medicine.
There is the legal issue and the moral issue.
Legally, I think that most people here would proclaim that Ozzy Osbourne was not legally responsible for the “Suicide Solution” influenced suicide, and would loudly protest if the record companies banned Osbourne et al from releasing albums that dealt with controversial topics.
Similarly, although I haven’t read the Valleywag article or the blog referenced in the New York Times piece, both publishers are presumably not legally responsible (unless libel is involved).
Of course, there’s the moral issue of how one can sleep at night knowing that nasty written material resulted in someone’s death. Those who do such things have to live with themselves, or live in denial.
At the same time, Valleywag, Juicy Gossip, et al get their audiences from somewhere, and if we’re reading it (or, in my case, peeking into the occasional Springer show or tabloid), we have to live with ourselves also.
But such moral issues do not stop there, since there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission. For example, there’s a huge camp of homeless people just a few miles from my house. I’ve written about it, but have I done anything to meet the needs of that community? Sadly, no.
There’s enough blame to go around, but I think we all realize that we ourselves are not blameless, and that there is more that we can do to keep people from dying, wherever they may be.
Perfect example of worthless Webless Trolling is the comment right above mine, look at Comment #14 by M.
Just a cowardly anonymous webless troll post, with no substance, no intelligence to it. Hellywood here they come, the valiant webless trolls marching into the muck and mire of base human depravities, like gossip.
I comitted suicide when Arrington didn’t write about my startup… I’m commenting from the grave. Boo! (cuz thats what ghosts say, right?)
I think that they the gossip blogs can only grow, just look at all those tabloid newspapers.
Wow. I’m usually disagreeing with you, Mike, but this time I share your disdain and disappointment re: valleywag and crap of its ilk.
However, I don’t think we should be looking for legal solutions. Rather, more of us need to stand up to Nick and each other VW contributor and say, look, you’re an asshole. You’re a persona non grata online and offline. More importantly, we need to stop reading the trash.
But alas, that’s the hardest of all, now, isn’t it?
I agree with #20: it’s incredibly hard not to read the trash. I’m really trying to step up my content that I’m putting out and going in the opposite direction and getting the smart people exposure in the industry. I sure hope that the thesis of the headline here doesn’t come true. I think it’s going to get a lot worse, though, as more competition for viewers come online.
Great post Mike.
The gossip queens might have their fun reading Valleywag but unfortunatly there is almost always a victim to every post.
You get an entrepreneur who puts everything on the line to get their startup off the ground and you then get some gossip queen (paid by the pageview) who starts spreading details of their private life all over the internet.
Welcome to Amerikkka the Land of the Soap Opera-ified Everything.
And not even a single link to valleywag.com? Haha
Here’s when I read Valleywag - about five seconds after someone I know emails, texts, IMs or calls and says they’re so sorry and is there anything they can do to help. Assuming I have a clear mind, we’re talking about something on Valleywag that artfully tears me to shreds. I look, I find it, and I sort of spit up a little bit of thicker skin. The word gets gloomier but the day goes on.
I have not read valleywag in months. pointless drivvel.
I would rather read the national enquirer when i need something that does not make me think.
just unsubscribe to their feed and you won’t be tempted.
Harry, 24, is there no one here who doesn’t know where Valleywag is? I seriously doubt it.
Wow, none other than Rachel Marsden!
She’s the most ape-shit crazy bitch to ever come out of Western Canada (and quite famous around these parts for it).
Let me give you an idea: think Ann Coulter meets Lorena Bobbit. That’s all I’ll say… you can google her name for the sordid details.
Jimmy what were you thinking man? My heart goes out to you.
Is this any different when TECHCRUNCH is reporting on a StartUp heading towards the DEADPOOL……???
Think before getting defensive!
You are essentially doing something similar regardless of how you rationalize it.
mike is this a shout out for help? you sound a wee bit depressed in this post. might be time for a vacation.
What would Jason Calacanis say? Oh right:
“can i get a fucking link out of this!?!?!?
wtf?!?!?”
[It's Extra Bulldog Photo Friday]
I’ve only read Valleywag a couple of times, just enough to realize that their shtick includes trash about people that would seem to deserve respect for their accomplishments rather than public dissection and ridicule. There’s room in the world for a Valley scandal sheet of some kind, but the personal stuff is too much. I’m just boycotting the whole thing.
Amy Winehouse is a crackhead, look at her hair, what a creep. Should Jessica Biel be worried about her man not being faithful? Britney’s hair, Britney’s dad, Britney’s visitation rights. And so on. All from a site that Arrington is an investor in and which describes itself as ‘insanely addictive celebrity gossip’. Hypocritical?
Mr. Arrington,
As a Valleywag writer, your criticism makes me want to shoot myself in the face. and you should cease and desist from further feeling-hurting.
Best,
Jordan Golson
Writer — Valleywag
Gawker Media
#34, you guys aren’t funny.
I don’t have nearly the legal expertise to defend my point but I’ll try nonetheless. I find something fundamentally wrong with applying libel, defamation and privacy laws developed pre-internet to the present day everything-is-indexed-indefinitely world.
A blog post in 2008 can have a more long-term impact on an individual’s career and personal life than a front-page newspaper story 15 years ago. 15 years ago, a prospective employer couldn’t say, “Find me every article ever written about Joe Candidate” Now they can. And so can co-workers, investors, girlfriends, children and parents.
If the NY Times wrote a 1 page article claiming I’m a “drug addict”, at least I’d have a clear target to sue. And chances are that not everyone I ever knew or will meet even saw that page or picked up the paper that day.
Today, the cost of negative press can be astounding to an individual and there are more privacy laws to protect the person posting the hate and safe-harbors for the site they did it on.
Perhaps its a privacy issue…maybe you and I have our privacy at stake when third parties write something for everyone else to read for all eternity. Maybe people should be able to request that search engines suppress certain results. Perhaps electronic defamation law suits should become streamlined and easier for the average person to initiate.
I’m not saying I have a solution - but I think a stronger discourse needs to occur as the ValleyWags, JuicyCampuses and other sites ruin peoples reputations for life. Even a Bankruptcy is gone after 7 years from your credit report but a Google search result is for life.
Michael - you’re asking the WRONG question. It’s not when will the first suicide happen, it’s “When will the first MURDER happen?”
What goes around, comes around.
These lame, scarcity-minded “journalists” that make a living from trashing other people will, ultimately, get what they have coming to them.
I know a lot of people that if VW posted a bunch of crap about them would respond by KNOCKING SOMEONE THE FUCK OUT.
Our society has become a bunch of pussies. BUT… fear not, there are still quite a few people that WILL fight back if they are cornered. Nick Denton, and others that are spewing such garbage better watch out. I think it’s only a matter of time before someone retaliates over this type of stuff. We very well could soon be reading news about Nick, or any of these others, being MURDERED.
* And for the record, as much as I think these writers are scumbags for trying to make a ‘living’ by bashing other people, I certainly wouldn’t want to see any of them murdered or harmed.
BUT… it does make you think. It’s only a matter of time before they pick the wrong ‘target’ that’s going to show up on their doorstep.
On behalf of Valleywag, I apologize to everyone for the lies we promote on the web. We have tried hard to follow Britney Spears to the hospital but they are not admitting us because we don’t have insurance coverage. We are waiting for Hillary Clinton’s Universal Health Care. We are also waiting for the new President to raise the minimum wage to five dollars an hour so that we can have some decent food. Once we get basic necessities like food and health care, we will stop our crap machine. I once again apologize for all the nonsense. Wait till Hillary to become President.
Anyone that ever read “Mac Confidential” knows that Owen Thomas is a serious writer with chops that can’t be denied. The Gawker Empire simply likes to tweak people with massive egos. Arrington qualifies — hence his trouncing around here like a pansy hairdresser. (copyright 1982 Ian Faith)
As for “Capitalist Pig”… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA oh man, really, you had me going there for a minute. Yeah, I may have been born in the quaint little part of a midwestern city that the inhabitants call Terrortown but man, I can’t jive with the way you Silicon Valley gangstas roll. I’ve heard the older homies talk about the crazy gangbangin’ that goes down in the Stanford fraternities. They get kind of a strange look in their eye, like they’ve seen things that they’ll never forget. (shudder)
Yikes…
Anyway when you get tore to shreds by others words - gloat a little, talk about it with friends and then pick yourself back up. It’s a cycle, but suicide is not the answer - it’s the end!
Dudes (valleywag writers),
I’m sorry, but you’re just played out. A real comedian knows when to step back from potential tastelessness. You have become slaves to both your self-perceived humor (of which there is very little), and the almighty page-view.
I really believe in humor, even dead-baby jokes… but it really isn’t necessary to make fun of suicide. In fact, it kinda sucks.
Instead of mocking Mike’s post, I invite you to take a moment to reflect on what he is actually saying. Think about it.
A former reader
Mr. Arrington
you have just made their traffic once again exploded and made alot of people know about valleywag. Which side do you support really ?
You are so right Mike
there’s no link to this gossip site(?), so I had to look it up. useless info imho. kind of reminds me of that Simpsons episode when Homer runs a website.
really man, worst and most uninteresting post I ever read on your site. you ought to write a post like this, but don’t publish it. at least not on your site. it’s like owning a pub, rule no.1: you never get drunk in your own pub.
cheers
> Today I read all the sordid details about the alleged sexual encounter
> between a notable technology visionary and a woman who appears
> to be looking for as much publicity as possible.
Shame on you, Mike! I thought this article was gonna be about *me*, but it’s not!
:(
I am pretty sure we have laws against this type of stuff in the uk. If you are in the public eye then you are fair game but if you are Joe public then papers can’t do this stuff to you.
Based on your article I followed the trail over at Valleywag and there seems to be a lot more to this than pure rumors.
The appearance of conflict of interest as well as psychotic ex-lovers always is going to make news.
Did not seem as bad once I read VW as I was expecting.
Teenagers and children still in the developmental stages of life being taunted and humiliated by sociopathic parents of their “friends” notwithstanding, blogs don’t make people commit suicide; emotional instability and weakness do.
I agree with Morgan; any adult who CHOOSES to end their life over a blog post, true or false, has deeper issues than being allegedly victimized by gossip-mongering post whores.
Julia Allison, I heart you.