Michael Arrington has closed TechCrunch UK after a dispute with the editor, Sam Sethi. It all started with a critical post to the Six Apart event Le Web 3, where TechCrunch is a non-financial partner according to Arrington. Organizer Loic Le Meur posted a negative comment, called Sethi an asshole, and then got the comment deleted by Arrington after talks. Meur then posted an apology to Sethi in the comments.
Sethi wouldn’t let it rest though, and posted a follow-up focusing on the asshole part on the comment apparently. Sethi also talked about upcoming TechCrunch events in the UK, presumably while bashing Le Web 3, which ticked Arrington off. That post was deleted.
There are so many things in this mess, and so many takes on what has happened. Arrington has a long post up on the events, and he’s taking quite some bashing in the comments for it. Sethi’s personal blog is hosted by Typepad, a Six Apart service, but he’s been closed down there. Someone found his Twitter page, he doesn’t seem to know why the Typepad account was deleted, and the page is still up. Anyone could make a conspiracy theory from that, eh? I won’t though.
This whole mess is a bit saddening. Not that I was a TechCrunch UK reader or anything, but because it certainly points to the problems in the blogosphere, with ego invested in the blogs, unclear ethical guidelines, clashes of interest and so on. Sad.
Originally posted on December 14, 2006 @ 3:04 am
In a business that only exists in a public space like the Web, you have simply got to take care of some of these things behind closed doors (via email).
Frankly, the TechCrunch UK situation is embarrassing.
Public bashing in matters like this benefit no one. My guess is that Arrington would want it behind close doors, but what Sethi had to gain by this is beyond me. Or perhaps it’s just bad luck…
It’s sad as well as funny. I couldn’t read what Sam had said, but I think he shouldn’t have responded to Monsieur Loic’s sudden, momentary loss of temper. He should have let the other readers react, and I’m sure some of them did.
I’m re-posting as I don’t know why the first attempt didn’t surface. It was sad, and the things that happened afterwards were funny. Sam shouldn’t have reacted to Monsieur Loic’s sudden but temporary loss of temper. He should have let his readers react, and I’m sure they would have.