Web 2 Ireland

Paul, please reconsider some of the horrible things you are saying about me and my country. You don’t have the facts. Wait to judge until you do.

TCUK officially on hold now – and the return comment….

http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=322

Mike,

I was on a Skype call throughout your exchange of emails with Sam and as such, am aware of the facts. Some of my comments are in response to your response on TechCrunch.co.uk and http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=322 which has attracted more backlash from others.

I certainly wouldn't have posted such harsh comments if I wasn't in possession of the facts. I'm quite passionate about how line management should treat people, especially when they're so passionate about their work and have so much support. It's all about 'people' and 'connecting'. The networking scene over on this side of the pond is nothing short of fantastic.

Furthermore, you not only deleted Sam’s last comment on TechCrunch, you stopped me from posting to it and switched on moderation which I found to be dictatorial, or at least, the opposite to what blogging is supposed to represent.

The comment I made about you exporting your version of democracy to Europe was removed as soon as I realised I made a mistake, for which I apologise if you find a reference to it, please let me know and I'll take care of it immediately. As a sponsor and very active participant in many W3C initiatives, I appreciate and respect the importance of internationalisation. But I also have the same respect for freedom of speech and the right for the small guy to be heard as loudly as the big players.

I certainly wouldn't like my misplaced comment to detract from the importance that 99% of the blogs I've read, place upon your actions regarding TechCrunch UK & Ireland.

FYI, your actions have been the topic of discussion between me and a few bloggers that you know of, with the view to asking industry if it wants to create a code of conduct for blogging (http://contentlabel.org coming soon). Deleting comments to appease individuals was something that everyone felt particularly strongly against.

Perhaps we can put this behind us soon and work together on helping to enable more trust for bloggers in general – something I was going to focus on anyway.

[...] Paul walsh said about the post, the article that Arrington deleted was from Sam explaining how they had a disagreement and he would no longer be working for TechCrunch. It was extremely diplomatic considering he had been told that he no longer had the right to vote. [...]

[...] Cette fois-ci, c’en est trop pour le patron de Techcrunch : il considère d’ailleurs que Sam s’est “auto-licencié” en publiant ce deuxième article et en dépassant les limites de la liberté d’expression, faisant du blog le lieu d’un règlement de comptes. Sam Sethi ne peut plus rester à son poste, et ce nouvel article est supprimé. Ce dernier décide alors d’annoncer lui-même son départ dans un post qui sera également effacé. L’activité de Techcrunch UK est alors suspendue, et la modération des commentaires est activée pour pouvoir “contrôler” les réactions et les débordements potentiels suite à cette histoire. [...]

Mike Arrington routinely deletes comments that criticize products he gives a postive rating to. Specifically if it relates to one of his sponsors. He apparently is yet to come to terms with the spirit of blogging and social networking. His high-handedness clearly obvious in the way he treated Sam. Grow up Mike! TC makes a huge difference. Dont take it down with your arrogance.

Point of order – to all. We were not being ‘line-managed’ by anyone. This was a franchise operation, making the editorial interference even more serious.

Thanks for the pointer Mike. I’ve no idea why I mentioned line management when in fact, I always assumed it was a franchise.