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If there’s any media property that’s King in the tech world, it’s TechCrunch, the blog that Mike Arrington started in 2004 as a way to track other start-ups as he worked on his own (edgeio). Of course, these days, edgeio is in the deadpool and TechCrunch is the most influential blog in this sector, with Mike adroitly managing its authority to break stories and grab scoops as often as possible.
TechCrunch has a female CEO(Heather Harde), but it’s essentially a boys’ game, a macho pissing match of testesterone-driven competitive energy, blunt talk and sometimes brilliant analysis (Mike is smart!). Over the years, Mike has gotten a reputation as someone to be feared, who can make and break companies, and who is ruthless and tough.
At the same time, friends of Mike (and I would fall into this camp) point out the amazing generosity he can show, the sweetness under the wary demeanor, and the loyalty and support he gives his friends. Is it a Men are from Mars, women are from Venus thing to say that I expect both views have some truth? Or, to put it another way, can you build the most powerful tech brand on the Internet without sometimes being a ruthless prick—and other times being attacked indiscriminately by people who don’t know you?
This is a long preamble to the post Mike put up today, describing how he was accosted and spit on during his trip to Davos, by a stranger he thought was going to accost him with a startup pitch (and so he looked away), but who spit in his face and vanished into the crowd. Mike also shared that last summer, he—and his family—had gotten death threats from a blogger and had to hire a security guard. Conclusion: This is all so upsetting, the job isn't fun anymore. Solution: Take February off, out of the public eye, and regroup.
So, what’s the deal?
Initial response in the blogosphere seems mostly focused on Mike’s decision to take a leave, with the exception of Jemina Kiss’s column in the Guardian UK where she wonder’s if Mike’s surly attitude and great power played a part in this (of course they did), and Ryan Carson’s post on how improving security and accountability to comment can help suppress web “meanness.”
My view is that there are a few factors that are worth discussing:
First of all there’s the issue of courtesy and community in the blogosphere. Whether it’s Kathy Sierra or Mike Arrington, no one should be threatened or attacked because of virtual perceptions of who they are and what they have done (or not done). Disagreement does NOT equal the threat of murder.Or spitting. Or--whatever.
Second, there’s the thread of what goes around comes around. Several people in the blogosphere reacted to Mike’s post by pointing out bullying they feel Mike has supported, specifically his endorsement of the ridicule Loren Feldman subjected Shel Israel to (For those who don’t follow the minutiae of blogosphere feuds, a younger guy, known for his savage humor, made a puppet of an older guy, known for his avuncular style, and made videos of the puppet interviewing real Web 2.0 celebs; the battle that followed was both public and ugly, even as some found it a joke.)
Third, there’s the question of community. Like BlogHer, TechCrunch has a rich and engaged community, who react through their comments. However, unlike BlogHer, TechCrunch has neither posted community guidelines, nor any sort of visible community manager. So, what do participants have to be guided by?
While there are many tremendously interesting and useful comments, the noise factor at TC is pretty high.To be blunt, the site definitely has a culture of commenting in which is it perfectly okay, even cool, to make comments that are negative, cruel, and macho. Whether posters are using their real names or not, it's common for them to make cutting remarks and predict failures. They come out with two fists swinging tone and much of the commentary suggests a community that is pugnacious, entitled, and immature. You can see it in this sample of posts about the sale of Pownce, and these about new companies presenting
