Comments on: Mike did what any publisher would do

By: Marc’s Voice » Blog Archive » Well I guess I’m not having breakfast with Sam Sethi tomorrow

Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:50:55 +0000

[...] No – it has nothing to do with controversial issues, ethics, who’s wrong or right or what new conferences are gonna be created or not. [...]

By: Mathew Ingram

Mathew Ingram — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:21:51 +0000

You’re quite right, John — I wasn’t a reader of TechCrunch UK. I’ve got all the TechCrunch I can handle with just the U.S. one. And I realize that Sam had been planning these events in advance — but the post in question still seemed to me to combine criticism of Le Web (which may well have been justified) with promotion of TCUK events, and I think that crosses a line. Others clearly disagree.

Was Mike’s action partly motivated by the fact that he is friends with Loic and was involved in some sponsorship or helping role with Le Web? Probably. But I still think his decision to part ways with Sam was defensible. Maybe he should have tried a little harder to smooth things over, because it sounds like Sam had built up a good relationship with the tech sphere in the UK.

By: John Wilson

John Wilson — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:43:50 +0000

Mathew, I can only presume that you weren’t a reader of Techcrunch UK (and evidently neither is Mr A) because these events have been trailed for several weeks on the TCUK blog. They were planned as platforms for Startups to promote themselves to investors like myself (rather than for prospective French Presidential Candidates to pursue their electoral ambitions). In my book, that hardly counts as competing with Le Web and was also a widely praised initiative by most of the UK community.

As regards profiteering – to my knowledge, the blog posts on TCUK made no reference to these events being “paid for” events or otherwise. Many UK events like Mashup, GeekDinners, LondonGirlGeekDinners, Minibar and NMK run to cover costs, organised by enthusiastic community members. So unless Mr A was simply presuming that scalping the audience would obviously be part of the game, I’m also not sure how an unethical position had been taken.

Given Mr A’s reported chummy relationship with Le Web event organiser and that of the staff of Techcrunch France, was it TCUK stepping away from the party line that is the real issue prompting the split?

By: Naked Conversations: Fear & Loathing at Le Web 3

Naked Conversations: Fear & Loathing at Le Web 3 — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:20:13 +0000

[...] Shel, I don’t think Mike took the post down or parted ways with Sam as a result of financial considerations, since he says there were no financial ties with Le Web. The way he tells it, it was simply a matter of Sam pushing his own conferences while bad-mouthing Loic, and I think he was right to make the choice he did. I’ve said so here [...]

By: Alain

Alain — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:06:24 +0000

Sam, Mike’s post precises that techcrunch was a sponsor. You fired your own house and yourself with it