The things you learn by reading feeds

by on December 13, 2006

Sam Sethi of TechCrunch UK has been fired, I learned. More details over on my link blog.

Yes, Twitter is now how you keep up to date on people’s lives.

Sam is VERY tied into the London entrepreneurial scene. I’m sure he’ll find a new job quickly. I liked Sam a lot.

I first learned of this over on Ben Metcalfe’s blog.

UPDATE: Mike Arrington gives his side of the story.

  • anton2000
    Hey dudes, HDMI 1.3 Q&A for Audioholics only :-)

    http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/specsformat...
  • Hmm

    so some guy calls me an ashole for reporting and i get sacked? for not censoring - dont think that stands up in uk law very well.
  • Maurice: read Mike Arrington's post at http://www.crunchnotes.com/?p=322 which explains what happened from Mike's point of view. He got sacked for a totally different reason. He was using the troubles of a competitor/partner to try to get his own conferences noticed. I agree that was sleazy. I would have pulled THAT post down and said "sorry, not appropriate at this time to discuss future events."

    Was it worth firing? I don't know -- depends on what else was said.
  • Well contact me -- WP suspended my blog for violations of TOS?!?! WTF?

    Rex
  • Rex: are you doing PayPerPost? Or posting advertising? Those aren't allowed under TOS of Wordpress.com. Among other things.
  • Ross
    So Robert, whilst Mr Arrington's post *may* seem reasonable to you (it doesn't to many others) I hear Sam has had this typepad account locked/deleted. With professionalism like this, should MSM really be worried?
  • Ross
  • Ian Fenn
    Hi Robert, the truth of the matter is probably something in between the two accounts. One thing though is that it's not considered normal practice here in the UK for someone to be fired without notice. As editorial director, Michael could surely have tackled the situation in an alternative way...
  • No payperpost running. Haven't made any money off the site at all. I am suspecting someone in England having just click the "spam" link in the admin panel. I have sent off an e-mail to the WP support group. Right now, I'd just like to hopefully grab my content and make the move earlier then anticipated.

    Rex
  • Rex: I've written to Matt Mullenweg on your behalf.
  • I understand emotions running high on this one. When people are fired, this is often he case. However, the truth is: there's no reason this has to be a bad thing, either for TechCrunch or for Sam.

    TechCrunch will do just fine, I suspect.

    And if Sam wants to create his own company, doing what TechCrunch UK did, then it seems to me that, after all this publicity (and TechCrunch UK being on hold), he has an amazing opportunity; especially because most people seem to be on Sam's side on this. If he's going to do that, though, he should move fast. Like - do it within the next week.
  • Robert, you may like Sam, but I stopped reading Sam's blog when he posted:

    "Thank god at last it seems not all "Geek Girls" have to be ugly to qualify."

    Nice sentiment.

    From: http://samsethi.typepad.com/sethi/2006/05/busin...

    Cheers,
    Robert
  • I just did an exclusive interview with Sam, with him giving his side of events.

    http://gizbuzz.co.uk/2006/episode-4-exclusive-e...

    @Simon - from the interview it sounds like Sam's gonna take that opportunity. I look forward to the result!
  • Just for the record: As co-editor of TechCrunch UK I resigned over this incident and put my take on events here: http://mbites.com/an-open-letter-to-mike-arrington
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