DISQUS

lol - this can be attributed to EVERY SINGLE Person "featured" on FriendFeed (the "circle jerk" of technology folk who follow each other and no one else)

i've read this 5 times and still don't understand it

You should check out @SOML (StoryOfMyLife.com) as they engage with their readers to get them thinking about their stories they'll leave behind on their "trail on in the internet".

They feature 1 fascinating per day (during the week at least). They do a fun "Cool Twitter name of the day" and list all the wacky holidays daily that I enjoy seeing.

And they have cool contests based on storytelling/writing!

i like Obama, but that's just wrong.

awwwwwwwww you had to get in there that there are 8100 people not worth following for you.... boo!

totally agree..... my opinion of them diminishes greatly
jason calacanis
brian solis
michael arrington
loic lemuer

the self-titled and self aggrandizing......

Hi- nice list, but VERY misleading title man. I expected 22 STEPS, not 22 totally different types of companies to try and figure out what they do so that maybe I can emulate them too.....

2nd dumbest idea ever. 1st stupidest was the one you posted earlier about diary in 5 lines per day.

Well what else is interesting is that the price tag keeps this a rather "elistist' event. If they truly wanted to help start-ups, they could make the entry point more affordable and let regular Joe's in and increase the venue size - not just well heeled potential investors (who will still come, if the quality of the companies is good). So I'm a normal guy making 100K in silicon valley, i'd certainly like to use some of the products listed (I know I can get them from the site once they "launch) but it'd be nice to attend the conference. But $3k is one month's mortgage payment. It's braces for my daughter. It's a vacation for my family....... I think the attendee fees are too high.

Can make the blogger's life tough because there is an expectation of a reply [no reply needed here ;) ]

Right now I'm involved working with writers on human interest stories, and it's *really* tough to get them to understand that they need to do this - to interact with their users. They just want to publish and be done with it. They truly feel like this is extra "work" they didn't agree to/ sign on for and don't yet get the dynamicsm you mention, how it can grow. They want to leave this to the marketing folks only, but that's not what the users want. It's going to take some work to change this mindset as "news" (in whatever form) often being a beginning rather than an end product.

his websites give me a headache. Way too much information, not organized, can't figure out who's on what "side" of what, and then tosses in his opinoin on top of them. really sounds more like a alex-meme and a way to promote himself by lining up the big names and "following" them. I find his websites to be convoluted and frankly boring.

best post I've read since Uncov went dark....

I'm totally sick of the whining too. It's gotten to where to "michael arrington" is a verb - postulate for traffic and press then whine about the strings that come with it

Mathew, I think everyone lies on their profiles. I don't see it as any big deal. He wanted to seem more hip. I don't think anyone thinks of him as being any more or less 'real' as a 'friend' on my page for it. Just marketing BS and I think most people know that.

I posted on Carr's site too and now feel responsible for following up since all the hot blogs are promoting this service - my concern is not as much for security (who cares if some hacker reads my will) but the fact that someone sets up an account & leaves messages for me, and then dies in 10-15-30 years, how is this company going to FIND me? I'll probably have 10 different emails, moved twice and maybe gotten married and changed my name.

So to promote the other start-up that I signed up for and like, Story of My Life has a better model for leaving future released time capsule stuff, which I already set up, and it makes the users whom I grant access set up an account, so if they're using it and we're connected via the site, I can more easily be found in the future. Plus I can sue their non-profit!

I predict YD in the deadpool in a few years. Unless their point is just to take money and hold data and hope no one complains too hard they never got their messages from dear old dad from 20 years ago.

Why are there like 5 topics on Facebook... god get over facebook already. If you flew in for the TC 20/40/ conference, then you don't even have the excuse of living in silicon valley to be drinking the koolaid.

This list is cool but weird. It's half interesting and half total techie that 85% of the american population has no idea what it even means.

sorry Kara, I did go too far. I didn't mean to imply "scary lesbian". I said people are afraid to say anything back to or about you b/c they won't want to appear un PC when it's really they don't want you to come after them in your jornalistic style when talking back THEY get labeled unPC /as being anti-gay. I hope that is clearer now.

It's true that I don't like your style. Fair enough. What irritates me more though is that almost everyone links to you without comment as though whatever you say is not to be touched.

Your people remove comments from your site with the reason that "comments questioning the motives of people on this site will be removed." No one can question motives of someone who's job it is to go around and question other people's motives???

and it was obviously also exaggeration to say "everyone"

*I* also am gay, so that wasn't anything against gays and what I wrote came out terribly wrong, and I apologize. I don't care if you are or not. I also applaud that you stated it clearly so people didn't wonder or whisper as they're prone to do (whether you care or not). I do hear though that people are afraid to challenge you because they'll be perceived as biased. I certainly did not mean the misinterpretation of anything to do with you in that regard as "scary lesbian". It was that other people are afraid to stand up to you as they may be viewed as anti-gay etc. That's all. You don't have to believe me, that's fine, but I have heard it.

Everyone know that Kara lurrrves zuckerberg. She tries to slide some news in there but she *hearts* him.

She's annoying. Her videos are annoying. Her voice even annoys me now. Everyone in the valley is afraid to say they don't like her. Part of it is that she's a lesbian & strikes fear against anyone who doesn't want to appear un-PC (even in my gay hometown/ nothing against gays but you don't fear them b/c they are, and fail to stand up to them b/c you are.) She shuts down any comment that is even slightly critical. I have no respect for her.

Allen, good lord, can you imagine anything more painful than putting divas Calcanis, Arrington, Scoble, Winer, Hawk, Denton, Ted Murphy, Carr, and Battelle on a project and asking them to accomplish something?

The only way we could calm them down would be to have Zuckerberg walk in on water.

(and how will they all get along at TC20? Mike will have to coordinate entrance and exit points like the handlers do for Hollywood ex's on the red carpet)

Can you imagine being any of those guys' wife?

Good post Matt. Dave can be the ultimate Whiner sometimes. He's the typical nerd made popular because people are in awe of what he's done (and happened to get rich off of it). People skills with a lot of the technical writers are questionable. I heard someone at a management seminar call these types the god-complexes - use of lower case "g" is intentional - and they should be fired from companies because they are poison. Now Dave doesn't work for anyone so he can say whatever he wants, but he'd probably find life a lot better if he weren't so pissy all the time.

I think it's lame of Leo to do that too. Maybe even worse when it gets down to it because Arrington et all weren't specifically endorsing a particular product saying how great it was and you should buy it. Leo supposedly holds himself to long-held, accepted journalistic standards. The new bloggers say the rules are still being formed, we're not sure about the blurry lines yet, bloggers are opinionists and not journalists, etc etc.

Doesn't Laporte get paid enough now that TechTV is off the air?

I think really that the question is whether MC Hammer has ever done anything to prove he's worthy of being on the panel of experts other than adding a "colorful" voice... nothing wrong with that, but what exactly is he an expert in that has to do with qualifying him to judge these start-ups? I the idea of him being there actually, but I wouldn't call him an expert. Therefore I agree that it could be seen as a token.