Just when you thought Mike Arrington couldn’t squeeze enough content out of PayPerPost – he surprises you! In today’s episode, Mike trolls the PayPerPost message boards and singles out especially “pathetic” (his words, not mine) users to put together a new blog entry about the Google pagerank shift.
In this amazing editorial (note: sarcasm), Mike links to specific discussions on the PayPerPost / Izea message boards where users talked about the recent pagerank updates that left many bloggers with a much lower pagerank than expected. Mike goes on to call the posts “pathetic”, and the users “freaked out”.
I completely agree with the freaked out portion – I imagine Mike would be in the same boat if Google ever came after him for the PR juice he gives to his sponsors. But pathetic? Since when it is it pathetic to wonder how you’re going to pay your bills? Is it pathetic to worry when an income source dries up? As much as I’d like to tell my fellow bloggers c’est la vie, don’t worry about it…I can’t. Too many people depending on their blogs for income DON’T have another source of income, or a full time job. Blogs have turned into a way for people to pay for a debt free Christmas, or an extra vacation, or braces for the child, or household extras. When did it become pathetic to wonder how you were going to make ends meet?
What IS pathetic is Mike. Trolling a message board for content proves it’s a slow news day, but posting it and calling people names proves you’re a heartless bastard. (I like how he ignored all of the POSITIVE comments on the thread by people saying they were going to work on content, keep blogging, and not be Google’s bitch!)
Mike has learned over the past few months that anytime PayPerPost is mentioned on his site, his pageviews go up and he gets tons of comments. He’s no fool – bashing the company has turned into big business for him, and going after the bloggers of PayPerPost by publishing their words on his site is just one more way to make a buck. What he fails to realize is that he’s ticking off his regular readers who made him what he is BEFORE he started using PayPerPost for content. The people who have been reading TechCrunch since the beginning are becoming increasing disenchanted with Mike. I know he’s crossed the line, and so do his regulars. The question is, is Mike smart enough to know when he’s crossed the line? Obviously not.
What a swell guy! What’s next – kicking kittens?
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Well, he’s just par for the course, really.
He’ll try to punt a lolkitten next, and get pwned by a lolrus.
I stopped caring about him a while back, I guess.
When I read that post, I was so…mad that I couldn’t even comment. Hopefully this post will result in him losing readership. but I highly doubt it.
Juts when you think someone can’t be more of an a$$ they go and surprise you.
I’d have to say that Mike is polluting the blogosphere. Hmmm… where have I read that accusation? It sounds so familiar…
“What IS pathetic is Mike. Trolling a message board for content proves it’s a slow news day, but posting it and calling people names proves you’re a heartless bastard.”
I love that you said this, I just posted a comment on his blog saying the same thing. Well the slow news day part. Not smart on his part to go after mom’s and children.
Oh. my. gawd. What a complete jerk! That is so mean of him! I love the comment warning him to watch out for Karma!!
Your Bitchy-poos are the best.
Great post Colleen. You hit the nail on the head with this one!
Great post, dugg and stumbled. 
I also posted about this last night here. (And yes, I put a nofollow tag on that link. 
)
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I am the blogger he called “pathetic”, that those were my forum posts he quoted. Yes, I was overly emotional that day, and yes, I came off sounding much more hysterical than I intended, but still. What if I were a physically handicapped single mother who needed to make money with blogging? Would he still call me pathetic?
I’ve been debating about even posting something about this. I don’t want to invite further criticism, but I feel like I need to address it. Maybe in a few days when I’ve calmed down a bit. Anyway, thank you for posting this. Even if you didn’t know it was me he was referring to, I still feel the love
Elizabeth, I knew it was you he was talking about, even though I don’t know you. And that’s the thing — it’s really less about you personally than it is the idea of someone who makes *hundreds of thousands of dollars* per month on his blogs turning a bunch of venom on someone who is trying to make enough to cover the bills or get the kids presents or afford healthcare.
The arrogance of the affluent is sickening, and for him to use YOU as linkbait just sucks.
What an ass, and I went over there and told him so!
I’d love to go over there adn give him a little bit of an asskicking, but it seems that Tech Crunch is down at the moment….I almost feel like crying happy tears tee hee hee! I think that Karma’s already coming around to bite him!
It definitely sounds as though he were trying to get a rise out of people so for that he succeeded. Writing a paid review doesn’t make you a shill. I don’t see it any differently thank recognizing your sponsors. I don’t write a lot of sponsored reviews, but I know a few of my blog buddies that depend on them to pay their bills or get a few extras some of them also work outside the home.
TechCrunch makes part of their money from Sponsors the only difference, I think, is they receive a lot more. Belittling someone whom you think is beneath you shows the level, or a lack of class, he has.
I used to read Tech Crunch, but I stopped when they allowed this sort of behavior to go on.
New googlebomb: So gay
What kind of arsch would call posties “pathetic” when he himself earns indirecly from PPP? I know! The Worst Kind of Arsch!
Since PPP is always able to counter his attacks and is able to show the bogosphere what an arsch he is.. he goes after the posties.
This is a great post. Looks like your got your page rank back though – how did you do that?
Looks like I’m a little late to the game in reading this post but you’re absolutesly right. I seem to remember him being called out last year for engaging in a bit of behind the scenes ‘positive’ posting for money. His comment was that he had a business to run and he was trying to pay the bills.
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