The Inquisitr - Latest Comments in TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

ouch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:28:17 -0000

there's a big difference between 10,000 pageviews and 10,000 users. If you don't consider this article by the Inquisitr fair, then there is no hope for you. I would mind your language too, throwing around the word retard doesn't give you much credence.

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

JolieODell — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:34:21 -0000

Mommy?

That's just retarded.

The updated posts on other sites are much more fair.

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

Vinny — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:25:59 -0000

Mark, that isn't totally impossible, but we're not talking 10k versus 8k or 7k. We're talking 10k versus 400. That's not explainable as anything but number inflation.

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:36:50 -0000

SiliconANGLE recently switched to a Wordpress MU install, due mainly to the fact that the standard wordpress isn't built to accommodate a growing community of 80+ contributors very well.

One of the first things that started happening (started just this week, actually) was that sploggers got a hold of us and started creating fake accounts.

It took me a couple of days to first of all realize what was going on (they let the accounts incubate a few days before they start splogging and spamming users, usually with separate accounts) ... and then another day or so to research the best ways to prevent it from happening.

I *suppose* it's possible that at the time when Daniel gave out that number, his user count was inflated by sploggers (10k isn't an unreasonable number if you count sploggers - it's all automated), and then later got a handle on what was going on, but didn't want to come out and revise the number and look bad.

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

ouch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:49:28 -0000

Yes, mommy Brusilovsky, these numbers are verified. Big bad hackers have proof that your little boy was caught with his nose growing 10,000 feet long: http://netnewsdaily.com/wp-...

Re: TechCrunch writing caught fibbing about startup numbers

JolieODell — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 03:16:43 -0000

Are we sure that those numbers can be verified? And are subscriber and registered WP users the same thing?

The site that originally reported this nonsense did a terrible job of it, and it's more vindictive than investigative, in the opinion of a lot of tech bloggers I know.