First let’s take this into an offline example and talk restaurant reviews. The new seemingly high profile restaurant opens up and receives a poor review from the New York Times. They’re certainly going to lose some business and there will be mentions of the New York Times review in other publications, but other major publications will also review the place and give their well respected opinions as well. There will be some reviewers that will be biased based on the NY Times review, but that’s to be expected and is obviously a normal occurrence. However, this method is more controlled and generally results in a more fair distribution of opinions and will more accurately reflect the quality of the restaurant.
Now let’s jump back into the online world. Hypothetical Interweb 2.0 super widget search site launches. They work long and hard and spend lots of investment capital and finally the TechCrunch crew picks up on the scent. Of course they get the beta invite and go in a do some testing. So a few days later Michael comes out with a scathing post letting all 600,000 of his readers know that this site sucks donkey balls and will be a miserable failure. Here is where we break away from the offline model.
Out of those 600,000 readers many of them are bloggers and many don’t have much of a mind of their own (don’t start ranting, there are many good ones, but there are far more bad ones). Secondly, most haven’t even tried the new service since they’re not cool enough to get an invite. So in order to maintain their “consistent blogging” status they post a regurgitation of the TechCrunch post. This repeats itself many many many times and the stories get Dugg, Sphinned, Farked, MadHatted, and so forth. The reach of the original post combined with the additional reach of the thousands of regurgitated posts and social media mentions equals a PR nightmare for the hypothetical company. And keep in mind there has only been one “actual” review of it at this point. Forget the Digg effect. This is the “Michael Arrington Ten Minute Soul Crushing Effect”.
The only hope at this point is for a large majority of other “A-List” bloggers to come out with opposite and extremely positive reviews. Hopefully the hypothetical startup really does have a kick ass service and it just wasn’t much of a turn on for the TechCrunch group.
In rare cases they can make a recovery. MyBlogLog for example came back strong after an initial mob reaction of “this thing sucks” (I don’t really know what TechCrunch said about them). I jumped on the ban MyBlogLog bandwagon quickly partially because the other cool people were doing it (I was a n00b blogger back then, give me a break). I’ve since changed my mind and have returned to using some of their services after some upgrades. It’s still a little spammy and buggy, but I like the avatars and such. It brings a bit more personality to my site. BlogRush on the other hand? Well, the jury is still out on that one.
There are many many more variables to this equation so don’t start ranting about all of them. The point I’m trying to make to all you other wonderful bloggers: Form your own opinion that is as unbiased as possible before you go joining a mob of bloggers. You can certainly take the words of Michael Arrington and others into consideration, but that doesn’t mean you always have to agree. Think for yourselves and be free!
(Disclaimer: I’m using TechCrunch and Michael Arrington as an example in this post. There are others that have major influence and even more that have too much undue influence. I have a lot of respect for both Michael and the people at TechCrunch. Michael, please don’t crush me under the weight of your all powerful startup killing boot heel should I ever get involved in one!)
This is Brooklyn, who one time fended off a burglar with a ferocious bite and waited patiently for me to come home and gain her reward of a steak bone. She also slept through another burglar that came into my garage and stole my car, but she wasn’t on duty that night so it was ok. She knew how to sit and lay down with a point and was the guardian of the back yard from all small and furry animals. Brooklyn had been in my life for 7 years when I saved her from the pound here in Kansas City.
This is Korne who by far was the Queen of all things, and always crossed her legs like a proper puppy. She disliked the mailman to the point he wouldn’t deliver the mail (teaching her to attack the mailman might have attributed to that behavior). She also knew how to “bust out” like a lion and keep other strange dogs off the kitchen floor. The danger of coins was too high. She also kept another floppy eared dog out of trouble…most of the time. Korne had been in the family for 11 years beginning when I saved her from the deliverance family out of a box in front of Wal-Marts. Korne had lived with my best friends Jay, Scott, Paco, Troy, Warren and most recently with Jay and Sarah in Maine.
