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It’s a Bitchmeme for sure

When Duncan Riley seemed to miss the point of FriendFeed in his TechCrunch post yesterday, as Louis Gray quite rightly pointed out, I wrote a short post about it and assumed it was over.

Today, though, Duncan Riley wrote what is basically a hit piece against Louis and is dripping with arrogance. The fact that Louis’ post stayed on the top of Techmeme for the larger part of the day and had Riley’s name in the headline sure didn’t help, I’m sure.

Riley actually makes some valid observations about the nature of commenting on items outside of their source etc, but they are completely hidden behind the overly aggressive rhetoric of his post.

Take this as an example:

I say A-List somewhat lightly, because the guy who’s come after me is someone who’s called Louis Gray. I’ve been blogging a bloody long time and for a lot of that time I’ve been reporting on the movers and shakers in blogging, and until a couple of months ago I’d never heard of this guy. His about page is as useful as tits on a bull: he does PR for a Silicon Valley technology company and found blogging in 2006. He’s talked about now at the same level as Calacanis, Scoble and Arrington, and yet he’s reached the lofty heights of 735 subscribers in Feedburner; probably more than this humble blog but this isn’t my main outlet.

Apparently, because Louis ‘only’ has 735 subscribers to his RSS feed, he has no right to criticize Riley. Given my subscriber numbers, I take I barely have a right to mention his name if that is the case.

I assume Louis will defend himself well and will not stoop down to the level of ‘tits on bull’ and ‘wanker.’

But if this isn’t a bitchmeme, I don’t know what else could qualify.

Riley didn’t like FriendFeed and wrote a condescending review about it. Louis corrected him. Now Riley is upset. Sure makes for some interesting reading on what is usually a slow day…

LMAO Man I love this post! Bullseye! And I’m sure Riley’s cheap-shot will NOT make it to the top of Techmeme, even with his 50 million dollar status that somehow puts the rest of us beneath him

[...] it wouldn’t be a weekend without a Techmeme bitchfest (or what Frederic of The Last Podcast calls a “bitchmeme”), but the one Duncan started is really over the top. Despite the fact [...]

great post. you’re entirely right. this duncan dood is an ass, a pompous (and arrogant) one, if i might add. then again, it fits with the recent MO on techcrunch. that site is becoming increasingly less relevant. btw, who is this guy? i checked this bio..some aussie nobody. and he uses this soapbox to do a hit piece on louis grey? bad form.

I never said Louis wasn’t entitled to an opinion, I simply asked who he was because I have no idea and yet others are taking about him as he’s the best blogger in his field. He magically started appearing on Techmeme about 2 months ago, that’s all I know about him. He’s entitled to his opinion like anyone else.

Further how am I arrogant when he made it personal exactly? Or is it that because you think Loius is above normal standards that he shouldn’t be held to account? You people are amazing. He comes after me and I’m to blame because I responded to his person attacks on me?

The kind of words you use in your post sure make it look like you think Louis’ opinion is not worthy of any attention. While he might have come out of nowhere in just a few months, he sure has done a good job of establishing himself as maybe the most knowledgeable blogger when it comes to social media aggregation.

He said you’re post wasn’t up to snuff and that your evaluation of FriendFeed might look different if you had used it more actively. No more, no less.

You reaction was beneath contempt.