ahem... ? :) - A.T.

dying to tell the world but don't want to get myself another enemy :( - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

This here but don't tell stuff is wierd - Anthony Farrior

"without breaking embargoes" > very simple .. just say the "rumor mill" sez.. TC has become expert at it ! - Peter Dawson

@Anthony: Since when am I not supposed to say I'm frustrated on Twitter or obliged to provide detailed reasons for that? ;) - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

@Peter: I guess I'd prefer to play fair and publish my posts when the startups are ready for their launch, not when their service offers an error page. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Peter, I think Svetlana is referring to a bit of news she's been told about directly from the source, but is under embargo. "I heard a rumor" won't fly under those circumstances. TC can do it because the DO find out from the rumor mill. - Dread Pirate PJ from Alert Thingy

Dread Pirate: Yes, obviously I referred to an embargoed piece of news received directly from a startup and broken on another blog (not TC, BTW). - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Svetlana, complaining without naming doesn't hold water. Just say who it is. I'm sure others will have seen it as well if there is an issue. - Louis Gray

actually better still is the company of the product s/step fwd and let people knwo that their "embargo" was broken by ABC and upheld by XYZ.. However small that company is, this helps builds the creditablity of bloggers like Svetlana.. and put them down that dont behave ethically. - Peter Dawson

this makes the 3rd embargo I've seen broken this week in our space. I actually don't know what this story is about. - Marshall Kirkpatrick

@Marshall, like if there are no names, there is no story. PERIOD - Peter Dawson

@Marshall: Actually I saw 2 embargoes broken on Monday only and it really looks like too much. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

@Louis: I think I'd better not start a war here, I've had enough of it lately. I have just started to compile a list of embargoes broken to use it when I'm ready to face another war, not now, really. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Simple solution: Write about something original. - Louis Gray

@Peter: Unfortunately it is not good for startups to declare who broke the embargo and who did not - they are normally happy that a big blog thought their announcement was important enough to break an embargo. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

U politically correct girl! Time to get Naked! No Flame makes U lame! - Igor The Troll יִצְחָק

@Louis: True, a simple and probably the only possible solution. It's just that there are some news from startups that many blogs will want to cover. What I don't get is what the point in breaking an embargo when the service is not even live yet. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

What is an embargo as it relates to this? - Mathew A. Koeneker

This is why I don't accept embargos or sign NDAs. I tell companies that when they're ready to go public they can tell me, not before. It's not like we're writing for magazines with long lead times, after all. - Leo Laporte

Let it all out, Svetlana! - Mona Nomura

Leo's policy sounds like a good one for blogs (and, for that matter, for radio). Are print practices carrying over to technologies where they don't make sense? - Ontario Emperor from fftogo

@Leo: Reasonable but there's one thing that I am not happy about. I really like to get an early preview of the service and maybe even play with for a few hours (if it's really good) to write a comprehensive review. Is it really all that difficult to publish the reviews when the site actually goes live? Maybe the blogs should finally all add the information about their politics with embargoed news right to their news submission pages so that the startups could know what to expect and wjere they could send embargoed information and where not. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Svetlana, what's your definition of an embargo? If a blogger or journalist receives an *unsolicited* press release with an embargo date on it, should the blogger or journalist respect that embargo? - Mitch Wagner

Mitch, true, unsolicited embargoes probably should be regarded in a different manner and at least the breaker will have a substantiation for his actions. But in general I just dislike the idea of breaking news for the sake of breaking news, at the same time damaging both the company and your readers. - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl