Nice...gotta love the haters. - David Cook

Scoble...don't let the douchebags get you down. - Sean McGee

Scoble backlash! You're taking it like a champ. - Pete D

am I wrong, or did you not just criticize only the WEBSITES that these companies put up? How does that make you anti-startup? - Nathan Rein

@Scobleizer So, if you don't review something favorably, you're a douchebag? So, all reviewers with high standards or differing opinions are douchebags? Bad form to review the reviewer. People and companies have to either accept a review or in isolated circumstances offer up a calm, rational counterpoint. Anything else is a bad pr move and impolite. - David van Sunder

it all worked out like you planned scobes, eh? - jeneane sessum

As much as I like what you have to say, your recent post on start-ups was way off the bat. I don't think "you suck" but I do think the post was not a good one. - Candace Holly

Kevin: you aren't the only one to agree with me that the sites sucked too. Jeneane: I honestly didn't have any idea what the feedback would be. - Robert Scoble

Candace: which startup post? And what did you disagree with on it? - Robert Scoble

If these guys were smart, they'd listen to your comments constructively instead of taking it all personally. People can't be honest and constructive any more - that's what sucks. If they disagree, that's fine, but it doesn't make you a jerk for being constructive. I wish more of my critiques were as constructive as you made yours. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

The post; Startups: your web site sucks . I personally think winelibrary.tv is a ridiculous site. I also think the host of the show belongs on a bad infomercial late at night. It's just a site with a blog post and a video on the front page. And why compare tech related companies to a wine company anyway? Two different things. The post seemed to just say "this is why you suck" but there was no solution or even an offer of "here's how you can suck less". It's one of a few posts of yours I didn't like. - Candace Holly

@Jesse when you are involved with something like a startup anything said about it is personal, take Jason Calacanis and Mahalo. I'm not saying its right, I'm saying I understand. As far as your post Robert, if you're a journalist and you aren't getting hate mail, you aren't doing something right. If they spent as much time making sure your accusations were unfounded as they did taking shots at your level of credibility in the startup field (which is suspect btw) they would have nothing to worry about. - Aaron Krug

Why should anyone expect Scoble to stick up for them? Bad design is bad design. Sometimes getting your feelings hurt makes you wake up to things that need change. - Ben Rhudy

Aaron, I work for a startup - just started, and I would love for Scoble to write about us, good or bad. This is awesome exposure opportunity for each of them. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

What's important is that he's honest - if he were lying about us to make us look bad that would be a different story. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

It should be noted that Scoble's post is also now on Techmeme and each one of those startups is now getting traffic from that as well. - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Scoble, only advice: calm down, take a deep breath before talking. Remember there are real people on the end of your barbs. You've done a lot of good in promoting startups, don't fuck it up now. - Duncan Riley

Candace: OK, then I'll come up with some better examples. Winelibrary.tv is just one that is doing something interesting to me and keeps me engaged, both because it has interesting video as well as an interesting community. A better example might have been something like Evernote, Seesmic, MaxRoam, or Tripit, which are far closer to the usual Demo kind of things. - Robert Scoble

Duncan: there are real people on the other end, that is true, but they need to step up the game big time. To me Demo is the equivilent of the Super Bowl and these sites look like high school. Trying to pretend otherwise doesn't help this industry one bit. - Robert Scoble

@Jesse what startup do you work for? I know what you are saying with "no news is bad news", and of course any criticism from a guy who has been able to see so many startups could be used constructively. If you are talking exposure though, didn't these guys do the right thing then, since Robert wrote another post about it, getting them more exposure? I think the best idea is to focus on your product and the other things under your direct control (website), then the journalists come to you instead. - Aaron Krug

Robert, from what I can gather, at least a decent slab of the sites you're talking about are pre-release in that they'll be launching new sites post DEMO/ TC50 etc. just give them a little time and credit. Sure, some don't get the marketing aspect, but I'd bet not all of them are like that - Duncan Riley

Aaron http://staynalive.com/article... - we haven't launched yet but you'll hear more about it this week. I can already say that our website isn't very good right now either though. (but then again, we haven't launched yet, nor announced much about it) - Jesse Stay via twhirl

Duncan: OK, fair enough. I'll look at all 70 again at the end of the week. I'll also compare them to TC50 and I'll be just as harsh on them. But, many of these companies have spent months preparing for Demo, and way more than $18,000 (Shel Israel and other demo coaches tell me that companies often spend more than $100,000 preparing for, and bringing their teams to, Demo). So, to spend that kind of effort to have a Website up that doesn't even work is inexcusable. - Robert Scoble

Our total expenditure for Mobilize will be about 2k - but we're working our asses off true bootstrap style! I've wasted plenty of $ (mine & others) in previous ventures. Not this time. - Dean Terry

@Jesse thanks for the link, I look forward to seeing more soon. As far as the site goes, you're right. The same defense you made could be made for the Demo companies as well, as there is actually an embargo on writing about them until Monday(as you know), so I think we could safely wait until after their Demo debut to pass this kind of judgment. If Duncan is right about many companies having new sites after as he stated a few comments above here Robert may have jumped the gun. - Aaron Krug

@Duncan I hear what you are saying about the pre-release deal, but when you say some companies don't get the marketing bit, you can add those companies to the list that WILL FAIL. Marketing is as or more important than the product itself, and you know it. Robert may have jumped the gun here but the point still stands. Marketing matters. - Aaron Krug

Scoble is the Simon Cowell of Social Media.. he's going to tell it like it is, whether you like it or not, either you can build a site, or you can't .. there is no use in half-assing it :) FYI, anytime I see a site that is not in English, the first thing I do is look for country flags. - Tim Hoeck

My comment on the blog: Unfortunate events, looking forward to your next post on this. Even an investigation in the topic could be done as it'd disseminate facts from the parties as it seems the situation is somewhat doing a ricochet by bringing up old stories, I think that storyline will effectively be settled in a definite and decisive way. To the best thinker -Zu - Zu_ElijahBailey

Bring some more intel! I'm somewhat of a researcher and the story seems interesting enough it made me imagine some kind of a social-web-documentary-document, where every posts related to the topic could be disseminated by all, with fact-checking and the like, anyways... ;p - Zu_ElijahBailey

wow, well if companies "often spend more than $100,000" going to Demo, assuming they spend similar money going to TC50, that kind of torpedoes the whole "TC is the side of Truth and Justice because they don't charge startups" argument. (Not that anyone was buying Arrington's argument that the fee constituted "payola" anyway.) - Karim

Karim: actually that's a good point and one that I wish Shipley had made better in her blog post. She decided to knock my ego down a few sizes instead of explaining this and making her conference look better. Oh well, my ego always needs a knock and I don't have any interest in either of these conferences. - Robert Scoble

My honest opinion of your piece was that it looked like you were locking arms with Arrington and Calacanis to destroy Demo. I think the over-the-top bombast and timing makes it smell a bit, if you know what I mean, esp. since you're an adviser to TC50. I would like to think that you look at the startup itself and don't favor one or disfavor another because of how they choose to launch. Your post is a bit jarring to me, actually. Seems to me like you could have made the point about the websites not being good without making the leap that the companies and products themselves are bad and basically screaming to the world that Demo is going to suck. Sorry, but it LOOKS like you're taking sides against certain startups just because of politics. I've always respected and trusted your opinions. I hope that's not the case. - Dawn

I think the kicker was many posts about how Demo sucked that you were posting. Everybody knows you're associated with TC, so it looked obvious even if it wasn't intended. - Patricia

Nathan Rein, you are wrong Scoble said they suck, not only the websites: "I just visited every one of these companies. Boy do they almost all suck (at least their Web sites and if their sites suck, I can’t believe their products are going to do much better)" from http://scobleizer.com/2008... - Loic Le Meur

You know you gotta love the ones who put THOUGHT into their attacks. They're my favorite. Take Dan Hau: "Talentless, fat, annoying, douche-bag". I mean, how many synapses had to fire for that articulate line of reasoning to be spewed forth? I say this; Oh yeah, well Dan? YOU SMELL FUNNY. So there. - Avery Tingle

yes, how scandalous, I can't believe he drew all eyes on something that sucks! Witty man is playing with our emotions there. - xavier vespa