Montreal Tech Watch

Mediascrape’s credibility gets a hit; naive move at TC

By Heri May 26th 2008 in Business

I am reading a post on Techcrunch about Mediascrape, a local media startup, that made news recently. Michael Arrington reveals that Tyler Cavell, founder of the company, is threatning him of a lawsuit, since the latter found the post and comments about his company incorrect.

mediascrape I am not really sure what to think about the case. Threatning a blogger of a lawsuit is frivolous and reveals a big misunderstanding of blogs. Roberto Rocha once called Tyler “one of the most refreshingly candid company chiefs I know”; and it seems he still plays the same character. On the other hand, Techcrunch bloggers are making quick and easy assumptions based on what they see on the website’s homepage, while they are thousands of miles away from the company; fact is that there were reasons behind every criticism they threw at Mediascrape.

One thing is for sure, this is all very stupid; and diverts everyone from what Mediascrape really does. I guess I could try to defend Tyler Cavell in the comments sections (which bash Québec and Canada by the way); but the guy has never participated or went in any tech/network event around here. It’s the sort of person you have no clue what they are doing or thinking, and finish concluding that maybe they think they are better on their own. Heck, I am not even sure he’ll appreciate the support.

So, to any aspiring entrepreneur out there: network, connect, share, learn. Then iterate. Don’t do like the Capazoo or the Mediascrape by staying in your corner. Meet other entrepreneurs in the same space as yours. Go to the 5 à 7. Share what you are doing, and get to know what works out there. Go to the techbreakfasts. Go to conferences. It’s such a business 101 principle that I can’t even believe I am writing it here.

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Comments

  • StartupNorth » Blog Archive » Pride and Prejudice May 27, 2008

    [...] kept flipping through my news feeds, I came across an embarrassing update about MediaScrape, which Heri and Mathew Ingram both covered well. When we first posted about MediaScrape, Tyler Cavell, the [...]

  • lpgauth May 27, 2008

    Just saw your post on twitter.

    Why is their so much hate towards Quebec… Techcrunch should moderate comments…

  • Bill May 27, 2008

    The same blogger got similar letters from several companies- like YouTube for example. He makes controversial posts, to attract more links to his site and more audience. As simple as that. In terms of Mediascrape it looks like Michael Arrington may have expressed his personal opinion, which is “free speech”. There is also other type of blogging – cyber bulling, which intentionally harmed people (and companies), and resulted in several deaths of teenagers recently. Bloggers who spread lies and use Internet to bully either individuals or companies need to be imprisoned and definitely sued for damages. There are cases where people received over $10 million for cyber-bulling cases. In fact, anyone who falsely accused other person without any real evidence should pay for damages. Cyber-bulling needs to be reported immediately to the local police. http://www.overcomebullying.org/cyber-bullying.html To refute your post- not every threat of a lawsuit to a blogger is frivolous. By the way, third party stats including Alexa, Quantcast are misleading (often completely incorrect).

  • Heri May 27, 2008

    lpgauth,

    I read the Techcrunch comments, and the commenter who stands out was a guy called “Chris”. But he’s just a troll, and my policy on trolling is to just ignore them. It seems “Chris” has had a bad experience with his Quebec and Canadian experience, and it also seems he prefers now Southern California — which is ok for me.

    Bill,

    I don’t think Michael Arrington writes controversial posts just for the sake of controversy. He is well ahead of most bloggers on some topics, due to his network and his experience, and that’s how people perceive he publishes controversial posts. It’s true though that he is often harsh and is not afraid of writing his opinions.

    I also understand your point about cyber-bullying, the thing is that many don’t understand that a blog is mostly about personal opinions; akin to an oral conversation. People think that since it’s written, it must be “true” and about “facts”. Take blogs with a grain of salt.

  • Montreal Gazette May 28, 2008

    [...] bickering among bloggers knows, is an invitation to ridicule.Now Tyler is being poked by some local bloggers as one out of touch with the culture and decorum of Internet startups: he doesn’t attend [...]

  • Sun Souhrada January 24, 2011

    There is noticeably a bundle to know about this. I assume you made certain nice points in features also.

  • Logan Prata January 24, 2011

    Is definitely blogengine superior to wordpress in some way? Ought to be as it’s increasingly popluar as of late.

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