December 16, 2006

Sam Sethi

Posted at 18:36 | | 46 Comments

I would like to address this issue immediately before I post my feelings about the conference. Please also read Michael Arringon explanations.

-exhausted after the conference, I saw Sam's post, I also notice it was posted on the first day of the conference, after which I could not read any criticism about the event, so it was the first one I saw, and most participants were very happy about the first day
-I took offense not because of the criticism, would have been fine for me on Sam's personal blog but because Sam wrote it on TechCrunch who helped me organize many things (not Sam but Ouriel Ohayon of TechCrunch France) and got branding in exchange as main partner of the conference (no other financial arrangements between us and TechCrunch). TechCrunch was everywhere in the conference, blog etc.
-exhausted, I treated Sam an asshole and immediately regretted it.
-Michael felt it was the result of me being very tired and emailed me ccing Sam to offer me to delete the comment
-I accepted
-Sam used the email I considered private to confirm that it was really me who left the comment (which was fine I always stand by what I have done, except email privacy)
-I publically apoligized in another comment, for me the issue is closed and I am not proud of myself for the comment, that's how I am (rarely)
-instead of deleting the comment as it was offered Sam keeps it online.

The rest is internal TechCrunch and I had no further exchanges about my sad comment. I want to say for those of you who may doubt it that
-I never asked Michael anything against Sam
-I regret he was fired and there is no way I can believe he got fired just because of that comment I left.

Nobody would fire anybody for this, there is obviously an entire internal context there I don't know and don't need to know.

Notes:

1. as some of you asked I also confirm that Michael has always been in the program and invited as speaker. Two days before the conference starts Michael emails me saying that as he was unsure until the last minute to join and still offers to join us but with a ridiculous ticket price as it was the only option left. I declined as the conference was due to barely breakeven and Michael did not join us, no other underlying story.

2. Six Apart never ever blocked access to the blog or administration of Sam Sethi's personal blog. I can't believe some people started this rumor.

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You are a loser LLM !

raoul , December 16, 2006 at 18:44

frankly loïc I would like to believe you, but I can't. this is not the first time you're treating someone with such a fine choice of words in a comment, and I haven't seen apologies in those cases.

so the apology looks like some sort of damage control after having failed to have the comment or the note removed, not as something sincere.

and anyway, in your previous note you are also apologising to those who didn't like your conference. so sam was right: there was some good, some bad and some ugly at your conference, but you couldn't take the criticism.

so what exactly does it mean when you apologise?

please note that I usually side with you, just in case you have a pile of insults left ;-)

lionel, December 16, 2006 at 18:54

You mean the same Ouriel who "pre-launched" your video for you?

http://ouriel.typepad.com/myblog/2006/12/loic_is_dead_in.html

Mizez Slo, December 16, 2006 at 18:57

you believe me or not is your choice, I just told the facts and the truth on this story.

Loic, December 16, 2006 at 19:04

story is good, mr yes

jose, December 16, 2006 at 19:13

using techcrunch for his personnal critics was certainly not delicate but he probably did not deserve to be fired for that. unless as you say we miss something important. If his intentions were personnal ambitions to build his name on yours them shame on him. it sounds like you have enough problems already....

Alain, December 16, 2006 at 19:21

ok "bénéfice du doute" then. but facts are from a point of view and truth is supposed to be universal. and men are usually fighting each other when they believe they own the truth. this might even explain some of this BS.

lionel, December 16, 2006 at 19:22

On one side everybody seems to take Sam's defense. on the other side, your explanation could make sense and i could understand you reacted under the fire specially coming from a partner. He had certainly the right not to like the conference but why the hell did he published it under the techcrunh? This stinks really. Maybe we will know more soon

eric, December 16, 2006 at 19:30

Hey loic.

You seem not to be the only one to think he's an asshole

"Loic has every right to call Sam an asshole. He is an asshole. A manipulative asshole. BUt that’s how they train them at Microsoft."

http://blog.broadbandmechanics.com/2006/12/well-i-guess-im-not-having-breakfast-with-sam-sethi-tomorrow

and this one did not even apologize

George of the Jungle, December 16, 2006 at 20:05

the last thing I have to prove I am right is our email exchange but sorry this is not my style, I would rather Sam confirms himself, I apologized after all and have nothing to do with him being fired, I also said I was sorry for it.

Loic, December 16, 2006 at 20:13

Hi. I do not know who's right or not and I am completly neutral. I just wanna say I was at the conference and Loïc has big balls to organize this kind of conference with so many people and I was very happy to be there. I liked the open mindset and it gave a clear idea of Web 2.0 even if it was not too deep in terms of strategy but who the hell wanna say too much about his strategy anyway (quite confidential). About Sarkozy it was a very good idea to invite politics in the blogsphere it's how it is web 2.0 to invite anyone that wish to express himself. They just should speak in English. At the end I just think it's about people susceptibilty and jealousy with Loïc. I like people to take risks to organize such open conference and to take risks to be so much exposed with critism in the blogsphere. Keep on going Loïc and I wait for Le Web 4. All the best

sacha, December 16, 2006 at 20:50

If Sarkozy wants to express himself, fine. But why come to the conference to do it, if he had no desire to interact with it? It's just a pity he didn't take questions from the audience like Peres and Bayrou.

However, asking him to speak English? C'mon, if the guy isn't fluent in English and wants to make a speech, what's wrong with the simultaneous translation provided?

Adam, December 16, 2006 at 21:46

I personnaly think people tend to mix eveything up until the truth cannot be recongnized anymore. Mashup is good fo content on websites, not for facts in real life !
And we definitely have to dissociate Loïc's insult (wich he apologized for, and hey : are we all robots ? mistake is human !...) from sam sethi's dismissal.

These are NOT the same story.

And another thing : even in the hypothesis that Loïc tried to have sam fired, just explain what kind of power / pressure he could exerce on Mike Arrington to do so : sorry but I don't buy it, it doesn't add up.

So please people, just try to put some rational thinking back into it :

1 - Conference happenned. And that's great. As every event this kind, it was far from perfection... but I challenge every blogger around to do the same in six weeks and reach perfection : just impossible !

2 - The politics intervention definitely were a mistake. Not the idea in itslef, but the way it happened. Could have been good, but it hasn't. Period. Nobody died, nobody got hurt...

3 - Now, there's been some exchanges between Loïc and Sam, partly public and partly private. Part of the story is clearly unknown by anyone, appart from Mike Arrington and Sam Sethi, wich ended up in MA firing SS.

Obviously there's some kind of link between 1,2 and 3. But the exact nature of this relation, to me, is still too unclear to draw conclusions.

Laurent Ponce, December 16, 2006 at 22:00

Sorry, but what count is the final result , not what you and others said or or did.
The fact is that the final result is really " pityoable" as you would say in French so I believe you should draw the conclusions and return to the the "private world"
I would like also to add that I have paid for a relative a substainsal part of the amount of the confernce and i can tell you I am really not happy about all this mess..

karpad, December 16, 2006 at 22:09

Loïc,

a) Please learn to write correct English.
b) Is being "exhausted" a good reason to insult people?
c) Get a serious job.
d) Get a life.

Nicolas, December 16, 2006 at 22:18

Okay, now that you've put your side of the story up about Sam Sethi, can we now have a conversation about the fact that (a) the French politicians at Le Web were a tremendous waste of our time and attention; (b) the panels had people who were there only because of their sponsorship (the guy from Orange on the "giants of web 2.0" panel springs to mind); (c) the near total non-existence of tough questions or interaction with the speakers; (d) the fact that the audience to whom Le Web was pitched was not made clear in the promotion (if I had any idea of who it was aimed at, I would have stayed far, far away); (e) the fact that you called Le Web 3 an 'unconference' when in fact it was a media circus and finely planned stage show; and (f) the fact that journalists got special treatment despite the fact that "blogging is the future" (insert citizen journalism hype here) etc. I could go on and on. You were there on Tuesday at the end of the day. Do you know why the place was half empty at the end of the day?!

Sam Sethi - much as I think he's a great guy - is not the issue, Loïc. The issue is you've got a lot of people like me who left Paris on Wednesday morning feeling like they've spent a lot of time and money attending a conference that left them feeling very unsatisfied at the end of it. You've got a lot of people feeling ripped off and who aren't feeling the "conversation love", and you are doing nothing to communicate with them.

A huge great big blogstorm happened and your only reaction - as someone who works for a BLOGGING COMPANY - is to go and call Sam Sethi an asshole. It's not so much that you called him an asshole as the fact that you haven't done anything else. Where's the conversation at, Loïc?

Sam Sethi is the tip of the iceberg. We are out here, and we want to have a serious conversation with you guys to find out what went wrong and whether there is anything you can do to make amends.

Tom Morris, December 16, 2006 at 22:36

Guys, you are calling him on not posting right away about the rest when in fact that is what caused trouble in the first place.

I know people skip first paragraph but it does actually say: "I would like to address this issue immediately before I post my feelings about the conference.".

This is the easier thing to write about and get it out of the way first. As for deleting the comment .. it was 'out' too long I think to acutally being able to just delete it. It would have brought many more questions than answers at that point.

And even if Loic was so 'powerful' to get Sam fired - well, I can just not believe Mike Arrington is so easy to be told what to do.

Nicole

Nicole Simon, December 16, 2006 at 22:55

I actually would have never known about this entire event had it not been for the firing. However, I hope that you can put the word out there that this type of behavior is unnecessary and not constructive.

There seems to be a growing list of events such as this among "A-listers". They don't hesitate in tearing down other bloggers, sites, etc. and call each other names. It's not acceptable in any setting, certainly not on the web where there is always a public and always a record.

Either way, it doesn't change my personal opinion of either of you. Of course, I'd be wary of working with either of you given the history. I'm not an "A-List" person, either, so it may not be of any consequence to you. It's simply juvenile and unnecessary behavior.

I just really hope folks can be 'nicer' and more tolerant on the web. I thought we had learned enough back in the day of 'flaming'. It's time that this behavior be looked down upon on the web.

Respectfully,
Doug

Doug Karr, December 16, 2006 at 22:56

Err, Doug Karr - the whole "be nice to one another" argument was shot down in flames at Les Blogs 2 when Mena Trott shouted "asshole" at Ben Metcalfe. Oh, how history repeats itself...

Tom Morris, December 16, 2006 at 23:08

As a blogger I can’t understand why you didn’t respond sooner to all the noise.

paul, December 16, 2006 at 23:33

Jesus.

At Les Blogs 1 in erly 2005 I was invited to come down and speak/draw cartoons... and I paid money to get a hotel in Paris, plane fare etc etc. Oh, and did I mention I was spending my valuable time?

Hey, guess what? I got bumped, mainly for technical reasons. Did I care? Of course not. It was no big del. These things haoppen. So I hung out for 3 days and met a lot of a groovy people, made some contacts, and went to visit a few tourist attractions.

Did I write a "I was meant to be a speaker but got bumped and now I am angry" post? Of course not. That would've been too lame.

My conclusion: Something else was going on with Le Web 3 and Loic is being used as a pretext/scapegoat.

Of course, NOBODY wants to talk about that. Easier being sanctimonious.

hugh macleod, December 17, 2006 at 00:13

How many times I have emailed something I did not mean to write... This is part of email/blogging. We have to understand better each other when using this medium.

As what matters to LeWeb3, I think it was a mistake (a big one) to invite French politicians. But at the same time, I think the conference was just great in all respects: organization, place, attendees, speakers, party, etc. It is a pity some people are going to remember it for the wrong part. I hope this all gets forgotten very fast and you organize a new one in 2007.

Jose del Moral, December 17, 2006 at 00:35

Reading Loic's explanation, things seem to make sense. Michael agreed to withdraw the comment before talking about it with Sam. Sam and Mike fell out over it. Business over. Pain in the backside, particularly for TCUK co-editor Mike Butcher, but all involved are talented enough to succeed on their own.

I've made my own feelings clear about Le Web 3 but give Loic a break. The past few days have probably been tough, certainly exhausting, and he's said he'll come back on the subject of the conference, so let's just let him do so? Please?

Ian Fenn, December 17, 2006 at 00:55

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Welcome to my blog. Based in San Francisco, I am an entrepreneur and a blogger. I just started my fifth startup, Seesmic, a community driven video social software. Here is what TechCrunch says about it.

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