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TechCrunch’s worst post

Cool - TechCrunch is running a contest: point out TC’s worst post, and win tickets to the Web 2.0 expo.

IMHO, the worst type of post is the breathless, sychophantic, hyperbolic “enthusiasm” post. In TechCrunch land, the post - or rather stream of posts - that brings it altoghether is the coverage of Ning’s initial launch.

Starting in October with the quivering “ZOMG they just launched, were profiling now!!11!!!one” post by Michael, TC quickly followed with Fred O’s fawning launch missive.

Then - hahaha - the post in the search results is the following Febuary - with “Ning R.I.P.?” from Michael. Whoops - in retrospect, TC recognized that keyword-ballistic press releases and Internet celebrity backers do not a successful venture make. In fact, Ning sucked, being a strange mishmash of un-functionality and missed opportunities. Eventually, Ning switched courses entirely, dumping the “web-development for the layperson” battle cry and re-purposing themselves a social network white-labeller.

So that’s it. People ride on Scoble and Rubel for falling head over heels for whatever the day’s buzz-worthy technology is, but TC does it too. Call me a snarky person, but my favorite posts are the honest appraisal one’s, like TC’s coverage of Google Base - golden!

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