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Comment by edw519 | Hacker News Reader

This was hilarious. The only thing missing was "You have until 1:36 p.m. on October 4, 2009, to BUY NOW!" (But that would have required a little js.)

This is a great example of how not to blog:

  - Challenge a blog post of a successful member of the community.
  - Wait 2 weeks before responding to that blog post.
  - Insult him as often as possible, in as many ways as you can.
  - Swear like a sailor.
  - Brag about swearing like a sailor.
  - Co-opt images that have nothing to do with your point.
  - Have no point.
  - Make sure some of those images are vulgar.
  - Use red letters.
  - Use green letters.
  - USE ALL CAPS.
  - Swear some more.
  - Argue with your only commenter.  (That oughta generate more feedback :-)
  - When all else fails, show your resume.

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I find nothing wrong with challenging a successful member of the blogging community. Just because the guy started blogging a few years ago and has a successful startup does not mean that everything he says is always right.

The other points are spot on though.

Sometimes, taking on someone like Jason or Graham or Spolsky just comes across like coattail-riding. It's not that it's wrong to challenge them; it's that the mere fact that you're standing up to them shouldn't be the value proposition of your post.

I don't think Dave needs to "stand up to Jason or Graham or Spolsky" to give more value to his opinion. He's got enough star power by himself, though oddly the people posting on here at the moment seem to be blind to it. See http://500hats.typepad.com/500blogs/about-dave-mcclure.html

Meh, you're probably right. I'm just saying, edw's point doesn't require us to believe that we should back down to "authorities".

oddly the people posting on here at the moment seem to be blind to it

Thank you. I was blind, but now I can see...

Dave barely graduated from the Johns Hopkins University in 1988, with a BS in Mathematical Sciences Engineering and a minor in frisbee, billiards, and foosball.

Foosball? I had no idea. I take it all back.

In the future all disagreements between foosball players should be settled on the table where they belong. Does Jason play?

Fully agreed on this. Foosball, boxing, or ping pong.

You're highlighting the throwaway line about 20 years ago at the end of a lengthy and impressive resume. I appreciate that you disagree with him, but that seems like a cheap shot.

I wasn't joking. I'd love to play any of these guys in foosball. For geeks, foosball is like golf for executives or football for Kennedys. I like how a 20 year old "throwaway line" can still bring us together. The only cheap shot intended here was my bank shot off my opponent's 3 man and into his goal.

Dave doesn't appear as eloquent as J,G&S so that probably explains why he looks like an upstart ranter by comparison.

The thing is he might have actually made some good points in his post. Him typing out something like that doesn't really encourage people to read the entire post. I didn't read the entire post, and I'm guessing a lot of others did not too. So while it may appear to be coattail-riding, it may actually not be (not that the author helps his case much).

I didn't read that at all from the guys post. While the guy did slam Jason, he also rebutted his claims of a VC controlled acquisition.

Dave McClure is himself a "successful member of the community".

I have to say, to hear Jason Fried defended like he is at the moment on this thread (considering his propensity for viciously attacking other people, including start-ups, via the popular 37S blog) is very weird.

fonts & fucks aside, i'm pretty sure i did make a point -- 3 of them to be exact, and enumerated them quite clearly. and the images actually were specifically chosen for each section. but if you don't like the format or style (which is intentional), you're welcome to cut & paste it into notepad.

re: the 2-week delay, as one other person noted i was leading a group of ~20 entrepreneurs & investors around europe for http://GeeksOnaPlane.com and decided to wait until getting back home to pen the rebuttal.

anyway, my style isn't for everyone. hopefully some folks found it useful. if not, then hey at least it made for some entertainment this morning.

peace out,

...but if you don't like the format or style...

It's not a matter of liking it or not. It's just that your style overwhelmed your message so much that I had trouble discerning what it actually was.

For anyone who didn't know about GeeksOnAPlane (me), it looked like you were reaching back for something to pick on. Two weeks here is like two years anywhere else.

I often use your suggestion of cutting and pasting difficult to read blogs (mainly because of color or resolution), but I was having so much fun with yours, I didn't even think of it.

I'll run your content through my parser and de-fucker and read it again. It won't be as much fun, but maybe I'll learn something :-)

thanks for the extra effort... hope it's worthwhile

(btw, it's been my experience that when people find something fun, they are more likely to spend time educating themselves on what they're having fun about ;)

>> "This is a great example of how not to blog:"

Not really, I found it quite entertaining, and agreed with most of it. It was certainly a better blog post than most of the stuff that comes out of 37signals (IMHO).

You forgot:

-When all else fails, close rant with offer to buy said successful community member a beer

I believe the reason it took too long for Dave to respond was that he was doing Geeks On A Plance (GOAP) that took him to the East Coast and Europe.

oh, really? maybe he should have written more about it then, instead of only posting a photo and this idiocracy.

But what you fail to understand is that the fonts and fucks were probably used specifically to make a splash. How else was he going to get his stuff on the main page of HN? ;)

The writer of the blog post wasn't the poster of the article.

I didn't say that the writer of the blog post was the poster of the article. What I mean is that the writer of the article choose to use obscene language and obscene fonts deliberately because he know it would get a rise out of people. Hence the article gets submitted to Digg, to HN, to StumbleUpon, to Reddit, etc.

Its a famous technique, and very effective. To attract attention be a troll.

I think the combination of mentioning Jason Fried and 37signals as well as being semi famous himself and an investor in Mint almost guaranteed posting here.

That too.

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