This appears to be a design pattern on a number of blogs. You know how "Top 10" type lists are so popular and easy to do? It appears this pattern is also popular, and even easier to do.
1. Take list someone else researched(successful YC startups).
2. Write first idea that comes to mind for each one(generally something obvious, wrong, and controversial).
3. Hit publish.
You get to capitalize on a number of proven traffic techniques--lists, pingbacks, and controversy--for only a few minutes of work.
Usually I err on the side of not killing stuff critical of YC no matter how crappy it is, but this seems so dumb that it can only be a deliberate troll. I could see how someone might mistake Reddit for a Digg clone, but to claim that Justin.TV is a YouTube clone you'd have to be willfully blind.
Usually I err on the side of not killing stuff critical of YC no matter how crappy it is
That sounds like a good policy, and I think you should have stuck to it in this case and erred on the not-killing side.
I mean, I can understand killing obvious deliberate trolling (of the form "YC is gay ha ha ha") but in this case I think it's just not very well researched. Anyone looking at justin.tv's front page briefly (if, say, they were trying to write a blog post that involved looking at two dozen websites) could be forgiven for thinking it's a youtube clone -- the whole lower half of the page is devoted to pre-recorded videos with lengths in minute-second format.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 30.8 ms ] threadBut yeah, I'm not upvoting this.
1. Take list someone else researched(successful YC startups).
2. Write first idea that comes to mind for each one(generally something obvious, wrong, and controversial).
3. Hit publish.
You get to capitalize on a number of proven traffic techniques--lists, pingbacks, and controversy--for only a few minutes of work.
For example: Wikis in general might be innovative, but a Wiki-style website builder is not.
That sounds like a good policy, and I think you should have stuck to it in this case and erred on the not-killing side.
I mean, I can understand killing obvious deliberate trolling (of the form "YC is gay ha ha ha") but in this case I think it's just not very well researched. Anyone looking at justin.tv's front page briefly (if, say, they were trying to write a blog post that involved looking at two dozen websites) could be forgiven for thinking it's a youtube clone -- the whole lower half of the page is devoted to pre-recorded videos with lengths in minute-second format.
Conversely, if you're sufficiently observant, you can stare into the mundane, and find enough of interest to last you a lifetime.