Gah. Just noticed I used 'wrong' twice in the same sentence. That's, um, not good grammar.

writes/ rights too PC: why not just come straight out and call the commenter a cunt. Probably get 10x the reaction and twice as many comments. F bombs are just lame.

@mike. Nah, That was deliberate....I think the technical term is 'alliteration'. Or 'being a smartass'.

It's remarkable. The more pompous the commenter, the less likely they are to know the difference between you're and your. I'm sure Sarah is horrified to see me swearing at her readers. Hope I don't get fired!

It's not about someone's typo nor about you getting fired. It's about your callous attitude that is lessening the chances someone else from becoming successful. Quit swearing at someone else's customers!!

Jesus. They're not "customers", they're READERS. Where are all you fucking crazy, self-entitled, patronizing dickwads coming from? Is there a convention? Leave. Begone.

Well said.

ditto. I work for a newspaper and there have been many times when I wished I could've told some of our commenters to fuck off... Even though I'm completely unrelated to the startup/silicon valley industry I find these 'insider' posts very interesting. HuffPost's undoing of TechCrunch makes for a fantastic story.

Can you please switch to facebook comment plugin? Or Disqus. Not because of trolls but because this wordpress crap takes up way too much screen space. I have a 17 inch laptop monitor and I can barely fit 2 comments on a screen.

Does he also have your full support to tell your customers to fuck off and never come back? A customer that simply voiced mild feedback on your product? Many business journalists write about a companies success with or failure to listen to their customers. It isn't too soon to start the healthy practice of listening to yours (and not telling them to fuck off).

"paul has my full support to write whatever he wants and swear at anyone who thinks it’s a problem" Seems pretty clear to me. Admittedly it requires a slightly sophisticated understanding of how media works to understand why Sarah is exactly right, not just on a comedic level but also on a business one. The fact that you're try to understand media through the lens of readers as "customers" and an editorial voice as a "product" suggests you might not be quite there yet. P.s. Fuck off.

wow paul car is a real asshole. i'm never coming back here again.

in a word, yes. media companies don't have "customers," we have readers. there is a difference. we definitely take what readers say into consideration, but ultimately, we don't change our editorial coverage because a few people don't like a story. if everyone likes everything you do, you're pretty much a failed media company by definition. but even if readers were "customers" that would be silly. look at this content stream: More people argue the story is relevant than don't. And that's to say nothing of the thousands of readers who didn't comment because they didn't have an issue with it. as for paul's style, again, more people on this comment thread like it than hate it. so i'd be careful with the "customers" analogy. is it my style? no. but that's what makes a successful blog-- lots of different voices who offend and delight lots of different groups of people. staff reporters may be a different matter-- we'll see how pando evolves. but i don't censor contributors on this site and never will.

Editing out a few "FUUUs" is not censorship. Would you "censor" Paul's comments if they were racist? if they were homophobic? if they were in favor of ten thousand other things that we all agree are hate speech":? From me, at least, you're getting reasonable feedback. Once you're done being defensive, think about it

i'm not being defensive. i'm calmly explaining how i think about media companies. if someone were making racist or homophobic comments they wouldn't be a contributor on pando. paul is one of my closest friends and someone i've worked with for years. i know what i'm getting with him. that's why i can give him carte blanche and say with confidence that i support him. (ditto Mike and MG who will likely offend people soon too.) i'm not opening up the site for just any contributor to have open posting privileges. but when i do, i mean it. as i said in my first comment, i want the whole package. that's why these guys have huge followings. if you're sensitive to swearing, i suggest not reading the comments on his posts. probably the only place you'll see a lot of it on the site. i gotta get back to work now. hope that's clear. thanks everyone for caring enough about the site to be concerned.

Sarah, what I take from this is that it is more important to you to have and keep superstar bloggers than to hold them to basic standards of respect for others. That's a pity.

Bye! (you'll be back)

1) it's "navel gaze". 2) the story was ok, but, after suffering through the comments thread, yes, Pando Daily is coming across as very provincial. 3) Absolutely disagree with your support of Paul Carr's crude disrespect. Makes you come across as immature and unprofessional (to say nothing of him). 4) Not a troll. Scientist and entrepreneur living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, came to check out Pando Daily for the first time in a week or two. This is very disappointing, not so much because of the initial story, but because of the comments and your reaction to them.

You know a good way to alleviate your suffering through of the comments? Don't read the damn comments.

Paul -- you're getting reasonable feedback. Quit being defensive and think about it.

The problem here is your fundamental misunderstanding of the dynamic here. You use the word "unprofessional" when in fact this *is* my profession. And Ive been doing it for a while. You, on the other hand, are just a guy on a comment thread. There is literally no reason at all for me to care what you think. None. Changing my work in response to feedback from an amateur would be unprofessional.Telling you to fuck yourself from the highest tree is the pinnacle of my art.

Paul -- what I'm taking away from this is that you don't have much respect for other people. Is that really the pinnacle of your art as a human being?

Incidentally, "professionalism" doesn't mean "whatever I am doing in my profession." Geez. Think about it.

Dude, you're so far out of your depth at this point.

Paul -- ever hear of the "fallacy of reasoning from authority?" the source of an argument doesn't matter, it's the content. Doesn't matter whether I'm a guy in a comment thread, what matters is what I'm saying. And what I'm saying is that cursing at strangers is disrespectful and unnecessary, and, because you are a grownup writing for publication, not a childish troll in a comment thread, it is unprofessional too. See ya!

While we may disagree about "reader" vs "customer," I am appalled that you support one of your authors telling the original commenter, or I, to fuck off. Did my comment, simply an opinion, not an attack, really justify a "P.S. Fuck off"? I'm one of your biggest fans, but you have now lost my support of PandoDaily. To think you and I were just emailing 2 weeks ago and I said what a wonderful job you were doing! How fast things change. I hope you write another book, because that will be the next time I read your work.

While we may disagree about “reader” vs “customer,” I am appalled that you support one of your authors telling the original commenter, or I, to fuck off. Did my comment, simply an opinion, not an attack, really justify a “P.S. Fuck off”? ---- Amen. I'll come back a couple of times, but I'm not going to keep coming back after that unless I see some signs that you are actually taking this entirely reasonable feedback to heart.

Pooja *has* a point.

*touché*