ten years later, this is how techmeme hads, and more ... · title: ten years later, this is how...

9/14/2015 Ten Years Later, This Is How Techmeme Has Avoided Click-Bait, Auto-Play Ads, And More | Gabe Rivera | LinkedIn

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Ten Years Later, This Is How Techmeme Has

Avoided Click-Bait, Auto-Play Ads, And More

Sep 11, 2015 50,114 views 528 Likes 72 Comments ¨ S T

Techmeme launched on September 12, 2005 amid a flurry of blog posts from

Robert Scoble, Richard MacManus, and several others. Friends and Techmeme

team members have insisted we need to mark this anniversary, so I reluctantly

wrote the following listicle of surprising facts about Techmeme. Now that I've

finished, I am glad I wrote it. Enjoy!

1. Techmeme didn't launch with the name "Techmeme", or even its

own top level domain. Instead, it launched as tech.memeorandum, the

technology offshoot of memeorandum, an automated aggregator of news and

commentary mainly around US politics. (memeorandum launched in

January 2004 and still lives on today, but could probably use a redesign,

rebranding, and editors.) On the day memeorandum's improved automated

engine and redesign were announced, its sister site for tech news,

tech.memeorandum went live on the subdomain tech.memeorandum.com.

After tech.memeorandum quickly eclipsed memeorandum in traffic, it

became clear it deserved its own domain, and moved to Techmeme.com the

Gabe RiveraCEO at Techmeme

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following May.

2. Techmeme's original mission statement still holds up nicely today,

allowing for a few addendums. The goals outlined here in 2005 (1.

Recognize the web as editor, 2. Rapidly uncover new sources, and 3. Relate

the conversation) endure even to this day. However, as Techmeme became

the first stop for tech news for a growing and influential segment of the tech

industry, other goals became imperative too. In particular: strive for

comprehensive coverage of the day's most significant tech stories, and post

big, breaking news story quickly.

3. Although it has almost no direct competition today, Techmeme

was reportedly beset by a legion of competitors for years. In the

months after it launched, Techmeme was considered to be an exemplar

among discovery and search services in the blogging space, a purportedly

burgeoning industry. Moreover, its fully automated implementation at the

time appeared on the surface to rely on a simple technological process (Step

1: Scan feeds … Step 2. Sort posts by inbound links.) Inevitably, an

assortment of Techmeme-like sites was soon competing for attention. While

a few sites were clearly imitators, others were, like Techmeme, iterations on

ideas bubbling up at the time.

And so we would see TechCrunch comparing Techmeme (née

tech.memeorandum) to services with names like Blogniscient, Megite, and

Chuquet. Later the phrase "Techmeme Killer" would appear fairly regularly

in headlines, most notably when Google itself introduced a would-be

"Techmeme Killer". Even after Techmeme survived Google's Techmeme-

killer, services like ePlatform and TechFuga would still elicit comparisons to

Techmeme, while TechCrunch would later say of Tweetmeme, a Techmeme-

like aggregator of tweets "If I were Gabe Rivera, I'd start worrying now".

As you can probably guess, each of the above services mentioned above

(Google Blogsearch included) no longer exists.

Today, it's rare for a new service to come along that is considered to be direct

competition for Techmeme, for a couple reasons. First, in the proceeding

years, Techmeme introduced elements like human editing and rewritten

headlines that made cloning more than just a problem of deploying code.

Second, most media entrepreneurs now see more potential through other

avenues. Unicorn valuations in media today are thought to be won through

BuzzFeed-like strategies to attain BuzzFeed-level scale, not building another

How I Went From NYC to



industry news aggregator.

4. Techmeme has lots of indirect competition, including Twitter,

Facebook, and blogs. Like all media sites, Techmeme's real competition

comes from whatever is best at diverting attention that it might otherwise

draw. So foremost among Techmeme's "competitors" are Twitter, Facebook,

blogs that function as news aggregators, and, in fact, media of all forms (not

to mention sunshine, children, and puppies). A person who is content to

gather technology news through what friends share on Facebook, or by

scanning thousands of tweets each day, may be less likely to rely on

Techmeme. On the other hand, because this competition exists, those that do

rely on Techmeme happen to be the most demanding and informed readers,

the ones who know they can't stay current on actionable news by merely

consuming social media feeds. So while competition may curtail Techmeme's

readership somewhat, it has the effect of making our average reader more

valuable.

5. Lately we've been more about building team and process than

technology. While Techmeme's foundation is a suite of technologies that

continues to evolve, the bulk of our work in recent years has been directed at

hiring and training editors, and perfecting the processes that strengthen our

editorial product. In this way, we have more in common with news

organizations than, say, Google News or Nuzzel. While it's possible the

balance may shift again in the years ahead, our reliance on human editors

will not wane (until such time as AI has progressed to the point where robots

write hit songs and screenplays.)

6. Techmeme usually has only one editor working at a time. In 2008

we announced we were coupling our algorithmic engine with our first human

editor. Since then, we've hired several more editors to provide near-24/7

coverage. Even with those additional editors, we still follow a model in which

usually just one editor works on Techmeme at a time. Mediagazer,

Techmeme's sister site for media news, employs editors as well, but again,

mainly just one at a time. While there are moments throughout the day when

a second Techmeme editor assists the first, facilitated by an editing system

designed for collaboration, more often than not, it's just one human editor

alongside our automation.

7. Our editing model leads to a highly distributed and international

team, and no offices. Covering news 24/7, but with only one editor

working a site at a time leads to an organization built around working from

home, so long as those home offices span many time zones. The flexibility



that comes with working from home has enabled us to tap talent pools

unavailable to other kinds of organizations, particularly stay-at-home parents

and full time college students. One result of this is a fairly broad range of ages

among our editors, a form of diversity emphasized not very frequently in

commentary on inclusion in Techmeme stories, but nonetheless a real asset

for many organizations.

8. Opting not to host articles profoundly affects the way news can be

conveyed for nonobvious reasons. Because Techmeme doesn't host its

own stories, we're never tempted to publish more articles than our readers

want just to goose traffic. Also, when we do publish new links, we're never

tempted to use headlines designed to force you to click to collect very basic

details, which would only make our homepage less valuable, and wouldn't

improve our stats in any way. The end result is a homepage that's highly

informative, scannable, and devoid of gimmicky news, an outcome that runs

counter to major trends in media.

9. Techmeme has never run interstitials, page takeovers, mouseover

ads, autoplaying anything, or even banners. Arriving at a sustainable

ad model for Techmeme was never going to be easy. When you don't host

articles, you don't rack up as many page views, and moreover, you don't have

very sharable content, the kind that attracts monthly unique visitors (i.e.

entices bored people to leave Facebook for a few seconds). In 2015,

supporting an online news operation with advertising when your page view

and unique visitor numbers aren't massive is always an uphill battle. Media

sites in this predicament are often tempted to run ads units that pay more

but repel and infuriate readers.

Fortunately what Techmeme does have is the attention of the people who

lead the tech industry. (Ask your CEO "where do you get your tech news?")

When a news destination is a hub for industry decision-makers, companies

will want to reach its readers, making it possible to sell the far more welcome

form of "ads" that Techmeme does include. These include posts from

sponsors' blogs, catchy taglines from companies that want you to check out

their job openings, and events that companies want you to consider

attending. While not all companies are used to making these sorts of

marketing buys, many are learning how, and Techmeme is here to serve

them.

10. Techmeme has never taken VC: a lesson for some, but a model for

none. I always hoped it would be possible to build and sustain Techmeme



Written byGabe Rivera

¨ S T 72 comments

without the aid of venture capital or debt. Not so much because of real or

perceived issues around independence or autonomy, not because

"bootstrapped" is an impressive badge of honor, and not because I disliked

investors (some of my best friends are VCs!) But rather because the media

business we envisioned by its nature was just not destined to become the

"unicorn" VCs always want, at least in its first of several possible iterations.

So proving sustainability always seemed necessarily part of the plan.

Moreover, in casual conversations with investors over the years most ideas

for expansion suggested to me seemed destined to fail in my estimation (a

fate borne out in a few cases by actual companies that carried out such

plans).

As Techmeme never did raise VC nor even attempted to, my initial hope of

course became a reality.

And yet I don't want Techmeme to be any kind of flag-bearer for

bootstrapped startups, because the lessons we learned are not so widely

applicable, especially in 2015. While there are lessons to learn from what

we've built, it's hard to imagine a business starting today for which

Techmeme's experience can serve as a direct model. Furthermore, I wouldn't

even claim with certainty that forgoing VC was the best decision for

Techmeme. Just because most ideas for rapidly expanding Techmeme are

flawed doesn't mean all of them are, and as we've found after some

consideration, there may be some good ones out there!

Featured In Technology, Writing and Editing, Editor's Picks, Social Media, Media

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Like Comment 528 likes

Ivan WidjayaFounder at Noobpreneur.com

Quite an inspiration, Gabe!

I run a business blog among some others - but at a miniscule level

R

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The Meat Ban: Between Guilt & Loathing?Sep 14, 2015 92,170 views 281 Likes 123 Comments ¨ S T

As someone who grew up in a vegetarian household, and took to eating meat only

as a teenager, the idea of making do with vegetarian food for a few days does not

fill me with horror. We were not staunch vegetarians, in that we could cook eggs

once in a while- my mother would not participate, but the kitchen was made

available to us, and forays into non-vegetarianism were not considered mortal

sins. Even so, at heart one remains a vegetarian, and consequently can neither eat

seafood, nor anything even mildly adventurous in terms of meat (that includes

lamb), on account of the ‘non-veg’ smell.

The idea of killing animals for the purpose of pleasure (for one doesn’t absolutely

have to eat meat for sustenance) is admittedly a source of some moral discomfort

compared to yours - but you are right: I need to start breaking news or other

newsworthy updates, and become a source/on the offense, rather than talk

about day-old trendy business topics/on the defense.

Hiring editors - I should be doing that, considering my poor editorial skills.

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Santosh DesaiMD & CEO at Futurebrands

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and one deals with it by not thinking about it. However on occasions when the

awareness of that reality cannot be artfully sidestepped, like for instance when

one passes a tempo crammed with terrified chickens, screaming their heads off

with every evolutionary instinct at their command at the fate that is to befall

them, it is difficult not to wrestle with the question about the legitimacy of eating

meat. There is something about animals that know that they that they are about

to die, that particular note in the bleat, that speaks of the preciousness of their

own lives to them, and which is matter-of-factly ignored by us, when we dig into

their remains.

It is a complex question, without any absolute answers. Humans have hunted

and eaten animals since the beginning of time, so there is little historical basis for

thinking of vegetarianism as an absolute moral imperative. Even hunting as a

sport, has many champions, although the idea of killing defenseless creatures

merely to prove the superiority of one’s equipment, should perhaps be one that is

easier to be repulsed by. Even here, there are many who oppose hunting, but see

nothing wrong with fishing, although, how exactly is it different is something that

is not entirely clear. The Maharashtra government seems to agree – for it is able

to argue that we don’t kill fish, we merely take them out of water. They then

proceed to die. The trouble is, fish die with an obviousness that is difficult to

misinterpret. They writhe about, they leap around in agony, they flip before

finally flopping in death. But culturally, fishing is deemed legitimate- a relaxing

sport, one that one can take a young child to.

There are many such disparities- wearing fur is a modern sin, but farming

imprisoned cattle industrially for meat is just business. And why does the slaying

of a lion Cedric, cause more grief than any other endangered creature? Why do we

care more about saving the tiger rather than say, the Griet bush frog, a species

that is critically endangered? Why can we celebrate the eating of all kinds of

exotic animals, but find the idea of eating dogs barbaric?

Respect for life gets viewed through a cultural filter, and the hierarchy of human

preferences has more to do with what cultures choose to privilege from time to

time. It is always possible to find ways to justify what we need, sometimes by

constructing arguments that are designed to win and at other times, by simply

ignoring inconvenient truths. In this case, who gets to live and who doesn’t,

whose departure is mourned, and whose is systematically planned, what gets

eaten and what doesn’t- all these questions get culturally convenient answers.

The current debates around meat bans have also similarly little to do with the



respect for life and everything to do with issues of culture and power. Token

support for a community, the implicit separation of the meat-eating ‘them’ and

the vegetarian ‘us’, ignoring the fact that this an obviously flawed definition, the

idea of maintaining purity in the face of cultural contaminants, these are all

markers of cultural identity rather than universal humanity.

To be vegetarian, not merely because one was born one, or because of some new

fangled health movement aimed at reaffirming one’s firm belief in one’s own

specialness, but because of a belief in the sanctity of living beings is an act of

humanity. Not wishing to harm others is in effect not putting one’s life above that

of any other living creature, to the extent possible. One could argue that is a

misguided ideal, for there is no way that human beings can ensure that they do

not cause harm to another living organism; indeed, all food sources are some

form of life, but even if that is so, there are moral and ethical issues involved that

could legitimately be contemplated at the level of the individual.

The problem today is that the vegetarianism that is on display, is not cast in

ideals of humanity that shape the thought of the very community that it purports

to support. It is an aggressive intervention, that takes a refined moral ideal and

converts into a blunt device to mark boundaries between people. It is rooted in

loathing for the ‘other’ that is seen as an impure defiler. It legitimizes a

particularly virulent form of self-righteousness, and represents a weaponised

form of discrimination. Invoking purity in effect argues that meat-eating pollutes

the cultural environment for the vegetarians. The ideal world for the vegetarian is

by implication, one that does not contain non-vegetarians.

To make food a cultural fault line is dangerous, given its essential nature. To

disallow a certain kind of food in the name of sentiment has unlike the case of

other freedoms like the right to expression, no other intention but to draw

boundaries. To use vegetarianism as a sign of disdain is to distort everything that

it stands for and turn what is potentially a complex moral dilemma into a lazy

political gambit.

(This piece has appeared in the Times of India)

Current Affairs, Social Issues, Cultural DiversityR



Written bySantosh Desai

Featured In India in Business, Law & Government

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