I woke up this morning to a complete clusterfuck.
People are leaving comments calling me everything they can think of in response to the redesign of the TechCrunch.com blog.
We relaunched TechCrunch last Friday morning. The goal was to clean up the advertising (it was all over the place before) and to expand the text area to allow for bigger screen shots. That’s it. Nothing else.
People screamed, in the comments to the post above and elsewhere. That’s ok, people scream at me all the time. I try to delete the comments where people threaten to kill me, my dog or my family, or rape my mother (approximately one per week, and no, I’m not exaggerating). I also delete comments that attack other people unfairly. But for the most part, if you want to take a shot at me, I’ll leave it up. I’ve grown a fairly thick skin. The comments that discuss raping my mother still get to me, of course, but I guess this is all part of having a blog.
So when the negative comments came in I just sort of rolled with it. A number of people made some good suggestions which we implemented. Other ideas were still baking and may or may not have made it eventually into TechCrunch. Anyway, I spoke at a conference on Friday, left for Spain, and have been offline for a lot of the last few days. In my mind, I was glad that we relaunched, I was happy with the new design and I looked forward to tweaking bits and pieces over time to make it better.
And I want to reiterate, I like the new design. It isn’t perfect, but we needed to launch and iterate from there. I was and am happy with the work that my designer did, and I supported her publicly and privately. I also stated publicly, “Everything wonderful about the new design is because of the awesome Rachel Cunliffe, my designer. Everything wrong with it is my fault for overrulling some of her ideas.”
Yesterday, Jeremy Baines sent me a private email with his vision of the TechCrunch redesign. I was impressed that someone I barely know would go to the trouble to do a mockup of the way he would have done TechCrunch. I liked many aspects of it. So I posted it on this blog.
Was I undermining my designer by doing this? Hell no. I was showing support for people that wanted to help me. If I thought Jeremy’s design was so hot, I would have implemented it. I thought it was incredibly cool that someone would do a mockup like that, and so I posted it.
But my designer didn’t see things the same way. She was upset, felt that this was somehow my way of saying that I don’t approve of her work, and resigned (I found out about it by reading a trackback on my own blog). Valleywag knew about her resignation hours before I did.
Now I suspect that my “thick skin” makes it harder for me to understand why Rachel would quit on me just because I posted a screen shot that someone sent me. Again, I want to stress that I have, many times, written about how great Rachel is.
If you think about this from my point of view, you get this: People call me names and scream over just about everything I do. What I write about. What I don’t write about. How many ads I have. Whatever. The comments don’t impact me as much as they use to. I like the new design, and haven’t waivered. My posting of Jeremy’s mockup yesterday was not a signal that I don’t like the current design. It was a signal that I appreciate people who take the time to do things like that. Nothing more. If Rachel chose to take that post as a different message, and resign in the middle of the night publicly, so be it. I would have preferred to have a discussioin with her about it, but she chose the path.
So anyway, I’m going to go back to writing about companies, which is my passion. I’ll keep doing it until the benefits no longer outweigh the costs.
I also want to make one thing clear. I like feedback, and I appreciate even negative feedback. It’s important to hear what people think about what I write. If I didn’t think it was important, I’d choose to use a different publishing format than blogging. This is a two way conversation. Yes, the random, anonymous, hateful stuff sucks, but it doesn’t suck enough to turn off comments, or edit them like some other bloggers do.
To be honest: thanks to your full-text feed, I don’t really care what your design looks like
I never visited the site frequently until two days ago, when I went to check out the new lay.
Sure, the design is important when you want to leave a comment, but for the most part I really don’t pay any attention to it. Thats the future of blogdesign I guess…
In Dutch we have an expression that says “Je moet stil zitten als je wordt geschoren” which means something like “Don’t move when you are being shaved”. And that’s my advice to you; just try to ignore this whole design fuzz and write good posts on TechCrunch. Don’t go posting alternative designs and comment on comments…
But then again, all this noise about the design of your blog must bring in a lot more visitors and that green stuff you like so much
Maybe the saying “any publicity is good publicity” is more appropriate here?
“If you think about this from my point of view”
Ya, maybe but…the way you worded the praise of the Jeremy layout did come off as undermining the Rachel design in my opinion. You also came off as a “flakey” client to a certain degree. After all, you dumped your first designer (or he dumped you) or for some reason didn’t use him again even though your first site was pretty good. You then moved to a second designer (Rachel), and then praised a third.
I don’t blame Rachel one bit. I
‘d have probably[/strike> would done the same. Probably even quicker.Oooops…I don’t blame Rachel one bit. I
‘d have probablywould done the same. Probably even quicker.Fred Oliveira, my initial designer, moved on to create the startup I cofounded, edgeio.com. I never dumped him, he just wanted to work on bigger, non-blog projects.
I did not undermine the original design because I like it. I always stated that I like it. This is all nonsense.
In my view you completely covered yourself with your unusually gracious statement at the outset “Everything wonderful about the new design is because of the awesome Rachel Cunliffe, my designer. Everything wrong with it is my fault for overrulling some of her ideas.”
I was surprised when I initially read this; it made it crystal clear how the design had been determined. You took personal and professional responsibility for it. It seems silly and unprofessional of your designer now to resign in a huff, the very worst thing she could do for her own reputation.
I don’t know any of you guys, but you and Fred and Jeremy appear to me to come out of this pretty well. I hope you do adopt most of what Jeremy proposed, and I don’t see any reason why you should not.
You were wrong and you should apologise. You come off even worse because you effectively say in this post that the flap was caused by an overly senistive designer.
Mike, I don’t know if you ever read my comments, but I want to tell you, like I have so many times before, I love the redesign. I think Rachel did a wonderful job. I still don’t understand why she quit. I’m sorry to see you lose such a good designer for merely posting a screenshot. Shouldn’t someone be DDOSing /. right now? I mean they’ve posted so many redesign screenshots. And none of those guys are even getting paid. What I’m trying to say is that we are no more grown up online as we are offline. I’m sure Rachel is a real nice person. And I know she is really good designer, but why be so petty?
There are many of us who read your posts are inspired and write some ourselves. Take Orli from go2web2 for example. We like the new design. We like your blog. We like the way you write. I don’t know who keeps threatening you, but I think you should report those IPs to the police.
You have 50,000+ people who are STILL SUBSCRIBED. Even after the redesign. Take that for a hint. I mean this in a good way. Keep it up man! Here’s a virtual pat on the back from me.
I dont understand the discussion about the screenshot – sorry. Every designer should be aware that there is a lot of competition out there. For me the design is on position two – while the content is on position 1. I would read your blog even it would be come along with a really ugly design – because the content and how the content is written by you is importand. Anyway, I like the green – looks really fresh! Keep up the good work Mike!
As a Techcrunch user, as a web designer and as a blogger I can see this from a few different angles.
As a user ‘I’ perferred the old design, thats just me, its a matter of personal taste and aesthetic apreciations. The new design isnt bad, its not ugly and it certainly doesnt fall short of the mark in any way… I just plain prefer the old one.
As a designer I think Rachel’s over reacted to this, did she talk things over with you as to why you posted the redesign screenshot, how she felt about it and give you the opportunity to explain? It seems unlikly since I’m sure there was no malace involved in posting it, which would have become apparent during discussions. Being thick skinned as a designer is fairly important, not everyone is going to like your work and EVERY design you ever do can be improved on by a fresh set of eyes. You have to learn to take these things on the chin and learn from other peoples ideas. Spitting your dummy and resigning because you think your client has ‘dissed’ your design skills isn’t going to do anything for your reputation, other than portray you as being temperamental.
As a blogger I’m frankly astounded you havent removed some of the comments that’ve been made about you, people have a right to express how they feel but the use of profanity and insults on a site that (I’m guessing) owes alot to its sponsors, sponsors who may not want to be associated with open and quite crass insult flinging, for its continued presence on the internet.
I’ll continue to read techcrunch reguardless of design, its the content that really counts. Next time you hire a designer, maybe a short personality profile wouldn’t go amiss.
It is obvious from your long reply that you care about the blog, the readers, the companies you write about and the situation accured.
This alone shows your uniqe personality. Your writing is refreshing, interesting, precise and intelegent.
I’m not suggestion you to ignore the comments because I know how strong is the urge to read them all and reply. I’ll just repeat myself by saying you’re doing an excellent job and it is impossible to ignore the fact that a lot of the information about web2.0 technology is based in your blog.
It is not likely that the numbers of your readers raising up every day and the influense on the companies you write about is powerful.
Please do not beat yourself up about this too much just because you care, just keep the honest loyal work – lots of people enjoy that.
I dont understand why everyone is siding with the designer on this, she seems to be a bit of a drama queen just quitting like that, without even discussing it with the client. Also, its the designers job to do what the client asks, not to go into a hissy fit because they dont get free reign over the design.
In my eyes the designer was very unprofessional in her conduct, if the client chooses to pick another design even after the first one has gone live, then thats the clients perogative, so long as the designer gets paid. Its not a popularity contest, its business.
Mike, keep up the good work – the only reason why people complain and episodes like this occur is because the good work you do matters.
Resigning because you posted that design is laughable and shows complete amateur behavior.
One thought though, did you ever think of running a design contest a la Metafilter http://www.metafilter.com/contest_results.mefi or http://www.csszengarden.com/
And then having the community ‘digg’ each design and discuss?
You’ll no doubt make a star out of a young designer and get him or her a job too.
Mike, I understand your explanations and everything, but this whole thing reeks of “I I I, me me me.” Simply put, you hurt Rachel’s feelings by A: butchering the design she created for you and then B: posting an “improved” version. I know you don’t feel this way, but to Rachel (and any other designer out there), this looks as though she was somehow incapable of producing a better layout, which is simply not true.
It stands to reason that a designer would feel somewhat intimidated and humbled by the challenge that goes along with producing the TechCrunch design. From your comments, it’s clear that you also provided her with a pretty rigid set of requirements injected with some of your (questionable) design flavor.
I could forgive much of what has gone on surrounding the new design debate, but please, write Rachel an apology; say you understand; and then move forward. I would like to believe that you could at least be man enough to stand up and do that. This “I’m an asshole” business simply doesn’t cover it.
In my opinion I think you handled yourself very professionally, Mike.
Perhaps the issue is that “designer” community has not yet embraced the same benefits/model that the “open source” community has. Traditional software development has morphed into a model where the community can provide feedback, suggestions and input. Software gets contributed to a project, and others can add improvements/modifications. All in the public eye.
I think it would be foolish for you not to take advantage of any of the “free consulting” you received. When you write a blog post and receive new news/suggestion/ideas you frequently edit the blog post to incorporate those themes — why should you be prevented from doing so on the design?
Mike should apologize to the designer? Why? She quit via valleywag?! Thats no way to do business and reeks of drama queen…
My take. The designer thought she would get to redo the site and get quite a boost in work. Mike didnt like all her ideas (which i would assume is quite typical). She panics as plans of numero uno web 2.0 designer seem less likely. As opposed to keep working things out with the owner of the site she runs off and gets one final shot of buzz via a dramatic quitting…
Mike i think you run a great blog and some people try to game your site and the attention your blog generates this is one of those times…If she was a mature person and took the business seriously, she would not be upset about all this, she would of even looked at some of the users takes and re-thought her own work…not run off without even telling you…
So here are the ground rules to blogging:
* if somebody suggests something about a post you wrote, that is OK
* if somebody has a comment about advertising, that is OK
* if somebody has a suggestion about full text feeds, that is also ok
* suggestions about design, big no-no
clear?
I hope your mother got plenty of flowers for Mother’s Day. You could have grown them yourself from all the fertiliser flying around at the moment.
Why all this sentimentality? Business is business. Designer got paid for her job, period. I’ve made web designs that have been turned inside out by clients, which is fine – you make a product, and its up to the buyer to do whatever they like with it. Better yet, its valuable feedback, meaning you know what to improve.
Not all people are sensible. Unless you treat TechCrunch like a serious business, you’ll keep getting hurt by stupid comments and the like. Just cause it’s business, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be passionate about the product. You believe in the product, who cares what others think. If Steve Jobs, Bill Gates or Larry Page would actually listen to their users they’d spend too much time worrying about the wrong stuff than releasing products. And they’d never call themselves assholes either.
If you like the design, then so be it. Google looks like shit, but the founders don’t care, and they are not out of business just yet.
Keep up the good work.
Mike,
I think it is great you are trying to improve your site. Personally, I read you through an aggregator, so the only time I really look at your site is when you announce a change.
I am never able to understand the level of vitriol that comes out over things like this. If people don’t like your design fine. Let you know about it? Fine. Get angry with you about it? What was that again?
Did somebody forget to breathe?
Cheers,
Robert
When I read the original post with the screenshot, I thought it was rude and somewhat tacky. Not only did she have to deal with the negative comments from the readers of a highly popular site (which is to be expected), you post a screenshot from another designer (!!) that rightfully could be construed as being undermining of the work she did. People take their work very seriously.
I understand why she resigned the way she did. I think she gave you the same amount of professionalism/respect that she thought she was given with the screenshot post.
I’ll just come out and cut through the bull. You’re an ass, Mike. You have so much capital goodwill in the Web2, blog world. I don’t mean money. I mean people who look up to you and admire you and idolize you and give their kids full length posters for their bedroom doors. You’re a rockstar. And you have squandered it. It’s a shame you can’t see it.
The design was good. Wasn’t great, but it was ok. My issue is not with the design. My issue is how you publically handled your affairs with Rachel. I’ve had my disagreements with Rachel so this is not about Rachel. But the words you’ve used along the way creates the perception that you took control of the situation instead of leaning on Rachel’s expertise. Heck, you could have hired a low-grade designer at $50/hr if you wanted to do that. You hired Rachel? For what reason? If it’s not for her expertise then what? If it is for her expertise, why not let her expertise work for you? I’m sure that’s what she expected when she signed whatever deal you had. That’s what I would have assumed.
I could tell from Rachel’s original entry that she was not happy with the way the deal went down. And I could tell from your original entry that you were micromanaging her.
I’d never work for you, Mike. Not for a million dollars. Not after the fiasco you’ve created here. Judge your own words. The truth lies in them.
In the final analysis, sure it’s nice to have a design everyone likes but then has anyone ever managed to please all of the people all of the time? Never. Sadly Michael – you’re in the super public spotlight where you’re the light for the troll moths. Goes with the turf it seems.
But then you’ve always got the compensatory knowledge of knowing it’s your attention, your site, your rules. People who can’t handle that know where to click next.
As someone who knows both Rachel and Mike, and knows them both as fine people — and as someone who’s been in Mike’s “asshole” shoes before — I can only say that blogs, like email, are a really bad way to communicate when emotions are high.
Fact is, there was a lot more going on than what happened on Crunchnotes or Techcrunch. Mike’s post of an alternative design suggestion set alight a bonfire that had been constructed by some really piss-poor criticism on other blogs, which I wrote about.
A thick skin is essential. Sensitivity is too. I’ve been on both sides. It sucks. These are two good people with human frailties. Time to move on.
My, my. All these headaches for a blog design? C’mon, no one design is perfect. It’s always a work in progress. Quitting is not a solution.
Can we just move on to the next blog entry?
Women are sensitive.
fuck you arrington you fucking gutter PIG
Quitting publicly via another site before discussing it with you first Mike is highly unprofessional, no matter what the circumstances.
The design is nice/the design is horrible – it doesn’t matter. What matters is how people deal with people.
Mike, you didn’t post anything about your dealings with Rachel (that I spotted) until the new design went up and then you said all the good parts were down to her.
You mentioned that there was a lot of work and late nights went into the re-design – then there was a huge, very visible, online debate about it.
This was probably the act of an over-tired designer with a bruised ego.
Nik, in the ground rules to blogging it wasn’t suggestions about design that were a big no-no, there had already been many suggestions made in comments both here and on Rachel’s Blog. The issue was Mike’s public handling of those suggestions with his own words when he posted the screenshot.
OK, so she was upset. I dunno, pick up the phone and tell you? It’s a friggin Weblog – get a grip. How painful could it possibly be that you couldn’t have a simple conversation with your client about it?
All that said, I think the design is sweet. No issues with her skills, but her professionalism and maturity could use a re-design.
The designer is a DRAMA QUEEN. Grow up, Rachel.
Artists are sensitive.
If someone chooses to feel a certain way, you can choose to concern yourself with their feelings or leave them to it. Anyone who wants you to feel an unearned guilt is best left alone. If someone continues to choose to be upset, there’s nothing you can do about it. You come out of this looking like a class act. Others…not so much.
at first glance, the posting of the screenshot does seem insensitive towards rachel. But after you explain it, it does seem like rachel’s overreacting.
Hmm… let’s see – Mike pays Rachel to do a new design, Mike gives her some prerequisites. Over the course of the design work, Mike has her change some things, which I am sure they both agreed would come at a certain cost.
The design is all done and the designer got paid, the webmaster is happy with the design – what is the problem?
Oh waah – Mike said “Hey look at this design, they did some cool stuff I might like to use.”
Rachel, I’m very sorry you lacked the ingenuity to come up with some of those ideas yourself. I’m very sorry you couldn’t charge Mike X/hr. to design those items yourself. What a shame.
Quit with the drama – this is business, not high school. Mike got his design, Rachel got paid – end of story.
And to Mike: I’m glad you like it, cause it looks downright horrible. I can think of numerous ways you could have achieved the larger display area as well as the advertising space, and had a design that looked much better.
I thought designers were supposed to get better with time – I thought it was impossible to look any worse than cre8d design’s blog, but your redesign proves me wrong once again.
You should have just given Ray Charles some colored pencils and scanned it in later – it would have cost much less.
Although a lot of Web 2.0 has to do with look and feel, I could care less what the TechCrunch layout looks like. I still use Craigslist every week, and we all know it isn’t pretty.
Maybe someone should create a start-up to deal with the miscommunications and escalations stemming from improved personalization, connectedness, and localization of Web 2.0. I’ve seen several articles this week on avoiding email miscommunication (see LifeHacker). I’m sure this problem applies to blogs as well.
For now, I’ll keep visiting TechCrunch for the content. It looks great in NetVibes.
wow, give Mike a break guys. All of you are taking this out of proportion and just making the problem seem bigger than it actually is. All he did was post a screenshot of a reader’s submission because he appreciated the work he put in and his feedback. I gotta admit I don’t know who Rachel is (although I know for a fact that she’s a pretty damn good designer), but the fact that she resigned over a small matter like this makes me wonder if she has self-esteem issues. Mike’s posting a screenshot was not belittling Rachel’s design in any way, it was just his appreciation for a fan’s work. It was not cricism at all and if Rachel cannot deal with such a minor thing, I wonder how well she takes constructive criticism. Sounds like she has a big head. Grow up.
Believe me, I am not a Mike “fanboy.” I have posted many negative comments on Mike’s posts in the past. But I have got to side with Mike with this one. I can’t believe this blew up like this.
Although this leads me to believe that Mike is now more popular than ever. As the site becomes more popular, you will gain your share of jealous competitors which in turn brings in a flood of negativity with small issues like this. It’s just a sign that Mike is currently one of the top tech public figures. Take it as a compliment and move on.
My pesonal, non-professional, non-designer take? This Rachel got her feelings hurt that a guy could mock up a hypothetical site better than she did. Plain and simple case of insecurity and melodramatics. Once she was paid and the product was delivered, Michael was at liberty to do what ever the hell he wanted with the design – which could have included pressing delete. Get over yourself already people.
That post is pretty unimpressive.
This is adolescent behaviour and indicative of most tech lovers low social IQ’s. Blame, deflect, justify, blame, praise, blame. Grow up.
Your designer has shown a lot more professionalism than you have by withdrawing. But, hey, let’s blame her for that too.
Carry on whining gentlemen – it is apparent from the post it seems to be beyond your emotional and social skills to be adult enough to accept responsibility for your choices. I don’t think we are getting the full story here, I think you’re happier blaming others.
Since design isn’t your thing, maybe you can begin working on treating others with some class.
I think your designer has, and bravo for her.
Personally, I didn’t really like the original redesign that much – The mockup is a step in the right direction. I’m actually really confused as to what Mike did to cause this kind of uh… “backlash”.
Oh, and who resigns on their blog before telling their employer? That’s ridiculous.
F-ing designers… c’mon. Drama!!! No offense Rachel, but get a thicker skin if you want to be in the design business. Don’t tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about either. I’ve been designing websites since 97 and have personally presented some of my designs to top executives at companies like Ernst & Young and Sherwin Williams.
Mike, this whole thing is utterly ridiculous. Quit apologizing.
As far as people not liking the design. B.S. You have a HUGE audience, and no matter what you do, there will be people who hate you and what you’ve done. It’s a fact of life. In a month you’ll be at 3 times the traffic, revenue will be up and this will all be forgetten.
The designer overreacted on this one. You gave her recognition publicly for the great things about the redesign. Wanting to make some modifications or being open to more ideas is a natural thing.
Boy is it hilarious to read all these presumptious comments. Firstly to think that Rachel would resign publically on her own blog without Emailing MA first? Get a grip. All she did was announce that she resigned. Some of you obviously don’t do your homework. And then to presume that she has insecurity and self esteem issues? Ha! I just love it how the blogosphere is filled with so many morons who think they know everything when they don’t have a clue as to what was actually going on.
Go champion a real cause
I had no idea that a design of a blog was so important to people. It sounds Mike had it done to clean up the ads, so that it would be more aesthetically pleasing. Whether you like the site is just a simple matter of preference. I personally like the old design better, but I applaud Mike for trying something new.
Anyone else find this ironic that the guy who introduces cutting-edge web companies gets ragged because he changes his website’s appearance? I figured the web 2.0 community would be a little more open to change…
I don’t understand why people are so pissed at Mike over this. He presumably PAID Rachel for that design. It is then his prerogative to do whatever the heck he wants with it. If he wants to change it, that’s his right. If he wants to post a redesign mock-up from a fan, that’s also his right. If Rachel wants to quit, that’s her right. I don’t see how Mike did anything wrong in this. He hired Rachel for a service, she apparently performed it to his liking. After that, he can do whatever he wants with the design–he owns it.
I have paid for web designs in the past, decided a week later I didn’t like it, and then paid someone else to redesign. That doesn’t make me an asshole. Mike deciding there were elements of Jeremy’s mock-up that he liked doesn’t make him an asshole. Neither does sharing said thought with the readers of his personal blog.
All the people here posting that Mike is a jerk, that’s your right, but fyi, you sound really whiny and a tad ignorant. If your skin is really that thin, the lot of you won’t make it very far (in the business world, at least).
I personally don’t care for the new design much (in either form, though I like Jeremy’s mock up better than the current form)… but it doesn’t really matter. As long as the blog is readable, who cares about the design? I read TechCrunch for the content.
Well you know what they say. If you’re not getting people fired up about something then you’re not doing something right.
Certainly a very childish situation you’ve found yourself in. The ugly side of the blogosphere.
Frankly I don’t have much spare time, I spend 15+ hours days, 7 days a week in front of my computer. I decided last August to start networking to get to know what’s going in the valley. I accidentally bumped into Mike at bar camp, this was about the time Techcrunch was just getting started. Since then I have seen Techcrunch and Mike reputation grow leaps and bound. The man is gregarious and helped too many startups and too many people. I met some great folks like Gabe, Keith tare, Om Malik, Matt Marshall, Steve Gilmore at Mike’s house and even his Dad. I would have never met these people if not for Mike’s generosity and kindness. Enough is enough, lay off the man, he may not be perfect, he is best person in the valley if you need a helping hand.
When I read the post about the design suggestion, I didn’t interpret it as being something intentionally malicious at all, though in retrospect I can see how the original designer could feel hurt.
I don’t think Arrington meant any harm. I would have probably done the same thing without thinking.
Doesn’t seem like Mike or Rachel had any serious communication on this. I used to be a desinger, and then i became an entrepreneur after biz school. yes, artists are very too sensitive, and many biz guys don’t get it. Being in the middle, it’s common to see this happen (seeing it at my startup, especially when working so far apart which unfortunately i deal with now) – Rachel is in NZ and Mike is in the US. If there isn’t constant communication on design it’s almost impossible to see it work across the miles – some very big miscommunication happended here and i hope you both learned from it…meaning stay on your island as it’s best for the company (and I’m thinking for both of you!).