For 99 percent of you, the following will be way too insidery. But that’s part of what makes TechCrunch great, posting about fights about basically nothing. It’s sort of like Seinfeld, it’s just about the characters. We’ve gotten too far away from that under our new corporate parent in my opinion, so it’s time to jump back into the bullshit and fully embrace it in the new year.
This evening I was just minding my own business and doing what I like to do from time to time, look over data. In particular, I was looking over the 2010 TechCrunch data, because we had earlier posted some data given to us by WordPress.com (which hosts TechCrunch) that seemed a bit odd. Namely, Facebook was nowhere to be found as a top referrer to TechCrunch. That’s weird because as we’re all well aware by now, Facebook was the most visited site in the U.S. in 2010.
Anyway, looking at our Google Reader data, I noticed that Facebook was actually (unsurprisingly) a huge source of traffic for TechCrunch. But I noticed something else interesting too: Google Reader had taken a big hit in that regard when compared to 2009. In other words, the most popular feed reader seemed to take a big dip among TechCrunch readers. In fighting words, RSS is dead.
What followed was a war of words about the state of RSS, the state of TechCrunch, the state of AOL, Rackspace, Twitter, the open web, Quora, and even… Sweden.
To be fair, I did kick things off a bit earlier in the day by posting a quick thought about the state of RSS on my blog based on a Dave Winer post earlier in the day. And Winer quickly responded to that. Then started to spiral out of control… (as has happened before).
This will not be over quick. You will not enjoy this.
Professional west coast tech bloggers are for the most part assholes.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Scoble ought to spend more energy on making Rackspace more famous and/or useful to normal folk or else we might start saying Rackspace is…—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
I asked my mother to open tech crunch in the browser. She said she thought they sold out to Exxon. Therefore Techcrunch is…—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
I asked some NYU students Who is MG Ziegler. They thought he was a silent film star and died in 1970-something. therefore MG is…—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Twitter And Facebook Really Are Killing RSS (At Least For TechCrunch Visitors) http://t.co/fiJi0gB via @techcrunch—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington @techcrunch — time for you to get rid of that nasty rss feed and turn your distribution over to ev and suck. I dare you.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner Even I don't know who MG Ziegler is. I think you mean Siegler.—
Erick Schonfeld (@erickschonfeld) January 04, 2011
@erickschonfeld — you guys take the hypocrisy cake. We should revoke your rss license. Just kidding of course—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Tech crunch is dead. Tech crunch is dead. It's dead. Aol killed it. Really. Rest in peace. Goodbye.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Everyone knows tech crunch is dead as dead can be. Killed. Dead. Dead. Pushing up the daisies. A former blog. Dead.dead. Sad.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
If you work for tech crunch maybe @Om will hire you.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
but you better hurry cause I don't think @Om can hire all of you. Early bird gets the worm.
—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Tech crunch should just get rid of their website, and write all their stuff in tweets and facebook posts. Get ahead of the curve. Pivot!—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner it's not our fault rss is dead. also, you do realize you're ranting about this on twitter, right?—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington I love twitter and I don't make a dime from rss so the jokes on you dude.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner ah, you are seriously mistaking me for someone who gives a shit about what you're saying. let me know how it all ends.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington I have to say, this has been amusing to watch.—
Mike Melanson (@rwwmike) January 04, 2011
@rwwmike i was just minding my own business playing cityville and all hell breaks loose over God knows what. I love Winer's tantrums.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
I just thought since tech crunch was so generous with their opinions I should return the favor.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Suck of these pundits who ship nothing and act like they know it all. Mike get rid of your rss feed. Stop being a fucking coward.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Arrington works for aol. He couldn't get rid of his rss feed if he wanted to. Paper tiger.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@arrington @davewiner RSS powers much of what people read via twitter & facebook. it's far from dead. it just being used in a different way—
Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 04, 2011
@Scobleizer @Arrington @dannysullivan agreed Danny. For example RSS is used to display bulk of tweeted articles we show on Flipboard.—
Mike McCue (@mmccue) January 04, 2011
@mmccue yeah but that's not what winer is talking about. he's upset bc RSS is just plumbing, he wants twitter-fame.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
For some reason, @davewiner sounds a lot like a grumpier @therealdvorak when it comes to things not RSS.
—
Dean Michael Berris (@deanberris) January 04, 2011
@deanberris oh you like hypocrites, do you? ;/)—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner Why would AOL want to get rid of RSS?—
Mike Dell (@mgdell) January 04, 2011
@mgdell — they wouldn't—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner @arrington @Scobleizer I'm confused.
Mike Dell (@mgdell) January 04, 2011
@mgdell me too.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
Everyone here's the point. It would be suicide for any business to bet on twitter and facebook exclusively. You need rss more than I do.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
It's time for tech crunch to pull their weight and do something good for the open web as if their existence depended on it. Cause it does.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Same for Rackspace and Scoble.I know the Rackspace guys know this. Time for Scoble to get with the program.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner you mean like zynga?—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington @davewiner http://tctechcrunch.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/screen-shot-2010-08-17-at-5-21-30-pm.png—
Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) January 04, 2011
@alexia @arrington —
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Next person who retweets this @davewiner douche is out.—
Tom Bryan (@thetombryan) January 04, 2011
@davewiner we have no weight to pull. we're dead, and/or cowering under our aol corporate overlords, remember?—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington –very well put.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner you mean the part where I said I don't give a shit?—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington — if you click on the little arrow next to the tweet you can see what it's in reply to. The ui is a bit confusing, but it works.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Can't sleep so I've been watching @davewiner try to pick fights w/@arrington @Scobleizer & @techcrunch. I think he's drunk tweeting.—
Veronica Ludwig (@VeronicaLudwig) January 04, 2011
@VeronicaLudwig — that's pretty cynical. You think the only way someone could have something to say is if they're drunk. Tsk.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
So @davewiner has a rant, @arrington is a bit of a dick in reply and @Scobleizer retweets everything and adds nothing. #twitter #news—
Computer Monkey CC (@xeyr) January 04, 2011
Who is this @davewiner guy and what on earth is his beef?—
Greg Banbury (@gregbanbury) January 04, 2011
@gregbanbury — http://scripting.com/ my bio is in the right margin—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
I love that both @arrington and @davewiner are right. Socially mediated feeds are killing straight RSS, but RSS provides the raw content.—
Will Smith (@willsmith) January 04, 2011
@willsmith — nothing is getting killed.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner it's 3 in the morning your time and you're arguing with someone who doesn't care about something absurd. go to bed.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@arrington — I'm not arguing with you. You said you weren't interested. I respect that.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
.@davewiner vs. @arrington. It's like watching my father and his father argue over the origins of almond cultivation. @Scobleizer is Sweden.—
Brandon (@campeaux) January 04, 2011
Folks, don't forget @davewiner & @Scobleizer are humans. Humans often say stupid things repeatedly – even about RSS. Just like you.—
Hans Martin Kern (@hmkern99) January 04, 2011
@hmkern99 — you know how rude that is? Reread what you said. You really want to stand by that?—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Today I learned what RSS means.—
Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) January 04, 2011
@alexia — really simple syndication—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner That's right!—
Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) January 04, 2011
@alexia –and it's a way of distributing content that doesn't depend on a single companies servers. RSS never crashes.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Wow. You write one little article pointing to data about RSS dying and all hell breaks loose. Naturally, on the medium killing it.—
MG Siegler (@parislemon) January 04, 2011
@parislemon gotta love it. the revolution will be tweeted.—
Mike McCue (@mmccue) January 04, 2011
@mmccue — hey mike I think it's cool that clipboard builds on rss. Thanks for that.
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Damn you @mmccue we were having fun being called West Coast Assholes. Now you have to bring @flipboard's use of RSS into this! Grrrr.
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) January 04, 2011
@davewiner LOL
I just like the passion you have for the open web, except you're like @therealdvorak when it comes to the cloud.
—
Dean Michael Berris (@deanberris) January 04, 2011
@deanberris @therealdvorak –you know I actually write code? I have opinions, but I ship stuff too.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
I'm expecting Maury Povich to jump into the @DaveWiner / @Scobleizer / @Arrington fight anytime now. #NerdsGoneWild—
Zach Flauaus (@zachflauaus) January 04, 2011
@zachflauaus @Scobleizer @Arrington — dude if there was a fight it's long over—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@davewiner Really? I'm behind the feed, then.—
Zach Flauaus (@zachflauaus) January 04, 2011
@zachflauaus Guess so—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
The root of @davewiner's rage. RT @parislemon: Wow. You write one little article pointing to data about RSS dying and all hell breaks loose.—
Brooks Larkin Powell (@brookslpowell) January 04, 2011
@brookslpowell @parislemon is being a little misleading there. He's writte a few dismissive over the top articles — today alone!
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Hilarious!
Joshua Karthik (@joshuakarthik) January 04, 2011
@joshuakarthik It's the logical extension of what they say they're observing. If rss is supposedly dying then so is the open web—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
ok goodnight everyone. Dave, you win. I disagree with everything I said earlier, you convinced me.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@davewiner ironically RSS was the only way we cld build our product… Without it we'd be just another twitter client.—
Mike McCue (@mmccue) January 04, 2011
@mmccue I'm not surprised. Hey if you want to do some more stuff, I'm pretty active these days. Open formats and protocols/no lock in.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
@mmccue Btw I was telling all the twitter client guys to do what you're doing. None of them had the guts to move independent of twitter corp—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
(side note: not sure Winer realizes that McCue is now on Twitter’s Board)
Except when EVERYONE uses FeedBurner? “@davewiner: doesn't depend on a single companies servers. RSS never crashes.”—
Andy McLoughlin (@Bandrew) January 04, 2011
@Bandrew — feed burner was IMHO a very very bad idea—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
(that would be the company that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo co-founded)
Bottom line is I wish these silicon valley "thought leaders" would do some serious thought and then lead us somewhere other than a ditch.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
All the bloggers who invented RSS are douchebags. #fact—
Aaron Brazell (@technosailor) January 04, 2011
@technosailor I remember when i first invented rss back in the 80s.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
@davewiner Seigler's article is ridiculous. Why would you click through from Reader to the TC site? For the charming comments? Nonsense.—
Joshua Karthik (@joshuakarthik) January 04, 2011
@davewiner And I agree with you about Quora and other silos and their threat to the open web.—
Joshua Karthik (@joshuakarthik) January 04, 2011
@joshuakarthik — yup that's why this is not a joke.—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) January 04, 2011
Bitchfight between @davewiner @scobleizer & @arrington. Unclear if "RSS is dead". "Public chatting on twitter" however, alive & kicking.—
(@houbi) January 04, 2011
Not sure if RSS is dead, but it does have that distinct corpsy smell.—
Robin Wauters (@robinwauters) January 04, 2011
@davewiner @arrington I admire both of you, stop your bickering already #winer #rant—
David Grunwald (@davegrun) January 04, 2011
@davegrun he started it.—
Michael Arrington (@arrington) January 04, 2011
I'm calling it: best tweet of 2011 – “@arrington: @davegrun he started it.”—
Tom Bryan (@thetombryan) January 04, 2011
"Open Web" tech in 3 easy steps: 1. Build tech heavy solutions to geek problems 2. Ignore UX needs 3. Scream at anyone who points out flaws—
Ryan Freitas (@ryanchris) January 04, 2011
@ryanchris YOU'RE LIKE NORTH KOREA, MR. CLOSED SYSTEM!—
Chris Watkins (@cap) January 04, 2011
Apparently Winer hasn't understood the "___ is dead" term.—
alexander horré (@alexhorre) January 04, 2011
@robinwauters @Arrington The problem though is personalisation is coming back, and RSS will most likely return with a cape.—
alexander horré (@alexhorre) January 04, 2011
Is Mr Syndication drunk or something?—
Andy McLoughlin (@Bandrew) January 04, 2011
RSSTFU—
Andy Brett (@andrewpbrett) January 04, 2011
Having conversations about RSS & open Web on Twitter? Hmmm, I lost the script here somewhere. Only have 140 characters, so gotta move on.—
Robert Scoble (@Scobleizer) January 04, 2011
lol, RSS fanboys are raging.—
Miguel Rios (@miguelrios) January 04, 2011
The RSS Icon is dead – long live RSS http://retwt.me/1QpAO #rss—
Nick Halstead (@nickhalstead) January 04, 2011
just had to retweet that again given the tech bitch fight over #rss—
Nick Halstead (@nickhalstead) January 04, 2011
just stopped following @alexia @arrington @Scobleizer @davewiner—
Shree Kant Bohra (@skbohra123) January 04, 2011
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