Whither Valleywag
Nick Denton’s weakest blog, Valleywag, relaunched today with major changes:
Some changes, today, on Valleywag, in design, personnel, and mission. Obviously, there’s a new design. Nick Douglas, editor since launch earlier this year, is leaving. And we’re going to change the mix of stories, slightly.
It’s probably a step closer to relevance, but still has a long way to go. The only Denton property I read is Wonkette, because my ole buddy Ken Layne has made it interesting for the first time. Valleywag never caught my interest even though I’m a Silicon Valley tech guy because it’s been too asinine. The editor was some pimply-faced teenager from Pennsylvania who had no clue about Silicon Valley life (and still doesn’t), the mix of stories is too sophomoric and Google-centric, the comment policy is bizarre, and the design was too hard to read. The new design is even worse, using a faint monospaced font, the comment policy remains the same, Denton is the temporary editor, and the story mix remains to be demonstrated.
It’s a shame that nobody on the outside seems to understand the Silicon Valley demographic and zeitgeist, because there’s obviously an audience here for a lively mix of snark on tech, Silicon Valley lifestyles, tech gossip, and related stuff. The content of the Google snack rooms and the dating habits of the founders isn’t interesting, however; these guys are as bland as dry toast and they’ll never hold a candle to the great swashbucklers of the past such as Ellison and Scooter McNealy in his swordsman days.
Valleywag needs somebody like Spencer F. Katt was, back in the dead tree days.
- November 13th
