Orange Spider Monkeys

As a usually non-political blogger, I tend to gloss over a lot of stuff that goes on in Political Blogistan -- I'm talking about the "Inside Baseball" stuff that doesn't affect me since I'm not really involved in any way. So I've been glossing over this whole "Pajamas Media" thing, basically since I've seen nothing to convince me that this isn't just a bigger, better version of TellingOurselvesWhatWeWannaHear.com, or WhyShouldFoxNewsHaveAllTheFun.org.

But anyway, over at Chizumatic, Steven Den Beste isn't too terribly enthusiastic about the whole thing. (You'll have to scroll down, since for reasons passing understanding SDB has eschewed permalinks in his post-USS Clueless blogging career.)

The history of Open Source Media (née Pajamas Media) shows missteps and mistakes which make blatantly clear that the principals are in over their heads and aren't willing to seek out people who have the skills and abilities needed to match their dreams.

I think they're making a big mistake, and I think that anyone who joins OSM for any reason other than the cynical one of "make as much money off it as I can before the train wrecks" is also making a big mistake. During the dot-com boom I saw dozens of startups which were as badly managed and ill-conceived and they all came to disaster, and ruined lives along the way. I don't like watching that and I don't want to see it again.

He has other entries on the subject farther down from that one.

(And I really like this, one of the engineering aphorisms of the type he used to employ on the old blog: "Don't start vast projects based on half-vast ideas.")