On The Verge Of… Something

Hey, Verge: The classy thing to do would be to admit you overreacted and restate that you do not do the things Marco (didn’t really, but kinda) accused you of. The classy thing to do would have been to take it up with him personally, over email, or even a phone call, before you turned this into an internet pissing match. Instead you went apeshit in public, not unlike a child who just met an opposing viewpoint on the relative coolness of Batman .vs. Aragorn.

If you’d have just acted with a bit of editorial restraint, the story would’ve been this: Marco slightly insinuated that what you’re doing isn’t much different than graft, because you failed to mention the most blatantly obvious thing about a new product in a review. A silly, somewhat snarky, little dig by Marco at the pageview-centric Gadget Blogger culture. Nobody really cares, as this isn’t anything new either from Marco or from The Verge.

Instead this is the story: The guy who makes Instapaper insinuated that what you’re doing isn’t much different than graft, and you (and by extension your entire company) flipped the fuck out all day long simultainously playing the victim and attacking one guy. That’s all people are going to remember from this. You freaked, and now we really are wondering about your journalistic integrity.