Sam Sethi leaves TechCrunch UK, ethical debate rages on blogging

*  Update - Sam Sethi and Mike Butcher (thanks for the comment Mike) have relaunched at www.vecosys.com. Congratulations both.

This week's social media conference Le Web got some pretty poor feedback from its delegates. Neville Hobson has written up a thorough review that's worth reading. And organiser Loic le Meur is bearing the brunt unfortunately. But since blogging about his thoughts on the event, Sam Sethi, publisher and former editor of TechCrunch UK, is going through a rough patch. According to his blog, Sam's opinions caused some issues between him, Loic at Six Apart and Michael Arrington at TechCrunch US. Sam was a little critical about how Le Web went. Not as critical as the other delegates by any means. But critical enough for Loic Le Meur, the organiser, to write on Sam's blog: "You are just an asshole". The result? Today Sam had to leave TechCrunch. These two posts on TechCrunch UK explain it all: Putting my money where my mouth is and Sam Sethi leaves TechCrunch UK.

Update 1: Since this all emerged about three hours ago, Sam's two posts on TechCrunch UK, which I linked to above, have been deleted and Michael Arrington from TechCrunch US has put the UK site on hold.

Update 2: There are more deleted posts - this one at a blog called EirePreneur titled Arrington falls out with Sam Sethi, surprise victim of leweb3 seems to have dissappeared. Anyone know what's going on?

Update 3: There's now an ethical debate taking place in the comments section of TechCrunch UK over why posts have been deleted. Must read.

Sam's a great bloke and I wish him all the very best. He told me about some of his other technology ventures when we had a coffee recently and they all sound really interesting. I'm sure he'll make a success of them. Good luck Sam.

Update 4: Michael Arrington's ethics are now being questioned in the comments section on his blog CrunchNotes.

Update 5: Sam Sethi's personal blog has apparently now been suspended, and he's not sure why.

Update 6: Scoble's just posted about this too, and in the discussion on his comments the issue of whether Sam's firing stands up in UK law has been brought into question.

Update 7: The Guardian has reported on this story now, as has journalists' site Journalism.co.uk. "Anyone need a Sethi?"

And finally, Loic Le Meur finishes off the debate with his closing comments.

Comments

[pol.b]

i dont get the point why do they have to make a uk version of techcrunch. theyre all the same imho.

Treo Ringtones

[Pramit Singh]

Good roundup post. MediaVidea has taken up the Sam Sethi issue in a post titled 'Ethics 101 for blog network owners'

http://mediavidea.blogspot.com/2006/12/ethics-101-for-blog-network-owners.html

[James Corbett]

Just to note I deleted my post because I had second thoughts and felt it better for the full story to emerge before passing comment. Thanks.

[Huw Leslie]

I've just done an exclusive interview with Sam.

The podcast

He gives his side of the story a bit more, and talks about his future plans.

[Mike Butcher]

... and here's my two cents ( bit late but I have my reasons): http://mbites.com/an-open-letter-to-mike-arrington