Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: July 22, 2009
Tags : Daniel Brusilovsky, techcrunch
TechCrunch writer Daniel Brusilovsky, the 16 year old wunderkid behind the TechCrunch pumped “Teens in Tech” WordPress MU blog network has been fibbing about usage numbers on his site.
Brusilovsky has previously claimed publicly that Teens in Tech had over 10,000 registered users, a reasonable sort of number for a very basic WordPress MU setup. It turns out though that the number is more than a slight exaggeration: the MU install was hacked with the real data found its way to Net News Daily.
The complete number of registered users (this figure includes inactive members): 421. Turns out that Daniel not only added a zero to the end of the actual number, but doubled it again just for good measure.
I don’t know a lot about Daniel besides always thinking it was very strange that TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington was pumping a very basic blog network that would only appear to stand out from hundreds of other small scale unfunded blog networks because Daniel was 15 when he started it. I do have it on good authority though from someone who has dealt with him that he’s not a bad kid and has some talent.
The lesson here is that if you boast about site numbers, the numbers you quote should have some reflection in reality because if they don’t, eventually someone will find out.
Jul 23, 2009
Are we sure that those numbers can be verified? And are subscriber and registered WP users the same thing?
The site that originally reported this nonsense did a terrible job of it, and it's more vindictive than investigative, in the opinion of a lot of tech bloggers I know.
Jul 23, 2009
Look, there's nothing special about Teens In Tech. It's just another internet pump and dump scheme. There's no good content over there. It's a WordPress MU install like thousands of other ones floating around the web. And I think that calling the young man who is the webmaster over there a “wunderkind” is really setting the bar low for wunderkinds.
The right (and responsible) thing for the (so called) advisors of Teens In Tech to do is teach Daniel how to build a community organically, with lots of sweat equity and personal outreach. Exaggerating the numbers doesn't help a low traffic site like that get larger. Better content and superior technology will help but those are only two pieces of the pie. Daniel has a lot to learn so his advisors should teach him the proper fundamentals rather than enabling him to continue on with the fantasy that Teens In Tech is anything more than run of the mill WordPress blog.
Jul 23, 2009
Yes, mommy Brusilovsky, these numbers are verified. Big bad hackers have proof that your little boy was caught with his nose growing 10,000 feet long: http://netnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009...
Jul 23, 2009
SiliconANGLE recently switched to a WordPress MU install, due mainly to the fact that the standard wordpress isn't built to accommodate a growing community of 80+ contributors very well.
One of the first things that started happening (started just this week, actually) was that sploggers got a hold of us and started creating fake accounts.
It took me a couple of days to first of all realize what was going on (they let the accounts incubate a few days before they start splogging and spamming users, usually with separate accounts) … and then another day or so to research the best ways to prevent it from happening.
I *suppose* it's possible that at the time when Daniel gave out that number, his user count was inflated by sploggers (10k isn't an unreasonable number if you count sploggers – it's all automated), and then later got a handle on what was going on, but didn't want to come out and revise the number and look bad.
Jul 24, 2009
Mark, that isn't impossible, but we're not talking 10k versus 8k or 7k. We're talking 10k versus 400. That's not explainable as anything but number inflation.
Jul 24, 2009
Mommy?
That's just retarded.
The updated posts on other sites are much more fair.
Jul 24, 2009
there's a big difference between 10,000 pageviews and 10,000 users. If you don't consider this article by the Inquisitr fair, then there is no hope for you. I would mind your language too, throwing around the word retard doesn't give you much credence.