Globe story emerges from a time warp
When I saw this story about Gather.com in the Boston Globe yesterday I was stunned by its breathlessness. Now people are having fun piling on. My theory is that this was somehow left under a pile of papers on an editor's desk back in 2001, and just got rediscovered. I'm sure the people starting Gather are interested in helping bloggers make money, but if they want to be taken seriously they need to stop claiming they are the first company to ever offer free blog hosting, or to share a portion of the ad revenue.
Wait a minute. When I first tested the link to the Globe story it came up with no problem. Now it is asking for a registration. Do they actually have a cookie in place that blocks repeated access? That is insane! Yep. I removed their cookie and now I can get back in. So the Globe penalizes me if I repeatedly visit their site. And the MSM wonders why they are failing. Sorry for the distraction, but this is more interesting than the story about Gather.
Now that I can get back in, let me share my favorite quote from Jim Manzi, one of Gather's investors:
