For the record this completely false. We may have had the same person send us their tip or had someone copy and paste what was on Dave’s site and send it to us without properly attributing its source, but we ABSOLUTELY DID NOT steal anything from anyone. I don’t read Dave’s site and was not even aware that they had done a post about this topic. I certainly have no problem giving someone credit, almost every post on Engadget has a hat tip to the site where we found something or the person who sent us a tip.

But regardless, thanks for the slanderous accusation. It really speaks volumes about your professionalism.

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Well it appears Jason Calicanis reached out to me to apologize for the issue. It clearly was given to us since Engadget was not able to produce the email from the originator. We do know Engadget reads our site since they have done this prior.

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I’m the editor of OhGizmo! and I’d just like to go on the record to set a few things straight.  I think that Andru’s comment was actually spot on.  I find it deplorable that he’s taken so much flak for saying something that was basically right on target.

When he alluded to “something that’s been happening way too often”, he wasn’t including me in that pile, for the very simple reason that I’d as yet told no one of my similar issues with Peter.  Yet, the very same thing has happened to me as well!  And it’s driving me insane.

I work twenty hours a week on my site, combing the web to find stories, and all I ask for in return is a little credit.  At least twelve times in the last two months, Peter has posted stories that have appeared on my website, yet credited no one for them, or someone else.  When I’ve brought the topic up, he’s told me that other people might have been working on the story when I tipped them, and not to to bother tipping them anyway, since I’m on their aggregator.  Neverthelss, many of my stories have still popped up, uncredited.

If this happened once or twice, with popular, inevitable-to-discover products, I wouldn’t get suspicious.  That’s not the case.  I like to post about things a little more obscure, and sometimes I find stuff on remote, little trafficed sites no one else would notice.  And it happens ALL-THE-TIME!

Lastly, for Peter to call Andru’s comment “slanderous” is just about the most ridiculous overexageration I’ve ever heard.  All Andru was doing was pointing out a fact that he’s personally witnessed: many people have complained of this (including, now, me), he’s noticed it, and commented on it.  There were no insinuations of any kind, no connotations.  Peter’s angry reaction is telling.

Very telling.

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Funny that David talks so much trash here—just a few weeks after he wrote this he sent me an email asking for a job at Engadget! If he has such a “problem” with me, why beg for me to give him a job?

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I am just someone who happens to contribute daily to the readership (and listenership - thanks podcast!) of engadget, as well as gearlive. I can say that I’ve seen ohGizmo! given explicit credit several times in engadget post’s. In fact, I would have never heard of ohgizmo! if it wasn’t for engadget. Why not talk Web Logs Inc. (and respective underwriters) into working out some kind of affiliate linking deal between yourselves and form a meta-conglomerate gadget blogopoly?

And Dave, honestly. I don’t believe for one second that you spend 20 hours per week as a diligent do-gooder with nothing but the public interest in mind. ‘Sup with the lil orphan annie routine? Shout it from the roof tops, “Will work for ad revenue!” It’s OK. We know, and we forgive you.

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I’m not sure why we’re having this discussion almost six months after I made the first comment, but hell… why not?  Peter has chosen to respond publicly and even though I’ve tried to contact him about it, he’s chosen to ignore me.  Perhaps he wants to air dirty laundry, and… I’ll indulge.

First off, Brendan, I will send you $50 if you show me more than one article in Engadget that’s linked to me.  There’s 1, only 1, and it’s a smoke detector.  Maybe you were thinking of Gizmodo.  They have linked to me at least 50 times.  Gearlive has linked to me five or six.  Actually, pretty much all tech blogs except Engadget have used me as a source more than once.

That was my “problem” then, and still is (although at this point I’m beggining not to care as much).  Back in July, I had a suspicion that the Engadget team simply didn’t like me.  I’m not acting like a little boy, upset that some dudes don’t like him.  There’s more to it than that, and I’ll get to it later.  But let me just say that part of the reason this upsets me is that, despite everything, I love Engadget.  I respect what these guys are doing, and yes, I envy them.  I don’t mind saying it, because it’s true.  They have a great site, a great team, and although I was upset they weren’t linking to me, I was still hoping that maybe it was just one big misunderstanding, and hell… who wouldn’t want to work for Engadget?  I was like, “Hey, maybe we can patch our differences and work together.”  And yeah, I thought the money could be good too.

But then, Peter makes this comment that I “begged him” for a job. Well, I didn’t unless you call your standard job application “begging”.  Judge for yourselves.  Here’s the email:

“This is David Ponce, managing editor of Ohgizmo.com.  I’d like to apply for the position mentioned in the subject.  I’m under the impression that you guys read my feed, and so, have an idea of how I write and such… but in case I happen to be one of those sub-radar feeds, I’ll include here a couple of my more entertaining (in my overinflated ego’s opinion anyway) posts.

The Mind Molester: http://www.ohgizmo.com/2005/08/22/the-mind-molester/
The Sunblades: http://www.ohgizmo.com/2005/08/23/the-sunblades/
The Ashhole: http://www.ohgizmo.com/2005/08/03/go-get-an-ashhole/

As far as the top three gadgets are concerned, I really liked the Optimus Keyboard, the Heliodisplay (http://www.ohgizmo.com/2005/08/17/interactive-3d-display-its-here/) and the Aqueon (http://www.ohgizmo.com/2005/08/04/electricity-water-fire/).  Now keep in mind… I cover more off the radar stuff, simply because I don’t want to go head to head against you guys.  I’m fully versed in mainstream consumer electronics.

I think a salary of $12 per article is fair (though I’m open to, well, anything), with an expectation of 3 - 6 posts per day.  I don’t get to bed till 4am EST usually, which means I should wake up late enough to fill the shift with no problem.  I’ve recently decided to make the jump to full-time blogging… and I really think you guys will be hard-pressed to find anyone more dedicated.  I’ve guest edited for Gizmodo, I sift through 120 sites a day, I live and breathe gadgets and robots… I know how to get the job done, and I really think I’m the right guy for the job.  I hope you’ll agree.”

That was the email Peter refers to as me “begging”.  I was under the impression that begging involved things like “please give this to me”.  And “I would do anything for this”.  So, maybe it’s me, but I wouldn’t say I “begged” for a job.  I applied for one, yes, and like I said, I did so for the simple reason that I didn’t have all that many “problems” with Peter.  Only frustration at being ignored.  Engadget rocked then, still rocks and probably will for quite some time. 

Peter, when you read this, know that even though you make me wanna pull my hair out, I still think you’re one hell of a writer, and probably the best blogger in the business.  I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us.

Brendan, when I said “all I ask for in return is a little credit”, I admit, it came out wrong.  It made sense in my head, but I see how other people might interpret it differently than me.  What I meant is this: credit = traffic for me.  And yeah, that in turn equals revenue.  Of course, I’m in this for the money.  I’m not waiting by the phone for the Nobel committee to call.  Maybe I should have said that when I spend twenty hours looking for stories that other people in turn use, all I ask is credit, becuase that’ll bring me traffic, which will bring me a little money.  I thought it was implicit, but I realize I was mistaken.

Finally, Brendan… if you still don’t see what all this is about, please just send me an email and we can discuss this privately.  I’ve only responded here because I felt somewhat insulted at being told I’d “begged” for a job and I thought I should go on the record about that.

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