Lessons Learned: How not to make Friendster-s

We broke some news at Vator in August, at least according to one well-known Web 1.0 site. The fact that Wired Online found news in a video clip about Friendster that's been posted on Vator for many months was surprising to us, especially since Friendster's rollercoaster story is old news in Silicon Valley. Still, we appreciate that they are now looking to us for news on startup companies. Their one-sided take was a little different than ours, of course. Vator is a social media network for innovators, with a budding news operation driven mainly by our community. We let our users play a major role in presenting the news in their own voice directly to the audience and deciding what's news -- through their video pitches, critiques and posts. That's why you can see the Friendster video here on Kent Lindstrom's profile page. (Like many entrepreneurs and executives on Vator, Kent offers up lessons learned from building a startup.)

The video was shot back in January, when Vator was just a side project for me. That's why I equivocated on whether or not to put it in the Vator newsroom, as well as on Kent's profile page. But in the end, I decided we should have the same standards that I always used as a veteran journalist. That is to report stories accurately, and stand by them. If a story is published in a newsroom and it is accurate, it will never come down. There it will always stay.