Editor’s Apology: Mr. Parsons has informed me that it was a CVS error that led to the article link evaporating. Ordinarily, the present article would be stricken, but as I think this is a teachable moment, it will be left intact, with my apologies to Buzzlogic, Mr. Parsons, and the other 5 and 1/2 readers of this blog. Just prior to routing Buzzlogic in the original post that launched my diatribe, I was strong armed by one of the equity investors of a famous brand monitoring startup. They had specifically indicated that they would, ‘wipe me and my articles off the blogosphere’, which I had taken to mean, legally, metaphorically.
It was precisely at that moment that a reader referred me to the broken link at Buzzlogic, “Sentiment Scoring Gets a Zero” – and I came to the wrong conclusion: a) Buzzlogic is not a sentiment analysis company, and b) the VC in question was not in any way allied with Buzzlogic’s funding sources. (But I had, in my paranoid bosom, bought into the whole skull and bones VC cabal thing).
Editor’s Note: Todd Parsons of Buzzlogic’s comment below claims that the disappearance of the article was a blog platform glitch, and I take him at his word – therefore this article may have been a knee jerk reaction to a broken link and a prelude to a longer story about shaking up the sentiment scoring apple cart and the stakes that some of the brand monitoring leaders have bet the farm on. Keep Posted.
One of the cardinal rules of those writing for the social media sphere is that once an article is posted and permalinked, one is not to delete them. Rather, one should use strike through to correct inaccuracies, or at least post a credible reason for taking the article down. Now, in actuality, who really cares when the subject is as obscure as my diatribe on sentiment scoring for brand monitoring and the weaknesses thereof? Really now…
The first problem we have here is that the article was posted as a commentary on my original post .
The more serious issue here is that although the Buzzlogic editor (was sufficiently in agreement with my position, the take down without notice and the breaking of permalinks is an awful move for a company that bases it raison detre on the significance of inbound and outbound links. Shame on you, Buzzlogic; you provide a great service for measuring influence, but you practiced an unforgivable editorial sin that will be difficult to redress.
For those wishing to see the cached copy of the original Buzzlogic post (thanks, Google!), here it is.
BlogWhine 
Thanks for the heads up–must be an issue with Movable Type which I will resolve–we don’t practice unforgivable editorial sinning at Buzz 😉
Happy Friday.
I have never met Mr. Parsons, but he is a class act. Indeed, if the article’s disappearance was a technical glitch….then I owe a major retraction.
What did I learn? Contact the author or editor before attributing malice aforethought.
Or, a corollary : Do not assume that all blogging platforms and hosts are immune from problems, although one article going AWOL is slightly odd..
Our technical issue is fixed. I was surprised to find the fault was owed to our errant use of CVS, rather than Movable Type (our blog platform). Hopefully the gang at Six Apart will accept my apology!
And Alan, thanks again for being such a gentleman.
Maybe it was fortuitous! I was, just prior to the whole thread, really lambasted and legally threatened by one of the Brand monitoring company’s equity investors. Im not proud of the fact that I incorrectly put 2 & -1 together…..
But as I think that there is a learning moment here, I am going to leave the article with strikeouts intact, and will extend the editor’s note.
As you no doubt know, my research parter and I are looking to carry on work that we started at France Telecom, perhaps at another company….perhaps….? It would indeed be a strange way to birth such an alliance.
Thanks, Todd, for being cool and helping to make an enlightening moment.