Nick Douglas was a quality satirist, and under him things were a good balance of smarmy and smart. He was an insider and his writing was from the viewpoint of s

Nick Douglas was a quality satirist, and under him things were a good balance of smarmy and smart. He was an insider and his writing was from the viewpoint of someone who loved SV but wanted to improve it. Ironically, he was fired for being too insider-y. Biddle fancied himself a tech Jon Stewart, but really he was the crazy guy on the street yelling stuff at people walking by. His distain for everything and everyone tech was palpable. I had hope when Dan Lyons took over (given his brilliant Fake Steve blog), but his choice in low-brow posts were incredibly disappointing. He said he wouldn't stoop to those levels, and then instantly did. I suspect he was pressured into it, and left because of that. At its best, Valleywag is a sorely needed insiders view of our culture. At it's worst, it's absolute garbage. Now I suppose we have things like @StartupLJackson on Twitter, or Silicon Valley on HBO to fill that void. (Not so coincidentally, Dan Lyons is a writer on the show.)