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Bloggers tell lies when they review startups? No, no - they just stretch the truth a little. OK, a lot. Inspired in part by Paul Kedrosky's Top Ten VC Lies, I whipped up 10 semi-truths that we tend to use on Mashable for the sake of brevity, hyperbole or just plain laziness.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]1. "It's the X of Y!!" Wherein X represents a hot service with $25 million in VC, and Y represents something that has no fathomable relation to X. Example: Cheese is the YouTube of foodstuffs.
2. "it's entering a crowded market" Truth: this is the 21st frigging social bookmarking site I've reviewed this week.
3. "it's lightweight version of X" Truth: site has less features than your browser's About:Blank page.
4. This one may "gain traction" - A Mashable stalwart. Truth: I have no clue whether this startup will take off, but if it happens, I called it!
5. "it's very alpha". Truth: site is less reliable than MySpace, a fact that should defy the laws of physics.
6. "it needs more work". Truth: if there was a state before alpha, pre-alpha, and super pre-alpha, this site would be it.
7. "it has failed to gain traction" - Truth: pwned.
8. "a social network with XX million users" Where XX is a totally fictional number the founders made up, and we took it as fact.
9. It's The XYZ Killer!! - Wherein XYZ represents an amazingly popular one-of-a-kind service and the thing doing the killing launched today on a server in the 13 year old founder's bedroom.