If you're a 'web designer', why didn't you design the website yourself instead of downloading a themeforest theme and purging the reference line from the source?

visit: www.melaniebarnett.com (I found a site that uses the exact same theme!)

Also, there is a temporal paradox on the webpage. It says "best viewed in Safari browser", but Safari didn't exist in the 90s and I believe web pages "best viewed in <some-browser>" disappeared in the early 00s.

Definitely was inspired by a themeforest design. I didn't download the theme. The whole site was built from scratch in Apple's iWeb. It's not even exactly like. Pay more attention to detail instead of criticizing.

You plagiarized the layout and design of the site (and maybe made a few modification) and didn't have the courtesy to atleast make a comment that the design had been 'inspired' by a themeforest template in your page source. Do you think your behavior had an iota of honor?

Very good hustling. Takes a lot of balls, drive and willpower to refuse to stay in a comfort zone and keep putting yourself out there even at the risk of seeming "desperate".

Thanks for checking out the site and your feedback! This experiment has been extremely rewarding.

Definitely agree with this.

Many of us want to do it, but very few take that step to actually do it.

It's kinda douchy for Arrington not to even respond though.

And this is why people continue to do these things. Sometimes it works out.

The same model is used for startup funding.

Perhaps, but this starfucker got passed off to the roadies. Happens all the time. The pride is a bit misplaced.

That was indelicate. What I mean is that Michael Arrington is not a kingmaker. If you have something to offer the world, get out and do it.

Don't play the sycophant -- it degrades you and fluffs the preeners.

Judging by his web page, Cliff is a doer anyway. He ships. In the end, I don't think he'll need Arrington's help. He will be successful because of who he is.

Thanks for the support. Means a lot.

This kind of thing is getting old and boring.

(1) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2840233 (2) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2843530

It's a gambit of sorts, it only works when it's unexpected, but pulling it off is always an achievement.

I'm glad it worked out well for the OP. However, it isn't innovative any more. When the original hireme guy did it, it was audacious and innovative. It may still be audacious, but is no longer innovative.

So, you got a lot of attention, but the part of the story that is missing is whether or not any of it actually materialized into a job that you wanted (or VC funding or whatever else you were looking for).

Even if it didn't, you definitely seem to have made some good connections, so hopefully it works out for you. Good luck.

Thanks so much for checking out the site. And for you feedback.

Congrats! Very much in the line of:

http://kbiri.blogspot.com/2009/01/lens-story-about-yesterday...

Thanks!

Deetroit! Very much like the design of your website with the wooden background... glad to hear of your success.

Glad you like it. Thanks for checking it out.

Nice story.