As I said, a growing startup should expect to one day rise above pushing publicity through A-list bloggers like TechCrunch's Michael Arrington. Today, Mike grumbles about that very phenomenon.

Mike noticed a disappointing traffic trend in Del.icio.us, a bookmark site acquired by Yahoo.

I pinged del.icio.us founder Joshua Schacter to clarify and get a comment. His response was "gotta go thru PR, alas". Oh, how times have changed - I found out about the Yahoo acquisition of del.icio.us through an open, PR-less instant message conversation with Joshua last December. In any event, I hope to get a Yahoo PR comment tomorrow on this, and have pinged the appropriate person.

Mike is justified in feeling a bit jilted. But those carefree days of chatting with the press are gone now that Del.icio.us is ruled by the Yahoo PR machine. Mike's gotta learn how to talk to the flacks, just like the rest of us.

Dazzle us again, Delicious [TechCrunch]
Earlier: Is your startup past the TechCrunch phase? [Valleywag]