SuperPoke is worth $13 million according to Facebook application tracker Adonomics. The site awards applications like Slide's Top Friends and RockYou's SuperWall values in the tens of millions of dollars — which provides some of the basis for the 9-digit figures that Slide has commanded, and RockYou hopes to get, in venture capitalists' estimates of their worth. Adonomics' numbers are as sketchy as those valuations, however. Facebook's homegrown Video application only has 807 active users, according to Adonomics stats. Something's off here, and I don't think it's just Facebook's $15 billion value.

Venture capitalist Lee Lorenzen has profited from the hype about Facebook applications. And he'd like to share. In a message he sent to reporters — the recipients were apparently chosen because they wrote about two of his startups, Adonomics and TheUADA — he's offering to let them invest in a financing round for the companies. I'll spare you the lectures about journalistic ethics: Michael Arrington already writes about startups he's invested in at TechCrunch. Why can't everybody play this game? Ah, well, there's the hitch in Lorenzen's plan: He likely has no clue how little money reporters make, compared to the programmers and executives of the Valley. While buying into a startup on the cheap in a seed round might sound like a promising investment, most journalists would rather get a guaranteed 18 percent return by paying off their credit cards. Why not just send reporters a check for every positive story they write? That seems easier. Here's Lorenzen's letter: