Earlier: A guide to the Gillmor Gang and its latest nerdfight

So the weekly podcast "The Gillmor Gang" is in limbo as members Michael Arrington, Steve Gillmor, and Nick Carr fight their personal demons. I'm wondering the same thing you are about this tiff: Who are these guys, what's their problem, and why should I care?

The short version: Michael is the TechCrunch blog founder with a heart of gold. Nick is the linkbaiting hard-ass. Steve hosts a podcast, which has twice included Michael and Nick. Michael's sick of hearing Nick be mean to other people, so he resigned. It matters because Nick is a leading tech pundit, thanks to his article and book, Does IT Matter? Michael is becoming a leading tech pundit as TechCrunch becomes the go-to site for IT business news.

The long version follows.

Before the latest Gillmor Gang show: Nick Carr wrote an article treating Netscape head Jason Calacanis as a pioneer for offering to pay top users. Michael Arrington writes an article calling Jason's offer a "red flag" for Netscape.

During the show: (A partial recording went live today. I'm still listening.) The first nine minutes are about some stupid gossip blog named Valleywag. Apparently I'm not invited to Michael's party any more, because I posted this e-mail.

Steve Gillmor asks to be bumped above other people on Michael's party guest list. Michael declines.

Nick, Steve, Jason, and Michael discuss Jason's Netscape offer.

During the show, still unreleased: Michael says he's not coming back to the show if Nick's on it again.

After the show: Nick blogs Michael's "resignation" and promises to leave the show so Michael can stay.

Michael blogs his reasons for leaving and denies that he left because Nick once called him a whore.

Nick updates his post, saying: "A madam is a very different occupation than a whore." Yes, a careful reading of the post in question shows that Nick actually called Michael's TechCrunch writers whores.

Still to come: Michael's famous for apologizing after big spats. But who will get his apology? Steve, whose show will be weaker without the one name people still recognize on the bill? Nick, who now left the show for no reason and can't return without looking desperate? Jason, for being rich enough that Michael should stay on his good side? Or me, for not banning me from his party sooner?

Gillmor Gang recording, part 1 [PodShow.com]
Photos by Scott Beale, Wired Magazine, and unknown

Well, not really. It's still painfully dull, even with the presence of Jason Calacanis (the AOL exec who calls out all bullshit — whether it exists or not). After Steve's opening commercial (skip it) you can hear the painfully unedited recording of a special Gillmor Gang. The first lines: "Hello?" "Hey, it's Jason." "Who is it?" GRIPPING INTRO, STEVE.

Highlights:

• Part 1. Steve greets Jason and ZDNet reporter Dan Farber: "Well, I'm gonna finish having some cereal. So I'll be back in a minute."
• Dan to Jason: "You're great.... At that." Nice save Dan! Now hide your shrine.
• About two minutes in, Jason realizes how stupidly boring this show will be. After the jump, so can you.

• Jason: "Half the pages on Wikipedia will be locked in two years."
• OMG boring. Skip two-thirds through part 1, where Steve acts like a clumsy amateur porn director: "I'm recording everything. Keep going. I'm in the background."
• Part 2. Jason says cool things about his Weblogs, Inc. network — which, you know, is a groovy network if you're into that.
• The awesome part: End of the Part 2. Steve to Jason about something that matters: "Who cares?" Ohhhhhh irony.
• Jason compares himself to Quentin Tarantino. Sounds accurate, really. (Pictured)

Don't bother listening to Part 3.

Oh, and Jason insulted TechCrunch, and Michael Arrington got huffy about it. Which is a shame, because ragging on your competitors is no way to run a blog.

Gillmor Gang [Official site]
On Conflicts of Interest and TechCrunch [CrunchNotes]
Earlier ragging on a Gawker Media competitor: Jason Calacanis, secret king of AOL [Valleywag]

Well, until the Gillmor Gang takes a public speaking class, here are three better tech podcasts:

Diggnation: Digg's Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht discovered the magic ingredient to podcast excitement: alcohol. On each weekly podcast (or vidcast), Kevin and Alex drink beer and cover the week's top stories from their bookmark community.

Buzz Out Loud: It's just ten minutes. What can you screw up in ten minutes? CNet Hosts Tom Merritt and Molly Wood take phone calls and e-mail from listeners to mix things up.

Om and Niall PodSessions: Not roll-on-the-floor funny, but a decent 22 minutes and rich with insider info, not just opinions.

This Week in Tech: There's no way to oversell this show. TWiT deserves its title of "the world's most listened to podcast" thanks to John C. Dvorak's "friendly curmudgeon" attitude, great guests like Kevin Rose (yes, podcasts are as incestuous as blogs), and Leo Laporte's silliness as a ringleader.

Gillmor Gang [Gillmor.podshow.com]
Scoops of vanilla perception [Tinfinger]