I'm sure TechCrunch editor Mike Arrington was joshing when he threatened "war" on Facebook for hiring away one of his technical staffers. After all, the amount of damage a full-on TechCrunch assault of negative articles about Facebook would inflict on the site's business rounds off close to zero. Still, even jokingly warning another employer to stay away from "my" employees is a Valley faux pas. Such posturing is seen as a sign of weakness. If you want your tech workers to stay, you just offer them a better deal. Right, boss?

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