Its most influential years were in the beginning, especially under Mr. Thomas, who ran the site from 2007 until 2009. Mr. Thomas, who is himself gay, argues that Valleywag was not really outing Mr. Thiel. Valleywag challenged that, and the Valley — or at least Mr. Thiel — pushed back. In one post about Mr. Thiel’s claims of hiring only the best to work at his hedge fund, Clarium Capital, Mr. Thomas wrote, “Oh, really? Several Silicon Valley figures asked to comment on Wednesday said they had not read it or did not know it was defunct.

Source: New York Times May 25, 2016 19:01 UTC