Hello, boys and girls. Welcome to day two of “As the Overrated Blog Turns”.

Just a little while ago, Pete Cashmore took some time off between mirror visits to bang out a response on Mashable’s Tumblr blog.  Makes perfect sense doesn’t it?  I know when I’m looking for news on a company; a Tumblr is the first place I go.  Nice job, Pete!  Incidentally, the biggest thing on Tumblr is a picture of Pete looking all pouty and dressed in one of his trademark “Prettyboys of Scotland” suits, but I digress.

Anyway, the Satin Highlander says:

“While commenting on speculation isn’t something I’ve done in the past, I think it would be nice to keep our community in the loop as much as we can on recent Mashable-related rumors.  And with our writers on the ground at CES this week, I think it’s especially important to keep our focus on the real news.

We’re very open to partnerships and always talk with those that get in touch.  We’ve certainly spoken to lots of potential partners, some of those conversations more significant than others.  But I don’t feel that any of those conversations reached a point at which Mashable is likely to cease being independent.”

Yes, that’s right.  He’s focusing on the real news.  He’s gotta send a whole mess of people to Vegas so they can document the “100 Greatest Bar Meetup Tweets at CES.”

Okay, Okay, enough of that, let’s parse some words on this non-denial.

Look at the second paragraph of the response there.  What a load of crap that is. Of course Mashable is open to ‘collaborations.’  Most businesses are.  Give me a break, this response is straight out of an employee orientation video. 

Sitting around saying “I’m not saying I’m selling the farm, but I’m not not saying it either.” is a huge cry for attention.  If they weren’t working on something, or even still, didn’t want to talk about it, Pete could just nip it in the bud and say “This isn’t true; we’re not changing a thing.”  It’s not like he has any stockholders he has to be honest with.

But he’s not doing that, is he?  Why would he when he can coyly milk this for all its worth and every SocNet blogger on the planet will banter about it incessantly?  More than one person at SiliconANGLE reached out to Pete and the staff, where any number of responses on or off the record could have shut down this rumor mill. Pete may say he doesn’t want to comment, but you can bet while he has everybody looking at him, he will.  This is so simple, I can’t believe I even have to write it down.  I feel so dirty right now.

For the record, we stand by our three conjectures, as his post doesn’t deny any of them. In order of likelihood:

1) A content sharing agreement with Aol’s Seed initiative.

2) The contract with FM is up exactly 60 days from Wednesday, and Mashable is considering switching to Platform-A.

3) It was floated at some meeting somewhere the prospect of Mashable being acquired. We’d put the deal at between $15-25 million, not the $45 million that has been suggested to us by anonymous tipsters.

Don’t be fooled, kids.  I’m not.