I’ve been saving a lot of good stories for my tell-all book about the early days of blogging pro (and I will write that damned book eventually, even if it all seems quaint by the time it’s out), but I know the question of Brian Lam’s and my armistice seems to linger on, and for good reason: it’s a pretty great friggin story. Especially the latest chapter wherein after years of minute by minute, story-by-story, 24/7 competition in the rapid-fire tech news space, we’re laying down arms and uniting to serve the gadget community with a new site.

But let’s be real, it wasn’t always frenemies uniting. We all had some some damned hard days in the crucible of that kind of competition, as Wired touched on, and I know I certainly had my fair share of lapses in judgment (like a boycott Gizmodo site, which I let myself get talked into by a particularly hateful former writer). Of course, it went both ways, too. Gizmodo and a lot of other sites were pulling shenanigans day in and out, with the traded barbs pushing everyone harder, thinning out mistakes which could turn into ammunition. The results were obviously felt as gadget sites got better, faster, and more accurate, but it’s a little funny, because that stuff all seemed so very serious then. Looking at it now, the storied rivalry retired, it’s almost kind of cute.

There was a line to be drawn, too, and to me that line was where real damage could be done. In fact, this May that line drew itself right in my inbox when a disgruntled former Gizmodo editor pinged me offering a tidy bounty: the full “back catalog of classified Gizmodo emails, some discussing Engadget,” as well as “access to Gizmodo’s tips account [that'd be where you could get all of Gizmodo's scoops, or even turn over their tipsters to the companies they're leaking about]” and the “master list of Gizmodo online sources, which is a great aid.” Without hesitation, I turned this person (and any data that could be made use of) over to Brian and owner of Gizmodo / Gawker Media, Nick Denton, for them to deal with as they saw fit.

Of course, Engadget (for whom I still write and advise) and Gizmodo wage on, trying to out-scoop each other every day of the week. There’s no doubt in my mind that Brian was an adversary so worthy I had to make him an ally — but he’s also a good friend, and someone who knew exactly all the kinds of crap we pulled with each other. But I think ultimately we’ve both spent enough time doing this stuff to know that tearing things down won’t ever be as productive or positive as what comes next: where we unite and build.