Another one bites the dust
15Minutes, Internet, Weblogs September 1st, 2004 |Yet another in the ongoing saga of webloggers canned for really stupid reasons. This time, it’s Troutgirl, who until recently worked for Friendster.
Ontario Empoblog has a good rundown of the situation.
iTunes: “Packin’” by Porno for Pyros from the album Porno for Pyros (1993, 4:10).
[See also: Kill Bill - Part Three | Minor iPod Touch annoyance: on the… | List of Dangerous Bloggers | Boy meets girl… | Of blogs, site content, and something funny ]
7 Responses to “Another one bites the dust”
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Pythoner
jan
spunkycomics
Michael Hanscom
Ryan Waddell
September 1st, 2004 at 1:04 pm
this shit is just stupid. remind me to go through my archives and delete anything that refers to work, period.
i think she should sue the company. if all that she talked about was already public, they can’t do a damn thing. she’s entitled to express her opinion on it, and she’s allowed to publish it too.
September 1st, 2004 at 4:30 pm
re:kirsten
She certainly has the right to publish what she wants, and depending on the state she works in they still have the right to fire her.
So long as they didn’t not attempt to prevent her publishing, which would be an abridgment of 1st admendment rights. This also is presuming the she didn’t sign an NDA when hired that waives her right to publish anything work related. Not terribly uncommon when working on closed source projects.
Also unless they explicitly fired her for the reasons of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability (and she can prove it) then she probably doesn’t have grounds for a lawsuit.
That being said (and not knowing the whole story since I don’t know her directly) I think it tremendously stupid that they did fire her, and am also outraged. I am in no way supporting or condoning her firing.
Chances are they didn’t do anything illegal by firing her. Unethical or immoral, yes; Illegal no.*
September 1st, 2004 at 4:48 pm
Friendster is hiring a software engineer for platforms. The website advertises that the following qualifications are required:
BA/BS in CS, or equivalent experience. Experience with LAMP architectures - Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl/Python. Proven technical troubleshooting experience. Excellent analytic abilities and strong communication skills. Ability to handle periodic on-call duty as well as out-of-bandrequests. 3+ years experience in a similar position a big plus. Experience with Linux system administration and/or MySQL a plus. Experience with REST/XML/SOAP a plus. Experience working in a loosely coupled production environment a plus.
The HR person should be fired for divulging sensitive information.
Incidentally, the Friendster jobs site does not include any terms of employment. Presumably that is given to candidates later in the process.
September 2nd, 2004 at 2:01 am
Work Stuff
Yet another in the ongoing saga of webloggers canned for really stupid reasons. This time, it’s Troutgirl, who until recently worked for Friendster. Ontario Empoblog has a good rundown of the situation. (From Michael Hanscom) If only I could…
September 2nd, 2004 at 5:40 am
Off-topic (kind of): Interesting how this happens. I read your story about getting canned and I have read your blog ever since. The world of blogging is a strange network of randomness but it provides interesting insight into how other people live their lives and interact with society in general. I’m glad that I’ve continued to read this blog since The Firing™ and I look forward to investigating Troutgirl’s blog.
September 20th, 2004 at 12:35 pm
Canned with a positive outcome you could say: Joyce Park, blogger ID Troutgirl, with a huge following, was canned by Friendster, a blogging company, for…..blogging.
Duh, %&? you might be tempted to say. Not so fast. Now and then, the interactive media gets reverse-engineered in the worst sense of the word, by big, huge succesful TV execs who Bring Their Business Expertise to the Interactive Field. By sharks, whose world is one of one-way broadcasting, where dumb consumers can’t talk back and employees, if they’re smart, will say what they’re told. Two-way conversations in any way are an anathema to the foxy toxidity of general non-ecletic dishing out of news speak mentality.
Joyce Park is currently getting deluded with job offers. Interactive is cool, Sharky.
Gisela Strauss Technical Translator Munich http://bloggerati.blogspot.com gisela.strauss@gmail.com
November 24th, 2004 at 10:28 pm
There is a happy update to this story. Troutgirl has a new job with an employer who apparently likes employees who can communicate with customers. Troutgirl’s account is here. Her CommerceNet Labs bio is here. (If you’re interested, my semi-coherent ramblings are here, a follow-up to my original post that Michael apparently read in a fit of boredom.)