Metrobloggers Being “Fired” for Voicing Disagreement Publicly
In the past hour, at least two of the Portland Metrobloggers have been “fired” for publicly voicing their displeasure with the mishandling of the site relaunch over the weekend. I use the term “fired” with quotes, since they were writing for free, but their access/accounts have been downgraded so that they no longer have author access to the site.
First, local blogger Steve from More Hockey Less War posted a comment on his blog about some of his frustrations. Sean Bonner, founder of Metroblogging, decided to swing by and leave a comment on his post where he notes that he’s taking Steve’s displeasure as his resignation. Steve informs me that he was actually on the Metroblog author’s forum, reading communications from Sean when all of a sudden his access was denied and he saw his account had been downgraded.
Another blogger, Brewcaster, was similarly frustrated and chose to agree with Steve’s views on his own blog. Sean decided that copying and pasting his response to Steve was appropriate, and Brewcaster is now also in the “former author” category.
Sean was nice enough to send them both an e-mail titled “Yay Drama!” whereby he confirms to them that he disabled their accounts, in case they hadn’t figured it out from the public comments he left on their blogs.
I wonder if Sean realizes that this whole situation is a result of the complete lack of communication about any of the changes to the authors, and the fact that the whole thing went down without any input from the authors who make the site what it is. A bit of technical testing might have avoided the fallout about the design elements, and the user account migration difficulties could’ve been avoided by, you know, talking with the authors.
At least one other author has chosen to step back from the site, although that person’s account is still active since they haven’t made any mention publicly. And that rumor about a new independent city blog site forming? Sounds like it’s moving beyond a rumor…
update: I see that Melissa Lion has announced her resignation from the site.
Posted in Portland Blog Scene |
March 4th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Thanks for writing this. Main intent of this comment was to subscribe to the comments of this post via email. Nice feature!
March 4th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
This thing really is spinning out of control. The national MetBlogs folks just need to own up that they did a crappy job of informing their “employees” of the changes they were making, and that they posted a less than stellar web site before they should have. Hurray for QA!
March 4th, 2008 at 7:20 pm
Oh good lord. Way to turn a network relaunch into a completely asinine — and utterly avoidable — debacle, Sean.
It’s nice to see that new media moguls are just as schmucky as the old media moguls.
No, wait. Not nice. The other thing.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Fired? You know of lots of other cases where people are told “sorry to see you go, you are welcome back anytime you want” when they are being fired do you? They quit. My comments are out in the public, and I am sorry to see them go. Not everyone can agree all the time and I wish there wasn’t these kinds of issues, things certainly could have been handled better by everyone but like I told them, no hard feelings and I’m happy to talk or welcome them back if that is what they want. If not, I’m sure they will continue to rock a new site of they choose to go that route.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Steve informs me that he was actually on the Metroblog author’s forum, reading communications from Sean when all of a sudden his access was denied and he saw his account had been downgraded.
That’s “fired”, Sean. Whatever nicer face you opted to try to put on it in your public comments.
March 4th, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Sean, are you going to also disable the accounts of any authors who said they were going to take a break via the internal mailing lists? I know of at least one…
March 4th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Well you folks are welcome to put any spin on it you want, I’m sticking with the “i’m sorry to see them go, and they are welcome back if they want to come” story which doesn’t seem like firing to me, but YMMV.
In the 4 years we’ve been doing this, 100% of the time someone has decided to, rather than talk to me directly, post their gripes in public followed by “I’m taking a break until ____ changes” they have quit, so that’s pretty much how I take it. Someone wanting to take a break isn’t a problem. I’m easy to reach and happy to talk to anyone at any point, clearly that wasn’t the route they wanted to take.
March 4th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Who cares?
I mean really, seriously, apart from the three people involved in this and their pals, who cares?
Why is there a link to this trivia on oregonlive.com?
March 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Drama indeed. Sean Bonner is not the villain here, he merely made a decision. I enjoy the Portland Metblog site but there is no denying that several people there are too caught up in their self-important roles as the voice of Portland.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Yes, absolutely a bunch of people with mediocre, low-paying jobs, with too much time on their hands and nothing better to do, who see themselves as the “voice” of Portland, whining about nonsense. Get over it folks. You bloggers are WAAAAYYYYY too pompous.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Sean, I sent you e-mail. I didn’t resign. I may or may not choose to do so after careful consideration. I’ll look forward to my account being re-enabled.
March 4th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
FYI, Sean re-enabled my account. So I’m not “fired.”
Cool your jets, y’all!
Re. self-importance, I’ve never seen metblogs as anything but a casual Web diversion.
March 5th, 2008 at 12:11 am
ThePortlander.com is going to relaunch next week with a great focus on citizen journalism. Might be a great place for disgruntled Metblog writers to go…
March 5th, 2008 at 7:42 am
Increadible. Bunch of bullies. Sean, don’t restore this megalomaniac with his delusions of grandeur.
I don’t read the blogs, but followed the link from Oregonlive.com.
With War, incompetent candidates, teetering economy, out of control environmental movement, this is what the staff at Oregonlive chooses to link to (on the front page)?
And Steve, you’re an ungracious whimp. You make an assertion that “you” are generating advertising dollars for the site. It is actually the site that is providing “you” with a venue, thereby legitimizing you’re positions. Trust me, you would not get this anywhere else. “Casual Web diversion”, didn’t you mean to say “your life”.
March 5th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Man, Oregonian readers are a sour, whiny lot!
It’s one thing for people actually working at the newspaper to be defensive about blogs, but why do people who read the paper online seem to hate them so much?
Maybe they’re just as enraged about using OregonLive as everyone else, and they know that sending an email to the OregonLive team won’t change things, so they click on random links on the front page and rant to anyone who’ll listen?
March 5th, 2008 at 8:26 am
In case you miss the update.
March 5th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Heh… 7.5 posts a month == my life? If only my life were that simple!
This whole thing has been blown out of proportion just a tad.
March 5th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I’m just catching up on all of this. I was one of the first readers to login and start complaining about the changes over at Metroblogging. I wonder if I’ve been blocked from the site for complaining.
Also: in regards to blogs being self-important and a waste of time, these naysayers should consider that mindlessly watching TV is still the preferred opiate of America’s masses. Between the two, which is a better hobby?
March 5th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
I had a similar situation recently when I started a parody site of Metafilter, which is based in McMinnville. Its founder, Matt Haughey, closed my (paid) account and then refused to speak to me about the circumstances. Very frustrating megalomania attitude — does he get to decide what I write on my own site? Click my name if you’re interested in seeing the site and learning more . . .