Editorial Changes on Profy

It is a damn shame that this story is evolving this way. Changes happen, business change focus or return to their focus. Good for you getting you position out there.

Good luck with the new structure. I will continue to read your great articles

Thank you for support Rob, I am kind obviously upset it was made public but in this situation I just had to put my own thoughts into public as well. I’m sorry all of you had to participate in this, definitely not my intention.

Svetlana–you’re handling the situation at Profy with class.

Who cares what Mashable has to say? I have tried on several occasions to get Mashable attention to my issue. I thought since they have written about ePerks, they would be interested to write a follow up. I of course understand their lack of interest. It is difficult to write a paid review on a startup especially if that startup ends up screwing things badly.

Not that Mshable was paid for their review, they probably were not.

Svetlana, I am surprised at you. You received all three resignations well before you were offline yesterday for bed. Cyndy’s was first the day before, and you did not bother to respond to her concerns until the following day, at which point I sent you mine via email (yesterday morning). I am fairly certain Triston sent his around the same time. You did not respond, but since it was a simple resignation, I wasn’t expecting you to. Nor was I expecting you to be as unprofessional as to completely make something up on here and on FriendFeed.

Also, Svetlana, you too were in the chat where Cyndy revealed her resignation a day before this article was written and still did not take your chance to comment even then, so I’m not sure why you are upset about Mark’s article? That he got it first? That he got it right? That it is news?

@Stephen: Thank you for your support, I appreciate it a lot.

@Vlad: Well, Mashable just chooses what they think is sensation enough to bring eyeballs (like in this case). And I guess they have just decided your issue was too complicated for them to be able to write a summary that the readers could consume. But you know, I actually think that I have seen support to you on the blogs that are much better places to reach people who actually care.

@Leslie: Please, don’t make me go to my inbox and get all the proof that is needed. You and Triston did NOT send your resignation email yesterday morning when I was online so your resignation was a total surprise to me. I was aware of Cyndy’s resignation, of course, but I was not aware I just had to discuss all the editorial changes in public. It is my decision to try and keep this blog on the topic of technology news. And I really did not think this issue deserved the attention it got, do please stop this tempest in a tea-pot, it may eventually damage your reputation as well.

Best of luck to both the departing writers and Profy going forward.

@K Welch: Thank you, trying hard to keep this professional and get out of the chaos as soon as possible. Appreciate your support!

The way i saw it was that Mark was pleased that a competitor “appeared” as though they were crashing & burning and obviously a celebratory post was in order to gloat & spread the news. That’s how it looked to me as a reader of both blogs.

@sean: Thank you, appreciate your support!

Svetlana,

It isn’t about sensationalism. It’s about providing news that we think our readers will enjoy and engage with.

Vlad,

We are not paid by advertisers for our opinions at Mashable, and reviews cannot be bought. All sponsored posts are clearly disclosed.

@Mark: Glad to hear you thought the staff changes on Profy are considered newsworthy enough for Mashable. Though since no one else seemed to be interested, I still think you could take some time to ask me a few questions as well instead of listening to one side only. My phone number is in the contacts here on Profy and I am easily accessible on the phone even when I am offline and asleep.

@Zee: Thanks for the comment, I have always thought Profy was not big enough for Mashable to care but if it is the case I am genuinely pleased

@Mark from my point of view (just yet another reader, noticed your post-on-the-fan on FF), your posting _was_ mostly about sensationalism, and you can try forever to say opposite - you may have chance to persuade little kids but not average adult: your post smells yellow press…

Why would you air your dirty laundry like this? You’re just giving sites like Mashable all the more reason to write stories like that when you all start bickering in posts and comments right here on the site. I agree that Mashable’s article was sensationalist, but I find it a bit hypocritical of you to say as much in an equally sensationalist post.

Vlad - your comment couldn’t be more irrelevant

@RS: I hate airing the dirty laundry like this here more than anyone can imagine but unfortunately I thought that I had to react after placed in the situation when everyone was accusing me of something I did not do publicly. I actually tried not to make this post sensational as much as I could (re-wrote it 3 times actually) and sorry if I failed. I personally don’t see any sensation here, nothing but a statement of facts. If I wanted to make it sensational, I would have published much more details about the entire situation.

Reality check here…why is it “news” when a writer moves outlets? It happens in print all the time. If bloggers want to be treated like journalists by journalists and the public at large, one thing I have learned as someone who has ridden both sides of the fence is that the closer you are to the story, or if you have a personal interest in it, the more likely it is to fall flat on its face.

@Andrew: Very reasonable, I myself do not think it is news at all, I can actually hardly remember how many people blogged for Profy in 2 years. But when someone made it public, I was forced to comment myself since in this strange world when you refuse to comment it means that you are guilty, not that you don’t think it’s worthwhile.

@Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins

Mark I have clearly stated that I think, Mashable WAS NOT PAID to write their review. I put a smiley next to it simply because the company in question chose to promote themselves almost exclusively through paid reviews, so when I saw Mashable writing up about them, I wondered if it was a paid review- not that I think there is anything wrong with them.

@Svetlana

I think you should look at it as a compliment. If Mashable (or others) are threatened enough by Profy to put their noses in your business- I say congratulations.

I agree with you about my story being covered on blogs where the readers were extremely supportive. I doubt I would have ever found such support anywhere else.

@Vlad: Thanks for the congratulations, after giving it a second thought I am quite pleased we are important enough for such stories around Profy staff

And I think in your case general noise would not help anyway, it is better to approach the people that can understand the issue (which you’ve done) and receive help where possible. Noise can be useful when it is in a major newspaper or TV channel, blogs will hardly draw the attention of the community enough to influence the court decision anyway - or even damage the reputation of your offender.

well congrats to those moving on and i wish them well - particularly that lady with four kids

honestly, profy kicks ass and i think you shouldn’t waste a single second putting out a call for writers - new writers that is…i’m happy to throw my own hat into the ring (you already published one of my pieces before)…hmm, it would give me a sense of purpose [seriously, feel free to ping me if you're going to put out a call for new contributors...em is in comment]

and for that reason only I’m responding to the post here, for the record. The fact that this conversation is even still going is a bit ridiculous. However, I’m here to clarify that I did, indeed, sent proper and professional notification of my resignation. If there is any doubt that resignation was tendered due to Svetlana’s comments, consider this: why would I or Leslie jeopardize our credibility and reputations by choosing to not inform Svetlana of resignation? That is the one point which Svetlana keeps raising, and I believe it is in an attempt to redirect blame to the writers rather than management in this situation.

We are all professionals, and this continued conversation is anything but. We have all conducted ourselves as such up until this incident, and I don’t think it is much to ask those who have been following this debacle to think rationally, and not judge based on some unimportant and sensationalist claim that we did not tender resignations.

The fact that this conversation is even still going is a bit ridiculous. However, I’m here to clarify that I did, indeed, sent proper and professional notification of my resignation. If there is any doubt that resignation was tendered due to Svetlana’s comments, consider this: why would I or Leslie jeopardize our credibility and reputations by choosing to not inform Svetlana of resignation? That is the one point which Svetlana keeps raising, and I believe it is in an attempt to redirect blame to the writers rather than management in this situation.

We are all professionals, and this continued conversation is anything but. We have all conducted ourselves as such up until this incident, and I don’t think it is much to ask those who have been following this debacle to think rationally, and not judge based on some unimportant and sensationalist claim that we did not tender resignations. I’ve considered responding in a post of my own on any of my various sites, but I believe this situation should never have even made it to Mashable. For that reason, dragging it out further is pointless, and will only continue to allow for involved individuals to take even more pot shots at each other.

Bullshit! One writer leaves and the rest follow! Professional my Ass! You should have at least given enough notice to Profy to find new writers! If I were a Blog I would never hire a “professional” like you! Forget about a blog, I would not hire you to wash floors at MacDonald’s! And do not call me a “Troll” just to hide from your unprofessionalism!

@Triston: Sure, I never said I did not receive your emails - I did receive them. But the fact remains that I got to know about your resignation from Mashable because you waited to send your emails until I went offline for the night. And how professional it was to start waving our dirty linen publicly!

@dave: Thanks for the words of support, I appreciate them and of course I am starting looking for new bloggers today. So shoot me a note of your availability and plans and let’s discuss it (sure I remember your guest posts on Profy very well).

@Triston: Of course you have sent me the resignation emails - both you and Leslie. But the fact remains that I got to know about your resignation on Mashable since you chose to send the email right after I went offline for the night knowing about the time difference. And what a pleasant surprise it was to wake up to that ridiculous post! And of course whoever decided to share the information with Mashable was very professional, no doubts about it. I would really prefer this conversation to stop finally not to discredit each other further, I don’t know why anyone decided it was supposed to be a public story and I have no idea where I failed to carry out all my duties to you that you decided to initiate this parody to damage Profy but at least I think you have reached your goals already and there’s no real need to continue any more.

@Svetlana: It seems to me, that if you had three writers resign in such a short period, the problem is not with the writers, but with management. It is obvious by your comments that management came to the conclusion that they were not making enough profit off the work of their writers and decided to slash their pay and demand more work for less money.

Regardless of the time difference, management must have completely failed to properly address the issue for three writers to resign like they did. I think it is time for management to take a long look in the mirror and decide if they can operate without the backbone of their business: the writing staff.

With a mass resignation such as this, it is evident that Profy needs to rethink how to align its business model with its need for quality writers.

@Rythan: I actually hoped that I would not have to repeat that again but I guess that’s the only thing I now have to do - explaining myself again and again.

Of course, there was a huge management problem (my problem) in the fact that I could not persuade people into working for results, not for the sake of working and getting a fixed flat rate only (which, by the way, I did not cut - ask any of the bloggers who quit and I somehow hope they will confirm at least that).

Of course if 3 people leave simultaneously it absolutely means I’m a terrible Gorgon, no doubts about that, I wanted them to work 24/7 and earn nothing for that.

Thank you for the advice but I’ve been looking in the mirror for the last 3 days (I actually tend to blame myself only when I get into problem because there must be something I have done to cause a problem). What I saw in the mirror was a person too naive to expect anything like that from the people she trusted (and actually provided all of them a platform to grow into noticeable web personalities worth a mention on Mashable because of this hideous exodus). Yes, I suggested a change in the motivation pattern we used (because of the managerial reasons - I do have to relate income with spendings) and without an explanation I am left even without time to find a replacement. Sure, it is all my fault, I really have no doubts about that: I should be much more careful in the employment process.