So will we see a "getting the band back together" effort from Ludicorp alumni? :)
Laying off George
21–30 of 52 posts
Re: Laying off George
#22I'm sorry to hear how hard it's been for George. Flickr is a great product and has had huge returns for Yahoo. That said, my uninformed reaction is to consider this a good move. The last thing Yahoo needs is another project with no clear business model, regardless how cool. This is the kind of work that should be funded by massive donations like wikipedia. If it's going to be supported by a company, it shouldn't be o…
You know, if yahoo is unable to find a way to make money off something like Flickr, there is no way any number of layoffs will save them.
And there's something else I don't get. Why are they not trying to outsource projects that they do not consider to be core? Why are they not asking people like George to enter into some other kind of contractual relationship with them that would allow the continuation of a good project? Someone as well connected as George might be able to find additional funding for Flickr Commons from other sources.
Re: Laying off George
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, I don't know much about this person, but flying a guy (edit: oops, sorry, girl! that's what I get for writing first thing in the morning) around the world to talk about "the commons project" sounds like lots of money that could be better spent elsewhere. That said, if she's bright and a good worker, why not at least give her the chance to do something else in the company?
George is a girl http://www.flickr.com/people/george/
That explains the crying, etc... Thank you for clearing that up.
Re: Laying off George
#24I'm sorry to hear how hard it's been for George. Flickr is a great product and has had huge returns for Yahoo. That said, my uninformed reaction is to consider this a good move. The last thing Yahoo needs is another project with no clear business model, regardless how cool. This is the kind of work that should be funded by massive donations like wikipedia. If it's going to be supported by a company, it shouldn't be o…
"Flickr is a great product and has had huge returns for Yahoo."
Personally I think it was a good site until Yahoo! took it over. Now it feels a bit like that local friendly coffee shop you'd been using for years that suddenly became a Starbucks. I'm sure there's room for an innovative competitor there.
Re: Laying off George
#25You can't be fired without some sort of severance pay or package, correct? Or am I just crazy.
In states with at-will employment your job can be terminated - by either side - with no notice (hence no obligation for severance), with some exceptions against illegal discrimination (e.g. being fired because you're black).
Most companies will offer you some sort of severance - or at least won't ask for their signing bonus/relocation/etc back, but that's out of goodwill, not legal obligation.
Re: Laying off George
#26You can't be fired without some sort of severance pay or package, correct? Or am I just crazy.
No. This is normal in the US. Severance pay is rare.
Re: Laying off George
#27Sure Yahoo sucks, but take the good side of this story George Oates will do awesome work wherever she goes next so build something that's worth having her work on it and then get in touch
Terrible situation, sorry to hear about it. Brm, you're exactly right, as truly high-quality employees are let go from failing big companies it creates unbelievable opportunities for startups to pick them up. It's true no matter whether you work for a small company or large company--if you do something that's valuable to someone, you won't go hungry.
Don't forget about the added sting of having worked on Flickr from the beginning. She was an employee of Ludicorp before being an employee of Yahoo.
Re: Laying off George
#28So will we see a "getting the band back together" effort from Ludicorp alumni? :)
I'm still waiting for the next Game Neverending beta.
Re: Laying off George
#29Here's the real link (question to poster: Why did you link to an unnecessary reference?) http://george08.blogspot.com/2008/12/not-quite-what-i-had-in... My comment: Congratulations to the affected. A website that does little besides arranging "img" elements is fundamentally lame. I was hit in the 2001 blowout, and it was probably the best thing that could have happened. Find something good.....
You don't understand the situation. Flickr was created by Ludicorp, a start-up that was acquired by Yahoo. George worked for Ludicorp. Whether you think Flickr is valuable or not is irrelevant. She was there in the beginning and now she's been fired. That sucks.
Regarding the reference, Jeffrey Zeldman is widely and well respected. The reference is notable because it provides context into how ridiculous the situation is.
Re: Laying off George
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would wager that a comment flippantly (and ignorantly) disparaging a very useful site which unleashed quite a bit of creativity everywhere, is much much lamer.
Flickr's interesting because it's a Web 2.0 darling. There was an article I read that stated that Photobucket got 7x the traffic of Flickr but Flickr got 40x the press mentions of Photobucket. Facebook now owns the online photo-hosting market. The big weakness of Flickr is that its main interaction model is between photographers - Facebook's is between photographers and people in photos. Flickr may be a cool technolo…
What is the definition of "traffic" in this case? Page views? Regardless, "traffic" is not a basis for determining the value or even the popularity of a site.