I Stand With Trolls

#1

Post by dionidium » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 3:09 PM UTC

I Stand With Trolls
braythwayt.com

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#2

Post by ronnier » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 3:58 PM UTC

Alright, what did the guy from Microsoft say on twitter to get him fired?

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#3

Post by csmattryder » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

There are time when split personas just cannot be justified.

The Microsoft guy was their Creative Director for Xbox Studios, and he made a comment about his employer's product to a very large audience under the said persona.

For people like me, the OP, it's fine. We don't have high ranking positions in multinationals. Our opinions are unlikely to matter (but of course there are exceptions) when tweeted, blogged or emailed.

There's a time, place and persona for everything, Adam Orth decidedly chose the worst of the three to use.

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#4

Post by swanson » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

ronnier wrote: post #2

Alright, what did the guy from Microsoft say on twitter to get him fired?

http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/05/microsoft-studios-creative...

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#5

Post by potench » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

Orth was a Microsoft employee discussing rumored Microsoft decisions. I doubt he would have been fired if the discussion were about Playstation decisions.

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#6

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:00 PM UTC

ronnier wrote: post #2

Alright, what did the guy from Microsoft say on twitter to get him fired?

[deleted]

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#7

Post by tptacek » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:03 PM UTC

Saying unpopular things on Twitter isn't trolling. You stand with people who speak their mind in public. I'm not sure you mean to stand with the trolls. Those people usually aren't speaking their minds.

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#8

Post by MechaJDI » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:03 PM UTC

While it's true that you shouldn't HAVE to hide behind a persona in order to speak your mind, the Microsoft guy was free to do so. Why couldn't he just as easily say what he had to say under his 'randomMicrosoftEmployee' account instead of his public one? Simple. He wanted an audience. This is very reminiscent of the high ranked guy of some company who went off on a random chick-fil-a employee in the drive thru, posted it on youtube for the world to see and got fired over it during the whole 'supporting a anti-gay organization' thing. No one is saying you can't have or share your opinion but use common sense and decide HOW you'll share said opinion as well as the possible consequences.

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#9

Post by chrisrhoden » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:05 PM UTC

> Now he’s been fired, do you think that means that anyone with his opinions is going to be fired as well?

> No.

As much as I agree with the rest of your thesis, you can't argue that a very strong message hasn't been sent to the people making decisions at Microsoft - on this issue, there is an extremely vocal group who disagree with this position. It's dishonest to suggest that this will not have an effect that the people who disagreed with this man will appreciate on the final product design. It will.

Re: I Stand With Trolls

#10

Post by zacharyvoase » Wed, Apr 17, 2013, 4:06 PM UTC

Just an anecdote, which I know is not the singular form of 'data', but still:

I respect Mozilla as a company, but have no desire to work there (despite there being a lot of technology fit) because the CTO, Brendan Eich, made a donation of $1,000 to support Prop 8—a 2008 California ballot measure which banned gay marriage. Sure, I understood that his views were not those of his employer. But that doesn't make it easier for me to want to work for/with the guy.

See, I don’t think it’s about the public message that companies send to their consumers. It’s about the message they give to potential hires: you’ll be working with these people on a daily basis. Depending on the dispensability of the employee in question, a company may choose to fire someone rather than potentially rule out a large number of future employees. It’s an economic decision.