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Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

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Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#11

Post by slantyyz »

thesuitonym wrote: post #9
slantyyz wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question - can someone please explain the purpose/appeal of these "Why I Left X" blog posts/videos? I'm from a generation where you didn't publicize this kind of stuff, and I'm not quite sure I understand the intent/social value of such posts/videos outside of the "whistleblowing" types of posts. Absent of any context, these posts/videos just strike me as self promotion.

Because blogging and publishing videos is easier than ever. Nothing has changed about the culture. In 1972, if someone left a company, they would willingly tell anybody who cared to ask. It is a frequent question during the interview process because it is insanely useful in helping to understand a potential hire. You didn't publicize this kind of stuff because the effort of typing it and Xeroxing it for your zine was…

>> You didn't publicize this kind of stuff because the effort of typing it and Xeroxing it for your zine wasn't worth the reward of a reader getting some sort of insight into the company culture.

At least for my cohort, that's not the reason why you didn't do it. You didn't do it because it was career limiting. There was value placed on a person who had a sense of discretion.

I'm sure a lot of HR types Google their candidates. I'm wondering if any would drop a candidate for having posted these things.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#12

Post by catacombs »

It seems to me a lot of these ex-BuzzFeed video producers just leave the company once they become super popular and want "more independence."

It seems like they're publicly biting the hand that fed them by making these videos: If BuzzFeed never hired them in the first place, they'd all just be no-name YouTubers.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#14

Post by 6stringmerc »

I want to know how much these people get paid. The content industry needs some transparency. Especially after that horrible stain on professionalism Huffington Post paid its writers nothing and Ariana got $315 million. Exploitation is not cool, nor is kneecapping the real market.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#15

Post by danso »

slantyyz wrote: post #11
thesuitonym wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because blogging and publishing videos is easier than ever. Nothing has changed about the culture. In 1972, if someone left a company, they would willingly tell anybody who cared to ask. It is a frequent question during the interview process because it is insanely useful in helping to understand a potential hire. You didn't publicize this kind of stuff because the effort of typing it and Xeroxing it for your zine was…

>> You didn't publicize this kind of stuff because the effort of typing it and Xeroxing it for your zine wasn't worth the reward of a reader getting some sort of insight into the company culture. At least for my cohort, that's not the reason why you didn't do it. You didn't do it because it was career limiting. There was value placed on a person who had a sense of discretion. I'm sure a lot of HR types Google their c…

And this is why it is interesting: the fact that someone is putting their name to something that could seriously damage their future career potential. It is ironic that you dismiss this as self-promotion -- of course it is -- and then point out that it could be career-limiting.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#16

Post by danso »

Pretty interesting dynamic. As someone pointed out, these people are hired by BuzzFeed for their ability to be creative thinkers/creators who show aptitude in drawing attention to themselves. These are precisely the kind of people who would do something viral like this after quitting the company. As someone else noted, this kind of public airing is usually career-limiting, but it's different with BuzzFeed in that many industry folks tend to have disdain for BF, so publicly dissing BF might have less of a negative connotation depending on the nature of the complaint.

When I saw this headline, I immediately thought of Mark Duffy's rant in Gaeker: http://gawker.com/top-10-best-ever-wtf-omg-reasons-buzzfeed-...

I was surprised to see that BF apparently has such strong constraints on creative's side projects. That policy apparently doesn't apply to the investigative journalism team, where reporters seem to have free reign to open source their work and share their data.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#17

Post by slantyyz »

danso wrote: post #15
slantyyz wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> You didn't publicize this kind of stuff because the effort of typing it and Xeroxing it for your zine wasn't worth the reward of a reader getting some sort of insight into the company culture. At least for my cohort, that's not the reason why you didn't do it. You didn't do it because it was career limiting. There was value placed on a person who had a sense of discretion. I'm sure a lot of HR types Google their c…

And this is why it is interesting: the fact that someone is putting their name to something that could seriously damage their future career potential. It is ironic that you dismiss this as self-promotion -- of course it is -- and then point out that it could be career-limiting.

It was considered career limiting for my generation. Don't know if it still is now, or if the younger generations simply don't care.

Outside of the "Why I Left" posts, a lot of younger people put a lot of content on social media that my age peer group would consider "career limiting".

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#18

Post by danso »

slantyyz wrote: post #17
danso wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And this is why it is interesting: the fact that someone is putting their name to something that could seriously damage their future career potential. It is ironic that you dismiss this as self-promotion -- of course it is -- and then point out that it could be career-limiting.

It was considered career limiting for my generation. Don't know if it still is now, or if the younger generations simply don't care. Outside of the "Why I Left" posts, a lot of younger people put a lot of content on social media that my age peer group would consider "career limiting".

I think you have to see it in a technological context, as in, what does technology enable people to do that it didn't during your generation? Because it's very likely your generation would be doing the same thing had your younger years experienced the same kind of technological enabling.

Napster and LimeWire were big in my younger years and it allowed kids to illicitly amass music collections beyond what most middle-income kids could in a previous generation. Does that mean my generation were inherently more appreciative of music and/or more unethical, had Internet file-sharing never come to pass?

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#19

Post by apercu »

danellis wrote: post #13

This is just about impossible to read on mobile. Pop up ads everywhere.

Only slightly better on desktop, with a video player (for unrelated content) cycling adds, and then moving down the right hand of the screen when you scroll away from it.

The web is broken. Sigh.

Re: Latest Viral Craze: Ex-Staffers Bashing BuzzFeed on YouTube

#20

Post by gdulli »

slantyyz wrote: post #5
minimaxir wrote: post #2

Granted, this submission is likely receiving a lot of upvotes because the headline contains the phrase "Bashing BuzzFeed", but the concerns echo submissions that tend to be important to HN, such as the rights of individual contractors/ownership of product. Although bashing your former employer is not a good long term strategy. Disclosure: I am currently working on a "Why I Left Apple" blog post/video, albeit much dif…

Serious question - can someone please explain the purpose/appeal of these "Why I Left X" blog posts/videos? I'm from a generation where you didn't publicize this kind of stuff, and I'm not quite sure I understand the intent/social value of such posts/videos outside of the "whistleblowing" types of posts. Absent of any context, these posts/videos just strike me as self promotion.

> these posts/videos just strike me as self promotion

Vanity blogging and self promotion seem to be inevitable side effects of the frictionless nature of publishing on the internet and the lack of will or resources to do thorough moderation on aggregators with public contribution.

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