John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine” • Hacker News Board

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#41

Post by lukev » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:06 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #36

lukev wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, not really how that works.

Please explain. Having a strong political opinion as an editor and firing your most popular author who has the contrary opinion sounds exactly like what that is. That's just how it appears anyway.

De-platforming is an explicit choice to disassociate from a particular, repugnant point of view. It's a highly visible, inherently political (and therefore public) move.

Firing your star columnist by email citing budget concerns doesn't fit the MO.

De-platforming is also not usually deployed in service of mere political disagreement (staunch conservatives speak at institutions that perform no-platforms all the time). It's reserved for positions that are perceived to be outside the bounds of what should be accepted by society such as white supremacy, blatant homophobia, etc.

As far as I'm aware, Dvorak didn't publicly hold any such positions. So even if (and that's a HUGE what-if given the facts) he were let go for ideological concerns, it wouldn't count as a no-platforming move.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#42

Post by busterarm » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:07 AM UTC

Operyl wrote: post #37

busterarm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain. Having a strong political opinion as an editor and firing your most popular author who has the contrary opinion sounds exactly like what that is. That's just how it appears anyway.

The email states they’re winding down more than just him. Not everything is a conspiracy, PC Mag could just be cost cutting or downsizing due to a reduced readership.

The timing looks really bad. I'm reserving judgement to see confirmation from their other columnists (whom I listed in a separate reply). His tweet also claims it to be a false pretense -- why take one person's word over the other?

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#43

Post by forgotmypw » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:09 AM UTC

My guess is they couldn't afford him anymore. As a 36-year-old star veteran, his compensation was probably a sizable chunk of production costs. Meanwhile, the magazine business is still hurting.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#44

Post by busterarm » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:13 AM UTC

lukev wrote: post #41

busterarm wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain. Having a strong political opinion as an editor and firing your most popular author who has the contrary opinion sounds exactly like what that is. That's just how it appears anyway.

De-platforming is an explicit choice to disassociate from a particular, repugnant point of view. It's a highly visible, inherently political (and therefore public) move. Firing your star columnist by email citing budget concerns doesn't fit the MO. De-platforming is also not usually deployed in service of mere political disagreement (staunch conservatives speak at institutions that perform no-platforms all the time).…

I think if you were to casually browse JCD's twitter feed over the past few weeks, you might see a lot of posts and retweets that many people might find objectionable.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#45

Post by rdtsc » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:15 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #28

It's worth noting that JCD had posted some tweets the day before that were critical of postmeritocracy.org and some comment by Al Gore about Trump. Looks like a de-platforming may have happened.

I was gonna say that's ridiculous, but took a second look and maybe not

> @MrNoysSky Replying to @THErealDVORAK @dancosta "Probably cuz you're a Trump supporter. Good for them"

Right, he did re-tweet Greenwald apparently and something about Keith Ellison's victim's abuse medical records. Well fire him on the spot and maybe even burn him at the stake, I guess. /s

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#46

Post by cisco-throwaway » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:19 AM UTC

John runs a white supremacist podcast - NoAgenda - with noted Islamaphobe and Sandy Hook crisis actor believer, Adam Curry. John was kicked off of Leo Laportes network after years of misogynistic antics to women at the TWiT studios and stealing from the host. I’m surprised that Marco still promotes that crap on Overcast.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#47

Post by busterarm » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:19 AM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #45

busterarm wrote: post #28

It's worth noting that JCD had posted some tweets the day before that were critical of postmeritocracy.org and some comment by Al Gore about Trump. Looks like a de-platforming may have happened.

I was gonna say that's ridiculous, but took a second look and maybe not > @MrNoysSky Replying to @THErealDVORAK @dancosta "Probably cuz you're a Trump supporter. Good for them" Right, he did re-tweet Greenwald apparently and something about Keith Ellison's victim's abuse medical records. Well fire him on the spot and maybe even burn him at the stake, I guess. /s

Right. I looked at his tweets before I spoke. He may not be a Trump supporter but he clearly is unhappy with the effort made to remove him.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#48

Post by warriormonk5 » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:20 AM UTC

jack9 wrote: post #17

If you're an employee (no equity), be assured your employers don't care about you when the money starts to dry up. If you're overpriced for the revenue you bring in, you're gone. This is stuff everyone learned in the 90s bubble. Now the paper mags are falling over and he's acting surprised. SMH

Don't think that some paper equity gives your employer more loyalty to you

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#49

Post by interfixus » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:20 AM UTC

Steko wrote: post #35

bredren wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read this guy back in the 90s. I think he put down mp3s. I think I emailed him and told him he was on the wrong side of that.

Dvorak's greatest hits: "nobody wants a mouse", "Steve Jobs going the way of pet rocks", "cable modems are a dead end", "the mac is dead", "ipod is a niche product", "wikipedia is a dead end", "podcasting is a dead end", "linux is a dead end", "time to short apple", "the iphone's a flop", "ipad's a flop", "apple watch's a flop", etc.

One of my fondest personal memories is "printers and photocopiers use fundamentally different print technologies and will therefore never be integrated in one machine".

Does not in any way whatsoever justify the asshat fashion of the firing.

Re: John Dvorak: “Yesterday I was fired from PC Magazine”

#50

Post by swingline-747 » Sat, Sep 22, 2018, 5:22 AM UTC

nasalgoat wrote: post #9

Wait, PC Magazine is still a thing?

Homebrew/home-assembly computing nostalgic sigh

All those trips up and down the Valley, like was a spread out Guangzhou JDR Microdevices, NCA Peripherals, WierdStuff, Central Computers, MicroCenter, Halted, Egghead, mom&pop shareware and even the "evil" Fry's and CompUSA.

IIRC I spend somewhere on the order of $5k on basically a homebuilt workstation... Adaptec U2W, IBM Ultrastar whopping 9 GB drive, Plextor CD burner, PC Power & Coolng PSU, GUS and a Courier modem. IIRC i got tired of hearing the 7000 RPM fan droning like a 1U server and made a fanless water-cooling setup with an RV heater core and CPU cooling block. Oh and UPSes since 1986.. south San Jose had frequent power outages.

IIRc we had back issues of PC Magazines for at least the previous year. I had C++ PJ and DDJ.