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I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

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Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#41

Post by r3m6 »

gambiting wrote: post #34

Not related,but I would like to mention this regardless: >>No party will suggest the rational solutions: if hard work makes us rich, let’s tax inheritance at 85%, so the children of rich men have to work hard too. But no: that would never do I never understood this argument. I am not rich by any means,but why would my children have to pay 85% on things that I want to leave them?? It's idiotic - I worked hard to earn…

Simple: We need taxes. The questions is only what kind of taxes.

The inheritance tax is a very democratic tax and benefits society as a whole. And it is good for your kids.

See also http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/269796/listen-to-adam-sm...

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#42

Post by jebus989 »

untog wrote: post #22
sixQuarks wrote: post #7

I can understand the frustration of the author, however, HuffPo is not a government or social entity. It IS part of the free market. I am a huge proponent of the free market, however, that does not mean the free market will be perfect. In the short term, there are fits and starts and cycles that everything goes through, but it is only through the free market that we will progress over the long-term. Writers are unfor…

But what is the actual benefit of the HuffPo platform? I don't think anyone sees "HuffPo Contributor" as a byline and considers the author to somehow be a legitimate writer. Nor does HuffPo give any percentage of ad revenue. The best possible scenario is that readers get used to seeing your name on the Huffington Post, so they return for your future posts. Great. You don't get paid for them either. Can you point out…

I don't think that's how the world works, you don't go from "I blogged at the Huffington Post" to President, but maybe it gets you a paid journalism gig, or a book deal, or it just fractionally helps the pagerank of your own site. Maybe it just looks slightly more interesting on a résumé than your wordpress blog. What do you expect to get out of writing about your interests in your free time?

Anecdotal example: I'm essentially a nobody but was approached by a literary agent after a HP blog post.

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#43

Post by jessaustin »

r3m6 wrote: post #41
gambiting wrote: post #34

Not related,but I would like to mention this regardless: >>No party will suggest the rational solutions: if hard work makes us rich, let’s tax inheritance at 85%, so the children of rich men have to work hard too. But no: that would never do I never understood this argument. I am not rich by any means,but why would my children have to pay 85% on things that I want to leave them?? It's idiotic - I worked hard to earn…

Simple: We need taxes. The questions is only what kind of taxes. The inheritance tax is a very democratic tax and benefits society as a whole. And it is good for your kids. See also http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/269796/listen-to-adam-sm...

It might be fair and it might be progressive, but how is it "democratic"?

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#44

Post by jessaustin »

sparkzilla wrote: post #8

I wouldn't pay him either. I got bored after the second paragraph. Before you downvote: I have hired hundreds of writers in my time, and am currently paying out hundreds of dollars/day to content creators at http://newslines.org/newslines-rewards/

For the curious:

We pay $1 for each approved post. Each post is 50-100 words, has to follow our simple style guide, and must to link to an original news article.

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#46

Post by cobrausn »

jseliger wrote: post #30
spindritf wrote: post #5

the class of people who own the world and control all the assets may finally begin to see the error of their ways Their ways? Arianna Huffington didn't cause the current epidemic of narcissism making people willing to write for free to stroke their ego as he aptly noted. She also didn't inherit HuffPo so all that talk about socialism and inheritance tax is just more signalling on the author's part. Which is why they…

the current epidemic of narcissism making people willing to write for free to stroke their ego as he aptly noted To be fair, some people write for free to learn things, share things, and spread knowledge. That's why I started a blog. And virtually all professors, who produce work for journals, don't get paid directly via their writing, but rather via their home institution, and sometimes other means (like grants). Un…

I think the real point there is that the professors still get paid.

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#47

Post by jonnathanson »

jarrett wrote: post #27
exelius wrote: post #13

I agree with the writer's points that HuffPo seems like a pretty bad deal for the writer; but honestly how different is that from HN? Ignoring the fact that HN makes no money; the product they offer is obviously desirable or people would stop visiting. Therefore, it is worth something. A large portion of the top content on HN comes from peoples' personal blogs. While these blogs often run ads, I seriously doubt those…

What are Huffington Post's intellectual property terms? That could be a big distinction between Huffington Post and HN. On HN, nobody signs over any IP, nor does the copyright holder necessarily grant a license of any sort. (If you doubt that, consider the fact that I can submit anyone's URL to HN. So submitters aren't assumed to have any authority over the IP.) With periodicals, though, there usually is a contract w…

"With periodicals, though, there usually is a contract with writers where rights are assigned to the publisher. Maybe the copyright, maybe just a license. There's usually something along those lines."

Publications usually allow the writer to retain IP ownership, but with an exclusive license granted to the publication for a certain period of time. For instance, "Joe Writer agrees to license to PublicationMagazine the exclusive worldwide rights to the work for a period of N days." Depending on the contract, many publications will also want the right to sublicense or syndicate the work during their license period, but will compensate the writer X% of syndication revenues.

I've never written for HuffPo, and I have no idea how their process works. I do, however, think it's a raw deal for any writer to contribute for free on an ongoing basis to a successful, for-profit publication. Not that there's anything illegal or immoral about that, per se. It's just that the writer is selling his time and product very short. Plenty of successful, respectable publications will pay a writer for his work. It won't be much; journalism isn't exactly renowned as a path to material riches. But at least it'll be something.

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#48

Post by tekacs »

aikah wrote: post #24
exelius wrote: post #13

I agree with the writer's points that HuffPo seems like a pretty bad deal for the writer; but honestly how different is that from HN? Ignoring the fact that HN makes no money; the product they offer is obviously desirable or people would stop visiting. Therefore, it is worth something. A large portion of the top content on HN comes from peoples' personal blogs. While these blogs often run ads, I seriously doubt those…

> Ignoring the fact that HN makes no money You cant,HuffPo is totally for profit and sold like 100millions to AOL.HuffPo is a giant ad page like most AOL "news" network.

In which case, compare Reddit instead. :P

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#49

Post by cliveowen »

jebus989 wrote: post #32

The same guy contacted me and I've submitted a couple of pieces since. He was very upfront and clear about what was being offered, i.e. submit the things you're writing anyway to us, and subject to editorial discretion they may be featured on some hugely-trafficked section, else just archived on "the blog". For doing this they offer you a small profile with various links: to your amazon books, your website, twitter,…

If you look from the right angle everything it's win-win, the point is how much one win is worth compared to the other. Your boss tells you he would totally give you money if you do some boring chores he doesn't want to do, it's win-win. But if he gives you $1000 and then proceeds to make 10 times that with the product of your work, then it's actually a WIN-win for him.

Re: I got invited to write for the Huffington Post today

#50

Post by gnaritas »

gambiting wrote: post #34

Not related,but I would like to mention this regardless: >>No party will suggest the rational solutions: if hard work makes us rich, let’s tax inheritance at 85%, so the children of rich men have to work hard too. But no: that would never do I never understood this argument. I am not rich by any means,but why would my children have to pay 85% on things that I want to leave them?? It's idiotic - I worked hard to earn…

> but why would my children have to pay 85% on things that I want to leave them?? It's idiotic.

No, it's not idiotic. It's income to them they receive without working, it should be taxed higher because those who work for their money should not be taxed higher than those who simply have it given to them.

> I worked hard to earn those things,why would the government want 85% of their value??

Yes, and that's yours, not your children's. The only person you can give large sums of money to tax free is your spouse; to everyone else, that's new income and it should be taxed, and large sums should be taxed heavily because inherited wealth is anathema to democracy.

You can't have a functioning democracy and allow capital accumulation to the elite in such large sums that their children become kings with the power to buy politicians and affect law without having the benefit of having worked for that money and really understanding what it means to not be wealthy.

> On what basis and logical reason? To make my children "less lazy" by doing so??

No, to stop them from destroying society.

> They can mind their own children - I will mind mine.

You live in a community and it's not all about you and yours; try not thinking about yourself so much and look at the bigger picture. Inherited wealth is bad for society, earned wealth is good for society. You earned your money, keep it; your children should earn their own on their own.

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