Most of you probably remember a post on Joystiq earlier this week hyping some "big news" set to be released on Joystiq at midnight. The news itself ended up being a little less exciting than the original post may have suggested, followed as it was almost immediately by a backlash from Joystiq readers and a very quick apology. Well, according to a post over on Destructoid, Joystiq took the whole thing quite seriously indeed. From the post by ex-Joystiq editor Robert Summa:
Quote:
As you may or may not know (depending on your Internet game journalism knowledge) I was fired today for what happened yesterday at Joystiq. Apparently, there are already rumors and heresay about what exactly happened, so let me just set the record straight on the events … from the inside of Joystiq’s crude belly.
...I feel Joystiq takes themselves WAY too seriously and that’s evident in their over-reaction to the fan over-reaction to my post. Was I wrong in teasing to later events? Maybe, but that’s all subjective isn’t it? And let me tell you, my purpose was not to create undue hype or bring traffic to the site. All I wanted to do was let the readers know they could come to Joystiq for the news and not some other site. Where’s the wrong in that?
I was as disappointed as anyone about the hype build-up leading to nothing much, but Joystiq firing the guy seems a bit much. Either way, it sounds like he'll be doing work for Destructoid now, so no need to feel too terrible. Just watch out for the hype, Robert, you dig?
UPDATE: Got a note from Vlad Cole over at Joystiq and wanted to put it up here to clear some stuff up. Namely, Summa was not actually an editor over at Joystiq, just a contributor. Also worth noting is that he had only been with Joystiq for about three months, making him the most junior contributor on staff. How much that changes your view on the issue is up to you guys. Either way, thanks to both Vlad and Robert for popping in and letting their voices be heard on this issue.
I think the hype was totally unecessary and extremely laughable, but the guy getting fired? That's ridiculous.
My brother in law is big in the blogosphere, and he knows the guy who started the whole Weblogs network, and let's just say, he's not very well liked. I agree with Robert that the site takes itself WAY too seriously and it has some serious issues that need resolving. I used to read it quite often and comment, but it started to turn into a community much like Gamefaqs, and the news posts weren't worth reading either, so I went elsewhere.
I mean, I was there at 12:01 and to say that the reaction (from what seemed like the entire internet) was furious would be an understatement. The way the comments were going (from 69 to 189 after a five-ten second refresh) you'd think Joystiq had just invaded their homes and beat the family pet to death with baseball bats and pool cues (...or something.... )
They seemed almost personally wronged, like Joystiq owed them something. Apparantly Joystiq thinks so too.
Firing Summa comes completely out of left-field for me. Mainly, because other comments on the site were filled with calls to do just that; and I didn't think Joystiq listened to their readership that much...
Summary: I think this is a stupid reaction to a completely over-blown event.
Meh, guess I just won't link to Joystiq in my news posts anymore.
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Talk about a banhammer... Uncool on Joystiq part. But, maybe there is something else we don't know about? Not saying there is, but we don't know both sides of the story (like, maybe he was late to work a hundred billion times and the hype was the last straw). Which, still sounds like BS. Glad he has landed on his feet with another job.
Firing your employees without any kind of warning is not professional for any company. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about the whole thing, but I do know that I'm going to be weary of Joystiq from now on.
Firing your employees without any kind of warning is not professional for any company. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about the whole thing, but I do know that I'm going to be weary of Joystiq from now on.
In journalism, it's actually pretty common. Journalistic organizations are extremely concerned about being considered reliable and trustworthy. If a journalist jeopardizes that in any way, his/her ass is grass. I don't agree with it though. I'm a photojournalist, and I hate to think that one mistake could land me on the street, and I don't mean huge Reuters style mistakes.
Firing your employees without any kind of warning is not professional for any company. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about the whole thing, but I do know that I'm going to be weary of Joystiq from now on.
I remember reading that post and the first thing I thought was "There's no speculation that anything major would happen. Anyone who thinks there's going to be a huge announcement are pretty stupid." Seriously, What do people think would be announced?
It was bad form for Summa to bring that kind of exaggerate hype. I think it was worse form for Joystiq to fire him. Eh, I never take Joystiq that seriously. If anybody did that at EvAv, on the other hand, someone's going to get their eye poked (the left one).
Sidenote:
mightbe, I'm probably tired, but that sig is fucking hilarious. I kept reading it over and over.
It wasn't only Summa's fault, though he did make quite the mistake. First of all, Joystiq saw what was happening, why not stop it? They had plenty of time. Secondly, this:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joystiq
Get your mind off of "breaking news" (you've got two minutes) and check out the highlights for today:
Come on, who does that? They were perfectly aware of what they were doing and they sat there and fueled the fire. Fuck 'em.
Where was the rest of Joystiq all day while the hype was building?
Was it really a one man show on this?
i think i read that one of the other head Joystiq ppl mentioned the article later that day(before midnight came) and added to the hype even more - which suggests that at least one other Joystiq editor (probably every single one of them throughout the day) read the article before it hit its 1201 publish timestamp, which if true sucks really bad for Summa -that would mean they enjoyed the hype, and either expected no backlash at all, or expected just that and let him bite the bullet while their hits went thru the roof.
honeslty i stopped caring 24 hrs after the incident. people are dying in millions of different villages around the world for things i disagree with - there's a lot more important things to get upset over and stand behind/against. what a waste of emotions - the news world moves too fast to keep bitching about it all (ppl r still cussing out Summa)
EDIT: ah, look one post above - looks like Joystiq messed up just as much as Summa did. oh well.
Something tells me they were looking for reason to get rid of him. Judging by the blog post, he reads like a prick (which I think someone already mentioned, but it bears re-iteration).
I would bet it was just the last, most visible straw in what probably was a while of "I hate that guy," "that guy's a jackass, but he hasn't done anything that merits firing," etc.
The incident probably wouldn't have gotten him fired in other publications (read: print), but, y'know, company loyalty isn't exactly in high supply when on the internet.
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