Greetings Readers. This morning, GeoffK decided to resign from OurPDX.net as an author. We’re always sad to see authors leave as we enjoy everyone’s voice and story. We wish Geoff luck with other endeavors. When Geoff decided to resign, he chose to delete the posts he had created here on OurPDX, along with the comments associated with those posts.
You may be coming here looking for some of those discussions, so we want to let you know that they are no longer available. We are discussing how best we should handle this situation (restore from backup? let Google and the Internets suffice? or let it alone.) We welcome your input.
Regards,
Dieselboi
OurPDX Network
{ 19 comments }
He wrote them, he deleted them? Whats the problem?
The way you are handling this is typical of the reason why I chose to remove my content from your site and depart. I own my own copyright and as such chose to move my original works to other outlets.
Airing these issues is yet another juvenile attempt to sully my name and create further conflict. Since I’ve removed my content from your site, let this last post serve as my one and only contribution to this site, as I hereby revoke any permission to repost my copywritten work.
Meh. I nearly did the same thing at Metblogs, with the idea of importing them to my own blog, comments and all. But then I decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
@brewcaster, I think the implied problem is that comment threads also got deleted, and the comment authors may have thought their comments were part of the permanent record of the universe. To which I again will say: Meh.
We bloggers mustn’t take this stuff too seriously.
I drink your failure at retaining quality editors. I drink them up!
I am guessing there was a problem since you did this. So, how about this?
Step 1: Air your dirty laundry in a public post. This might make him look like a jerk and show the other writers what could happen to them if you don’t like what they do. This appears to be the motive here.
Step 2: Restore the posts so that there can be many permanent reminders of whatever issue you have.
Step 1 is complete.
Is leaving Ourpdx like leaving a gang or something? Amazing. DRAMAMAMA
@brewcaster – Thanks for the feedback. 1 check for let it alone.
@Brad – Wanna join?
Shouldn’t this be a personal matter between the former editor and the PDX Network manager..?
Why make a personal situation a public one? I just don’t understand the motive here unless this was a result of Brad’s #1 point. Which, sadly, seems to be the case.
Did he sign anything saying that his posts written for Our PDX are the property of Our PDX?
If not, then I don’t even see why you would even consider this post. He wrote the content; all you’re providing is a platform of which he could publish his writing on.
There’s a high road here. I think you’ve already chosen to not travel it.
Since we have a comment policy that states that we don’t delete comments, we felt that we needed to make it clear that we didn’t delete the comments (or the posts, for that matter.) We’ve made promises to our readers that comments won’t be deleted – and now they have been.
Why did we feel like we needed to post about it publicly? People were asking about it privately, and we thought it made more sense to just go on the record about it in case anyone else was wondering.
@Christian – Christian. The reason for my post is that we have received emails from readers wondering why content disappeared and decided to post a reason why.
I drink the lies that you post in comments! If it was because people were asking, you should have said that originally. I drink them up!
So people really care if their COMMENTS are deleted from a deleted POST? It makes sense that commenters are concerned if their comments are deleted off an ongoing post because then they are being censored. But common sense says that if the entire POST is deleted, then of course comments would go, too.
And unless your rules state that all posts belong to ourPDX and not the individual author, I guess I have no trouble with an author who wants to take his posts and go home. For whatever reason — many authors are now choosing to consolidate all their web writing in one place.
But I’m not sure that I, as only a reader, appreciate the way you announced it, Dieselboi. (You asked, I’m just providing feedback.)
Had you left it at your first three sentences and then added a fourth that said: FYI, at his request, all posts he made have been deleted along with the comments and that at ourPDX, all posts belong to the authors, I’d be OK with that. I’d also appreciate it if you’d include his forwarding address (not me personally, but just as a reader in case I wanted to follow that particular author). The way you worded it — and asked for feedback, however, made me think you had issues with GeoffK’s decision. Which is fine if you do, but do I, as a reader and not as part of the authors group, really need to know that?
As far as I know, you have not announced when other writers have come or gone, so this seems weird and unnecessary.
So Option 1: Just reply by email to those who ask, take his name out of the authors list and leave it at that. If Geoff K wants to post a goodbye post, that’s his privilege.
Option 2: Have goodbye and hello posts for EVERYBODY that are cheerful, respectful and tell readers where next to find the author if they want to follow them.
I vote for Option 1. Less drama.
I prefer my drama to be confined to TNT.
A) Never thought he was a very interesting writer, informative sure, but interesting no…
B) That isn’t the point.
C) Aren’t posts made (and the subsequent comments) part of ourpdx.net?
D) The comments definitely ARE a part of ourpdx.net and it’s rude and inconsiderate of an author to suddenly and without explanation remove our comments. It would be akin to me, as a reader, having the ability to remove your posts without reason.
E) Dieselboi did the best thing possible. Explained in very few words very clearly why posts AND comments were gone. Judging by his comment Mr. K has a special problem with ourpdx.net… given his post I’m happy to see him go and will enjoy not ready his copyrighted material unless I need a sleeping aid.
F) Yeah… I know I’m being smarmy but life is complicated enough without some blogger getting huffy about “his” work and this or that site. Learn to play with others! (not that i have… but then again, i don’t have a tantrum if I can’t)
Talea hit the nail on the head. Good comment and great description of possible action steps to take whenever an author decides to stop writing for Our PDX…
its no wonder theres no portlandist or something, when the “major” city blogs here already have major drama issues
there is no reason why personal issues should have been aired like this. if i, as a web designer, decide to put comments on the pages i work with to the effect of “such and such project manager couldn’t manage to get himself out of a paper bag, much less manage this project” i would most probably, and deservedly, be fired. i’m sure this drama happens everywhere, but site visitors don’t need to see it.
@talea – Talea, you are correct, we have not announced departures in the past. The only reason we did here was due to the content deleted. As Betsy and I have both stated, we were being engaged in email regarding posts and comments no longer available. Since we have a comment policy in force regarding no deletion, we felt we needed to inform readers as to why posts and comments are no longer there.
Thanks for the feedback.
@porter – To clarify something, GeoffK was not fired. He chose to resign.
Well Dieselboi,
You got someone to talk shit om GeoffK’s writing and support this drama you have created here. Mission Accomplished.
I’m sorry the other comments are totally against what you are doing and not surprised your other writers aren’t commenting on this attempted smearing on the way out of their own.
I just found this blog the other week, so I don’t know its history. But I seriously doubt you had a lot of readers writing you about his former posts. How many dieselboi and what were the topics about? Like that other person said, “I drink your lies”.
Actually, we asked our other authors to refrain from commenting on this post so we weren’t accused of piling on, perpetuating a ‘hive-mind’ vibe, and/or opening ourselves for labels like ‘cliquish’ or ‘elitist’ (all of which we’ve heard in the past when our authors respond vigorously in various comment threads.)
Our authors *have* provided copious feedback to us – before this post went up (we asked our authors how best to handle the situation and listened to what they told us before we ever said anything publicly), in response to the comments some of you have left, and in person last night during the OurPDX meetup. I have also had a chance to talk to the many people who sent me email, IM, or direct messages via Twitter – and yes, that inbound dialogue started early yesterday morning, and expressed concern about deleted comments.
Dieselboi doesn’t deserve the interpretations that are solely being attributed to him – in fact, the rest of the authors unanimously concurred that we needed to be clear about what had happened in a factual way. They knew this post was going up before it was published.
We are doing our best to keep our public postings factual and opinion-free out of respect for GeoffK’s former contributions. If you feel we’ve erred here, please accept our apologies and remember that we are only human.
Please do not assume that we are encouraging a pile-on or any other kind of ’shit talking’ (to borrow Brad’s vernacular) – in fact, we are trying to *avoid* a pile-on.
And to prevent more of the same, I’m now going to close this comment thread off. If anyone wants to chat with me about this privately, do feel free to reach out to me: betsy at ourpdx dot net or at betsywhim on Twitter.
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