Looking at the comments on that last Yahoo 360 post, made so very long ago, I do believe we've discovered the secret of perpetual motion. The darned thing just will not stop.
For anybody thinking of joining in on the Hatefest, as I've said before, let's try to understand the circumstances, circumstances that we didn't know about at the time this all began. Yahoo is on the verge of very possibly being gulped down by just about the biggest fish in this virtual pond of ours: Microsoft. Hostile takeovers, usually achieved through leveraged buyouts, have historically tended to be followed by massive job cuts. If your thought right now is "why won't they fix this or that", part of the answer might be that a lot of people may be doing their darndest to line up alternative jobs, just in case the worst happens, and can one blame them? To lose one's job in hard times and join the ranks of the long term unemployed can often be the end of one's career.
To lose one's blog is upsetting, but to lose one's career is a life altering event. At this time, without necessarily taking any sides in a corporate battle, I hope we would be willing to consider the possibility of putting our thoughts about companies and their failings and merits aside for a second, and reminding ourselves that there are real flesh and blood human beings on the other side of that screen right now, people who have to ask that uncomfortable question "what will happen to me". Right now, they have a lot more to worry about than we do, and I hope, at the very least, they would get our understanding. By all means, back up your work elsewhere, that's something that some of the current complainers should have been doing back in November, but let's keep a little perspective. If the Antichrist has stepped foot on Earth, let us seriously doubt that he is maintaining an office in Sunnyvale, and take some of the rhetoric down just a notch.
Please.
Followups: this post over on Multiply, and this post, originally found on the Yahoo 360 version of Monday Never Comes. This post was originally published on 360 on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 9:47pm.
