Comments on: Chris Anderson Is Worse Than Wal-Mart http://technoccult.net/archives/2009/06/30/chris-anderson-is-worse-than-wal-mart/ A General Interest Blog for Weirdos Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:52:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Joseph http://technoccult.net/archives/2009/06/30/chris-anderson-is-worse-than-wal-mart/comment-page-1/#comment-309185 Joseph Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:28:44 +0000 http://renegadefuturist.com/?p=7382#comment-309185 As the first commenter said, this is ALREADY how things work. Nobody's paying you to write this, right? But if I do a Google search for your blog, Google shows me ads and earns money. But it was your writing - not even hosted on Google's service - that made them that money. By writing this you are ALREADY an "eager volunteer-slave". As the first commenter said, this is ALREADY how things work. Nobody’s paying you to write this, right? But if I do a Google search for your blog, Google shows me ads and earns money. But it was your writing – not even hosted on Google’s service – that made them that money.

By writing this you are ALREADY an “eager volunteer-slave”.

]]> By: Paul Riddell http://technoccult.net/archives/2009/06/30/chris-anderson-is-worse-than-wal-mart/comment-page-1/#comment-308890 Paul Riddell Thu, 02 Jul 2009 23:48:04 +0000 http://renegadefuturist.com/?p=7382#comment-308890 What's funny is that his plan isn't even remotely new. Zines, magazines, and weekly newspapers have been working on that system for decades. The mantra is "we can't afford to pay you just yet, but we'll start paying/bring you on full-time/give you a spot on the masthead as soon as we make a profit." Then, the editor/publisher works as hard as possible to make sure that the conditions necessary to make a profit never happen, and the long line of free labor that gets tired of nonpayment and leaves is immediately replaced by new grunts who figure that they're not going to end up the same way. Hell, some of 'em deliberately volunteer their services <i>because</i> they were warned away, because they're delusional enough to figure that they might buck the odds. Me, bitter? Hell, no. I just spent years as a pro writer dealing with the same broken promises, and I finally came to my senses and quit after the last dolt asked me for an article and blew up when I asked about pay rates. (I believe the phrase was "since I'm not a well-heeled trust fund baby, I won't be able to pay until we make a profit." I very seriously doubt this journalistic genius ever put out a first issue, much less a second or a third.) My favorite tale, though, involved Seth Friedman, the publisher of <i>Factsheet Five</i>, who shut down his magazine without notice to staff or contributors and announced that he was putting it up on the market for $70k, because Some Guy told him it was worth twice as much. Not only did he screw over contributors who'd been promised pay for services rendered (myself included), but then we all found out why he needed that $70k. About a year before, he'd put out <i>The Factsheet Five Zine Reader</i>, full of other free content he'd appropriated from zine writers who figured that they might get some exposure, and he needed that money to pay back his advance. Faced with all that, he promptly disappeared, but that didn't keep him from accepting subscription money and spending it on himself in the idea that a future buyer (who never materialized) would cover those subscriptions. Yeah, I'm honestly not surprised that Anderson would think that this was a great system. Hearing the stories of <i>Wired</i> contributors other than Cory Doctorow and other pet asskissers, it seems to work out perfectly well for him in his day job, so why wouldn't it work elsewhere? What’s funny is that his plan isn’t even remotely new. Zines, magazines, and weekly newspapers have been working on that system for decades. The mantra is “we can’t afford to pay you just yet, but we’ll start paying/bring you on full-time/give you a spot on the masthead as soon as we make a profit.” Then, the editor/publisher works as hard as possible to make sure that the conditions necessary to make a profit never happen, and the long line of free labor that gets tired of nonpayment and leaves is immediately replaced by new grunts who figure that they’re not going to end up the same way. Hell, some of ‘em deliberately volunteer their services because they were warned away, because they’re delusional enough to figure that they might buck the odds.

Me, bitter? Hell, no. I just spent years as a pro writer dealing with the same broken promises, and I finally came to my senses and quit after the last dolt asked me for an article and blew up when I asked about pay rates. (I believe the phrase was “since I’m not a well-heeled trust fund baby, I won’t be able to pay until we make a profit.” I very seriously doubt this journalistic genius ever put out a first issue, much less a second or a third.)

My favorite tale, though, involved Seth Friedman, the publisher of Factsheet Five, who shut down his magazine without notice to staff or contributors and announced that he was putting it up on the market for $70k, because Some Guy told him it was worth twice as much. Not only did he screw over contributors who’d been promised pay for services rendered (myself included), but then we all found out why he needed that $70k. About a year before, he’d put out The Factsheet Five Zine Reader, full of other free content he’d appropriated from zine writers who figured that they might get some exposure, and he needed that money to pay back his advance. Faced with all that, he promptly disappeared, but that didn’t keep him from accepting subscription money and spending it on himself in the idea that a future buyer (who never materialized) would cover those subscriptions.

Yeah, I’m honestly not surprised that Anderson would think that this was a great system. Hearing the stories of Wired contributors other than Cory Doctorow and other pet asskissers, it seems to work out perfectly well for him in his day job, so why wouldn’t it work elsewhere?

]]> By: snorky http://technoccult.net/archives/2009/06/30/chris-anderson-is-worse-than-wal-mart/comment-page-1/#comment-308714 snorky Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:43:47 +0000 http://renegadefuturist.com/?p=7382#comment-308714 Wait a minute, I thought we already lived in that society. Wait a minute, I thought we already lived in that society.

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