When the story of Joyce Parks (aka Troutgirl) and her being fired by Friendster for blogging blew up late last month, it became a popular posting topic by many business bloggers (including me: see post) as well as mainstream media.
Last week, Joyce told her tale to Red Herring, going into some detail on her side of the story. Friendster wouldn’t comment in the article.
Red Herring | No Friendster of mine
Whatever the real situation, the very public ending of Ms Parks’ career at Friendster has done some damage to Friendster’s reputation, becoming a PR issue as much as an HR one. How significant or long lasting this will be remains to be seen.
On balance, it’s hard to see how else Friendster could have dealt with this public exposure of a private employer-employee matter other than making no comment. If they had engaged in discussion about it, it would likely have built and developed into a major public issue with ongoing commentary.
‘No comment’ and wearing a kevlar jacket may turn out to be their wisest move.
Neville,
Friendster has a herd of well-paid laywers and public relation professionals working for them. No telling how many choices they looked at, before they decided to remain silent for now. They have the right to remain silent. I am not particuarly worried about them.
We have the right to blog, Free Speech is a constitutional right.
Gisela
servermediated.com
Gisela
That’s surely the point though, Gisela – there is no telling how many or what choices Friendster looked at because they have made no public comment at all. So it’s all guesswork or speculation.
All there is right now is Joyce Park’s side of the story.
I wish Joyce well and good luck in her career. But I do wonder what objective she was aiming to achieve by publicizing her departure from Friendster the way she did, especially the Fast Company interview.
Any thoughts?
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