The ERE Censorship Monster Strikes Again! Say it Aint So! :P

So, I'm sippin' on some gin and coffee-juice this morning, reading over the ERE daily digests . .. . only to notice that my post yesterday in the Recruiting Leadership group had been removed.

The title of the post was (or the 'Resolved' if you're a debater), "Is outsourcing outrageous or the natural way of things?", so I figured that I'd toss my 2-sizzles in there and argue the affirmative. With all the talk about the globalizzling/commoditizzling of name sourcing and the rise of the true value-adders (Jeff Weidner of HTC, Charles Hillman of Per Your Request, Avature, Qualigence, etc.), I thought there was a good convo goin'. Since I've received so many funny emails (some flaming emails :P ) about my post/article, "Who Killed Kenny, The Name Sourcer", I thought I'd arguing the affirmative would be right up my alley.

So when my post was removed, I was surprizzled. (Well, I used to be censizzled all the time over there, so I wasn't that surprizzled). I emailed the group leader and he said, "Hi Josh- I had no idea that your post was removed. You might want to check with the folks at ERE. They may be monitoring content. I am pretty laisse-faire concerning the content and don't usually remove comments."

So if it wasn't him who remizzled my post, who could it be? Was John Sumser right that "It's a big ship that doesn't turn quickly or easily"? Deletin' posts from just one of the 50k members seems like the move of a speedboat if ya ask me! :P

And is it a good move for a big ship to burn up energy making quick turns to 'run over little fish in the water' instead of spending that energy on meaningful things? Ah, food for thought, my fellow RBC-3POs'.

P.S. I did include a 2-line note at the bottom that I would have posted the thought/article of Who Killed Kenny, The "Name Sourcer", but I couldn't as I wanted to own my own material instead of signing it over to the platform. Maybe that's why my post was censizzled? :P

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Permalink Reply by David Manaster on July 17, 2008 at 12:37pm

Josh -

I am about to board a flight, so I don't know why the initial post was removed. I have restored it to the site.

My apologies.

David

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Permalink Reply by Jim Dalton on July 17, 2008 at 12:39pm

Somebody forwarded this posting to me, Josh.

I checked our database and we have no record of a discussion posting from you on July 16. I am showing the post you made yesterday (July 17), and before that I'm showing two on July 9...but nothing on July 16.

It's possible that a database glitch of some kind occurred when you were entering your post, and though you pressed submit it just didn't take. I'm really sorry if this is what happened...when you spend a lot of time crafting a reply, the last thing you want is for it to get lost in transit.

I can assure your post was not deleted or censored by an admin. Administrators have no way to actually remove a message from the database, they can just change the status. If it had been flagged by an admin, I would have seen the message in the database.

Please feel free to email me directly (jim@ere.net) or to email help@ere.net in the future if this happens to you again so I can clear up any confusion. Thanks Josh.

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Permalink Reply by RovingRecruiter on July 17, 2008 at 12:48pm

Keep climbing the walls and shaking the trees-
J’ai été touchée

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Permalink Reply by Jim Dalton on July 17, 2008 at 12:53pm

Josh, apparently David is better at my job than I am...even while boarding a flight! :)

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 17, 2008 at 1:01pm

Hi, David - hey, on the record, I have to give you serious credit. I appreciate the repost - I don't know who has the admin authority to remove posts, etc., but I seriously respect you for being willing to step up to the plate and right this.

And also, I know I come across as more the Clint Eastwood sarcastic type and we've had our comical banter with monkeys, but a certain level of that is entertainment (at least from my angle) and I do give you respect you and major kudos for consistently stepping up.

It's easy for some to think that something like this becomes personal, but it's certainly not from my end. I've just been struck by the censorship monster and it caught me again, that's all.

Again, I appreciate you taking care of this - sincerely.

P.S. Jim, that's really weird!

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Permalink Reply by Amie Ernst on July 17, 2008 at 2:26pm

Not really a comment about Josh's post, but the action from it I think is revealing.

Josh always trying to stir debate and question if ERE is undermining him, possibly, but not coming straight out and saying it... and David Manaster being a gentleman and not stirring the pot, but making sure the post is up and viewable and taking one for the team - no less than 2 hours from the original post. Speedy, Decisive and the first response back.

Also, Why must the "who killed Kenny" post still be stirred up? Is it still a slow news day? Even arguing in the affirmative of others views doesnt make the material newer. Is there writers block on anything else new and creative in the recruiting world?

The other point for me here is also points back to an article recently in http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/2008/07/fot-endorses-re.html"">FOT about ERE / RBC. The fact that David himself is on RBC and participates here shows how much the two sites go hand in hand and not in competition of one another. Each has its core value and strengths, and having the Captain of the ship respond not on his own personal blog on ERE, but here proves not only the validity of this, but the Captain's character as well.

Amie

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Permalink Reply by Chuck Radcliff on July 17, 2008 at 2:41pm

Perhaps you put too much into the "Ownership" aspect. Does it matter for some postings on a blog? Are you afraid that they will write a book and you will not get paid for your gin induced inspiration?

Seriously though... if you are more worried about ownership then actually helping others with insight, why answer the questions at all?

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 17, 2008 at 2:46pm

Amie, I'm not questioning if ERE is undermining me. In fact, how could that happen? What I'm saying is my post was removed - now, I wouldn't call that undermining per se'. I'd call that censorship. In terms of saying ERE is undermining me, that's comical - what I'm saying, not suggesting, is that my initial post was removed.

So I ask how could David be "taking one for the team"? You mean by stating that he'll repost my original post that was censored in the first place?

As far as Who Killed Kenny, I first started the very conversation on the commoditization of names sourcing over a year ago on ERE in the first place :) But the relevance and continued discussion is still important . . . and evolving.

In terms of new and creative material, this is my mantra . . . and always has been. See ya at Sourcecon!

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 17, 2008 at 2:51pm

Chuck, you raise great questions. As for me, I personally like to know that our material is our material. Now, it's not necessarily worth anything, but if we sign terms of agreement stating a network owns our material once we post it, what would happen if you ever wanted to write a book down the line? It's not to say that we may write a book, but I think we see many posts that get a lot of traffic . . . at which point we conclude that, hey, we ought to write an article on that and submit it to a magazine :) Hey, it works :)

It's one of the things I love about RBC, personally. It's all about insights and ideas . . .

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Weidner on July 17, 2008 at 6:36pm

Josh,
OK I admit it, I removed your post. I didn't like it, it wasn't funny enough. You can do much better and I expect more from you in the future. How dare you argue for the affimative, you should at least be shooting for the satirical or sarcastic at the very least. And if satire and sarcasm are not popping to mind how about a little vice and folly?

FYI thanks for the "shout out" Shazizzle.
BLAM!
YO!
OUT!

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Permalink Reply by Joshua Letourneau on July 17, 2008 at 7:04pm

Jeff, you're rizzle (not wrizzle, but rizzle). I am lacking - I have fallen way back in my ability to keep someone's attention for more than 10 seconds :P

P.S. Hey, keep up the awesome work - man, when are we going to see some of your competitive intel + names + super-value-add work. Seriously, I've heard awesome things about HCI and I commend you on this - keep it up. You're redefining the game . . . and that's big :)

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Weidner on July 18, 2008 at 12:56pm

Thanks for the compliment (I think it was a compliment at least). I need my izzle translation dictionary to decipher some of this conversation and I seem to have left it my on my other desktop.

Funny you should ask about the content. I've got a few things in the works. Stay tuned.

Jeff Weidner
HTC Research Corp