Note To The Membership of RecruitingBlogs.com

Last Thursday, I received a letter from Lawyers representing Jobster letting me know I had to shut down RecruitingBlogs.com immediately or Jobster would take action. They say that RecruitingBlogs.com is causing damage to their business and that I am in violation of my non compete.

I started RecruitingBlogs.com in its current form while still at Jobster because Recruiting.com was no longer a place that I could see and interact with the Recruiting Blogosphere the way I wanted to.

When I left Recruiting.com, people started writing encouraging and positive things about RecruitingBlogs.com and people started joining. It was not my intent to cause any trouble for anyone.

I believe that RecruitingBlogs.com and all of the recruiting related blogs that are written by Recruiting Professionals help the entire community, Jobster included and I believe the more content that is submitted to Recruiting.com the better off that site it.

I will not willingly shut RecruitingBlogs.com down. The site provides something that Recruiting.com and Jobster never provided. I think it is a mistake for Jobster to have their lawyers forcibly shut down RecruitingBlogs.com. I am a share holder in Jobster and the founder of Recruiting.com and I would love to see both of those entities succeed. My goal is not to mess with that.

I spoke to Jason Goldberg on Friday of last week and he was adamant about me shutting the site down. We did however agree that he would extend the deadline for 7 more days in order for me to show him how RecruitingBlogs.com is not a threat and how the two sites can help each other so that he would drop the issue. This seems like a positive step in the right direction though I have no confidence at all that I will come up with something that satisfies him.

My gut feeling is that Jobster would much rather see the site go away and I am very surprised by it but I am really thinking hard and talking to people to see if there is a way to make everyone happy. I mean, there are over 200 people responsible for making RecruitingBlogs.com what it is and if the site is forced down, all that effort will be lost and I would feel terrible for wasting everyone’s time.

I will continue as normal until there is some sort of resolution. I completely understand if there are any people out there who choose not to participate with RecruitingBlogs.com anymore because of what may be. I am really trying to think of a way for this to be a good thing for everyone.

Comment by pam claughton on June 26, 2007 at 2:22pm: I would also like to hear how Jason Goldberg believes that this site could possibly hurt Jobster. If anything, he should leverage and partner with you.

It seems to me like he might just be trying to scare you off by threatening to invoke the non-compete. Non-competes are actually difficult to enforce, and I really don't see how this site could have a negative effect on Jobster's business. That's just silly. It also reflects very poorly on him. I mean, if this site is a threat, how viable is his business really?

Comment by Chad Sowash on June 26, 2007 at 2:25pm: Dear Mr. Davis,

Any actual usage of the internet, worldwide web, or web 2.0 is in direct violation of your non-compete.. Please be advised Al Gore will be by your house to collect your key to the internet..

That'll be all..
Head Dopester

Comment by Fiona Cherbak on June 26, 2007 at 2:28pm: Jason, I think it's critically important that you have confidence in your explantion to Mr. Goldberg that a handful of recruiters (internal to the business of recruiting) maintaining ad hoc commentary on their business practices is no way a market correlary or revenue threat to Jobster. His assertions are both ludicrous and ignorant...doesn't he know the difference between a revenue-bearing online service with thousands of customers, and an independent, non-profit opinion board with 200 hundred participants? Frankly, the man sounds like a threatened bully who is lashing out from a place of misguided emotion...just be calm and arm yourself with good info that demonstrates that his threats and concerns are baseless and contrived. Get valid legal advice and keep your cool! My 2 pesos...

Comment by pam claughton on June 26, 2007 at 2:30pm: You know, I don't know the terms of your non-compete, but on the surface, it seems to be apples and oranges here. This is a social networking site, a community, and Jobster is just a job posting tool (at least that's what it is today). So, where's the conflict?

Comment by Fiona Cherbak on June 26, 2007 at 2:30pm: Jason, I think it's critically important that you have confidence in your explantion to Mr. Goldberg that a handful of recruiters (internal to the business of recruiting) maintaining ad hoc commentary on their business practices is no way a market correlary or revenue threat to Jobster. His assertions are both ludicrous and ignorant...doesn't he know the difference between a revenue-bearing online service with thousands of customers, and an independent, non-profit opinion board with 200 hundred participants? Frankly, the man sounds like a threatened bully who is lashing out from a place of misguided emotion...just be calm and arm yourself with good info that demonstrates that his threats and concerns are baseless and contrived. Get valid legal advice and keep your cool! My 2 pesos...

Comment by Bill Vick on June 26, 2007 at 2:32pm: I think it's a dumb move on their part. How about assigning this to one of the active blogging friends you have and I'm sure that as a contributor they could find no fault or claim. My guess is you have several good suspects to pick this up and maintain it.

Comment by Sucharith Menon on June 26, 2007 at 2:46pm: This is rather Insane. I really don't think that its fair... I am sure this does not harm Jobster, but such acts will surely do some serious damage... Healthy competition always helps...

As you have limited time, please do the best for our community...

Comment by Ragan Kellams on June 26, 2007 at 3:07pm: That's b/c RDC is just a portal to other blogs with zero original content at all there anymore and obviously Jobster is feeling threatened. How can you put a non-compete on the internet? Non-competes rarely hold up in court anyway, I say FIGHT THE POWER! What if one of us were to take over Recruitingblogs.com? We don't have a non-compete...sell it to me for a dollar and it'll be done!

Comment by Suzy Tonini on June 26, 2007 at 3:12pm: Great read on this topic from STLRecruiter:
http://www.stlrecruiting.com/2007/06/breaking-news-j.html

Comment by hans gieskes on June 26, 2007 at 3:30pm: Oh dear, I missed all this excitement, but had an altogether good time not reading any blogs for about a week. It's rather amusing to reflect on who owns a Ning based network, and what value there is in "owning" such a network? The Friendster owners may own Friendster, but the value of that network has gone away, as the real owners are the users and they're free to go as they please. I guess that may be why Jason G is making lawyers rich to send letters to Jason D. JD, you play your flute and folks follow, also if you were to take up Ragan's offer... Cute to see that Web 2.0 missionaries attach value to IP and other laws...