DC Metroblogging Exodus
While I recently moved from DC to LA, I’ve still been keeping tabs on the old city via Metroblogging. This is probably of interest to almost nobody, but I was surprised to see a staff exodus from the DC site this morning… the following people have abruptly quit: Tom Bridge, Don Whiteside, Tiffany Bridge, bhrome and David. They’ve all apparently ditched to work on a new site, We Love DC.
They’re oddly silent about the fact that there’s been an obvious mass exodus taking away half of their authors. I’m curious if there’s some dispute with Sean Bonner and the larger Metroblogging sphere? The lack of pronouncement is puzzling. It’s vaguely Violet Blue-ish in its awkward silence.
So, did someone insult someone? Is someone not getting paid enough? What’s going on at MetBlogs people?
Like I said, this is likely of interest to almost nobody.
UPDATE: Two more gone – Brittany and Wayan. Is there going to be anybody left at the end of the day? The DC Metblog is starting to look like a hollow shell of a website.
That being said, Sean Bonner and Tom Bridge were both kind enough to respond indicating that there’s no mysterious plot or internal power struggle or really ANYTHING interesting going on. Still, it’s going to be sad to see what will likely be sparse posting at the formerly lively site.
July 4th, 2008 at 10:14 am
If you write for MB, you aren’t getting paid. Plus, it’s very much a ‘my way or the highway’ operation.
I’d guess that the DC people just want more control. Or a cut of the revenue. Or something different.
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July 4th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Very sorry if our silence of a few hours seemed awkward, but it’s actually not because of some massive scandal but rather that we’re on the west coast and DC is on the east coast so we were asleep when they made the announcement so weren’t able to respond at that very second, due to not being conscious. I assure you we are working diligently with our team of developers and expect to have this problem corrected asap.
As for DC, the above “little birdy” is partially correct, MB writers are volunteer and can come and go as they please. The “highway” thing is a little less accurate, but it’s true that not every decision we make is loved by everyone, but with a network of hundreds and hundreds of writers all around the world the chance of everyone agreeing on everything is pretty slim and sometimes we have to make decisions that are for the best interest of all the sites, which might not be agreed with by some individuals.
Anyway, we wish them the best of luck with their new site, and look forward to them doing awesome stuff we can link to from Metblogs in the future.
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July 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am
No, it wasn’t any insult or dispute that chased us off, it was just time for us to do something new and different.
Sean and the Metroblogging gang do excellent work, and we’re proud to have written the site under their name. We look forward to them finding new authors to run the DC site so we can link to them from We Love DC when they do awesome stuff.
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July 4th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
As a fellow ex-Metroblogging DC author (as of today), I echo Tom’s sentiments. Metroblogging was great for a long time but it wasn’t ours and we really wanted something that was our own. Sean and the others did us a huge solid by letting us be writers for the site and I am nothing but grateful. I wish I had been able to leave a goodbye post but by the time I had time to log on, my account had already been disabled.
Best to all of Metroblogging. I hope to see you around.
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July 13th, 2008 at 8:17 am
I was the Captain of Metroblogging Miami for over two years. Never made a cent, but hoped to one day. I actually enjoyed posting almost every day. It was hard to retain other bloggers because most of them had their own blogs, or were just too busy. I really kept Miami alive , and the page views were pretty good. This past February Sean decided to put a hold on Miami – by way of a rather abrupt email explaining that the plug had been pulled. Well, it was fun while it lasted, if I had the time I would start my own Miami – specific blog.
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