Comments on: Urban what was that?

By: SMcC

SMcC — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 06:39:53 +0000

Are you sure about those rats blogging for free? They won’t save humans from themselves for free, nooooo, there has to be a banana in it somewhere. Greedy rats!

By: Anita

Anita — Fri, 18 Oct 2013 00:17:59 +0000

I had no idea Giant Pouch Rats were sniffing out landmines in exchange for bananas! That is so cool! Ofek and Scientific American, not so much…

By: sumac

sumac — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 19:56:47 +0000

In reply to tanita. Yeah, apologizing was easy for them, because they could put it on the bad new hire. But while I am sure they instructed him to get people to blog for free, I'm also sure they didn't tell him to call people whores if they declined to blog for free. You know who would love to blog for free for the sake of exposure? GIANT POUCHED RATS, that's who. But then they'd be running off looking for snacks and NO POSTS.

By: tanita

tanita — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 19:50:12 +0000

I’m so grateful that it’s too light to set off the mines. WHEW.

And …yeah. This is a tough call, the blogging thing. People do work, and want to get paid, but people for reviewers, this is a really tough call. Every week we get a lot of enticing offers to work our butts off and give up our content for “exposure,” as if that’s what we all live for… but, so far no one has called me a whore over it.

I’m waiting.

I guess I felt weird that they said they’d made a wrong hire. Ofek was the instigator, and they couldn’t apologize for him, but… the whole “what was he thinking” seemed a little over the top. I have my doubts about him acting independently…

By: marjorie

marjorie — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 12:42:32 +0000

Ed, I love the term “oh-wowniks”!

I also find myself with loving feelings for the Gambian giant pouched rat. This is alarming to me, as a New Yorker, with a New Yorker’s usual and general feelings about rats. But it’s so cute! And it’s trying to stop land mines! It’s like a rodent Princess Diana!

By: Ed Ward

Ed Ward — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 11:30:30 +0000

Not just scientists, not just bloggers, but all of us, uh, “content providers” (you may open a window to rid yourself of the stench of that phrase) want to get paid, the oh-wowniks of the “reputation economy” and other Wired Mag writers notwithstanding. The Stop Working For Free group on Facebook has 3,872 members at this writing and continues to grow. Unapologetically.