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Not a fan of this guy. He’s been trying to become YouTube famous for the past couple years now and it’s gross to see him use YouTube to communicate this news. I
by willio58 6y ago
Not a fan of this guy. He’s been trying to become YouTube famous for the past couple years now and it’s gross to see him use YouTube to communicate this news. I’m just happy I don’t work for him.
- ziml77 6y agoI don't know anything about him, but I felt the same way when seeing this. It's such a weird way to get this message out. And the way he's talking sounds very unnatural, like an ad.
- failwhaleshark 6y agoIt's stilted startup SF hipsterspeak: mission-statement newspeak synergy 2.0. Different BS, same results - fake af. I think his nonverbals gave him away. If he were a more-convincing, greedy sociopath, I might believe more of it.
- TechBro8615 6y agoNever heard of him, but what a ridiculous video. Who fires 36 people and then uses it for self promotion on YouTube? Lots of words come to mind and none of them are nice.
- failwhaleshark 6y agoI'll broach the annoying expectations of toxic positivity for ya: M N a a l r i c g i n s a s n i t s m
- slimsag 6y agoLook, I'll be the first one to say there is a lot of corporate double-speak in this and the guy has a habit of rambling. I don't like the content of the video. But I am surprised to see so many people saying a YouTube video is a bad way to communicate this. Would people really prefer a small news article about how they are "Restructuring for the future" or a small Twitter thread started by an ex-employee? The fact that this is a video makes it incredibly easy for us to judge his statements as humans, and easily decipher that _he is using corporate double-speak_ and judge him on that. I don't like the video. I don't like the situation. I don't like the lack of concrete transparency about why. But I do like the fact that it is communicated by a person in a video, easy for all to judge what is being said.
- bluefirebrand 6y agoThe problem is that he's essentially using this news as self promotion to build his channel. He's probably getting ad revenue for that, and if he's not, youtube is. That's pretty messed up.
- slimsag 6y agoThat's fair. I'm willing to bet that this video does more financial harm to them than anything else, especially at just 26k views - but your argument is fair.
- xhkkffbf 6y agoWell, what would you prefer? An anonymous blurred face like the news programs create for anonymous whistleblowers? The point is that this is more personal than some typed up press release. I suppose he could self-host it on his own site, but the reality is that many people only see YouTube videos that are recommended for them. So he's trying to reach a longer audience. (That being said, I think the reasoning is kind of bogus. Why not retrain the team? I think they just want them off the balance sheet so they can spend less on development. But that's my guess. For all of his talk about being transparent, he didn't include many numbers.)
- bluefirebrand 6y agoHonestly, why does the public need an announcement like this at all? The news of a bunch of people getting fired does not need any audience, never mind a large one.
- slimsag 6y agoI am so baffled by this viewpoint, I really don't understand it. Instead of living in a world where we get to openly criticize companies like Patreon for their choices and leadership failures, and instead of ex-Patreon employees being able to more easily go and get new jobs.. ..you'd rather live in a world where en-masse layoffs are not even viewed as a noteworthy event, aren't public, and instead just viewed as a "sucks to be you" private situation?
- failwhaleshark 6y agoExactly. It's a "sorry not sorry" guilt-alleviation "confessional" for "victim-," social approval-, and popularity-points. Issues: 1. They took a bunch of VC cash. 2. Scaled big-and-fast, rather than carefully. 3. Decided to throw people who built their business under the bus to squeeze more short-term profits. This is fucking with people's lives in the name of money, and not even close to resembling a social venture with the values of their supposed "creator" customers. 4. Intent on coasting on their laurels to grab and stack more cash. That dude can GTFO with that BS.