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Mindspring-Earthlink Seek Annulment of Marriage
Lately, I've been introduced to FNWire which has some pretty funny pieces on it. This week they are covering the annulment of Mindspring-Earthlink. One of my favorite lines is: "...saying
its hasty union was a "stupid mistake" done only to 'gain some national attention.'"
It isn't just a name change. This is coming from a prior employee that worked in development. It used to be an awesome culture to work in. All kinds of freedom. Slowly the freedoms went away. Things got more corporate. This was the death of the unique culture that was keeping most of us oldtimers there. No one worked at MindSpring for the pay. Most of us were embarrassed to tell friends of ours working for other companies what MindSpring paid us. It was all about being part of this great unstoppable team. Then with the massive increase in size, mid-level managers were put under incredible pressure. Understand that most of these managers had NO prior management experience. These people were support technicians that got rapidly promoted through the ranks. The Earthlink Merger was the nail in the coffin. MindSpring was a wonderful thing. It's something that I will always be proud I was a part of. But it's gone. Earthlink did not carry the same principles through that made MindSpring a success. Now those core values and beliefs function more like a convenient brainwashing tool. And people like myself are so disgusted we are leaving in droves. I know of at least 6 close friends that have left from key developement and engineering positions in the last 3 weeks. The talent is leaving, and the company left in the aftermath of this fiasco is falling apart. Cancer is eating it up from the inside out as it bleeds talent. At first I was very angry that they decided to drop the MindSpring name in favor of the Earthlink moniker. A lot of us were. We felt betrayed. Most of us were used to putting in 12 hours days with no overtime. But in retrospect, I'm glad they went with the name Earthlink because todays Earthlink 2.0 is not a very MindSpringy place. Calling it MindSpring would be sacriledge.
After careful consideration, the Church has decided NOT to grant the annulment. As far as God is considered, this marriage is still valid. We consider that the marriage was hasty and impetuous, and we think that it would be in everyone's best interest if the marriage was worked out, so that both parties can learn a little responsibility. In three years, if both parties still wish to annul, they can approach the vatican again.
thank you,
the Pope
ps, tithes will be considered duely
... and the splash line across the top of the referenced article says (approximately)
...
fast free fast free false
Nevertheless, not explicitly mentioning it in the front-page article is a poor move. The readership is a very diverse group, with non-native speakers of English and people from a wide variety of subcultures even among the native speakers.
Like sarcasm, subtle hints that something is a hoax or a joke (rather than, say, being true but very funny) will not get across to a significant fraction of them. They may believe the posting, be burned by it, and end up distrusting or with enmity toward the poster and the site.
Even those who get that it might be a hoax right away will likely waste time checking - time that might have been spent on subjects they were MUCH more interested in.
I've seen this sort of posting several times on Slashdot, and they have annoyed me every time. But this is the most egregious. I'm a long-time Netcom subscriber, so it affects me enough that when an ambiguous posting about it comes up, no matter how ridiculous it seems, I need to check it out.
Today, between checking this and commenting about it I wasted the rest of the time I could have spent doing what I wanted to to - check the IMPORTANT news. So to me, it's NOT funny.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I don't know, though. This anullment might have to go all the way to the Pope! Somebody get Kurt on the phone!
Brad Johnson
--We are the Music Makers, and we
are the Dreamers of Dreams
Brad Johnson