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New Community Site Offers Views From the Trenches
roby2358 writes " TrenchMice is a new community-moderated website that provides 'inside opinions and insights' about businesses and employers. But instead of the reporting bias toward management and venture capitalists that is so common in the mainstream media, on TrenchMice the opinions and information come from posts by the people in the trenches. Users — who can post anonymously if they choose — can provide topics, scoops, or comments, and there is a thorough rating system. To keep the site from turning into a 'whack-a-company' fest, users build up 'Cred' (something like Karma) as they provide insights on companies and employers. The site is based in Seattle and most of the early content is about Seattle companies, but they have ambitions to grow nationwide, with a goal is to see if a site based completely on open-source technology, and rigorously community moderated, can run on a pretty much automatic basis. Could be an interesting model for future social sites if it takes off. Full disclosure: I know these guys and have posted on the site, but I don't work for them."
Looks like this could become a good thing.... learning about the reality versus corporate-spin FUD
There's no place like localhost
The advertising model of the future.
Employers had a site like that about employees?
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Why does someone always feel the need to let us know how it's going "In the trenches" ?
We know how it's going in there, it sucks, why do you think we sent you ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
It's called the major media. When you watch the politics headlines on CNN, or read the business section in your local newspaper, or consult your favorite website for the latest stock tips you are being given a look at how the employers want you to see their companies. From those points of view the trench mice are rarely mentioned as they're ultimately not important to the profit margin, stock price, or corporate merger goals. If the trench mice are mentioned in the major media you can be sure it is only to fulfill the poster child requirements. Corporations, like casinos, need a few superstar good stories and a few superstar bad stories just to keep the PR windmills turning.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
What's the point of this site? I'm not flaming, I'm just not totally clear on this. Is this supposed to be a forum where the low guy on the totem pole offers his "insight" into where the company should be heading? Or is it a "vent about your lame boss" site?
The reason I'm asking is: Who will read it? Who is the intended audience?
I just went to the site and saw a bunch of names of people I've never heard of, and with almost 100% probability will never hear of.
I've seen sites with "critical mass" hurdles. But for this site to *begin* to have meaningful data to a majority of visitors, it would need millions of viewers.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Check out the site. It's just a different way for people to pass news. CxOs, directors, and VPs meet each other and pass insider trading tips on golf courses. Employees often meet at the local Subway, Starbucks, or by the water cooler. The site isn't a trash-your-company site and it's not a major media outlet. It's an internet water cooler.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
What's so special about trenchmice? There are plenty of sites out there where employees can dish on their employers, and they've been around for a long time -- a decade at least, I think.
In the same vein, Recruiter-Rater is a site for rating recruiters, and for jobseekers (and HR professionals) to rate these agencies. Help fight jobboard spam!
Zhrodague.net - I do projects and stuff too.
How can I trust the user submitted comments if site allow them to post anonymously? How do they verify the truthfulness of the posts. Competitor can just pose as ex-employee and trash the target company.
Can you mod an entire website with "-1, Troll" ?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
With fuckedcompany.com, everything is anonymous and there's no peer review of what's submitted. And you don't get to choose what's on the front page. Joe Smith submits a story about Foobar Co., and you don't know who Joe is, what kind of credibility he has, or anything. That's a big difference.
way to be fired
What we really need is a moderatorless system without passwords! Otherwise this system will fail eventually... what's that about reading your BIOS through voip?
Anyone who uses "trenches" like this needs to be buried in one. I am sure they are keeping it "real" too, but /damn/ its annoying. And yes, even kuro5shin or whatever oh so clever and hip spelling they chose, is not exempt.
Mod this up, because I write from the trenches. Trenches! They make my opinion relevant!
There are no bad businesses. Only bad labor unions.
Don't argue with me unless you want to wind up getting waterboarded in Guantanamo!
Oh wait, Rumsfeld ain't got my back no mo'. WTF OMFG I take that all back!!!
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
I find it hard to believe that somebody will post insider info. Why doesn't she just gain advantage from knowing it, and steering her boat more wisely inside the company?
A few years ago I knew of a woman who started writing about where she worked. She avoided referring to the company or anyone there directly. However, she was so specific with details that fairly quickly her coworkers discovered this blog. It probably wouldn't be a big deal if she weren't insulting her coworkers constantly and inadvertently disclosing some sensitive information. Needless to say, soon enough she was out of a job.
That brings me to one of the problems with this kind of site. I don't think many people feel comfortable writing about their employer, especially if it's something negative. More importantly, however, do most people even have the time or inclination to bother with this? If they're already exhausted from being down in the trenches they're going to want to dwell on work in their free time.
If there is a bias towards management in the media it's because those guys are the people making the decisions. They're the ones who matter, they're the ones with the money and guiding the company. Obviously every employee is important and there are countless stories of incompetent managers. But that's irrelevant. The person down in the trenches is simply taking orders. For obvious reasons people want to know what companies are doing. It's easy to be informed because the information is readily available in most cases.
The only way I see for such a site to be effective is for it to have a unique hook. Fucked Company is one example that comes to mind. The information regarding layoffs and company closings is easy to gather. And any affected employee could easily share information. But most importantly, there was an emotional draw to the site. It made people want to visit and more importantly want to contribute.
At best this TrenchMice site will turn into a rant about companies. Usually the only people driven to comment are those who are unhappy with their situation. The ones who are happy see little need to contribute and likely are preoccupied with other things anyway. And if it ends up being mostly negative I don't think management is going to be too happy about some site disparaging their company.
It's an interesting idea, but I don't see it as too viable in it's present form.
Remember the Tootsie Pop Owl ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I guess you find it hard to believe that anyone would post something on Digg, or on Slashdot, or on Fuckedcompany, then?
But people do. People like to report on what's going on in their company, good or bad. Usually more often on bad stuff than good stuff.
Actually, I think you'll find this site had that little thing going first... ;)
By summer it was all gone...now shesmovedon. --
Anyone else realize Scott Adams now has a new source of inspiration?
You can Google anyone and find out more than they put on their resume, stuff that can be taken out of context if seen that way, stuff that they do outside of work that has nothing to do with work but may attach stigma to them depending on biases of whoever's doing the search, etc. A difference here though would be that there aren't others to collaborate (and therefore validate or invalidate information based on peer review) on such information such as on the web site in question, but hey, it doesn't seem to make a difference to employers anyway. At least this way the employees can see what truthful information exists that they may not otherwise know about their employer.
Twinstiq, game news
As far as I can tell, the site charges for the ability to post a "topic". A "topic" is how you start a new thread on a new company. So, it's requiring people pay for the privilege of starting a thread about a company. Sounds like a thin veneer on an advertising board to me.
... for javascipt and css. Port 81 is not considered a 'safe_port' on default squid configurations. Though visitors behind a proxy not allowing http requests through port 81 still see the content, the rendering of the pages is very confusing. The postings on that site appear near the bottom of the page.
- trenchmice could improve its game by letting companies submit their save files.
- Currently things aren't this way.
- Real world recreation counterpart in virtual competition: Some Utah cafes where people go to get a bight to eat and socialize. One in Seattle has an xbox and there is a highly probable possibility that other places do as well. There's a price shock: visitors get the opportunity to game the valuing system and difficultly make appraisals on chow. Spending a billion dollars on a bagel is a lowly probable possibility.
'Pay what you want cafes' would benefit at no cost to the consumer if the owners set prices for products. It'd advertise to people the system's needs. [Getting rid of the name would be a no brainer] Consumers could still steal the stuff and/or pay what they want. This would give a chance at least for consumers to get what they want while paying what they want and save time. This probably would result in some people getting sent to jail: but it'd set a new precedent for further future 'steal what you want' shops. The other chance is that owners might charge too much. Bottom line is that having prices is ideal and there is a chance that you'll save some time.Propounding an idea: it'd be a great for Trenchmice to encourage dumpster diving to find confidential company records to find out if companies have ball and crane tactics for getting and managing an inventory of ahrkmm cough*scrap*cough workers. Besides that, Trenchmice could consult microsoft for advise on how to display statements on corporate condition and values they have for employees. [Even though Microsoft's personal agenda sucks, I respect their decent side projects--such as live search, xbox, and working with bungie--and would consider considering (I'm in no position to make such decisions myself) microsoft for the job]
No, i had to read the wikipedia article about it.
"Seattle companies, but they have ambitions to grow nationwide, with a goal is to see if a site based completely on open-source technology, and rigorously community moderated, can run on a pretty much automatic basis." Say what?
Subpoenas will be flying like confeti. A lawyer's dream come true.
What?
I took a look around the site and found the whole thing...underwhelming.
Am I missing something here? (not trolling; honest question)
Nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained -Tom Baker, Doctor Who
Venture capitalists? Did this story fall through a 1999 space-time rift?
(Pud, is that you?)
OK, which one(s) are you sleeping with?
Vault.com tried this with their message boards in the late 90's. It failed spectacularly because disgruntled employees would post personal attacks against management on the site (accusations of illegal behavior, affairs, etc.), which would cause the companies to threaten law suits, etc. In extreme situations, managers who had been attacked on the site started posting offensive / racist postings, which led to even more lawsuits, harmed the site's reputation etc. In the end, they had to close off the message boards and make them subscription only.
Hmm...some of that sounds familiar actually!
Fuckedcompany.com. Next...
Management = "They're the ones who matter." ?? "The person down in the trenches is simply taking orders." ?
"It's easy to be informed"? I guess that's why, for example, yesterday everything was coming up roses at Eddie Bauer, and today we find that the CEO has abruptly left and nobody on their senior exec team is answering the phone. As a shareholder it would be nice to have a view into what's going on there.
one could read the rest and could notice the whole of unity (look closely left here).
Coward asked about caffeine. I swear why does the rest of my family digest cow and muscle of jello?!??
What would prevent this site from being used by the companies for astro-turfing?