"Michael" the CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacchae1981
"Charlie" the CTO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albrown
"Jessica" the CMO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tess-stevens-28bb9138
Company: http://www.wrkriot.com/ + https://www.linkedin.com/company/7587861
An internet forum in rage mode provides nothing close to due process, so when people start to target individuals here, I start to feel queasy if not outright sick. The bloodthirsty side of the hivemind is quite capable of jumping to wrong conclusions, indeed routinely does so. HN needs safeguards against this. One safeguard is users reminding one another that witch hunts are a thing, and a bad one—I wish I'd seen more such comments in the current thread, but at least there were some. Another safeguard is moderators drawing lines when the discussion gets nasty.
Some of you will object that exploitation and fraud are also bad things. Indeed they are. All of these are bad things, and an internet thread based on a blog post doesn't have nearly enough information to sort through who did how much of which of them. Therefore we should all curb our impulses.
I've flagged several other comments that target individuals and have closed this thread to new accounts, which have run suspiciously rampant in this discussion. If anyone wants to read the full thread including all the flagged/dead comments, you can do so by browsing HN with 'showdead' set to 'yes' in your user profile.
I've detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12380121 and marked it off-topic.
You don't know the real story, especially just how 'evil' Jessica is.
You have no evidence of that.
The story did not imply it either.
This is witch hunting.
At best a link to their website would have been enough if this really was about "doing future victims a favor"
Not linking employees that were really just a comical side to the story.
> You have no evidence of that.
> The story did not imply it either.
I agree with you that there should be NO witch hunting. Just to clarify Jessica's part in the fraud, she was one of the people vocal about outing the founders after not being paid for over a month. For some reason, she suddenly changes her mind. She starts erasing any evidence of OP doing work and The CEO fires her with cause claiming that he has evidence she's not been doing work. Jess is promoted with a raise and changes her title to CMO.
Now, maybe this is just a bitch move, but if Jess is willingly participating in the CEO's scheme to fire OP with cause, I feel like this is crossing the line into fraud. Again, witchhunting is wrong, but just clarifying Jess's part in the fraud (if it counts as fraud)
The CEO and CTO however...... The allegations there are pretty severe.
So here's this kid faced with the choice of basically being homeless or becoming WrkRiot's version of the Minister of Information.
And then the deluge of hate and venom spewed at her direction not just her role at her company, but personally as well. She not only protected her personal Twitter but has now changed it trying to hide.
Yeah, I feel sorry for her. She's a kid who got in over her head and now she's reaping the consequences of those choices.