The Trickster Diaries, part 3/Chapter 13
Ello’s founders — two members of a Boulder, CO design house — announced they had been fired, and were not at liberty to discuss the details. “Been a great run. Thanks for your support. Adios.”
Huh? Who has the authority to terminate the top execs, unless… well, whoever bought them out, made them sign NDAs, that’s who.
Most Elloians didn’t notice, or didn’t care, or assumed the complacent nature of farmed fish. But to some of us who’d been around since its inception, who’d signed on because of its anti-capitalist manifesto, its mission statement, its policies that included not accepting advertiser money, zero censorship, zero data selling or sharing, it mattered that hands had changed, and that total transparency had gone “poof” overnight.
Second tier execs still on the payroll weren’t talking either. Nor were staffers. But a dialogue between a dozen or so users, myself included, had sprouted. And a speculative/investigative forum grew from that.
One day, Kelly, lead editor of the writing community — same Kelly who faithfully reposted my novel chapters up to the ones about myself and Juliette — joined the discussion, informing us that since the sacking of Berger and Fohr, the founders, the only tech changes she’d noted actually made her job easier.
“Oh yeah?” I responded. “That’s great. That means you can now proceed reposting my novel excerpts from where you inexplicably left off.”
Kelly: You mean there was more? I must have missed it.
Me: You follow me. The writing community of which you are the lead editor follows me. How is it possible you missed 109 subsequent chapters?
Kelly: Well, look, this isn’t a paid gig. But I have a paid, full time gig, plus two kids and a husband. Sorry if your feelings are hurt.
Me: This has nothing to do with my feelings, everything to do with your incompetence, your possible corruption. Sorry doesn’t cut it.
Kelly: Sorry if you think it was intentional, or purposeful. It wasn’t.
Me: There’s a really easy way out of this for you, a really easy way for you to prove what you just said is true. All you have to do is make me a “Featured Writer.” That way everything I post is constantly recycled to a much wider audience. If you’re lying, do nothing.
She did nothing.
Weeks later the news surfaced. Ello had been taken over by Talenthouse, a kind of intermediary conglomerate that harvested original art for its clients — multi-national corporations like Google, Nike, etc..
Several people in our forum deleted their accounts and said goodbye. I spent the weekend taking down my novel and every last digital photo of my unsold visual art.
