Snark Bytes
USAVoice.org: Add another thud
8-15-2006

 
Now you just knew all the fake hype wasn't going to end with the last e-mail from USAVoice, now didn't you? (See previous two posts here and here for the background on this scam.) Sure enough, I got another e-mail, this one inviting me to sign up for a one-hour conference call, which sounded like maybe it would finally be an interview of sorts with real people participating (besides me, that is; but as it turns out, I wasn't by any means the only one 'invited' — see the comment at the end of the first post).

No such luck: when I went to the sign-up page, it was headlined Training Call. Now there's a dead giveaway if ever I saw one. It's the kind of thing one expects when one is being considered for a job at a call center, not for an editing or reporting position. Not only have they not interviewed me yet, let alone made a job offer, but they reveal that 1) the call will actually be 90 minutes long, 2) that participating in the call doesn't yet constitute a job offer, 3) that there will be several other 'candidates' on the line with us but 4) that we won't be able to talk or be heard while the 'lecture' is going on, 5) that I have to be able to talk on the phone during the conference call while being online (I guess those of us 'candidates' who are forced to use dial-up Internet were out of luck, eh?), and 5) that I should take careful notes. Oh, and this was going to be a long-distance call, with no mention of it being toll free.

Snark Bytes
USAVoice.org: Just another dud on the media landscape
8-3-2006

 
Well, it’s official: USAVoice is just another irritating, hype-laden non-starter out there in the ether, a marketing tool masquerading as new journalism. Having billed itself as the Internet’s answer to CNN (as if that wasn’t a dead giveaway right there), it missed its debut deadline — twice in one month — and hasn’t uttered a peep. As of Wednesday, August 2nd, its home page was still promising a start date of July 31st, and nothing new had been added to the site that this writer could find. All of which tempts one to say: Get lost, you bloody posers — and quit jerking around my colleagues!

Even if they eventually made an appearance and start doing business as a news outlet, at this point they’ve already lost what little credibility any such start-up might have. And that’s the kiss of death.

Meanwhile, they got an awful lot of e-mail addresses and other information out of freelance or unemployed journalists who applied looking for real jobs in online journalism. Poor saps. I was almost one of them, and I understand the temptation.