Make Your Feelings Known

If you're as outraged as I am about Handheld Media Group firing Wes Salmon, drop them a line and let them know how you feel. While they claim it's just a financial decision, nothing more, I'm not sure I buy it. Wes was given the choice of being fired or doing what had been his full-time job without pay for six months to regain ownership of the site. Essentially, it looks like they gave Wes an offer they knew he'd have to refuse. This way they can say they tried to keep him while acquiring one of the web's leading community sites without having to pay much for it. This may backfire disastrously for them as most of the regulars in that community have quit the site in a touching show of solidarity, many of them taking refuge in the forums of other sites like Pocket PC Thoughts.

In the words of Dennis Miller, though, "Of course that's just my opinion. I could be wrong."

Given that I'm only 60 miles north of their offices in Colorado Springs, I'm tempted to drive down there and give Rick, Denny and Dave a piece of my mind in person. For now I'll avoid any potential time in the hoosegow and stick with the rather formally worded letter below.

I can't express the level of my disappointment in learning that Handheld Media Group ousted Wes Salmon from the web site he created. Once a great community for PDA enthusiasts, PDA Buzz will be a shadow of its former self without Wes and the diligent moderators who quit in a show of loyalty after Wes was let go.

I realize your official stance on the matter is that due to the depressed tech economy, PDA Buzz can't pull in enough ad revenue to support a full-time employee to run the site. I respectfully suggest that if that were indeed the case, HHMG should have forseen than back in February and either not purchased the site, or at least not made the pretense of keeping Wes on and that PDA Buzz would be business as usual.

I will remove the link to PDA Buzz from my website, and I will encourage my readers to voice their opinions to you on this matter as well. While I used to make it a habit to visit "da Buzz" twice a day or more, I see no reason to return in the future.

Sincerely,

Jeff Kirvin
Editor, Writing On Your Palm