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."

Less FUD

[DotNM]

Looks like this could become a good thing.... learning about the reality versus corporate-spin FUD

I wonder what would happen if

[Travoltus]

Employers had a site like that about employees?

Neither

[HomelessInLaJolla]

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.

Re:Less FUD

[Anonymous Coward]

This may well be a good thing, but ultimately it's just a slashvertisement for some lame website... consumerist.com does a pretty good job with this sort of stuff anyway, and "community" is just so 2003...

So, for something more interesting and relevant... how well do yuo know your BRUCE SCHNEIER FACTS [geekz.co.uk] ?

Not viable...

[MaWeiTao]

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.