Dear Michael,

While I am aware that you will probably skip over this email due to the sheer volume of email you must be receiving, I want to take a moment to say thank you. Your last email truly brought a ray of sunshine to my very gloomy day. You see, I work for one of the Television Cable Company Giants moderating their Discussion Forums. Among many forums we have a board for News and Current Events.

Day in and day out I moderate message about politics, new and current events. Yesterday our Forum “exploded” so to speak with negative messages about President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize award. While I found myself to be tremendously proud of the President at the moment I heard the News, apparently a lot of people in this country did not share my pride. I read messages after messages of posts proclaiming he was undeserving of this honor and to “give it back!” It was so disheartening to see a nation that should come together in times like this to be so divided.

So here is my thank you to you, a thank you for typing a message of support. I wouldn’t want that man’s job for anything and if more people would offer solutions like you do frequently instead of constantly complain about what they don’t like, perhaps we would be able to find that problem solving for this country would be far far easier!

This morning I woke up and discovered a chill in the air. I was delighted and ecstatic! Fall has arrived! Gone are the days or sunburn and mosquito bites. Gone are the days of summer hectic, crazy drivers and never ending lawn care.

What is it about the cool weather that makes us content? Is the memories of our Childhood? The smell and scents of cozy things to come? When I was a little girl, we would come home from school, do our homework, pitch in with the chores, dress up warm and disappear into the backyard to make “Leaf jumping piles” - much to the delight of my parents who didn’t really have to rake the yard that way! I welcome the cold weather. I have my own little rituals for it. It’s all about decorating, feeling comfortable and coziness! There is nothing more delightful than taking out my dogs for a long walk just to come home to a hot cup of coffee or a steaming mug of hot cocoa. I start “fall cleaning”, dig out my favorite Casserole, Soup, Pie and Cookie recipes and make a last ditch effort to get rid of clutter. I also stock up on Yankee Candles! God there is nothing better than the smell of a good Yankee Candle! My question to you is, do you have any Autumn Rituals?

And on another personal note, here is my to do list for this fall: Make a Leaf pile and jump in it! It just may lead to re-discovery of childhood!

So it has been an exciting week in my world. Aside from getting a head cold that made me wish that I could trade this 38 year old body for two 19 year old bodies, Life has been very exciting.

At the beginning of last week I was approached by two long time friends to join their start up. Upon looking at their venture I was excited to jump on board! They’ve placed me in a position where I will basically be doing the same thing I was doing in Talk City. Their Philosophy is “We put the Citizen back into Chat” and I could totally dig the idea as well as the Motto and so I am very excited to join their venture! Do check it out: http://www.talkcitizen.com - All the Bells and Whistles and none of the headaches of it falling apart LOL
On my other Job front, I had an interview this week with a large well known Social Media Company to join them as Online Moderator. The interview went well and I hope to be joining the company shortly.
Happy Chocolate Celebration Day!

So after my March Lay-Off from Mzinga.com I have had some time to read and catch up with the Social Media World and in my quest of knowledge, came across the following URL:

http://www.slideshare.net/mzinga/me-to-we-how-to-score-in-a-social-world-presentation?type=powerpoint

and to be honest… almost choked on my morning coffee! The above link is a presentation entitled “Me to WE: How to SCORE in a Social World” and describes how every company SHOULD treat it’s customers in order to be successful in the Business. It describes why listening to your customers is so very important. Now here is why I almost choked on my Coffee:

One of the Companies that came with the Prospero Acquisition of Mzinga in March of 2008 was TalkCity.com - I’ve been working at TalkCity.com professionally as an Independent Contractor since early 1998. In the last 11-12 years, I’ve come to know the Customers very well. I watched some of them start there as Teenagers who are now married with Families. I’ve watched some Customers pass away, have Babies, get divorced and so forth. In essence, the Customer base at Talk City is a very loyal one and has been there for many years. Until March 23rd that is…

…or the 26th rather, because that is how long Mzinga chose to wait to inform the customers (who by now had all kinds of conspiracy theories as to why I no longer answered my emails or any posts directed to me) to my departure. The announcement spawned a barrage of emails to Barry Libert, CEO of Mzinga, hundreds of posts that mirrored the public consent of

• “…but what idiots to get rid of the “face” of TC and one of the one’s that always helped”,
• “…I am now seriously considering NOT renewing My room next time”,
• “…I will be closing my room in a few hours and I have already resigned from Help Crew….my own opinion is that this is only the first step in TC closing down completely…would love to be proved wrong, but as I said when I resigned from HC, if this is Mzinga’s idea of how to repay 12 years of loyalty….then my loyalties are not here and certainly NOT with Mzinga”
• or “…a lot of room owners are about to do just that..close their rooms”
• and “…I have put a notice in all my rooms about what happened in Talk City..and i am urging that they all email Barry and make a formal complaint. Will it do any good? probably not but they will know that the decision they made was the wrong one. And a lot of people are angry about it.”

And so it went on for hundreds of posts. And Customers spoke out and some voted with their feet and walked out. Others wrote petitions while I sat and watched in disbelieve. I knew there would be Customer objection but I never fathomed that it would be at that volume! It was heart warming and gut wrenching all at the same time!

As I sat and watched this play out over the next few days I felt strange. I had been in contact via email with Barry Libert who at this point tried to figure out where they could use “my talents” in the company. (I was very grateful for the opportunity for open communication Barry and appreciated it, just for the record!) After a lot of back and forth, I ended up in the “someday-maybe-when-something-comes-up-that-fits-your-qualifications” file of the head of Online Moderation at Mzinga who by the way is a very nice guy. BUT… none of this helped Talk City nor me for that matter.

On top of that, this type of comment from TC Management did not help the matter: “What can you expect now? You can expect a lower level of customer service. We will have people in the forums and answering emails, but we simply can’t afford to provide the kind of service Mel provided. I can’t be any more honest or truthful than that.” Did I really go that much above and beyond for that statement to be warranted? Looking back, I really don’t think so, I did what I figured I was contracted for - “Quality Customer Service!” Do I feel I busted my butt? Absolutely! You have to do that if you want to see the Company that became your heart and soul flourish! I’ve always said that Talk City reminds me of warm Apple pie and I was the Baker. It’s the “You’re home” feeling online or it was… It doesn’t feel that way anymore, now I just feel weird when I enter Talk City, it feels like and this may be an odd analogy but it fits: “A slowly deflating Balloon”!

At this point you may wondering why I am writing this. It’s rather simple. Because I can! There is no substitute for Retail Therapy aka Shop-Till-You-Drop but since I was a contractor and not an employee and with that I can’t apply for Unemployment and certainly no longer afford to go shopping in any way, all I have left to break the monotony of resume writing is this blog I assure you it is not to harm Talk City or Mzinga, but merely to point out that despite the common buzz words of “Transparency” and “Me to WE”, in the end it is all just Digital Fluff or we wouldn’t have a sea of upset customers!

So I’ve decided it was time to add my own blog site, considering that this seems to be the newest “in” thing to do. Since I don’t have any body parts that are “in”, you know like a Size 2 Waist, a little apple bum or even long blonde hair, I thought I would have to compensate somehow and therefor you will now have the pleasure of hearing, or rather reading me ramble on about various things that I deem important.

If you’re expecting sophisticated musings or brilliantly written Economy opinions, I will have to disappoint you. I find there are already too many blogs out there with things you have to read twice just to comprehend what the blogger is saying. So since this is my own space, we’re going to do away with pretentious nonsense that the average person really doesn’t care about anyways and simply speak the language that everyone understands: Plain Ole English!

Welcome to the Noisy Bug!

Thank you Lissa for putting all of this together for me! You’re my Gem!