Filling in some of the gaps

Hi folks,

Admittedly, this is a long overdue post, but since things seem to have gotten a bit out of hand of late with some misinformation and misinterpretations flying back and forth, I thought I should try to jump in here and straighten things about a bit. I apologize in advance for the potential lengthiness of this post...

- FIRST, the "I just don`t care anymore" thing. I`m copying in below a couple of emails a I sent Karen. The first is the most important since it is virtually WORD FOR WORD of what I told Gord when I ran into him online...

--------

Hi Karen,

I figure you and Jeff are about 25% concerned and 75% pissed at me right now (though that may be more like 5%/95%...or higher). I`m actually not sure what to say. All the reasons that I didn`t get back to you or get you a column for about 3 months before all apply again, but there is more to it. As I said last time it`s a combo of a few things: Busy with work, busy with family, other priorities are taking precedence, and, unfortunately, just lack of interest on my part. The latter is the killer, since when I do get a few free moments, I just haven`t had the driving interest to do a column. Sounds lame, but is unfortunately true.

So, it`s probably best, as you said in your and Jeff`s posts on the board that I go on semi-permanent hiatus. I`m glad you have a replacement lined up to fill the void and I hope he/she does well. If I get back to a point where I think that I can consistently get you a quality product, I`ll let you know, if you are still interested. I appreciate the patience and generosity you and Jeff have shown me and I`m sorry that I haven`t reciprocated in kind. Hopefully, we can part ways amicably and, as I said, I additionally hope it will only be temporarily.

-------

Karen then responded that she and Jeff had posted most of their thoughts on the board (which were very fair, IMHO) and that they weren`t pissed, just disappointed in how they found out and how the situation presented itself. Wanting to clarify the part of how she found out, I responded with the email below:

--------------

Karen,

Thanks for getting back to me. I am sorry that word of my situation got to you the way that it did. Just by fluke on Friday, I happened to be connected to AOL IM as "JerkyFleaCHS" and Gord happened to catch me there. In our brief conversation, I told him virutally verbatim what I told you (as far as why I hadn`t done a column recently) and said that I planned to send you an email to that effect. He asked if he could post that he ran into me online and what we talked about. I told him that would be fine, but if he did, to make sure he mentioned that I was going to contact you personally. Well, his post was a bit harsher than what I actually said, and he didn`t add that last line. I`m not blaming Gord at all, I just hate that your first information on the subject came in that form. For that, and not contacting you sooner, I am very sorry.

Believe me, I didn`t intend to leave you out of the loop. The decreased interest in doing the column was something that I`ve only truly realized of late. The little bit of free time that I`ve had has been at home (as you know, I used to do quite a bit of the column during free moments at work) and when those moments have arrived, the column was usually the last thing on my mind. Running into Gord online just kind of forced me to articulate the thought that had been bouncing around in my head for a while.

Again, I am thankful for great amount of patience and support you and Jeff have given me and I`m sorry it worked out this way. I really do appreciate you keeping me in the HB archives, though. Nice to know that the column will sort of live on, even if I don`t get back to doing it. I do hope that I get a chance to contribute again soon, but if not, I certainly look forward to reading the contributions of your new columnist (or columnists) and wish you tremendous continued success with the website.

-------------

So, hopefully, that clarifies that issue a bit. To summarize, I wasn`t just blowing the whole thing off, but when my schedule has allowed me free time, it just wasn`t my top priority. My biggest regret is just not giving Karen and Jeff a heads up sooner.

- SECOND, the "I get paid and get free stuff" thing. When I first started writing for HairBoutique, I didn`t get anything and didn`t expect to. After a while, however, to help pay for my home internet connection and since other HB columnist got paid, I asked Karen if I could get compensated for the column, to which she happily agreed. Since that time, I`ve gotten paid for about half of the columns I did. Not that Karen didn`t want to pay me for the other half, it was simply that due to accounting requirements on her end it became a bit more complicated and I never came up with a method on my end that wouldn`t be more trouble than it was worth. Thus, through NO FAULT of Karen, Jeff, or HB, I didn`t get anything for the last several columns.

As for free samples, I received a few couple of conditioner and shampoo samples for my wife when Karen first started carrying the Edwin Paul line. She had offered other things, but that was the only one I took her up on. Not quite the gift bonanza described by Susan in another post.

Basically, my point here is that I started doing the column for free because I enjoyed doing it and kept doing it even after I knew I probably wouldn`t get anything else for it. Again, that`s no reflection on Karen, Jeff, or HB, but intended to show that getting compensated for the column was a minor concern at best.

- THIRD, the "what happens from here" thing. Well, first, I wish Mr. Arcenaeu (sorry if I misspelled that) much success in his future columns and hope they are received well. You guys were patient with me, so be patient with him whilst he gets his bearings. =)

As for me, hopefully, I`ll be able to get back into the game at some point. Right now, I`m going to take the time to recharge my batteries so that if/when I do come back I can at least do it with some consistency. In the meantime, I`ll continue to lurk around here and post occasionally when a get a moment. If nothing else, I`ll enjoy the interaction of the little celebrity hair community I, at least in a small way, helped get off the ground.

In closing, I want to say thanks to ssjockey for continuing to support me here on the board, apologize to Gord for accidentally putting him in the middle, and offer an olive branch to Susan who seems to be the person I actually pissed off instead of Karen. =) Also, thanks to everyone else who has read and enjoyed the column and supported me in my goofy little writing adventure. I`m sorry if I disappointed anyone, but hey, whatta ya gonna do? =)

As usual,
JerkyFlea

JF said:
"Since that time, I`ve gotten paid for about half of the columns I did. Not that Karen didn`t want to pay me for the other half, it was simply that due to accounting requirements on her end it became a bit more complicated and I never came up with a method on my end that wouldn`t be more trouble than it was worth. Thus, through NO FAULT of Karen, Jeff, or HB, I didn`t get anything for the last several columns."

AND

JF:
"As for free samples, I received a few couple of conditioner and shampoo samples for my wife when Karen first started carrying the Edwin Paul line. She had offered other things, but that was the only one I took her up on. Not quite the gift bonanza described by Susan in another post."

My response:

A couple of thoughts. I write for HB.com as Jane Bullock and I also help to edit TheDiva column and help edit other columns as well.

I applaud JF for posting this and admitting that Karen was very willing to pay him for all of his work at HB.com and that she was willing to give him products, if he wanted them.

There are always two sides to every story. My story is that I have been writing for HB.com since almost the beginning of the site. Not only does Karen pay me by check (which means I have to do my bookkeeping to pay my own taxes on the articles) she often pays me in advance before I write the articles. I give her a list of articles that I think she might like for the site, she selects a few and then pays me before I even write them. She also never publishes anything until I am paid first.

As far as samples, I can not tell you how many times I have gone over to the HairBoutique.com and asked Karen if I could try new products that I might or might not want to write about. She is very fair and generous because she recognizes that what I get paid is less than for a big publication like In-Style. However, I also get paid a lot more than other web sites that pay zero, nada, zip.

Like JF, I also benefit from being published on a major site like HB.com. This site often gets over 1/2 million hits a day with over 50,000 visitors as an average. It has been written up in over 100 magazines and publications around the world. I have gotten some followup attention for my articles from being here at HB.com. So in a sense, I should probably be paying them for getting my work read. I wrote and published a children`s book and never got as much publicity as I get here from my publisher.

Although I can`t speak for Susan, I can tell you that she also does writing & editing work for Karen & also has the same deal as I do. Which means that I assume everyone who wants to get paid will and everyone who wants samples will get them as part of the compensation package.

If you don`t want to take them, that is your choice but it is not fair to imply that HB.com does not pay. They do. They pay on time and are very fair. Regardless of what you may have heard, Karen is the most honest and ethical person I have met. I have known her for many years and she is an extremely fair & caring person. She would rather sell her car to pay a debt that she owed rather than not pay someone money she felt they were owed. It should also be pointed out that this site is completely self funded by Karen & Jeff and for years they paid for everything out of their own personal money.

I am very glad that JF was clear about the fact that if he did not get payment, it was because he did not want to deal with the bookkeeping of getting the payments. If he did not get other products or samples, I am glad he was clear that he did not want them but could have had them.

Thank you JF for clarifying all of this.

Karen and Jeff are fabulous people and they work very hard to make this site available for all the people that visit every day. Karen often stays up 24 hours straight putting up new articles and columns. I know, because I have seen her after an all-nighter (Karen you need to sleep more).

OK. Now I will go back to lurk mode.

Let me finish by stating that I am a big fan of the JF columns and will miss it but I know that the door is open for him to come back here to HB.com if he wants, paid or not. :-)

Also, I know TA and I think we should give him a chance. TA is very funny in person.

Ta Ta (As The Diva Says)

quote:

---

demodoll originally wrote:
Thank you to everyone who works so hard to keep this site at its superior level of quality. I personally came here because of JerkyFlea but I have found lots of other things to keep me interested. I am sad that JerkyFlea columns will no longer be something to be anticipated and the excitement of not knowing when they would appear will be missed. I am sure I speak for most of us who post here frequently when I say that we will miss (and have been missing) JerkyFlea's particular brand of satiric humor. I also appreciated the fact that he always responded personally to emails that I sent him with questions/comments and his responses had the same biting humor as the columns. The world will be a little bit less interesting now. But thanks to TA for stepping in to fill the very big shoes that JerkyFlea has vacated. I am eagerly anticipating the first column!

---

demodoll I am with you. I am looking forward to TA`s new work.