Infektia.net

I guess you all have heard about the Martini Lounge. And if you are allergic to online drama, you should click your browser’s X right now…

It all started with that I got an invitation a couple of years ago via email. It stated that I was a suiting person to be on the staff at the upcoming Martini Lounge, an online e-zine for women. I thought it would be fun to be involved with something, so I filled out the application form. And a while later I was on the staff.
After two ’seasons’ (I think), one as a council member and one as a webmaster, I decided to quit. The reason was because I didn’t have more time to dedicate it, and because I hated how bad the communication was…

And a few months ago, the owner asked for a little help in the ML forums. Since I had a little time over I agreed to help out a little, it was also stated that it would be a paid job. It all ended with that me and Maja were supposed to re-arrange, re-design and edit ALL the files. It was a HUGE job which took all our time. It took weeks! Maja did the most of the job with the skinning and coding and I edited all the files, fixed images and such. I repeat it was a tremendous load of work!

As we knew we were getting paid for it, we kept it all together while the rest of the staffers where whining and breathing in our necks. Let’s not talk about that we hat to do some parts over a second time since one/severals from the staff decided to make their own changes resulting in errors…

After much sweat and tears we got paid… a little. “Short of funds” it was called. I can understand that, sure. After much complaining I got paid another time. When we were “done”. We weren’t “done” at all. Somehow we became a part of the staff. And I had to publish the new articles, that of course was handed in in the last minute. I had to pick things up and start organizing things myself. Tones of more sweat! One one had a clue what was what, who written what. I thought I was getting paid. That was why I kept going.

So Maja went to Denmark, I messed up the forum while upgrading, Maja came back, fixed my mess.
Suddenly, another girl decides to take control over the whole thing, since the real owner wouldn’t be as active for a while. The changes that has been made while Maja was away wasn’t really wise. They also changed the password for the FTP without letting us know.

So Maja expressed her opinions about it on the board. Apparantly, as someone on the board said, let me quote; “has a stick up in her ass”. I entered the discussuion to tell that whe have worked our asses off and didn’t want anything to be ruined. But apparantly we are not allowed to complain because we get paid. Except we haven’t yet.

And suddenly the new “boss” deletes the thread. Im messaging the owner, telling her to pay me what she owes me. No response even though she is online.

I post a thread in the forum saying that since Im not officially thrown out yet, I want to be deleted from whatever emailing lists Im in. Im being ignored as hell but I still revieved staff meeting emails and such.
Later that day I see that the thread has been removed. I still haven’t gotten an explanation about why or anything. Im totally ignored.

The point is that it really doesn’t feel nice to be ignored like this, not after all I have done for the Martini Lounge. The truth is, it’s pissing me off. Ignoration is one of the worst things I know.

They still owes me a bunch of money, and they still owe Maja at least 200 bucks after all she has done. I’ve sent another long mail to the owner. It was a nice mail too. Still no answer.

So much for ’sisterhood’…