Disclaimer: I love Odyssey, I love my job, I love my Managing Editor at HQ, and I love my team. But we need to talk.
I've been a Creator and an Editor-In-Chief for Odyssey for the majority of 2017. That means that I've seen this organization in a variety of lights. I've been with them through a great deal of change since Odyssey has evolved a ton this year.
Some changes have been wonderful, some have been terrible, and some desperately still need to be made.
Let's have a chat, great mighty gods of Odyssey. I want to let you know something that I'm not sure you're aware of - we're the fucking laughing stock of the internet.
How can you do better? I'm glad you asked.
Stop posting vile, messy shit for page views.
I totally understand that creators have the right to write whatever they want. I've written some vile shit in my day, too.
But the problem here is that Odyssey's main Facebook page posted this.
And this isn't the first time they've posted something morally questionable just because they knew people would click on it - remember the "I Raped My Boyfriend" article? Yeah. I do.
Also, if you're gonna repost an article glorifying rape or adultery, at least make sure the punctuation and grammar on the social media brief aren't fucked up. That's just pathetic and lazy.
"There is one cardinal rule for all women; (SEMICOLON BC A COMMA ISN'T ENOUGH) don't take another girl's (POSSESSIVE NOT PLURAL) man."
Ejemplo dos:
"...how far a part we are." Seriously? Figure it out.
Stop recycling burned-out article ideas.
I know everyone is fully aware of this problem.
"An Open Letter To..." "I'm The Girl Who..." "College, As Told By..."
"93423 Signs You're The Mom Friend..." "What Bread You Are Based On Your Horoscope..." "What Your College Major Says About You..."
Stop. Just Stop.
The article ideas that you send out to creators every week is, first of all, THE SAME. EVERY WEEK. FOR EVERY TEAM. Do you want us all to write about the same basic white girl topics? (Sorry to generalize, but come on.)
I don't know if my community is different because we're a geo-community in a very diverse city and not affiliated with a college. Regardless, we've been sent out the same horrifyingly dry list of article ideas since July. Thank God my creators have brains of their own and don't try to follow it.
And stop putting your writers into such a small box.
I know that you want everybody to be a 20-something, white, female undergrad. But that is not the case. I've had everybody from high school kids to elderly people on my team - people of every color and from every walk of life.
Everybody's voice counts, and if they can write, you should be giving their voice just as much of a chance to go viral as all three of the 20-something, white, female undergrads who wrote the articles listed above.
I've read some seriously amazing content from my non-traditional creators, but have they ever been featured? No.
Those coveted spots on Odyssey's homepage and Facebook must've been taken by the 20-something, white, female undergrads behind "I Raped My Boyfriend" or "I Sleep With Married Men" or "College As Told By Spongebob."
So, Odyssey, I don't know if your creativity died, or if you lost the passion to produce great content, or if all you care about now is making revenue.
Either way, the jig is up. We're losing respect by the minute ... if we have any left. Please, come up with new article ideas. Start new trends. Don't glorify disgusting behavior. I'm begging these things of you purely because I want you to get better. I want people to respect us. I want us to have a good reputation, not as "a national plague."
Have some integrity, or you'll end up like Buzzfeed. Except, Buzzfeed actually tries.
