Awful Squad @awfulsquad - Tumblr Blog

its saturday rb saturday shorts (x)

#saturday shorts #pour one out for post polygon saturday shorts :(

Hey yall! Here’s a gofundme put together by the forever wonderful vox media union. It’ll go directly to support me and my laid off colleagues! Please share and donate if you’re able 💕

I’ve shared some of y’all’s kind words with the team and we all appreciate it so very much

On Thursday, May 1, Vox Media announced the sale of beloved video game s… Ashok Selvam needs your support for Support Polygon Workers and t

#polygon #signal boost

petranaradulovic

Polygon employees who did not get laid off:

Tasha Robinson (entertainment editor)

Maddy Myers (I forget her exact title lol editor)

Zoe Hannah (games editor)

Ari Notis (guides editor)

Oil welsh (senior reporter I think)

Simone de Rochefort (senior video editor)

Matt Patches (executive editor)

Russ frushtick (I also forgot his exact title lol)

Another guides editor (Matthew Reynolds) was given the opportunity to stay on but declined it. I don’t fault anyone who stayed on because man ain’t it tough to find a writing job in this economy. And they’ve all expressed outrage on our behalf’s. But it appears valnet gutted everyone in the union and then the top tier management, leaving only some middle management

Also, full disclosure: my last piece will go live on the ghost of polygon dot com in the next few days. My manager had reached out to me letting me know it was up to me whether or not it did, and I said yes because I wanted it to be the last thing attached to my byline. It’s a good one!! I had fun writing it and I want to go out with something I’m proud of

benndragon

I just want to note that in the US middle managers are not allowed to be in the union, so they weren't holdouts. In case anyone might think they were being rewarded for not being in the union, they didn't have a choice in the matter (and in fact, I suspect they're at high risk of being taken advantage of, but I don't know how to square the circle of middle management and union membership in late-stage capitalism)

#polygon #good to know info about US unions #also a video team of one (1) person is so...#good luck Simone #and everyone else

petranaradulovic

hey hey my plucky tumblr gang --

i've been laid off! actually, almost all of polygon has! bc vox sold us!

This really sucks and I wish i had something more to say right now but i am still in shock. wanted to let y'all know though since i know there's plenty of polygon fans on here who might not be on twitter/bsky/wheveever the rest of the polygon staff is <3

One of the biggest gaming sites around was just blown up

petranaradulovic

ok now that i've officially been booted from my work laptop/company accounts and have a bit more of my head on my shoulders:

I was just shy of my 7th anniversary at Polygon, where I was hired as an intern. I wrote a BUNCH of amazing stuff! I got to work with a bunch of spectacular people. I am so so so damn proud of our site, which apparently was doing so well that I guess Vox decided to make a quick buck off of us! Damned if you do (make a profit), damned if you don't!

In my time at Polygon, I really pushed to cover games/tv/movies/everything else through a particular lens, aka being an unabashed Tumblrina in this year of our lord 2025. Sometimes that meant being outwardly covering tumblr (like Goncharov); sometimes that was simply just gushing in a fangirlish way. I'm so grateful for all the editors who helped me along the way, all the wonderful writers I got to work with. And I am so, so disappointed in Vox Media's upper management for effectively killing one of the best sites for entertainment and gaming coverage out there.

Before I worked at Polygon, it always felt like a special place to me, because it was a gaming site that was unabashedly pink and purple and embracing a different sort of audience than what we typically associate with "gamers." For the past 7 years, I've covered rom-coms and visual novel mobile games and Jane Austen adaptations and pushed the boundaries of what our coverage could be -- while also gushing about Dragon Age, Marvel movies, anime, and other typical Gamer TM content. I always wanted to hammer home the idea that the love that fuels stereotypical "geek stuff" is applicable to all sorts of things, especially those traditionally loved by a non cis straight male audience. And when approaching the stuff like video games/comics/etc, I always approached it from my fangirly tumblirna POV.

Idk what my point is here... I guess I wanted to share this on Tumblr, because I really do owe so much of my professional career to the days I spent on here cultivating my own interests and voice. And I hope that in some way, my writing felt y'all be seen

I'm taking some time to myself before looking for new opportunities. This actually coincides with me getting a chance to attend a prestigious creative writing workshop at the end of the month. So maybe it's a sign that I should more aggressively pursue my creative projects! But this won't be the last you see of me and my writing!

all my love <3

Petrana

#polygon