User:Jo.jo1996/sandbox

Article Evaluations

Funding Wikipedia through advertisements

1.The odd formatting in the beginning with the photo and quote was very distracting and made it hard for me to read the content. In addition, in each section there is many subheaders with little content in the paragraph under it. Some of the titles are very long and are hard to understand the main idea of the section.

2. There is a bias for optional adverts because in that section of the arguments, things are bolded while in the arguments for the adverts are not. There is a much more comprehensive arguments and details for optional advertisements.

3. I think the author definitely covered many viewpoints an almost equal amount, just not equally.

4. The first link is a dead link. I am confused whether it is intentional or a mistake. The other links I tried along the page works. The quote in the beginning really summarizes the issues this article brings up.

5. The facts are some solid evidence for the arguments the author makes. The sources are not pretty reliable (for example Huffington Post).

6. They are a little outdated; some are from 2010 which is 7 years ago. I think a more widespread examples and facts could make this article less biased. For example, more facts (such as in the optional adverts) in the adverts section.

7. They are a lot of references and mentions on some advertisements that are on Wiki. However, there are many posts that mention the bias against advertisements, which is what I pointed on in the earlier questions. In addition, it addresses the issue that there is enough discussion about other funding methods for Wiki.

8. I couldn't find the rating for this article.

9. We never talked about wikipedia articles in class, but it is pretty different in the sense that it presents a controversial argument instead of just a very factual or informative section.

Uber Protest (specifically #DeleteUber)

Travel Ban Protest

One of the corporate protests was Uber corporate boycott, which was due to the surge pricing system during January 2017. On January 28, 2017, the NY Taxi alliance protested and striked at the JFK airport. However, during this strike, Uber decided to promote surge pricing, which was meant to hike up the prices for an Uber ride. People were unhappy with the surged prices due to the lack of taxis, even though the NY Taxi alliance asked all Uber drivings to not pickup rides in order to help their cause. This wasn't the first time that Uber has implemented this business ploy; Uber has been accused for hiking up prices during natural disasters, such as hurricanes and storms, and during holiday seasons, such as New Year's Eve. After Uber announced its lack of participation in the NY Taxi alliance protest, the #DeleteUber hashtag started to circulate on social media. Only a month after the #DeleteUber corporate boycott, the company has been under fire for its sexist work environment.

Boycotting the Uber product

There are two major instigators to the people who decide to boycott the Uber product: their business practices and their rumored sexist workplace. Their business practices taking blatantly overcharging customers painted a bad image of the company's business approaches. Taking advantage of the situation, Uber has been called to be inhumane and unreasonable for charging over $1000 dollars for a one way ride through New York City. In addition, their refusal to participate in the NY Taxi alliance depicted their apathy for the refugee ban, which infuriated many customers. This culmination of unfair surge pricing caused many users to delete their uber app, showing their commitment to their decisions. Soon after Uber's tweet and advertisement for surge pricing during the JFK strikes, the #DeleteUber corporate boycott began to circulate all over social media, specifically Twitter. People, including many celebrities, such as Janelle Monáe and George Takei, tweeted and posted on Instagram the phone screenshot before deleting the Uber app from their phone. Another reason people began to boycott was the sexist work environment that seemed to bubble up from leaked information about the company.

Sexism in Uber Work Culture

One of the first notable examples of sexist work environment is the blog posted by a female ex-employee at Uber. https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber She goes into detail about the unprofessional and sexist environment she had to work with, even despite reporting her managers to human resources. Only a few months after this blog went viral, an email from the CEO Travis Kalanick about a company outing was leaked to the public. <insert picture of the letter> The CEO's unprofessionalism was shocking to see and ruined the company image. As a result of the protest and the ruined image of Uber, Lyft, the main competitor of Uber, has risen up in the ranks in app stores. Uber lost an estimated amount of 200,000 users and Uber's value downed to $70 billion. Lyft users increased by 30% after pledging $1 million to American Civil Liberties Union.

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/05/16/deleteuber-will-have-lasting-fallout-for-ride-hailing-app-study-says/

https://techcrunch.com/2017/01/30/lyft-surges-to-the-top-10-on-apples-app-store-following-the-deleteuber-campaign/

https://www.recode.net/2017/6/8/15765514/2013-miami-letter-uber-ceo-kalanick-employees-sex-rules-company-celebration

https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/technology/uber-sexual-harassment-huffington-bonderman.html