Layoffspace - Is This a Light In the Void?
by
on May 08, 2007,
Layoffspace, doesn't sound like a cheery destination does it? This latest diversion into the nether-niches just launched late last week to create a community where unemployed people can come together. The startup is owned by Spacemen Labs, a Pennsylvania Limited Liability Company and promises the “potential” of community action up to and including “life long connections at the click of a button.” Just when I thought I had seen it all (well actually I was awaiting the very next excursion into the weird), a site has been developed that promises to be as exciting as an AA meeting. The big news here is really that Layoffspace is probably more needed than we realize.
The Bad Stuff
I don't usually set right in with disparaging comments about sites, but Layoffspace really deserves it for two reasons; because very skillful people created a nice Web 2.0 site with an already “beaten down” target audience in mind, and because of their additionally Machiavellian appearing name. I don't know how personally other people might view this site, but for many people I am sure they do not want to feel like they belong to MySpace for losers. That is just the feeling I get from the combination of title, depressing and muted site design and the giant black cloud that hovers suspended above a whole niche that should not even exist.
Now for the Good Stuff
Layoffspace provides a network for people who have lost their jobs, provided they can still afford an Internet connection. The site offers a blog, chat, groups, support and most importantly a really extensive compilation of resources to help people caught in the turnstiles of unemployment. Allowances have been made for job posting and a calendar of events so that members will have access to potential openings and further networking and help in finding new careers.
This site is one of those places we wish was not necessary but where necessity often forces people towards. I cannot make a determination about the true intent of such a site, but I can categorize it with the upcoming beta “GraveSpace”, where people who are in the ultimate prostrate situation can leave photos and messages for their loved ones.
My Take and More Bad Stuff
This site is, of a necessity, a helpful and well organized Web resource for displaced workers. Given the probably 35 million illegal aliens in the U. S., the exportation of manufacturing jobs overseas in mass, a government that would climb a tree to tell a lie and an Internet that cannot support more millions of IT professionals sites like this should really thrive here.
A gloomy picture I know, but sooner or later I am 100 percent sure my “oil on canvas” rendering will ring true for those of you not staring into the bottom of a gopher hole. My readers realize that symbolism plays a large role in my alliterations about sites and the Web. The most indicative symbol of where Layoffspace comes from and what the intent might be resides on the Spacemen Labs services page where their last service listed is search engine optimization. Here is an SEO company with the altruistic heart of a therapy/unemployment agency for the downtrodden! Right, SEO and altruism are mutually exclusive terms in this regard and transparency is simpler when help organizations abound in the .org realm.
I know I will take some heat from these guys after posting this, but honestly I fully expect to see an online pawn shop on the site next to help unemployed people get rid of their hard earned possessions for 25 cents on the dollar. Sorry guys but you should have hidden the SEO service better, and “filling a void” does not imply sucking the last bit of life out of people in trouble under the guise of humanitarianism. Sites like this beacon: “Come here, bemoan your situation with us and populate our site with ad revenue potential with your last breath.”
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Have not checked it out Phil, but love your comments.
Thanks Nomad! I hate reporting bad stuff, but I just can't figure why so much time and money goes into tasteless stuff. I am sure these guys mean well (well sorta), but it just seems like a pawn shop mentality to me. The site does offer plenty of links to sites that can help people losing their jobs, but only a corner bar can help the helpless and unfortunate drown their troubles (tongue in cheek). Why doesn't someone create a site that prohibits millions of people from walking into the U.S. at a time when homeland security is supposed to be protecting us? Maybe a site that uses Google maps satellite imagery to pinpoint the armored divisions that could have crossed the Rio Grande beside the 600 mile long line of people "visiting with purpose?" Web 2.0 is supposed to be about resolving communication issues and user empowerment, so far what I see mostly are $250 PRWeb press releases lately announcing the second coming of the Frisbee. All our enthusiasm has to be directed at something more than cool services at some point. Entertainment is one thing, but exactly how is just that going to help us? I think I will start categorizing posts based on their actual value to humanity. I would hate for people to look back 20 years frmo now on this opportunity called Web 2.0 and find it to be only the relative equivalent to "I Love Lucy" in HD.
Phil, you sound like a real xenophobe in your last comment
I hope Profy won’t be sued because of lack of political correctness here 
LOL, I am sure we can find 100 lawyers who would take the case pro bono in that case Lana.
I also got this image of 30 million people trying to cross the Russian border from Mongolia or the Ukraine even. I have no dislike for any nationality or race and see people as people and take them as I meet them, but that does not mean I want them to take a bite out of my candy bar in mass either.
I think what amazes me most about our situation here in the U.S. is: “Exactly how do you find Alabama from the Yucatan?” I try to visualize myself just walking into Egypt and asking for government assistance and a job with reckless abandon. More appropriately I think of finding some remote spot in the Urals with no access to maps or demographics and just “waltzing” over there and inviting my pals. LMAO
Can I come to Russia Lana? It is getting mighty crowded here and you guys have so much land. I have one Siberian Husky, does that qualify me for state benefits?
Anyway it will be difficult to prove political correctness of our blog with such an attitude
And I somehow doubt that your Siberian Husky will provide any benefits to you - receiving a Russian visa is no easier than American’s judging by my experience. But if you actually decide to come here, I promise to help you with visa 
But actually Mongolians and Ukrainians are not invading Russia - we have another nationality coming here massively, they come from Moldova and generally the Russians do not object because they take construction jobs that are badly-paid and are not all that interesting to our citizens. But I understand your feelings perfectly well, it is only natural to think you deserve better jobs than outsiders who actually do not belong with your country.
I’m not quite sure if there are remote spaces in the Urals without any access to maps - and stop thinking we have bears walking along the streets, we are rather a civilized country
Yes I see the situation with Moldova (formerly Moldovian SSR). That country is the poorest in Europe since the former conflict between Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and Romania. The place has some of the richest farm land in the world, but evidently hoeing sugar beets and stomping wine grapes does not pay as well as hammering nails.
As for those Russian bears, you do too! My favorite Russian bear critters are not mutually exclusive of a civilized society in fact they may actually add to Russia’s character as one of the most ancient and civilized nations in the world.
Compared to all these eagles we have flying down the streets here, those bears are much more firmly rooted in the human psyche.
The mass illegal migration of people here does not really present so much of a strain on the job market as it does the infrastructure. Education, public services, social welfare systems and a whole range of much more complex problems have been exacerbated by our government’s goofs in many areas.
As for Visas you don’t need one to come here just move in, have 12 children, sign up for benefits and POOF you are American. You don’t even need to speak the language, we will change ours to whatever you speak and then send billions in aid and business back to your home country so that our ultra rich can make lucrative business deals where you come from.
I sound cynical don’t I? Well I do so with a smile even though me and millions of my countrymen are feeling rather pressed on all sides. The world essentially hates our guts because we have allowed or leaders to essentially insult every country on the planet. Everyone wants to come here so they can grab a piece of Hollywood glitter, sunglasses and fast cars that they have been led to believe is here for the taking. All this while the average American is probably exactly like the silent majority in any other country.
I say we all migrate to Montenegro, get an Aston Martin, play high stakes poker at a posh casino and pretend we are either James Bond 007 or one of his Bond girls.
Makes you wonder why we have been pushed for a National ID, when we don’t even bother with boarder protection.
What is the point of tracking all the legals. Makes me think there is more too it. Who cares if you are PC, if you are right.