I'm deleting my Friendster account for ethical reasons. So should you.

Friendster Fires Programmer for Blogging

Today, Friendster did the unthinkable. They fired one of their programmers for publishing good comments about her company.

Friendster's firing of Troutgirl (aka Joyce Park) may be legal in California, where you can fire any employee for any reason, save discrimination, but I'm sure it isn't ethical any way you look at it.

In law, she can rightfully be considered as one whose property rights were violated by an ex post facto law. An ex post facto law is defined as, inter alia, a rule that makes punishable an act which, at the time it was committed, carried no sanction.

Lawmakers are prevented from enacting ex post facto laws because it strikes against the very heart of fairness.

I understand that the people at Friendster want to tighten their screws on corporate secrets, but how corporate secrets were revealed through her blogs is puzzling to me. The change from Java to PHP-based programming was pretty obvious to begin with.

It's too late now. The new CEO of Friendster may want her back to assuage the feelings of the programming community, or those who give a damn, but people should learn from their mistakes.

In response, I am terminating my Friendster account by the end of the month. Due notice and all. It's only fair. I do not want to be associated with a company that has such horrible employee relations.

To those who wrote touching testimonials for me, I cannot thank you enough. Thank you for being part of my life. I'll see you when I see you.