Monday, November 08, 2010

Survey | How old were you when you got laid off?

That's the question I'm now posing, as Gannett Bloggers once more debate whether Gannett discriminated on the basis of age during recent layoffs. Several of you have asked for this survey.

GCI has now been through six broad job reductions that included extensive layoffs, mostly among the U.S. newspapers. The dates and approximate number of jobs:
Instructions: Please post the month and year you were laid off, plus your age at the time. Post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.

100 comments:

  1. December 2007, 50 years old. (I chose a voluntary layoff from USA Today in return for a better severance package.)

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  2. Laid off July 2009, at age 32.

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  3. July 2009 at age 46.

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  4. July 29 34 years old

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  5. 2010 age=39

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  6. July 2009 - 27

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  7. November, 2010. 45 years old.

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  8. Dec 2008 my age was 49

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  9. Sept 2008 age 43

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  10. July 2009 age 40

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  11. July, 2009. Age 43.

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  12. July 2009, age 48

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  13. November 2010, age 44

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  14. You should have the people post their maturity levels, too, Jim. For most of them, it will be a single digit.

    Almost all of these people were likely perpetual whiners who added little to the company. They won't be missed, and a careful employer will screen them out in the future.

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  15. April 2009, 49 years old

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  16. November 2010, 32 years old

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  17. I know some of the people who were laid off at our site. They were not whiners but hard workers who tried to give 100% every day. I'm not asking Jim to remove the troll comment; I've sadly discovered just how many mean-spirited people there are in the world. It's too bad they acquired computer skills to spread their messages of hate.

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  18. April 2009, age 52

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  19. I was let go from the Democrat and Chronicle in December 2008 with 17 years in at the age of 44. There is no question that I was let go because of my age and salary. Looking back I'm so glad I don't have to work for the most ungrateful selfish BOSS/company anymore.

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  20. December 2008, 31 years old.

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  21. April 2010, 45 years old

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  22. Sept. 2009, 58 years old. I took buyout. Glad to be free of Gannett's bullshit. There is live beyond journalism's Evil Empire!

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  23. December 2, 2008, 50 years old

    Note: If the last review received before your layoff stated that you were a great worker and "has a lot of energy", from what I was told by someone that works in Human Resources, those words "has a lot of energy" are code words for: even though you are a great worker, your age does not fit in with the "new mold" of the company! So, look back on your reviews!

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  24. Dec. 2008, 51 years old

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  25. March 2010. 46.

    7:50, I and others here are simply posting a statement of fact. Why does this upset you so? If these sort of postings inspire you to resort to name-calling and character-bashing -- as well as some kind of unenforceable threat-making -- then that seems more a statement about you than us.

    I 'whined' my way through year after year "exceptional" performance reviews as my department's top producer as well as multiple Employee of the Year awards, only to walk into GCI one day and be informed that my job and services were no longer necessary for the long-term benefit of the company. Don't think I did much whining though. Given the lack of leadership and the overwhelming sense of dread and bad karma in the CP, I practically did a jig on my way out the door on my last day.

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  26. August 2008, 42 years old -- management

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  27. April 2009 - 33

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  28. Laid off April 1, 2009, at age 53.

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  29. November 2010 - Age 57
    I was the happiest person in the place when I walked out the door. I loved what I did and was very good at it. But the industry is in such a state of change and a downslide, and the workload so great and morale so bad, that self-satisfaction was difficult to achieve. Everything is directed at the bottom line. When efficiencies are maxxed out and manpower is stripped to the degree it has been by Gannett (and other companies and industries, as well) quality suffers, especially with the cookie-cutter mentality of uniform templates.
    I enjoyed having the opportunity to do what I did for so long, but now it is time to choose a new path.

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  30. Dec. 2008 - Was 24

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  31. December 2008, 38 years old. Voluntary layoff while the severance package was still decent.

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  32. December 2008: 57

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  33. July 2009. 31 years old.

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  34. July 2009. 45. Management.

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  35. December 2008, 45 years old - New Jersey

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  36. May 2007, 36 years old, walked away from the nightmare of Gannett!

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  37. January 2009 at age 48.

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  38. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  39. Following is an edited version of a comment posted at 11:11 a.m.:


    48 with 21 years at Westchester. Tho my post makes it about 23-11 in terms of over 40 vs. under 40 in this survey- I'm sure it wasn't my age that was the reason. Nor was it salary (I was grossly underpaid). And certainly it wasn't the quality or skills I brought to the job. Nope- it was personal. For me and the five others let go from my department it was because of one evil bastard [XXXXX]. Slug.

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  40. It appears the above mentioned evil bastard has just been sent packing. You can delete that too if you want Jim. Why do you insist on protecting the guy that single-handedly destroyed that paper? Wish I was still there to see him go.

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  41. 11:26 a.m.: I don't know the individual, and I'm not protecting him. However, there's a limit the name-calling that I allow here.

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  42. July 2009, age 45

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  43. May 2008, 60. Is it really a buyout if the letter the eligible employees receive says that if not enough people take offer layouts are next?

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  44. In an e-mail to me, a reader writes:

    I was laid off in July 2009; I was 41.

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  45. Hey 11:20 a.m.....You don't have to name names. We know who the evil bastard is.

    Westchester's had a lot of BS artists over the years, but this guy took it to a new and lower form. It was absolutely amazing (then again, maybe not given the honchos in charge) that he lasted as long as he did.

    One thing's certain. There will be no impact on the paper or the Web with his passing.

    In light of some of the other Westchester cuts, I wonder if the top dogs will finally have to dirty their hands with copy?

    It would be refreshing to see them work a bit, just a little bit, huh?

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  46. Jim, in my quest to address old business, I have a question for you.

    Back last summer, before you skipped off to the beach, someone was asking you for some documents related to the end of your Gannett employment.

    My question is this: If you really did take a "voluntary layoff," then how do you justify your actions since then?

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  47. What does Jim have to justify?

    His giving Gannett workers a chance to hear the truth before the Crystal Palace spinmeisters have a go at it?

    His providing a forum for Gannett employees to tell what's going on at their respective sites?

    For keeping track of the treasure chests that Dubow, Martore and Co. are dragging home for their golden years?

    For cracking open the door to a company that supposedly specializes in communication to the world, but keeps its workers in the dark?

    Or maybe, just maybe, for his revealing to the public the corporate greed that drives Gannett.

    And oh, by the way, much of this would not be possible without the help of Gannettoids everywhere.

    Thank you Gannettoids!

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  48. 1:48 p.m.: First, I believe you are referring to my summer 2009 trip to Spain. Second, I don't understand your question; what "actions," and how do they relate to my voluntary layoff.

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  49. September 2008, 54

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  50. Jim,
    you made First Place Positioning on Editor and Publisher with a direct link to your Blog!

    Keep up the good work!

    http://www.editorandpublisher.com/Headlines/layoffs-reported-at-gannett-63191-.aspx

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  51. Linda (again)11/08/2010 3:27 PM

    I had been with the paper for 35 years.

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  52. July 2010, 55

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  53. Oct. 2006, 49

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  54. May 2008 ... 57

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  55. August 2008, age 61

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  56. June 2009. 60 years old.

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  57. August 2008. 44 yrs. old

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  58. December, 2008 at age 61. All superior ratings and promotions to that point. I was a manager. Union folks with performance issues (I know because I evaluated them) were protected and spared.
    GCI could have been much more generous to over-60s on things like healthcare coverage. I now pay more than $1,500 a month for coverage and am not alone, I am sure.
    At my information center, a high percentage of layoffs were of old, expensive people, as someone suggested in earlier posts.
    I and most others I know were not whiners, as the 7:44 poster suggests. We were high achievers with many, many prizes to prove it.
    If the cuts were truly made to put whiners out of their misery, as 7:44 suggests, then GCI lied in writing to all of us when they told us our jobs were eliminated because of bad economic conditions, not because of any performance issues.
    However, 7:44's childish name-calling is what inspires me to join those on this site calling for reporting the full story of Gannett's abuse of senior employees. (Sad for a company not long ago held up as a model for diversity in the workplace, but talk about irony, eh?).
    One more note to the many veterans out there: Find comfort in the fact that ex-Gannettoids now out-number current G'toids by quite a margin. Perhaps we should establish "Ex-Gannettoid" chapters. Members could help gather examples of G's abuse of senior employees.
    My pink slip came a couple weeks before Christmas, throwing a wrench into my gifting plans. Yah, yah, yah....it turned out to be my best gift ever.

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  59. Jim, I'm sure you know exactly what the intention of the question was, but I'll go ahead and spell it out for you.

    If you did, in fact, take a voluntary layoff, then why continue this farce of a blog? I could see if you had found out some things about Gannett while you were working there and wanted to clear your conscience. But now you are just throwing open the doors for people to kick and scream after any layoffs, and ordinary managers who are doing their jobs are being criticized by people with questionable motives. Your motives also seem questionable at times.

    I don't think you have the ability to answer this question honestly, but I'll present it to you again.

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  60. "Perhaps we should establish "Ex-Gannettoid" chapters. Members could help gather examples of G's abuse of senior employees."

    You should do that. Let us know how it works out and what progress you make. I'll predict "poorly" and "none" for the outcomes, but I'm sure you will never follow through on it anyway.

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  61. 8:30 p.m.: I disagree with the premise of your question. This blog reports exclusive news and information; it's not merely about "throwing open the doors for people to kick and scream after any layoffs.''

    Indeed, if it weren't for this blog, the newspaper industry wouldn't even know these six company-wide layoffs have taken place.

    Corporate doesn't want that information out, and it sounds like you don't, either.

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  62. I think people have an obligation to kick and scream when they've been laid off by a company that awards huge bonuses to the very people who are doing the cost containment. Duh.

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  63. March 2009, 42 years old 19 yrs with Gannett.

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  64. June 19, 2009...and still available to the industry. They called me in off of vacation to give me the good news. Twenty-three years flushed....yea!!! Not even an e-mail wishing me well went out, and I was liked. At least I thought so.

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  65. Sorry, I forgot...June 19,2009...42 years old, 23 years service.

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  66. December 2008 at the age of 56.

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  67. A co-worker who was 56 when he was laid off in December 2008 died in July 2010.

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  68. A co-worker who was laid off in July 2009 died in May 2010 at the age of 49.

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  69. June 2010 49.

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  70. Jim:
    The poster who calls this blog a farce and questions your motives is trying to re-direct this conversation to avoid further embarrassment for a once proud company.
    He and others need to understand that GCI's policies punished senior employees whether or not it was Gannett's intent to do so.
    GCI's problem is that it already knows that the numbers will provide prima face evidence of discrimination.
    If they say it was not their intent to hurt seniors, tell them that the impact was the same no matter their intent. The spirit of the law is clear no matter what the word-twisters might argue.
    If a corporate person tries to tell you they didn't know old folks were topping the "whack lists," I'd get them into court and charge them with perjury.
    See, that's the problem here. Truth ultimately rules. GCI needs to 'fess up, find Jesus and make it right. Minimally, its misdeeds need to be known to the world.

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  71. December 2008 -- 24

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  72. July 2009. I was 28.

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  73. December 2008 - 35

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  74. December 2008 - 24

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  75. May 1, 2009. I was 39.

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  76. Jim,
    Just to give people an equal chance to include their information - you need to give this "FRONT BLOG" positioning or possibly provide a link over on the right side so that it's seen as soon as one clicks on your Blog.

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  77. August 2008. Two months before my 50th birthday

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  78. I totally appreciate what you're doing here, Jim, but perhaps there's another way to look at the layoff/age issue.

    Perhaps these folks were old dogs who couldn't learn new tricks. In the multimedia age, journalists are expected to do things a bit differently. In revolutionary times, the stable town elders are displaced by nimble, young leaders. The publishing/journalism industry is in revolutionary times; some of our elders will be left behind.

    Again, I love the blog. Keep it up!

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  79. Aug. 2009; 25

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  80. Dec. 2008; 29

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  81. 10:10, by all means, yes, let's just make a huge broad generalization about the 40/50-plus set "... Them goshdern old folks can't 'get with it' when it comes to all the digital stuff we young 'uns exclusively have magical powers to use. Those old fogies have to step aside and let those of "real value" take over ..."

    Plu-eeese ... Gen X/Y does not have a monopoly on the digital age. Your grandmother is on Facebook, for cryin' out loud. Smart phones are ubiquitous across generations. And you're not the only generation capable of digitally recording an interview/event on camera/audio and uploading it to a Web site, ok?


    So get over your entitled -- ooops, I meant empowered -- self and realize that any kind of broad age discrimination is bad business period. If an 'old fogey' refuses to bend with the times, that's a different story. But the 40/50 somethings I worked with were more than happy to do what it took -- whether with a notepad or a digital cam. Heck, one of the ones that got laid off RAN the entire company's daily public blog in addition to her print job.

    As for 8:30's comments, he/she has no credibility. Anyone who wants to shut down communications -- especially communications as valuable as this blog -- provides the invalidation for their own positioning with their own words.

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  82. Plus, you're debating this on a blog started by a 53-year-old!

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  83. September 2008, age 54

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  84. In an e-mail, a reader tells me:

    Laid off May 2008. Age 66

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  85. ...and not to mention, when the old fogeys WERE working,
    THEY PRODUCED! Go back and check their numbers from the Reporters (lots of award winners); to the Production staff; to the Composing Staff; to the Retail Staff, straight down to the Classified Advertising Staff!

    Where are all the high numbers with this Gen X/Y?
    They are suppose to be:

    Faster than a composing clerk setting hard copy at 100 wpm in agate!
    More Powerful than the Pen of an ME on election night!
    Able to leap the tall Crystal Towers in a single bound!

    Look!
    Up in the sky!
    It's a bird! It's a plane!
    It's ....... the stock tanking again because of poor numbers!
    SMH (Shaking My Head)

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  86. In an e-mail, a reader tells me:

    From The Honolulu Advertiser in May 2010 after 18 years and I'm 67 years old and ready to retire!

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  87. July 2009, 28 years old

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  88. In an e-mail, a reader told me:

    I am 42, was laid off Thursday.

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  89. Dec 2008, 43

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  90. August, 2008. 31.

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  91. November 2010, age 58.

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  92. September 2008 after nearly 16 years with Gannett... was two months short of my 50th birthday and three weeks after my son started his freshman year in college... still unemployed after 26 months !!!!

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  93. I am 60 years old and was laid off on October 29, 2010.

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  94. November 4, 2010...57 years old

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  95. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  96. Oct 18, 2010 . . .43 years old, 10 1/2 years with USAT

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  97. Via an e-mail, a reader wrote the following:

    I was laid off in May 2009 but last day of work was not until August (copy desk consolidation).

    I am female and was 52 years old.

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  98. Feb 2011: Almost 60 years old

    Layoff is due to corporate mandated layoffs to become “leaner” – rumor has it that the Corp is preparing to sell this particular division. Worked the last 10.5 years in an IT "niche" position with very few opportunities for employment in this particular field elsewhere as other companies are migrating to other products. Spent 41 years in IT operations and my previous skills are very rusty at best or no longer relevant. My IT strength is production application support in an operational environment. Every similar job opportunity wants years of experience using specific programs which I have never been exposed to. Trying to figure out how to re-invent myself but everything I have found will take 1-2 years which I cannot afford. What to do?

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Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."

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