Be Careful What You Post on Twitter | Hacker News Reader

Be Careful What You Post on Twitter

shankman.com

25 pointsjkopelman27 comments

What a massive inferiority complex!

One person does not like Memphis. A lot of people who live there do. How can this be a problem?

A lot of people dislike the city I live in. I like it a lot. I see no reason to dislike people who don't like my city.

As for the guy who was so offended, I would recommend the FedEx HR to look into possible psychological help, if the employee is worth keeping. Overreactions like this can happen in other more damaging circumstances.

These people don't care if you say you don't like Memphis, but they do care if their flacks do; Memphis is part of their identity. You're also allowed not to like their logo, but you can't say that if you want to rep them.

That may be true, but he's not representing the City of Memphis. He's representing the company of FedEx, which is based in Memphis. If I made a Twitter comment saying that I hated New York City, while I was head of a PR firm for the New York Stock Exchange, I would not expect to get a similar response.

> many of my peers and I question the expense of paying Ketchum to produce the video open for today’s event; work that could have been achieved by internal, award-winning professionals with decades of experience in television production.

This seems more like the crux of the issue. Someone pissed off that the company didn't use him or his working group and instead outsourced the work.

> Not knowing exactly what prompted your comments, I will admit the area around our airport is a bit of an eyesore, not without crime, prostitution, commercial decay, and a few potholes.

He even admits that it's possible the @keyinfluencer had a bad experience with the town. So @keyinfluencer's comment could have been totally acceptable within the context of the experience that he had had with Memphis at the point.

This whole 'response' comes off as a gross over-reaction. Much in the same light as the guy that writes a 12-page essay in response to an off-hand comment that there are 'many inconsistencies' in the Bible. The guy writes the letter/essay not because it is justified, but because someone has hit a sore spot and he feels a need to 'react' to what he views as some sort of 'transgression.'

In this case, I feel like the 'transgression' is probably not 'insulting my city' so much as 'he took mah jerb!' But he couldn't outright say something like, "this guy's an assclown and I don't like him," so he used this off-handed comment as an excuse. Notice how he CC'd this to all the FexEx upper-ups. He clearly is trying to give them the impression that they need to drop this 'outsourced' company and bring the work back in-house.

What a massive inferiority complex! One person does not like Memphis.

I thought the very same after the first paragraph! But reading on and between the lines, it becomes clear that the letter is less a jibe against @keyinfluencer and his company, and more an open letter to the FedEx management responsible for hiring a fancy, presumably rather costly PR outfit in times of shared hardship. The crux of the letter does not concern the slight against the fine city of Memphis, but the oversight of ignoring in-house talent. Mr @keyinfluencer is merely collateral damage, and if Ketchum are a communications company worth their salt they will recognize this.

It's about being respectful. This guy should have been more self-aware regarding his job and the company he represents. Making remarks like this may be fine on your own time, or in private company, but to publicly make a sweeping negative statement like this is in bad taste given this guy's responsibilities and public position.

A hazard of social networking is people will read what you write.

Succinct and insightful.

Which means that tweeting is a golden opportunity to shine. Tweet something positive as you get off the plane, and maybe those you are about to meet will have read it and will associate you with positivity and optimism before they ever even meet you.

I just parsed that as "a hazard of social networkers", similar to a pride of lions or pod of dolphins.

(Sorry, it's not really relevant to your comment)

A hazard of socializing at all is people will read, listen to, or otherwise consume what you say and do.

FTFY. I fail to see why people are freaking out about social networks all the time. If I walked into my office and said "OMG I GOT DRUNK AND PUKED ON DEBRA'S DESK LAST NIGHT LULLLLZ," people would get just as annoyed and offended (and Debra just as repulsed) as if I'd said it on Twitter. It's not hard: if you're going to say it, expect it to be heard. Period.

This should go without saying. You should be careful of everything you put out online. Blogs, Usenet posts, IRC, Twitter, Facebook, etc., etc.

This is nothing new, and I wonder why people think writing "online" excuses being a jerk. People should apply the same rules as they would when talking to someone in person.

I am willing to bet the twitter poster wouldn't walk into that conference that morning and say to someone there: "I don't know how you could live here, I sure couldn't!".

Memphis is part of FedEx's identity. Moreso than, say, International Paper's identity. This person works in communications. The fact that Ketchum had staffed FedEx with what appears to be a moron is relevant to FedEx. I don't think this is an overreaction.

I had a blog up until a couple years ago. But I eventually decided the risk/reward equation was way out of whack. Especially given how easy it is to offend some people.

That’s what it came down to for me. Every blog post became "is this worth losing my job, friends, etc... over if I potentially offend someone?" Once I determined the answer to that question was almost always no I decided to ditch the blog.

(and it's also why I don't Tweet)

Hopefully FedEx has a management team that is understanding enough not to fire this poor guy. Because a lot of companies are willing to cut someone loose at the mere hint of controversy.

Fedex Management should fire the asshole who blew a tweet way out of proportion, ignored his own company's leadership structure by directly contacting his executives, and directly contacted a customer's leadership.

I'd agree but as the article points out people in memphis are very sensitive about their town. If a decent sized boycott starts I'd bet this guy's job is toast (especially in this economy)

The issue is whether the irrational people can make enough noise to cause him trouble and whether that one tweet was worth the consequences it will bring to him.

(see tptacek's response above where he completely agrees with the guy who made this a big deal)

So, are you going to stop talking to your colleagues, friends and family because you might offend them by saying something? Man, live your life, do what you want/like doing. If people get offended by something you said genuinely with no bad intentions, they should be the ones feeling bad. Rather the best part about blogging is that you can proof read it as many times as you want before posting, unlike talking.

You can talk to friends and family without making it public. You can also live your life without twitter (though some might find that hard to believe)

The point I'm making is that there is a risk involved. You can't just say "if they get offended it's on them" because they might e-mail the VP of your company and the VP of your company might see firing you as less trouble than facing controversy.

And if there's one lesson I've learned in life its that no amount of proof reading will keep you from offending some people. So that point's moot.

You can talk to friends and family without making it public.

Increasingly, you can't. I understand your decision to avoid making your own comments public as a rule, but once you've said something to someone, it may go public through their use of twitter, facebook, et al. As more people start lifelogging and vlogging, it will become likely that you're effectively in public at any time, even in the "privacy" of a friend's home or your own.

People get offended way to easy and overreact.

People suck.

Hey, I'm people. Sure, I'm a little round in the middle, I'm graying, and I could stand to workout once in a while. I'm starting a program to revitalize myself and fix those problems. Someone in your position as a person should think twice about offending us...people.

I see your point, although I include myself when I say "people suck".

This is a ten month old article and comments that robustly argued both sides of the situation. How is this news, let alone hacker news?

Is "Because I'd never seen it and I found it interesting" an answer you'd accept? (I'm not the one who posted it btw)

What a jerk (the person with the long overblown complaint letter, of course).

It's not difficult to squirm out of this particular case. "I couldn't live here." Such a statement imparts neither a positive nor negative reaction. It's easy to turn around on the offended party: "Why would you assume an insult?". With Twitter's character limit, it's unwise to read to far into something lacking much context.

He didn't say "I couldn't live here", he said "I would die if I had to live here!" which I don't think can be considered a neutral statement.

Regarding the squirming, He'd likely be better off by apologizing for making a stupid statement.

this illustrates the biggest problem with the culture in the USA today. people are too god damn sensitive. people "get offended" by something as stupid as a twitter post. twitter, good god! what is next???

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