Thursday, May 12, 2011

Remember to Blog Responsibly!


OK, I admit it.

I'm old.

You young whippersnappers with your Tweets and your Internets and You Tube and such.....you just confuse me.

I don't Tweet because I don't think anything I'm doing RIGHT NOW is just so damn interesting that you or anyone else would need or want to know about it.

I don't Facebook because everyone I want to talk to is either living in the same house with me or available via telephone or email when I need to communicate.

It mystifies me as to why anyone would want to publish private info like a birthday, likes and relationship status on the Internet. Anyone can see it. Forever.

Forget the stories about employers not hiring people because of what was on their Facebook page. Forget the stories about employers firing people because of pictures on Facebook.

Whatever you put out there in the cyberworld is there forever.



I vividly recall when email became the new "IN" thing in the business world. My employer actually published guidelines on how to write and send an email. I wish I had saved the booklet.

It contained priceless stuff like "write your email formally as if you were writing a business letter" and "never send an angry email; instead, save it and come back the next day to make sure it still makes sense". Oh, and the very important "facial expression and voice tone do not translate well in an email. You might mean to be funny but the recipient might be offended."

I guess no one had invented "lol" yet.

Anyway, there have been some very public disputes lately in the gold blog community. I'm not going to re-hash them or link them here. If you are reading this email I'm sure you linked here at some point from one of these sites.

One blogger is miffed about a program another blogger started that seemed to flame out or fail somehow. Another blogger jumps in to defend one party or the other. Soon after, yet another blog pipes in defending the first one.

The reason I don't get Facebook and Twitter is the very same reason these disputes are so depressing.

Privacy.



My generation believed in discussing things "man to man" (or "face to face" if the masculine image is somehow not PC here).

Have a problem with your boss? Don't email him. Knock on the door, go inside and talk it out. Have trouble with your gf or bf? Don't break up on Twitter--go out, discuss it and if you have to end the relationship, do so with some dignity.

Some things should just be said privately. If I have a problem with a blogger's topic, I really think about the comment process. I still don't "email mad".  (Most of the time) If my comment looks like it is going to rile someone up then I hit "cancel" and send an email. Or, I don't comment at all.

Today I broke that rule and made a public comment on a blog. I thought I was defending a fellow blogger who I perceived had been disparaged by name. I felt a public slight should be called out publicly.

That was wrong of me. I should have handled it privately. I let my emotions get the best of me and only made things worse.



If you are reading this and you know who you are, please accept my apologies. I have already sent emails but wanted to address this topic, well, on a bigger scale.

So, next time you get ready to Tweet or Facebook or whatever you young folks do give it a second. Wait. See if your comment really advances the discussion or only becomes a diversion into a new, unintended and horribly wrong direction.

Had I taken my own advice I don't think this whole issue would have blown up.

13 comments:

  1. Well put Kammler.

    Sometimes, things get misunderstood and/or folks just plain out hate. I am sure you remember this one...

    Alto vs. WoW Blogging

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  2. Reposted to add a bit for clarification:

    Heh, not blog related but basically I decided to start googling old usernames I used on forums back when I was, like, 12 and . . . yeah, I wish I could just scour some of that crap off the internet. Definitely has me thinking about what I put out there lately.

    I do want to thank you for defending me today when you thought it was right. Regardless of the context, I'm happy to know there are people out there who will defend people they feel have been wronged. =]

    On the one hand, there is taking sides, which I feel is what leads to all the drama. But I believe that's fundamentally different from standing up for a friend or setting the record straight on something, and I think that if everyone asks themselves which of these two they're partaking in before hitting Post Comment there'd be a lot less drama! :D

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  3. @ Jerry: Thanks. I had forgotten the post you linked. I actually had a post ready to go after that whole incident and never got around to finishing it. Perhaps if I did.....

    @ Faid: Thanks for your comments. I believe I would have made the same public defense posting mistake even if I didn't like the blogger whom I considered "defamed".

    In your particular case, I love your blog. You put a ton of work into your tips, videos take a huge amount of work and you are as passionate about helping people as you are successful. Good qualities all.

    When one deals in predictions, one is by certainly going to have misses as well as hits. the key when one misses, IMO, is that one says "hey, sorry bout that--here's a better way to look at it" or "here's a corrected tip."

    You hit more than you miss, and when you do miss, you say so, and why. You are responsible for your tips and I like that.

    Keep up the good work.

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  4. It's vent on your blog day today! God that felt good....

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  5. @ Alto: in case you're wondering, it was good for me too, lol.

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  6. It saddens me when grown adults have feuds over the internet...such a waste of time.

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  7. This. One thousand times this.

    Thank you for writing this post. I keep reminding myself blogging is often done by amature writers. This doesn't excuse immature behavior.

    Common sense dictates that while discussing something in a public forum you'd do well to be on your best behavior.

    Maybe it's just my marketing/PR background talking.

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  8. What to say in reply...

    "I approve this message. and the replies"

    Without going into in depth review and analysis... Yep, I agree with you and have been guily of crossing that line in so many ways on so many occasions...

    Live and let live...

    Live and learn...

    Live and let die...

    Discresion is the greater part of valor...

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  9. You admit that you're "Old" and then you post a comic that has test so small that even my reading glasses don't make it clear? I clicked on it figuring it would expand into a new window... well, into a new window it went - at exactly the same small size. I started squinting with my reading glasses but gave up on the 2nd panel.

    Yea, I'm old too... lol

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  10. errr... text so small... dag nabbit keyboard screwed up again... ;-)

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  11. @Matt haha

    @Kamm Interesting blog.
    This is an important post. I agree with what you say to an extent at the same time if it's a discussion, it's okay to speak your mind, even if it goes against every other blogger. Why? Because the gold community's view is way too lopsided. I wrote a post about the three views that i've observed and which one i've chosen to follow (Flux wooot woot!!). The ones that share that view are the ones I’ll support the most.

    I will question things if I feel like it, but i'll most likely do it on my blog. I’ll write without mentioning names and if people feel targeted, so be it. I don't flame, I don't enjoy complaining about other gold makers, but some just don't fit my way of looking at things and they'll be used as examples when I write about the "right" way to look at things.

    It's all psychology. I love it. Have fun, learn from interacting with various people. Internet or face to face doesn’t matter. Some things are universal. Never put yourself down for speaking your mind! We need to do it from time to time, even if it is in public.

    Tweet arguments is a very childish story that I just laugh at. I might unfollow someone if I can't laugh at it, which means it’s too sad, even for mel, haha.

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  12. Thanks for this.

    Don't forget to forgive yourself too, we all fail or mess up sometimes.

    It's sometimes hard to hang on to your dignity when really you just want to poke the other person in the eye. But boy would I feel stupid if I treated my entire life like /trade chat or a playground, and then turned out to be mistaken!

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    ReplyDelete