If I was in her position I would have emailed first because there is no need to flog people publicly when a polite private email would do.

I think something to remember though is the kind of immature-playground-slagging-off-type-tweets are often laughed at by other members of the web community, so the silly buggers get what’s coming to them. Particularly if they are a business it certainly lacks professionalism.

I don’t understand where the negativity comes from, people can’t seem to wait to shout at the top of the lungs how crap something is but in real life you wouldn’t do it. If you have an issue with a business/product/service you go back to the place where you bought it and politely talk over the issue, you wouldn’t immediately go ranting out in the street telling every single person you come across how rubbish Business X or Y is.

It’s not fair because in my opinion you should judge an individual/business/website not by your complaint but how they resolve that complaint.

Being a dick on Twitter isn’t big and it certainly isn’t clever! I’m really glad you put this down on digital paper!

1. It doesn’t differentiate between negative public comments pertaining to people or groups of people.

I disagree in that whomever should be allowed to publicly express their opinion about a cause, company, brand, product or coorporation in the same way that they are allowed to advertise and make themselves heard through the same channels.

2. It states the obvious about being polite and respectful when applied to persons.

When people, their opinions, blogs or other extentions of their own person is the topic, expressing yourself should be no different to speaking about people in general. Be it in a bar, in the newspaper or face to face.

3. It doesn’t differentiate between hurtful badmouthing and constructive criticizm, where the prior undesireable but still a problem in just about any virtual or physical arena, and the latter is what makes the world move forward.

But seeing as “backstabbing” is the word used here, I would suppose you are referring to Internet bullying of persons specifically. In which case I definately agree we should all be nice to each other, both on- and offline.

It’s more like someone having their own TV show on a small cable channel and saying that something is defective.

You lot might not like it, but they have no obligation to tell you direct that something is up, except perhaps if there’s a security implication.

Stop your whining!!!1one!

Oh, and Ryan… is it really back-stabbing? Considering they owe you nothing and have no allegiance to you? No, it’s not. You just don’t like being criticized publicly.

Get over it AND yourself.

Made a mistake and you were called out on it? Fix it and twitter it out. The media works both ways. Times change and you can’t expect things to stay the same. Some folks think it’s common decency to call or meet in person instead of email or text. Again, times change.

You can’t take things TOO personal. If you do you have to realize that what you read may not be exactly what was meant to be typed. What sounds reads like a jerk comment may have been a normal comment.

Just my thoughts…

What that I hear, I don’t know it’s very faint. Oh, it’s the world’s smallest violin playing a melancholic tune.

One thing who the hell are you? Nobody! You probably have 800 followers & are on 10 Twitterlists (including the 5 your mom made for ya) Two, Im ranked 22nd in the World http:/################ for a reason & am followed by educated people who learned how to use Twitter. out of courtesy I have blocked who this person is. The point is when you try to let people know without openly bashing them this is what you get I should have just ripped this guy a new one on twitter. But then who would be the bigger A##whole. People are rude mean and only care about themselves and how it serves me. Hate to say it twitter is and has become a Me universe. Look at Paris Hilton or Kim Kardash if they are not selling you on there newest line of $%&%$$@ they have nothing to say.

And of course, as with email, any communication in text is going to have a certain lack of inflection, especially a medium as inherently brusque as Twitter. All the more reason for haters and people with issues to take it elsewhere, really. But where’s the line between a joke and a dig at someone’s cred? Familiarity between the users (“well it’s ok because my friend said it”)? Whether or not something is intended as constructive, even if it comes across as not nice? (FYI – No intended discredit of you, Josh Walsh, especially without context for whatever accidental incident you feared may have occurred. Just pointing out a common type of miscommunication, or some people’s backpedaling cover of a not-so-nice comment.)

Also, in terms of dealing with organizations, I believe it’s better for the community at large that there are people willing to call them out publicly. To a point. You can only see the same “OMG RACKSPACE IS DOWN LOVE IS OVER” post before it gets really old. How companies handle these situations really illustrates the maturity of the company. Are they out in the public stream to soapbox and not respond to any feedback, or only positive feedback (immature, frustrating, a net loss for the company)? Or to respond to feedback quickly and honestly whether positive or negative (mature, satisfying, always a gain even when dealing with complaints)?

PS – I love you ralphie.

It’s slightly off topic but ‘plagiarism’ witch hunts have really angered me recently.

On flickr a girl had taken a photo that was similar to someone else’s, but no way near identical…

(I suspect there are quite a few photos of girls sat on the floor pulling yoga-esque poses..)

i noticed someone make a sarcy comment about how ‘original’ it was, and within an hour or so there was a hailstorm of ignorant, malicious comments slating her. The net result being she’s stopped posting to the site.

There seem to be a disturbing number of loud mouthed warmongers out there who have no grasp of probability or what plagiarism actually means.

Of course genuine plagiarism is unforgivable.. but bloody hell there’s lot of people out there in this world. Unless you’re idea’s very complex or groundbreaking chances are someone out there came up with it independently… and even Calculus and the jet engine were independently invented by different people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_multiple_discoveries

And with design where does fashion fit into it all? How many people have to copy something before it becomes a trend and acceptable / encouraged?!

I do agree with you about the fail tweets, Aaron says it perfectly: “If you’re not willing to walk up to someone and say, “FAIL”, then don’t do it on Twitter.” In my opinion people should be more aware of what they are saying.

It’s not like people are going around saying to somebody “Hey, your work is great!”, and the next minute saying to the same person “All your work is awful, how could you possibly think that it was in any way good?” – or is this the case?

Agreed, there are people who will purposely go out of their way to cause conflict, but usually everything that these people say will tend to be the same every time, negative and non-constructive.

When a person can be identified for doing just this, it’s at that point that their opinion starts to become less important and can simply be disregarded.

I’m not sure how you can categorise these people, but calling them a ‘backstabber’ doesn’t seem like the correct term to use.

I am fairly new to this community and I know well how to filter childish twitter remarks. Some are just really jealous. Everybody deserves respect, doesn’t matter if it’s Microsoft or John-Around-The-Corner Table Designs. In the end you get what you give.

Do you want to be remembered as somebody who pointed out the error/mistake or came up with a solution and might just make a new friend in the process? Simple.

http://twitter.com/joshwalsh/status/10838370381
http://twitter.com/joshwalsh/status/10840724726

Twitter by it’s nature is rather blunt. I hope you didn’t mistake my constructive criticism as “backstabbing.” If you did, my apologies.

Isn’t Twitter a tool for voicing your opinion, after all that’s why 99% of people are actually signed up.

I see it almost as a soap box where you can say what you like, but should expect to be heckled now and again.

You can’t expect to voice an opinion and have the entire audience nod their head in agreement every time.