This is not Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.
The quote from the Big Lebowski is meant to provide some emotional context. Last night I, through friends of twitter friends, learned that Andrew Baron of Rocketboom “fame” decided that he wanted to conduct an experiment[sic]. The premise being that he was going to delete his Twitter account so rather than just delete it, he would sell it on ebay to the highest bidder. He covers his ass nicely in the description saying the followers that you purchase may abandon you after you win. He has every right ( I believe ) to do this and therefore my outrage is not with the act of selling the account so much as the public support and defense of it.
I have grown weary of the latest generation of marketers. They are crafty wordsmiths, self promoting hucksters that wear no badge of reason, duty or honor. They live by one principal: make the sale whatever the cost. The notion of shameless self promotion and branding has reached a point that there is literally no consequence what-so-ever for any action proposed or taken these days and passing up a few dollars because it may be the “right” thing to do is seen as ignorant.
Why get my panties in a bunch over this (something someone accused me of) when it seems common place on the internet? Easy. Because I have a brain capable of original thought and if I see someone muddy the waters of a community that I’ve come to respect and honor I call them on the carpet! Everyone wants to be so conciliatory to others and not step on toes and not call someone a douche nozzle when they are clearly being one but not me. NOT ME! I’m mad as hell and I’m NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! Sure, people can “unfollow” or block Andrew, that’s not the point! The point is that self promotion and marketing spin has given a man a pass his actions. Just by calling it an “experiment” he’s free to perform an action that is in no WAY an actual experiment!!! It’s not an experiment if the answer is obvious. YOU KNOW what would happen. This isn’t an experiment but another marketing stunt to cater to the lowest common denominator yet again. Calling unethical behavior an experiment is a cop out rationalization. Keep producing nothing, marketers. Keep shitting in my mouth and calling it a sundae. Keep calling it a community when what you REALLY mean is market segment or demographic.
I’ve heard the internet equated to the wild west and I think that’s unfair… to the wild west. In the wild west if you shot a man in the back it was an act of extreme cowardice. On the internet, you’d shoot your self in the foot if you thought some retard would give you 5 dollars for it. I suppose it’s easy to be cavalier about community when you’d easily toss them on the market to the highest bidder. You can call it what you want, friends, I’m calling it marketing spin. I’m calling it out on the carpet as an unethical move.
Feel free to dismiss me, marketers, as I’m sure you will. Just know that there’s at least one blow-hard asshole out there who isn’t going to take everything you promote and spin at face value and when you need to be told that you’re being unethical I have no problem speaking up. That’s what communities do. That’s what friends do. They tell you when you’re wrong. Now, man up and admit it. I’ll leave you with Bill Hicks who’s rage seems to mirror my own today:
I have grown weary of the latest generation of marketers. They are crafty wordsmiths, self promoting hucksters that wear no badge of reason, duty or honor. They live by one principal: make the sale whatever the cost. The notion of shameless self promotion and branding has reached a point that there is literally no consequence what-so-ever for any action proposed or taken these days and passing up a few dollars because it may be the “right” thing to do is seen as ignorant.
Why get my panties in a bunch over this (something someone accused me of) when it seems common place on the internet? Easy. Because I have a brain capable of original thought and if I see someone muddy the waters of a community that I’ve come to respect and honor I call them on the carpet! Everyone wants to be so conciliatory to others and not step on toes and not call someone a douche nozzle when they are clearly being one but not me. NOT ME! I’m mad as hell and I’m NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE! Sure, people can “unfollow” or block Andrew, that’s not the point! The point is that self promotion and marketing spin has given a man a pass his actions. Just by calling it an “experiment” he’s free to perform an action that is in no WAY an actual experiment!!! It’s not an experiment if the answer is obvious. YOU KNOW what would happen. This isn’t an experiment but another marketing stunt to cater to the lowest common denominator yet again. Calling unethical behavior an experiment is a cop out rationalization. Keep producing nothing, marketers. Keep shitting in my mouth and calling it a sundae. Keep calling it a community when what you REALLY mean is market segment or demographic.
I’ve heard the internet equated to the wild west and I think that’s unfair… to the wild west. In the wild west if you shot a man in the back it was an act of extreme cowardice. On the internet, you’d shoot your self in the foot if you thought some retard would give you 5 dollars for it. I suppose it’s easy to be cavalier about community when you’d easily toss them on the market to the highest bidder. You can call it what you want, friends, I’m calling it marketing spin. I’m calling it out on the carpet as an unethical move.
Feel free to dismiss me, marketers, as I’m sure you will. Just know that there’s at least one blow-hard asshole out there who isn’t going to take everything you promote and spin at face value and when you need to be told that you’re being unethical I have no problem speaking up. That’s what communities do. That’s what friends do. They tell you when you’re wrong. Now, man up and admit it. I’ll leave you with Bill Hicks who’s rage seems to mirror my own today:
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Here are some silly little facts about this This is not Nam. This is bowling. There are rules....
It was written by Leon 3 months ago.
It has 4115 letters in it.
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It has a total of 4 comments in all.
So far Zach Dorman has the last word!
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A friend sent a link to your article today. I would love to just write "I totally agree with you" but named friend would assess this to be comment spam :-). So I will spent some time for on a decent comment:
My first thoughts:
There are people thinking like me.
There are people who are able to rouse themselves and rant about important stuff and not only code (opps... erm... yes! Good code is important :-) ).
And:
Your article reminded me of something a heard a couple of weeks before:
I went to a presentation by Amy Hoy* on webstock** where she talked about "Usability for EVIL" stating that "[Marketing is] ... using technology to create behavior change, compliance, motivation, attitude change, change in world views." I think this is a very good example for something like that. The real danger is that this is (self-)marketing without being labelled as "advertisement" and it is not viewed as "advertisement" by the audience. It is just "consumed".
Thanks!
P.S. As you anticipated above: people will say: "Get real! You liberal leftist (or whatever else might come up with)! ". I just say: Thank you for sharing :-).
P.P.S What is a Wii?
P.P.S English is my second language!
* www.slash7.com/
** www.webstock.org.nz/
Disclaimer: Nobody paid me for this comment or the links in it.