Blogger Incites Outcry Over Twitter Harassment
CNet is reporting that one blogger has started an outcry about harassment as it applies to Twitter. While their written stance appears to support the safeguarding of abuse, Twitter appears to be waffling on the issue when it comes to the hard line of enforcement. "The final response to Waldman's complaint from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone asserted that "Twitter is a communication utility, not a mediator of content," and that "Twitter recognizes that it is not skilled at judging content disputes between individuals. Determining the line between update and insult is not something that Twitter, nor a crowd, would do well. Stone added that Twitter's team would continue talking about which situations were appropriate for account banning."
Oh, the other Twitter.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
People really take this shit seriously. Why can't they just say `we don't care. If you think you're being harassed, go to the police. We make no changes to our code, or messages sent over it, without a court order. If you don't like it - stop using our service.`.
Its a free service after all. If you don't like it then don't use it. Their TOS from TFA seem to suggest the same that they have no obligation to remove anything.
http://getsatisfaction.com/twitter/topics/twitter_refuses_to_uphold_terms_of_service
There are many people posting in this thread, some more ardently than others. Good points are dotted here and there. Of particular note are the two replies from Twitter employees. It's interesting how neither of them pull the "we have no obligation according to the TOS" card and how neither of them make any move to discredit the complaint.
Is silence tantamount to agreement, in this case?
What, was Max Power already taken?
There will no doubt be all sorts of threads here about whether Twitter has to remove content, if people are making too big a deal about this, comparisons to Flickr/YouTube/Microsoft(of course), etc... And of course LOTS of conversations about why Twitter is always down.
But to me the real issue here is simple: This will make people say "If that is the way Twitter treats people, I'm moving on".
A community-building site needs its community, otherwise it is just a php script sitting on a server somewhere. Piss off a vocal part of the community and eventually the tide will turn elsewhere.
Now the content of the "Ariel says" comment:
All preserved so that when they try to cover it up, slashdot has a backup.
For context, click Parent.
I assume harassment on Twitter consists of pre-twittering someone's intention of going for a shit?
Or is it being Twit-rolled
When you're dealing with the level of stupid that feels the need to post updates of whatever mundane crap they're doing at every moment of the day you're going to have to expect to attract a large number of other stupids. I'll say that MAYBE twitter really isn't an integral part of the internet, or blogosphere or whatever so much as it is an exercise in self absorbed gobshittery. I guess that's what 'web 2.0' is supposed to be though.
:)
Considering the individual in this case is a 'popular blogger' she should expect some bloody hate mail. I'm sure she gets plenty of lovey dovey crap from her followers as well, and they're all doing their very best to send her emails with smiley faces so she'll feel all good about having a blog and a twitter account.
I for one welcome hatred! That's why I'm not posting this anonymously
I have nothing compelling to say
She's pissed that someone called her a crack-whore looking cunt.
Here's how I see it: She looks like a crack whore, and all this bitching about being called a name makes her a cunt. Meaning: She's a crack whore looking cunt.
She's an 'internet celebrity' (I guess) and decided to use her real information in her accounts. Next, she made her Flickr account known to all, and also posted skanky pictures in it. And when someone called her out on it, she cried.
She could easily stop using it, since it's just ego masturbation anyway. "Look at all the people who care that I'm brushing my teeth!"
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
I've heard of not reading the article, but perhaps you should read the summary. Hint: They're talking about the micro-blogging service.
she is just twitterpated...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
One blogger whining about 'harassment' gets a few supporting comments on her post, and she's 'inciting outrage'?
Must be a web 2.0 thing.
Hm, I don't get your point, really. Twitter is a micro-blogging site, got that. But people post micro-blog postings ( Tweets ) with the intention that someone else will be following those micro-blog posts. That's why I called it a community: people connected to other people.
So if a vocal subset of those people stand by their friends and leave Twitter for WHATEVER reason, the network starts to fall apart - once more people I'm interested in connecting with move elsewhere Twitter will be less interesting to me, and I'm more likely to move, dragging my legion of 29 followers with me...
It's about time you 'fessed up to that.
I have used Linux for nearly eleven years. Not once have I felt that there is a "battle" between Microsoft and Free Software. I agree that Microsoft makes shitty products; that's why I don't use them. It's such a simple thing: I don't like their products and I don't like their business practices so I contribute to neither. If someone does like their products and does use them, I will tell them that I think there are better alternatives if they are interested. If they are not, I wish them well and I celebrate their right (and obligation) to make their own choices and live with the consequences. If this results in their having a worse computing experience than me, it is unfortunate but it is also not my problem.
A big reason why I have so thoroughly enjoyed Linux is because I am not afraid of learning something new. I am always glad to expand my knowledge, especially when something interests me, because I greatly prefer this over ignorance. To me, there are many wonderous things in the world and there is an element of adventure in overcoming something I did not previously understand. So, when I encountered Linux in mid-1997, I read books, man pages, Internet forums, HOWTOs, and pretty much anything I could get my hands on. It absolutely fascinated me, both the elegant design of the system and the philosophy of freedom that was behind it. At the time I kept a Windows 98 partition to play a couple of Windows games; when I noticed that a year went by without me once booting up Windows, I formatted it with an ext2 filesystem and never looked back. I love the design, reliability, and feeling of control that Linux gives me. It does not get in my way. It does not assume that I'm an idiot. If something breaks, it broke for a good reason, it will stay broken until I fix it and when I fix it, it will stay fixed. Linux is easily one of the best things that ever could have happened to my computing experience and my general interest in technology.
However, I do not believe that the average person is going to appreciate these attributes. There is unfortunately a strong anti-intellectual, anti-learning culture, at least in the USA. There exists the idea that the path of least resistance is the secret to a good and happy life, and by extension there is the idea that learning something new is painful and too much work and should be avoided whenever possible. The fact that I believe this to be a lie is not relevant, no matter how much I wish it were. The average person is not going to enjoy the design of Linux or the love of freedom that is behind it. What I am talking about has very little to do with computing, despite the specific application about which I am speaking, but is a general attitude towards life. However much I may disagree with what I consider to be a dehumanizing form of laziness, I must respect that people need to live their own lives the way they see fit. A corporation like Microsoft that promises "it will just work with little to no effort -- now easier to use than EVER!" is always going to appeal to this culture. People who do not wish to expand their knowledge and enjoy the tools they use every day are going to buy into it. To them, it is "the way things are"; to me, they are making their choice and living with the consequences.
If you really think that what you are doing is battling a corporation because you dislike their products and their business practices, it is because you fail to consider and understand the foundation upon which it is built. Microsoft is not the cause of much of anything. In a manner of speaking, the things
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
It would not surprise me to learn that you work for M$ or some kind of PR firm under their hire
That's because it would really make you feel better if you could honestly discover that to be true. You want it to be true, because you're so invested in that fantasy that if you ever admit to yourself that it's a delusion, the psychic pain it will cause will really hurt you. Deep down, you rationally know that, but because you're afraid of the pain that will come with the shame of admitting you've been weaving a paranoid fantasy all this time, you just build up that house-of-cards narrative all the higher. Every comment you read about your own disconnected world view is just another card you're adding to the stack, because you find the habit of defending that broken world view to be - despite being actually badly damaged and damaging - just a case of inertia. You're so latched onto your fiction that your only constructive activity, now, is to add to it... and just make matters worse.
but it does not matter. No one here cares or listens, except to reflect, "Yeah, that's what M$ does to people who bad mouth them."
Except, that's not true, and you know it's not true. That's actually a lie. And you know it. And yet you repeat it, over and over again. I know you won't be able to actually address it such, and that's OK. You do, internally, know it. The only thing that's a shame is that someone who doesn't know better may actually have their reasoned understanding of a given situation on which you comment temporarily delayed, as they spend a little time dissecting your ramblings, and comparing them to reality. You've already decided to waste your life pretending that reality is different than it actually is. It's just unfortunate that your willingness to spend so much time at it - in a vain attempt to make it appear that you're sincere and being honest about it - may drag some other person, however briefly, into your unhappy relationship with reality. Ah, well.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
And before you trot out the "M$ Shill" line, no I don't get paid by Microsoft. I work for the government in my country, and we're encouraged to consider Open Source in our "purchasing" decisions, and in fact we even use it - our IT department even encourages Firefox usage (because, well, IE is bloody difficult to use!) and our government has even proposed RFCs and contributes to Open Source itself.
For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
You, of all people, should realize how absurd it would be to think all these people responding negatively to your stupidities are the same person.
ResidntGeek
Twitter:
You lost me at M$.
That's how angsty thirteen-year-olds label Microsoft.
Just as anti-open source folks call it 'open sores' or label its propenents as filthy, stinking hippies.
You're a pimple on the face of free speech.
Meanwhile, to the other folks... do we need to drag this troll into every discussion of the microblogging software of the same name?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia