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'The Room Had Started To Smell. Really Quite Bad': Stephen Fry Exits Twitter (betanews.com)

Mark Wilson writes: For a man so readily associated with words — and certainly for a wordsmith so enamored with technology — Twitter seems like something of a natural home for Stephen Fry. Over the years he has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, but last night he closed his account. Fry's latest exit from Twitter (there have been several over the last few years for numerous reasons) came about because of the backlash he received for making a joke at an award ceremony. Hosting the BATFAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) on Sunday, he referred to costume designer and award winner (and, indeed, friend) Jenny Beavan as being 'dressed as a bag lady'. 'Offended' Twitter users attacked Fry in their droves, and he fought a valiant battle, before eventually giving up and terminating his account. It comes just days after Twitter set up a new Trust & Safety Council.

5 of 305 comments (clear)

  1. This is why Twitter is "write only" for me by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I work in a job where (as a "thought leader") I'm supposed to tweet regularly, but I never, ever find time to read anything from Twitter. It's a write-only assignment as far as I'm concerned - it could be /dev/null for all I know or care.

    I'll bet there are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people like me out there too, all dumping regularly scheduled 140-character tweets into a space probably half populated with advertiser's bots using keyword-based algorithm to retweet, favorite and react to my stuff, all for the benefit of even more robots.

  2. Re:Will Twitter's destruction wake anyone up? by Kohath · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If you're using the phrase "SJW"

    Versus what? What's the correct term?

  3. Hopefully a trend by wjcofkc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am no social media guru, but I am seeing a slow trend toward abandoning social media. I myself eradicated my facebook account several years ago. Why? So much endless bullshit and a total waste of time. From there I migrated to a young, sparsely populated Google+. It was good for awhile. A few weeks ago I deleted my G+ account. Why? So much bullshit and a total waste of time. Never had a twitter account and never will. I will admit that I am as of recently on Diaspora, and while I have reservations of it turning into so much shit, it is actually pretty easy to tune out what you don't want and most people only post casually and not so frequently since there is no model for a popularity contest in place. It's decentralized, federated model is pretty unique to. Yet I suspect that at some time in the future I will abandon it over... so much bullshit. I know a lot of people from many walks of life who, reluctantly, dropped social media. I know the likes of Facebook and Twitter have massive user bases, but it is a start and the citizens of the internet like trends. Social media is a blight on human civilization, I can only hope that at some point it will in fact come to an end.

    --
    Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
  4. Politically correct bullies at it again by AbRASiON · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You know, the same group which is anti-harassment, the SECOND you cross these motherfuckers they will hound the shit out of you, doxx you, try their darndest to hurt you (normally your place of employment) etc.
    Say something they disagree with and instead of them saying "fuck you cunt" they say, what I think is much worse, lies : "you're a racist!" "you're a homophobe!" etc, they'll try to spin things about you which are obviously not positive things (I'm not endorsing racism / homophobia)

    There is an endless race it seems to be the most politically correct, it's quite literally (literally!) the current 'fad' right now. Who can be the most offended? Who has the most empathy? It's ME! It's ME! (stamps foot!) I am the one who cares the most about .
    Thing is, there's nothing inherently wrong with being for peoples rights, obviously. It's the methodology used, the cultish "with us or against us, outright!" attitude, the censorship of those who don't just disagree but dare to even begin to ask questions.
    Furthermore, I'm truly not convinced a lot of these people actually believe all this, DEEP DOWN. On the surface they do but they don't know why. I get the impression many of the people in the extremist PC group are white, straight and somewhat well off.

    I see it on my facebook feed, I can think of 2 people out of my mere 55 friends who have both made a point of posting pro gay rights stuff or chiming in on other topics which I know for a FACT these people have said quite harsh things about these groups previously and not that long ago.

    To wind back on topic, poor Stephen Fry thinks twitter is fully of bullies, the same dipshits (or similar dipshits) who abused him off of twitter will again, point their fingers and angrily shout "see it's bullies!! we need even more politically correct tools, censorship, filters and algorithm based tweets to hide these angry people" not seeing the irony of the behaviour within many of the extremist PC ranks.

    Honestly I tire of it. Try and have a rational discussion with them though and sooner or later they'll find the ammo to label you something or other awful.

  5. Re:Will Twitter's destruction wake anyone up? by ooloorie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    SJW means person on the internet with whom I Disagree.

    No, "SJW" means someone who has made social justice their cause. The term "social justice warrior" started out as a positive self-identification. It acquired its negative connotations because of the way social justice activists behaved while wearing that moniker.

    Of course, the part that is really offensive about "social justice" and its activists is their misuse of the term "justice"; what they are advocating isn't "justice", it is oppression and totalitarian government, often driven by selfish motives.

    Rather than debate the meaning and origin of the term "SJW", it's easier just to call these people "social justice activists" and then call out their hypocrisy and condemn them and their activism.