The Seth Godin Brazen webcast was today. I’ve decided that with the death of Elizabeth Post this week, we should acknowledge something:
People are rude!
Yes, the webinar started late, but unless people have the inability to multitask at all, why be so ugly? And I know people were bummed, but really, it was still about a 45-minute interview. That’s better than CNN and Oprah spots. I was shocked by some of the rude comments:
“I’m going to get fired because of this, start on time people”
“Waste of time and time is money”
“You people who keep saying to chill clearly have no where to be at 2”
“What a waste”
“This is really unacceptable!”
“Seems like a spammy way to get twitter info an sign up with vokle”
“this is crap”
“buh bye”
Just because you may not know the speakers personally, do you have the right to be a jerk?
There were plenty of communications trying to explain they were having technical difficulties. Sometimes, it’s unavoidable. You all have been there, don’t deny it. The sad thing is most of the negative comments had people’s first/last/twitter/blog names associated with the comments. Additionally, people were really being mean who were hiding behind anonymity (as mean people usually do).
I’m not going to go into how it looks for a company or community when there’s some difficulty that disappoints customers. Most people know those basic ideas. I think those of us who are really tied to the BC community were disappointed to see even some of our members acting that way.
If you aren’t paying for something, when do you get to start being a jerk?
I guess those impatient people are the same non- indisposable workers Seth Godin talked about.
.-= Christina Brown´s last blog ..It’s My Party and I Can Party if I Want To =-.
Well said Christina!
I was assimilating my thoughts on the amazing, inspiring ideas that Penelope Trunk & Seth Godin shared (not comfy referring to both of them by first name) while going through the chat comments on Vokle, and the same thoughts you’ve expressed here were running through my head.
Your last question holds true in so many contexts. Brands who give out freebies and treat you badly when you follow up to know why it hasn’t been delivered. Restaurants who give you bad service when they know you’re there with a huge coupon to pay the check with. This is from the free service / product giver side.
From the other side: rude comments from listeners when they see delays in a free webinar. It surprises me that people opt to be rude even when they’re signing up for something that’s not costing them anything! Doesn’t quality deserve respect in itself?! Grow up people!!
Sabera, your note about restaurants got me thinking of my time being a waitress: I always tried to be sunny and helpful, even when I saw a table left me no tip on a gift certificate. I wanted to be the better person. Others just can’t do it. After a number of no tips and making $2.13, you probably get rude…and then it becomes a cycle. It’s awful, and it’s hard to break. I know with the webinar, the streams were going so quickly, those of us trying to help were getting batted down by the other 500 people…I know I did a rant, and it may not be grown up, but still…I agree with you, I wanted to shout Grow Up!
Yeah I thought the same thing as I was reading the comments… And in reality the content was so great that even if you only got 15 minutes of it because you had to go to another meeting you still would have been better off – people should just leave the window open and get back to work – when you start to hear talking – then you can pay attention. I guess a 20 minute “dip” was all those people could handle before they gave up and moved on…
Chris, I know there were people who were somehow totally enraptured about how much work they were missing! I know I pay attention as part of being in BC, and trying to be a “man on the ground” for them. But even I could have ignored it and done other stuff…people who weren’t trying to help BC, same to them. Thanks for the comment!
I totally agree. I’m sure the people running the event felt bad about starting late, but (1) it was still a great interview, (2) i’m sure for most people, it was well worth the wait, and (3) it only went 15 minutes over the scheduled time. These rude people need to get a grip.
.-= Matt Jacobson´s last blog ..The Runner’s Rule Book =-.
Thanks Matt, it is helpful to put things in perspective, right?
Unfortunately, these things happen. What’s important in these situations is communication, and it sounds as if Brazen did what it could. We’ve all been in similar situations, and we always hope people will understand. Some of us forget about that when the pressure’s on someone else.
I wish I could have seen Godin’s webinar, but the only Internet access I have at my current job is on my phone. I hope someone enjoyed it; I’m sure it was awesome.
.-= Jake LaCaze´s last blog ..Take Your Share of the Blame =-.
Jake, I know that I’ve had the horrible experience of technical failures. If anything, so much fails, we should be used to it. Yes, you’d think we’d be able to fix it faster, but it’s a lesson we all learn as we continue to go more remote: sometimes, it just takes time.
Hopefully the recording will go here with the others: http://www.brazencareerist.com/video
This is a thoughtful post. It is SOOOOO very easy to hide behind a keyboard to spew venom about one thing or another – but how those “jerks” choose to handle adversity says more about their character than they’d ever want to admit. I’m certain though that people who have been as successful as Seth or Penelope have learned to ignore the clutter and focus on what is relevant and intelligent. – @chrisfleek1
Hi Chris, it is easy to hide behind the keyboard. We all think there’s some kind of safety there. And then all the people who are up in arms over silly things, it is just noise. Successful people deal with it all the time, so they must be pretty powerful at tuning things out. And it shows that people like that also have great confidence. Thanks for the comment!
Nice rant, Emily.
You’re right that this kind of behavior is unacceptable. There’s nothing you can do if something starts late, complaining won’t make things start sooner, and many times, things are out of our control.
The other week when #PRStudChat was being held. Twitter, TweetChat and other similar platforms weren’t working properly. The chat had to be rescheduled and not one person complained, or became angry. There was a lot of understanding that these things happen and in these situations, you have to roll with the punches. Anger and rudeness only put a damper on things and from what I was reading from people tweeting about the webinar, a lot of great content was coming out of it.
Cheers,
Rich
.-= Rich Pulvino´s last blog ..rpulvino: The movie Tommy Boy should be the orientation video for every sales job in the world http://bit.ly/d3laUj =-.
Hey Rich, yeah, I don’t usually rant like this. I even waited and re-read to take it down a few notches. Thank you for sharing your note about #PRStudChat. I know that when twitter acts up, people don’t like it, but so far, I haven’t seen crazy jerk behavior about it. There was great content, it’s too bad people would have missed it because of being so angry instead of patient.
I didn’t see the comments but it actually makes me curious about the people complaining:
1) Complainers: Why such a high level of anger? Angry people in general, were their feelings of entitlement or were they just really eager to hear the webinar and were terribly disappointed they might be able to participate?
2) Internet behavior: What is it about the medium of internet that people feel free to express every emotion when they would never be screaming these words at another person directly? There is something about a person sitting at a computer, not immediately in front of someone else, that causes some people to act out in order to express their feelings of frustration. It’s like they think no one is listening so they shout. The immediacy of Twitter, chat & SMS mediums cause people to send messages that they might not sent if they had a 10 second delay.
It’s the sociologist in me.
Ugh! Typos! Should have read my words over.
No worries Liz! And thank you for the larger context. I know that anonymity and the idea that you’re not really personal online seems to be a free pass for some. Plus, the instigators just feed off it! I tried to give myself a delay, too, for this post. I didn’t want to lose what I was thinking in the heat of the moment. You can’t really take it back! Thank you!!
Oh I totally agree- first of all it’s a privilege to be able to listen to Godin speak. We are not entitled to anything at all when that kind of stuff happens.
.-= Dmbosstone´s last blog ..Are You Addicted To Plastic? =-.
Yes Patrick, totally a privilege. Perhaps it’s not just Gen Y that’s entitled, but maybe everyone else is like that now. Maybe we’re all just spoiled…
Amen. I was embarrassed when people I know in person even were complaining about everything from starting late to how Penelope was a “bad” and “rude” moderator. I just wanted to scream “OK then leave the webinar and take your negative thoughts with you!”
.-= Carlee Mallard´s last blog ..3 Reasons To Work For Free =-.
Hi Carlee, I know what you mean. We’ve been watching Penelope Trunk enough to know what to expect. If you didn’t like something, then go! Especially if it’s free! If it cost money, I might have understood. But this was a great opportunity colored by people’s negative comments…
[…] thing happened when Penelope interviewed Seth Godin. People thought Penelope was just some moderator instead of realizing she’s a thought […]
I’ve been on a Brazen webinar before and this was the same scenario. It really bummed me out.
However, I find it interesting that the community that I find on Brazen on a day-to-day basis is anything but. I find them to be helpful, insightful, polite- but direct, and extremely respectful.
We need to remember to have EMPATHY.