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On Twitter Rants
Next time I will remind myself to think before I tweet.
The conversation, unfortunately, was picked up by some site called Eye on Winer and published. Apparently they are like Dave Winer's personal Valleywag. If I were Dave I would be flattered; they obviously put a lot of energy into this site. I attempted to comment on their post, even registered and tried to post my own comments, but for whatever reason the site refuses to approve my post. OMG really? If you're going to publish my tweets out of context, at least give me the opportunity to express my perspective...right? If not, I felt it needed to be said...so here we are.
So...this needs more than 140 characters so I decided it's time to start my own blog. Yes, I am THAT cantankerous that I will create my own sweet blog, just so my first post can tell the world what some other website doesn't want to publish. This is not rebuttal, not apology, not a withdrawal. It's just my side of things, and hopefully the beginning of a productive conversation. Dave Winer is NOT the point of this post; the point is that the narrow-minded cowards who waste their time on lame Twitter-fights and crap like EOW should really take stock of their priorities and try to do something more noble with their intellect.
If you're interested in the full story, read EOW's post, then continue on with my reply:
I actually had gone back and deleted the "hypocritical" tweet pretty quick as I thought it was off the mark myself. Dave's jeering comments didn't strike me as the kind of thing someone who was concerned with others trashing their "good name" would do...but "hypocritical" was the wrong word. Sorry, Dave.
I've been frustrated with the playground-tiff mentality of the Internet community at large, but I realize now (hindsight, so bittersweet) that jumping into the fray doesn't make things any better. I wish I had stayed out of that garbage. Even though I ordinarily enjoy Dave's writing on scripting.com and (sometimes) his Twitter updates it's my own choice to tune in or not when the shit-talking is going on. I should have just un-followed him as I do so many others, and moved on. Next time I will remind myself to think before I tweet.
I don't think there's any denying that Dave is a brilliant person and I have a ton of respect for him and his accomplishments. None of us would be using the Web in the same way if it wasn't for him. I am just sick to death of the infighting and pissy behavior from these smart, rich, connected people and I wish they would turn their amazing minds to alleviating some of the bigger problems in our world instead of focusing on these narrow-minded catfights.
Only those three tweets were directed to Dave, but they were part of a broader conversation I was trying to initiate. Here is the thread:
Colby Palmer: @davewiner -don't get me wrong Dave- <3 your brilliant work...but maybe piling more trash on the heap doesn't add gloss to a "good name"?
Colby Palmer: Potshots != value; Come on people, you have such amazing minds...sad to see so much petty shit talking. Move on and do some good. My $0.02
Colby Palmer: @davewiner No, and with respect, I don't want to flame. I'm just sick of the sniping/infighting. I'd rather see advances of real thought.
Colby Palmer: @davewiner This includes @spin and @jasoncalacanis. . . not to single you out, but your "good name/eric rice is a dork" rant was hypocritical.
Colby Palmer: I'm really not trying to start fights or be an a-hole, I'm tired of the narrow web culture POV (and [mad at] myself for getting involved)
Colby Palmer: I'm trying to start over with a new perspective...TODAY. Positive groups like Citizen Agency make me realize I've been misusing my talents.
Colby Palmer: My follow-through begins today. A difference will be made. Stay tuned... <3 to you all.
Now the next question I hope you're asking is: what am *I* doing to help the world? As I said, stay tuned...I have made a commitment to this, and I am putting some ideas into action.
This is the conversation I would like to engage the Internet community in: how can we use the collective intelligence of SO many ingenious people to make a bigger difference? I encourage you to take a look at http://citizenagency.com or http://recaptcha.net to see some great examples of people who are trying to do this. They have made me realize my own narrow point of view, and I've been inspired to put my talents to better use.
Here's what I think: if we can figure out how to tie SMS, IM, email and Internet together in a service like Twitter, and develop SO many methods of using this service...surely we can figure out how to do some good with it. Can't we figure out a way to use our incredible minds for something better than Pissing Contest 2.0?
Find me at twitter.com/colbyworld and let me know what you think.
(Note: some of the language has been changed slightly in this post due to a well-thought-out comment that you can read on the comments page.)
Reader Comments:
That’s brilliant. You ask for civility while spending several paragraphs trashing eyeonwiner, sounding like a 15 year old who didn’t get asked out for prom. And by the way, you’ve got a little brown on your nose. Might want to wipe it off.
Point taken, Tom. Your comment is very well thought out and hits the mark perfectly. I shouldn’t answer my own complaint with more of the same.
I have to admit I was fairly steamed about this; it was frustrating to not be able to speak my piece on the EOW site. I had gone back after I cooled off and re-read this post and wanted to change some of the language, but being new to blogging I wasn’t sure if there is a protocol involved in doing so. Is it normal for people to go back and edit their posts in such a way? Maybe if I put a note to that effect at the bottom of the post? That’s what I’ve gone ahead and done. If I broke some unspoken rule of bloggery, please let me know in the comments that I’ve gone and put my foot in my mouth again. 
Mark: I was going over this ground as you left your comment. I agree that *I* was being hypocritical. Moving on.
I had to laugh when I read your response.
The truth is, what inspired me to comment on your post in the first place was the fact that I don’t have a blog for roughly the same reason. I’ve always considered it but what I did to test myself was to spend two weeks blogging like I normally would but instead of posting the entries I wrote them in word and saved them. Then, a couple weeks later, I went back and read the posts.
What I found was that a good 1/3rd of the posts were reactionary opinions that didn’t really reflect how I felt at all (sort of like the original version of this post). That’s when I decided to just go without a blog of my own.
The truth is, while I’m with you on civility in the blogosphere I’m not sure how possible it is. The problem with blogs is that you come into contact with a lot of idiots and when responding to those idiots is just a click away its easy to get carried away in the moment.
By the time you calm down and come to your senses its on Techmeme with 50 responses…
First let me just say that it was wrong for EyeOnWiner not to post your response. At least if it was a conscious decision.
That said, if you really want to start a “movement of civility” you probably shouldn’t use terms like “vacuous hate-blog site” or “narrow-minded cowards” or “EOW’s shortsighted post”.
It’s easy to be civil to those you like but if you want to promote civility that means resisting the temptation to take pot-shots at those you don’t like. Or in other words, a post decrying petty insults shouldn’t be peppered with the author’s own petty insults
As far as EyeonWiner is concerned, I read it and I think you are unfair to the contributors in your post. If the site was one that says “Dave Winer Sucks!” or “Dave Winer is Fat” I would whole heartedly agree with you but the site actually goes out of its way to quote text and reference previous events when making their points. It can certainly be mean-spirited at times and I wish that wasn’t there but I certainly don’t think Dave Winer is above valid criticism.
Plus Dave Winer is a very mean man at times despite his contributions. In fact, he was mean to you in the very tweets that you posted above. I think it helps to have a site that puts that into perspective. If anything I think the site reflects well on Dave Winer in that it allows people who have been attacked by him to realize that he has a pattern of flying off the handle and that his attack probably doesn’t mean he hates them personally.
(For the record I’m not the same Tom who posted a comment there though I do agree with the comment that Tom posted)
My intention honestly wasn’t to attack you and if it comes across that way I apologize. The point I’m really trying to make is that posts like the one you made above are exactly what causes incivility online. No one WANTS to get in an argument but people get in arguments because they allow themselves to abandon civility in talking with people they dislike. That causes those they dislike to respond in kind (see EyeonWiner’s most recent post) and suddenly you have a flame war.