What sex on the beach has in common with foolish tweeting

(Edited by Mumbrella because it was mean about Laurel Papworth)

Oh, the irony: Laurel complaining about lines being crossed when she openly trolls people leaving comments on her own site.

Great analogy and insight. Thanks for a good read.

An issue that could have been raised last night at the very interesting digicits, was drunken tweets – Is that an excuse?

I read you fairly regularly Tim, and only sometimes think it was time well spent, however today is insightful, valuable, and retweetable. Thanks.

Excellent insightful reading. Thank you.

Great piece Tim.

Thanks Tim
First time here and worth the read. Might come again when I get a free moment
Cheers

This is one of your better pieces Tim. Well done! Didn’t spot you last night, hiding in the back were you?

Hi Nehad,

I was indeed there – although I’m not sure you can count it as hiding if I take the mike and ask a question!

Cheers,

Tim – mumbrella

Dr Mumbo – appreciate the desire to get in respectable references like Taleb’s Black Swan, but you’re taking literary license to cheeky new heights! Risking jail by breaking a country’s laws is not even close to a Black Swan event (nor is the repercussions of a person sending an ill-advised tweet).Yes, yes, I’m not meant to take it too seriously, but think of the confused readers!

Stories of Brits going overseas and not respecting the local laws and culture…. that’s been going on for thousands of years.

I actually was bullied via Twitter and it wasn’t a nice experience. I wrote a blog post which some people took offense to, and Twitter was used to marshall the troops for an all out attack… on both Twitter and my blog. It went on for days and was unrelenting. I found out after that I had hit a nerve that had been painful for some time… all I did was vocalise what other people were thinking, but from the flip side of the coin. Someone had an agenda and chose to use my blog/Twitter to vent their spleen. I am a lot more careful about what I post and where (never had an issue until then) and I agree that there really is no freedom of Tweet. I kept the Twitter screen dumps of those who were doing the bullying as JPGs though, just in case!

Great to see cyber bullies getting some of their own.

“As for all this Twitter stuff… why can’t we just go back to diaries? Just get your ass a diary, write that shit down, lock it up. Put it under your bed.” Wanda Sykes

Im on twitter myself… but im beginning to doubt its effectriveness in the area in which I work. the constant spam, the annoying tweets-

“Going to get a bagel!”….

-really? Not something I, or anyone really, would care about…

Ooh good post and reminds people about the traps of twitter, especially if the person on twitter is a public figure or a well known person (in certain industries).

I am not a public figure and I love twitter. I especially love reading funny and witty tweets about – tv shows (qanda, insiders, idol), topical issues (bingle anyone?) etc and politicians (Barnyard etc – ok I am a nerd). These make me laugh and sometimes even make my day (I love to laugh). I don’t like malicious and nasty tweets (like “that person deserves to be dead” etc.) – but most people I follow are very funny & witty people so that is not usually a problem.

Normally I hate twitter rules (twitter can be whatever anyone wants it to be – to a certain degree) but I do have a few personal ones –

One – I never engage in twitter fights with anybody (not worth the time especially if the person is someone you don’t know or don’t follow). Unless you are up to that sort of thing and have the time because I have seen some twitter fights that go on and on for ages and nothing gets resolved. If I see a nasty or confrontational tweet from a total stranger (someone I don’t follow) I just ignore it. If someone I follow posts an opinion that I don’t agree with then I don’t confront them I just make sure I post what my opinion is on twitter (doesn’t happen often). I think the people I follow are entitled to express a differing opinion about something once and a while (just as I am).

Two – I don’t read the @ replies button. If I post something and someone I follow replies back at that time then I acknowledge the tweet by replying back. However if I don’t follow them then I don’t care about the @replies – I don’t know them so I don’t read them.

Three – Don’t talk about your work or anyone work related unless it’s very general or generic – Like woo glad that day is over. If you write something about your work it’s out there in cyberspace – also not a good look.

Four – I have the five strike rule – basically if someone I follow posts or does something on twitter that annoys me about 5 times in a row – then I unfollow them. Everyone you follow on twitter will do something at least once to annoy you but it’s when it becomes consistent that you unfollow them – life is too short. But I am good at picking people to follow as I have hardly had to stop following someone – only the occasional annoying celeb.

Five – take the above twitter rules above with a grain of salt – the above is what I feel comfortable with – you might be entirely different. I use twitter mainly for laughs and funny & witty banter about life. Also I like to see what other people get up to and how they are feeling about certain issues. Other people might have entirely different agendas – that is the beauty of twitter – very flexible.

I will endeavour to read this post at least once every three months.