Which is to say... making accusations against companies, using forums as the go-to venue to air frustrations and get attention, and air dirty laundry in forums that should be handled between 2 individuals via AIM, ICQ, e-mail or phone.
Whereas forums can be a useful resource in sharing information about less than legit companies or getting the word out when someone's definitely up to no good - or even getting someone's attention when they're not answering your direct contact requests - all the time I see people going overboard with it.
Seems there are a lot of people who come running to a forum first sign of anything amiss whether they really have the evidence to back up the accusations they're about to make or have really sought to address the issue directly with the other parties concerned.
And that can cause serious damage to other webmasters. It's kinda scary to think you can be on vacation for a few days or have some kinda technical issues with your site (and thus linking codes, for example) being down or print out the wrong address on a payout check by accident or something like that and have it mean someone's going to go running off to the biggest audience they can find and start up some horrible rumor.
Do you think some people do this on purpose? Trying to get some bad attention focused on someone that's tickin' em off for whatever reason?
Or because they know it'll get a buttload of attention and so figure they'll get a quicker response since it's aired publicly and thus there's more at stake for whomever they're talking about to respond and remedy whatever the issue is?
Or do people just run to the boards first chance they get because they're such a popular resource and place to be?
Or do they not even consider what the possible effects of presenting hearsay, poorly researched conclusions, or confidential and privileged information are?
I love webmaster boards and what not, but see all the time people abusing them. Much like spam, posting something knowing it'll be seen by tons of people whether or not they're the least it involved with the post concerned, only cuz they know it'll get attention and failing to use a little discretion and better judgement.
Bookmarks