Comments on: To clarify

By: Pajamas and Coffee » Use Your Powers For Good, Dooce

Pajamas and Coffee » Use Your Powers For Good, Dooce — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:39:54 +0000

[...] blogosphere, and board rooms of certain appliance companies. Other bloggers (including sundrymourning.com) questioned Armstrong’s use of influence and were the recipient of direct messages from [...]

By: sundry

sundry — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:47:09 +0000

I don’t normally close comments, but I think it’s time to do so on this entry. Thanks to everyone who shared their opinion while keeping things things civil.

By: Lorrie

Lorrie — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 04:30:20 +0000

[Lorrie, I'm sorry, I felt this comment was too much of a personal attack to stay posted here. - Linda]

By: susan

susan — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:34:33 +0000

Arriving late to the party (as usual). As a person senstive to phrasing and tone, to *me* had she worded her Tweet just a little differently it may not have struck such a chord. Perhaps it would have been better received if she’d said “I WILL NEVER BUY MAYTAG AGAIN,” vs. “DON’T BUY MAYTAG.” One is a personal choice/rant, the other *could* be interpreted as a call to action. I can see how it rubbed some the wrong way.

By: ginger

ginger — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:25:13 +0000

I really wonder what it’s like for Heather, having so many people willing to “defend” her against any perceived slight? Can she call them off, or are they pretty much self-directed? (Not that I think she did much to call them off this time – I think she kinda stirred ‘em up, actually.)

By: Robyn

Robyn — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 22:37:39 +0000

Don’t all you crazy ladies have some diapers to change or something? I can’t figure out why this even mattered to you, Linda, but hopefully Maytag will replace your appliances for looking out for them. That’s the only motivation I can see from this post.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:09:46 +0000

Liz, yes I was addressing you. Your writing voice and multiple comments have been unremarkably consistent: rude and ill-informed. Heavens, even Heather’s husband complimented Linda on her post and supported her right to engage in debate. Guess you missed that.

Now, since you think ill of Linda and her readers, despite the fact that you couldn’t be bothered reading her post in its entirety or most of the comments, you’re welcome to change the channel. Or you can continue blathering away about a blog you’ve – to paraphrase – “never read and have no interest in.” It’s your time, waste it as you see fit.

By: B

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 19:44:20 +0000

All I can say is freedom of speech; someone can speak, but you don’t have to listen. Just because someone has more of a global audience, does that mean that they have to hold back from speaking their mind? Couldn’t agree with SKL more! It is the responsibility of the audience to remain educated. Either there is alot of truth to Heather’s posts, or there are pretty many ignorant ppl in the world…

By: JennyM

JennyM — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:25:06 +0000

@Laura (8:11 PM)– thank you. Jebus.

Anyway, ah, the wonderful, horrible Internet.

By: Kizz

Kizz — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:25:04 +0000

Now that all the info is out about it and we know that some of your interest comes from the perspective of a company who follows social media comments about its work I want to contribute to the conversation on that level. I hate bad customer service (who doesn’t?), it makes me seethe. It would anyway but, since I worked in customer service in a few different industries, I really try to approach the problem in a kind way and with an understanding approach to a worker who simply doesn’t have access to the tools to help me. I hated it when that was the case for me. Recently I was in a dust up with a communications company on behalf of my boss whose husband had recently died. They were clearly screwing her on a couple of levels and it was my job to fix it. The customer service was abominable. It was so bad that when I got to the highest level of it the supervisor yelled at me. Anyway, neither here nor there but to say that, as I read your argument, I thought about that experience and how poorly I (and my sweet boss) was treated and I tried to imagine if I would have vented on Twitter or Facebook or my blog (I don’t have Twitter, I try very hard not to put job things on the other two) if it had been a personal thing. I sure as heck blogged about Bank of America when the treated me like shit on a shingle personally. Honestly, regardless of how few or how many followers I had I don’t think I could have stopped myself, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have given the full story until I could calm down because it was so ridiculously bad I couldn’t think straight. The pull of the quick release would be too much.

I don’t know if she has a responsibility to be more careful what she says given her job and her following. I do think that she wound up giving Maytag an opportunity for some good publicity and they took it. I also think that everyone (Dooce included) who said that calling her Do Not Buy tweet dangerous was undervaluing the intelligence of her readers has a point. And yet…so do you.

You’re right, it’s a really interesting conversation.