Comments on: Popular blogger ignites uproar over Twitter harassment

Ariel Waldman, a blogger and Pownce employee, claims that microbloggng service refused to take real action after she complained. Abuse to become much bigger issue as Twitter grows.

[GreatGatsbey]

Looks like Evan Williams deconstructed her story. Turns out it's not entirely truthful (?)

http://www.zeldman.com/2008/05/22/a-tweet-too-far/#comment-37320

>>and someone has very carefully painted a picture that has misled many people. (One might ask why Ariel didn?t post the full tweets in order to strengthen her case.)<<

[GreatGatsbey]

Looks like Evan Williams deconstructed her story. Turns out it's not entirely truthful (?)

http://www.zeldman.com/2008/05/22/a-tweet-too-far/#comment-37320

>>and someone has very carefully painted a picture that has misled many people. (One might ask why Ariel didn?t post the full tweets in order to strengthen her case.)<<

[mathowie]

The article states " it would be putting itself in the league of say-anything forums like MetaFilter." which is the community I created and is in my opinion, completely wrong.

We have a very robust set of guidelines and three full time people moderating forums. We spot problem users quickly and remove offensive material immediately. We have an entire area of the site for discussing ettiquette matters between users, and this forum section has been running for over eight of the site's nine years of being online. The site most definitely is not something I would call a "say-anything forum."

I actually had a back-and-forth with Biz Stone of Twitter over this story, asking him why they are so reluctant to police their content (their first response was to say they are merely a communications medium, like the phone company), reminding him that we act pretty quickly to remove posts attacking other members and heard back that the posts themselves weren't deemed harassment so they didn't have to act on it.

[chuck_whealton]

I'm sorry, but I'm tired of hearing the "communications medium" argument. It opens the door to a whole lot of "it's not our problem" while their systems are being used to harrass people.

Same with Google. It's tiring when people can use the same old argument to sit on their lazy hind quarters and do nothing while their systems are used for blatent harrassment.

Charles R. Whealton
Charles Whealton @ pleasedontspam.com

[MGSOLID2]

What ever happen to good old fashion in-person conversation or by phone? What do you expect--folks who can read minds? That's the nature of postings/blogs/e-mails--there are bound to be mis-interpretations. Honestly--if you sit around and complain about others and/or worry about what others think--then you really need a life. This is my first posting and probably my last. I ran across this article and couldn't help but to notice how everyone hides behind the curtain of anonymity. If you have something to say--call up the person and settle it. I'm not a big fan of announcing to the world one's own problem. Man-up, deal with it and move on. Better yet--live life instead of reading about it.

[randomthot]

i 2nd chuck...
picture the absurdity...how can I claim innocence when communities require communication, and communication forms at some level, form community.
Especially if the tweets are logged, there is a collective consciousness. Erasing logs is just putting your head in the sand. Unfortunately for twitter, it seems there is no conscience.
Their infrastructure problems are minor compared to their circumspection problems and their need to preemptively choose how to set up the twitter environment. If they don't resolve this problem, it will cripple or kill their future potential.

[randomthot]

btw, if Ariel is into blogging of all things, about sex, it would certainly be easy to see how harassment could follow. Not saying harassment is right, but a little wisdom might be helpful. I do however see her point...twitter needs to stop hiding behind this "communications" line.