“you showed that the staff of Blogworld expo is largely composed of hipster New Media Douchebag’s confusing lame attempts at irony with incisive commentary?”

Do I look like a hipster to you? http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiropractic/4287829333/

I’m the fat guy in the Harley shirt.

If you really believe that calling every single iPad customer a sucker isn’t a personal attack *solely* because you didn’t name every iPad customer by name, then i doubt it is possible to actually talk to you about this, because i’m not going to try to find the goal posts every time you dig them up and re-bury them in the next town.

If i said that everyone running Blogworld Expo was a narcissistic blogtard, that would be a mass personal attack against everyone running Blogworld Expo. If you cannot understand that, then I am not sure what world you’re actually living in.

“it is difficult to express a comprehensive thought such as my criticisms of Apple and the weird cult like following they have in 140 characters so you have to include the post I linked to in order to understand the context of the tweet.”

then maybe you should think harder about how you communicate actual criticism, instead of calling every iPad customer a sucker, and hiding behind the limitations of twitter as a defense. I assume you understand the limitations placed on context in 140 characters, and that you’d be aware of how, without other context, calling 300,000+ people ‘suckers’ could be taken as cheap shot/personal attack. If not, perhaps you should run such things by someone with a better awareness of language and communications before you let loose with an attempt at a humorous jibe.

“I did not insult everyone who has ever or will ever buy an iPad. Any person who took it as such needs to get a sense of humor. I thought I had subsequently explained why I said what I said, and what I meant by it so anyone joining the conversation now should have a clear understanding of my intent to jest.”

Ah, the classic non-apology. “I said something rude, and now that you’re calling me on it, it is obviously your fault for not understanding the joke that i now explain the original comment really was.”

What excuse will you provide the people who don’t feel like wading through all your backpedaling?

Here. try this:

“Wow. I really forgot how easy it is to come across harsher than I intended in 140 characters. I really didn’t mean to say that everyone who bought an iPad is a sucker, and it’s my fault for not thinking a bit more about the limitations of Twitter before I posted. It was also something that I shouldn’t have posted on the official blogworld expo twitter account, and i apologize for any bad light my words shed on the show.”

Or, you can blame everyone else, because it’s un-possible that you bear any blame here.

“Furthermore this is the blogosphere and snark is expected.”

Everyone else is kicking a puppy, why am I wrong for doing it too?

funny how Macworld Expo managed to avoid those little issues on their twitter accounts, even while fighting quite the uphill PR battle this year. Ah well, i suppose professionalism and maturity are old world media?

“I wasn’t using what anyone else did to justify what I did. I was pointing out that doing so was objective writing vs. the sycophantic pap that is seen on many tech blogs when it comes to all things Apple.”

Galileo gambit. fail.

“I am certainly not a martyr and am not attempting to gain any sympathy here. I love a good debate / argument. Call it whatever you like. This is what drew me do the blogosphere to begin with and I absolutely love this discussion and see exactly where people fall on this issue.”

I fall on the “any interest i had in that show is gone, because it’s obviously not a place i want to be.” I have a teenager at home already, i don’t need to go to a show run by them.

“No I do not believe I should be able to say “whatever I like” without repercussion and I have stated as such in my blog post and several times in this comment thread. There are certain topics you don’t discuss in polite company. I don’t think Apple or even Apple fan boys are one of those topics. Shoot me, unfollow me, do what you will.”

And yet, you cannot bring yourself to admit that maybe your words were poorly chosen. I guess your ego is cushioning that corner quite well.

“You are correct I cannot comprehend why anyone would be so upset about a joke made about bits and bites a corporate entity and the cult of personality surrounding said entity. Again maybe I am the crazy one here but I don’t think so.”

Because 300,000 people aren’t your friend, don’t know you, and in 140 characters, you showed that the staff of Blogworld expo is largely composed of hipster New Media Douchebag’s confusing lame attempts at irony with incisive commentary? that seems to work well too.

but i’m sure you bear no blame at all. it’s all our fault for not being able to comprehend your sly, dry, subtle wit.

you’re never to blame, are you.

You make some good points John but lets clarify a few things. I didn’t make a personal attack against anyone. That would be me saying “you John are a sucker”. I didn’t and wouldn’t do that.

it is difficult to express a comprehensive thought such as my criticisms of Apple and the weird cult like following they have in 140 characters so you have to include the post I linked to in order to understand the context of the tweet.

I did not insult everyone who has ever or will ever buy an iPad. Any person who took it as such needs to get a sense of humor. I thought I had subsequently explained why I said what I said, and what I meant by it so anyone joining the conversation now should have a clear understanding of my intent to jest.

Furthermore this is the blogosphere and snark is expected.

I wasn’t using what anyone else did to justify what I did. I was pointing out that doing so was objective writing vs. the sycophantic pap that is seen on many tech blogs when it comes to all things Apple.

I am pretty sure Cory was a founder of Boing Boing and to quote the post I linked to “I’ve spent ten years now on Boing Boing”.

I am certainly not a martyr and am not attempting to gain any sympathy here. I love a good debate / argument. Call it whatever you like. This is what drew me do the blogosphere to begin with and I absolutely love this discussion and see exactly where people fall on this issue.

No I do not believe I should be able to say “whatever I like” without repercussion and I have stated as such in my blog post and several times in this comment thread. There are certain topics you don’t discuss in polite company. I don’t think Apple or even Apple fan boys are one of those topics. Shoot me, unfollow me, do what you will.

You are correct I cannot comprehend why anyone would be so upset about a joke made about bits and bites a corporate entity and the cult of personality surrounding said entity. Again maybe I am the crazy one here but I don’t think so.

Victor,

That depends on how well we knew each other. If my partner Dave had waited in line all night to buy an iPad I most certainly would call him a sucker to his face and ridicule him to no end. If as a stranger the topic of your ipad came up and apple in general I would be happy to share in depth with you my thoughts on the brand, its cult, and how I came to my opinions. Of course if you started to get a crazy look in your eye, I would also explain how much of that bluster is tongue in cheek.

George,

I am actually 12 and live in my parent’s attic.

You don’t see an antivirus company tweeting “LULZ Windoze gets hax0rd agin ” do you? IMO this is a bit overblown but blogging under the entity known as blogworldexpo, at least to consumers, will imply a certain level of professionalism. Opinions are fine, just try to be a little more eloquent, perhaps.

Walk your dog, play with your kids, sit in the grass and just sit there. I’ll see you all at blogworld.

“LOL and a great follow up story, the ipad doesn’t work http://tcrn.ch/aGmSWy LOL suckers /ipad rant off”

Exactly what part of calling people “suckers” shouldn’t annoy/piss them off? I’m curious about that, because i can’t see too many ways to take that other than as a personal shot. the fact that Apple customers are quite often oversensitive doesn’t make your statement anything other than a personal shot.

Bringing up other blogs that aren’t calling people suckers for buying an iPad is an attempt to distract. Even if they *are* calling people suckers, that still doesn’t justify you doing it, or, as i would explain to a small child attempting to use that logic to get out of trouble: “No billy, stevie kicking a puppy doesn’t make it okay for you to kick a puppy too. you’re both just as wrong.” I say “small child”, because that’s the normal age group where that logic makes sense.

Secondly, bringing up Cory’s boingboing article is rather silly, since cory isn’t representing boingboing, he’s not a member of the boingboing staff as near as i can tell, and most importantly, *Cory didn’t insult people who buy iPads*. Really. Read his article again, he doesn’t do what you did. I disagree with Cory, but he’s not making personal attacks against people who buy iPads as the ‘official’ voice of BoingBoing.

You, as the ‘official’ voice of BlogWorld, did in fact, insult everyone who has, is going to, or may ever buy an iPad.

Your Toyota example is just as bad for the same reasons. If the local news is calling people who bought Toyotas “suckers”, then yes, that news station’s viewers *should* complain, and if they get the same reaction as you’re giving here, consider boycotting that news show.

As far as this bit of martyrdom goes:

“As Chris Brogan says and I am paraphrasing here we are tired of being treated like a number, people want to do business with people not faceless corporate entities run by automatons. ”

It’s pretty obvious that what you want is not the ability to be something besides a faceless entity.

It’s that you want the ability to say whatever you want, even when it’s insulting, or a personal attack, and face no criticism or negative reaction whatsoever. That’s simply ridiculous, yet your response here shows that you cannot imagine why you’re receiving any criticism whatsoever.

So let’s be perfectly clear a certain segment of Mac users are a unique breed of consumer. They are in my opinion overly sensitive to criticism of Apple.

Many of you have suggested we/I should take care not to offend our customers. I agree. That’s why I don’t post about politics, or religion. Apple as a brand is not an untouchable subject for me or our event. Our customers are new media content creators, business owners and executives interested in using social media for their business. You don’t come to our event or follow our twitter feed to get pumped up about Apple. If you do then yes you are following the wrong feed and coming to the wrong show. We have no sacred cows here.

If you want to learn and discuss how to create, distribute and monetize content, then you are in the right place. The iPad is a content distribution device. Discussion and opinions about that device and Apple as a company are relevant to our brand, our event and our community. We/I will continue to link to relevant content and have our own comments on that topic.

Let’s look at some techblogs for an example. Specifically one of the posts I linked to just the other day from Boing Boing. In that post Corey Doctorow wrote a detailed explanation of why he was not buying an iPad and encouraging others to follow his lead. Should people stop reading Boing Boing?

There are several examples of tech blogs being critical of Apple. Maybe they lose readers every time they do. Personally they earn my respect because they are showing integrity and objectivity when they do so.

Should people who love Toyota cars quit reading their newspapers, or watching TV stations when they report on the recent debacle going on with Toyota? Obviously not.

One more note on the larger question, should brands inject personality as Rohit famously put it in his best selling book and in his comment below?
I say yes. I could be wrong.

As Chris Brogan says and I am paraphrasing here we are tired of being treated like a number, people want to do business with people not faceless corporate entities run by automatons.

As Chris also said there are no rules to this. This conversation is exactly what our event is about. Those two tweets brought that to light better than any marketing we could have ever done.