And then the PR guy called me “a fucking bitch”. I can’t even make this shit up.(thebloggess.com)
thebloggess.com
And then the PR guy called me “a fucking bitch”. I can’t even make this shit up.
http://thebloggess.com/2011/10/and-then-the-pr-guy-called-me-a-fucking-bitch-i-cant-even-make-this-shit-up/
16 comments
I upvoted this but now I feel bad. On afterthought it is just another crap pointless story about an asshole being an asshole on the internet. Note to self: wait 3 minutes before upvoting "pitchforks and torches" stories. Read http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html again. Maybe raise a HN feature request for cancelling upvotes?
What I read was this:
Shitty PR company does shitty job. Nothing special to see here, “90% of everything is CRUD.” Blogger sends self-important and condescending reply. Nothing to see here, I do similar things to head hunters, but ‘m honest about the fact that such things are all about me feeling clever, not about changing their world view.
PR company doesn’t see the lighter side of being talked down to. VP falls into trap created by shitty software design that makes “reply all” easy when it’s usually wrong. Says something that just about everyone says at one time or another. Email exchange follows, wherein both parties ignore each other’s reasonable points and behave badly.
Blogger decides to turn the “I’m important” knob to eleven, tweets about it, and then blogs about it, twice.
How does this become HN #1 the day after Steve Jobs died? HAVE WE LEARNT NOTHING?????????
Shitty PR company does shitty job. Nothing special to see here, “90% of everything is CRUD.” Blogger sends self-important and condescending reply. Nothing to see here, I do similar things to head hunters, but ‘m honest about the fact that such things are all about me feeling clever, not about changing their world view.
PR company doesn’t see the lighter side of being talked down to. VP falls into trap created by shitty software design that makes “reply all” easy when it’s usually wrong. Says something that just about everyone says at one time or another. Email exchange follows, wherein both parties ignore each other’s reasonable points and behave badly.
Blogger decides to turn the “I’m important” knob to eleven, tweets about it, and then blogs about it, twice.
How does this become HN #1 the day after Steve Jobs died? HAVE WE LEARNT NOTHING?????????
Absolutely! I hope this was just some "accident" and HN is not becoming a place for bloggers to bitch about their personal "issues".
Now I have read this story of a blogger I have never heard of and a company I don't care about. So, someone has pushed the wrong button and sent an insulting email out to everyone. Instead of "I'm sorry", there is some kind of flame war on Twitter, which nobody will remember tomorrow. It's not exactly what I would file under "deeply interesting".
I would have loved to read a story about kindness. Kindness is leet.
I would have loved to read a story about kindness. Kindness is leet.
I don't think it's pointless. The fact is that if we're not careful it's easy for any of us to become assholes "just doing our job". Furthermore, the global connectivity has a homogenizing effect whereby if someone is successful by being an asshole, pretty much everyone else has to (or feels they have to) just to keep up. Therefore I'm always happy for someone with half-decent principles to come out in defiance of the status quo, even if it is pitchforks and torches. At least people still care.
Calling people you depend on "bitches" is not the status quo, it doesn't make anyone successful and I don't believe everyone feels they have to do it to keep up. It is not something that needs people with strong principles to speak out against.
You know who comes out looking awesome in this story? Wil Wheaton.
And the most disturbing part is that the PR guy thinks that "PR firms and PR people ... are actually the livelihood of any journalist's business." Disturbing that he thinks it, and disturbing that it's actually true for some journalists.
"Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy."
That line is pure gold.
That line is pure gold.
As a random visitor/bystander, that part is great.
If I were her friend, however, I would have strongly advised against it. This is clearly her letting her ego take control in a tense situation, which is often not a good idea.
A stunt like that should have a purpose, and having some "faux VP" moron at a PR firm feel bad about himself shouldn't cross your threshold of usefulness, especially when you have no interest in maintaining a relationship with that PR firm.
Now perhaps the linkbait quality of the story, along with the entertainment value of her regular readership would make the "see how powerful I am" ->> twitterbomb tactic worthwhile, I don't know. I mean, I DID read the story and be entertained by it, but I doubt that my visit will offer the author any further value, since I am not her audience and now I have an under-informed picture who she is as a person.
If I were her friend, however, I would have strongly advised against it. This is clearly her letting her ego take control in a tense situation, which is often not a good idea.
A stunt like that should have a purpose, and having some "faux VP" moron at a PR firm feel bad about himself shouldn't cross your threshold of usefulness, especially when you have no interest in maintaining a relationship with that PR firm.
Now perhaps the linkbait quality of the story, along with the entertainment value of her regular readership would make the "see how powerful I am" ->> twitterbomb tactic worthwhile, I don't know. I mean, I DID read the story and be entertained by it, but I doubt that my visit will offer the author any further value, since I am not her audience and now I have an under-informed picture who she is as a person.
Funny? Yes. Pathetic in its own way? Yes.
The best part has to be where the cretin who called her "a fucking bitch" tells her she went out of her way to be snarky and rude and should be flattered to have been pitched at all, by form letter on items that have zero relevance to her blog.
BrandLink Communications' clients must be proud.
BrandLink Communications' clients must be proud.
you should be flattered that you are even viewed relevant enough to be pitched at all instead of alienated PR firms and PR people – who are actually the livelihood of any journalists business.
Interesting that PR firms consider themselves providing the livelihood of journalism.
Interesting that PR firms consider themselves providing the livelihood of journalism.
Is HN turning into TC? Come on put this on Reddit or something. Sorry, I just don't know how this is relevant. Email + Rant + Twitter = Technology or Winning?
PR firms, managing your company's images, PR nightmares, Reply-all accidents. All of these seem potentially Startup-applicable, if not directly Hacker-applicable.
Reading this, I had to look up what a "Kardashian" is.
What is this about? I didn't understand anything what so ever. Only some PR firm calling some blogger a bitch by accident in an e-mail. The reason though was lost to me. Something about a picture of a guy collating papers?
1. blogger gets a spam pitch from a PR company.
2. blogger sends standard snarky reply (minor celebrity collating paper)
3. VP at PR company accidentally reply-all some unkind words
4. blogger calls him out
5. VP pretends to apologize but really just questions her relevancy without PR firms feeding her stories to re-blog
6. blogger goes nuclear by tweeting the exchange to her 167K followers ('Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.')
7. hilarity ensues
2. blogger sends standard snarky reply (minor celebrity collating paper)
3. VP at PR company accidentally reply-all some unkind words
4. blogger calls him out
5. VP pretends to apologize but really just questions her relevancy without PR firms feeding her stories to re-blog
6. blogger goes nuclear by tweeting the exchange to her 167K followers ('Please stand by for a demonstration of relevancy.')
7. hilarity ensues
After that, he continued to be rude and condescending. A PR firm. That can't do PR.
Forgive me for being 'that guy', but seriously, what in the world does this have to do with Hacker News?
That this article is on the front page makes me seriously worry that the system has been gamed. That people are commenting on it like this is par for the course makes me worry, period.
Am I missing something?
That this article is on the front page makes me seriously worry that the system has been gamed. That people are commenting on it like this is par for the course makes me worry, period.
Am I missing something?
I don't think that the relevant implications have to be spelt out:
The wrong PR shilling your company could earn you undeserved negativity. I.e. What if the pitch sent in this case was on your startup? As a result, your company gets dragged in, people (some of whom have never heard of you, could be potential clients, etc) develop negative associations with your brand. All because you had the misfortune to hire a PR firm with what you thought were skilled professionals.
wow. I wonder though is there some kind of meta motive to this, can people really be this stupid?
> can people really be this stupid?
Yes. Always yes.
Yes. Always yes.
Bullet Tooth Tony once said, Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity, I have never heard it described more aptly.
I tweeted the link and I directly got email invite to some crap service for women. coincidence?
From her Twitter feed (https://twitter.com/#!/TheBloggess), a different VP of that company posts a lesson learned: "Treat every blogger like they potentially have a dark army at their disposal."
They're getting torched on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/search/realtime/brandlinkcomm
typically most PRs are flunkies whose sole job is to just spam the bloggers in their database with the latest and greatest minor accomplishments.
Ninety percent of anything is crap. But then there are the remaining ones and they are big, bigger than most people think: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
Jesus, does it get any more petty? Some dumb person called this lady (who is apparently a Very Important Blogger) a fucking bitch. Forgive me, but so what? This is like caring about feuds between rappers.
If someone called me a mean name in an email, I think my reaction would be to get on with my day. Not sound the alarms.
If someone called me a mean name in an email, I think my reaction would be to get on with my day. Not sound the alarms.
I lol'd.
Then, when one of them fucks up in a major, major way, they don't even check whether they need to go into "damage control" mode (answer: yes, because bloggers who are funny and write well can make or break you) but instead continued on their self-destructive course. The PR company is clueless on so many levels it's hilarious.