Unspun

Why you don’t want to piss off a blogger


People used to say that you should never piss off a journalist because you don’t want to argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel. In this days of new media there is not much ink sloshing around but the parallels are there.

Take, for instance, this unfortunate person who pissed of one of Malaysia’s most prominent bloggers, Jeff Ooi. Rightly or wrongly, his photos and a diatribe against him is now in the internet for all to see in posterity.

The bloggers have also swarmed over him. last count is 52 comments. Most of them automatically side with Jeff and proceed to condemn the “arrogant” one. A few voices were more measured, one or two said that Jeff has overshot his responsibility as blogger. Others have begun dissecting the subject’s CV and claim to find discrepencies. Still others testify that their previous experiences with the subject has been less than pleasurable, confirming Jeff’s accusations.

Jeff is usually a reasonable person and it is this quality that has propelled him to be one of malaysia’s most read bloggers. In this instance he is probably justified to be offended, at any case he has a right to vent off in his blog. But none of us who weren’t there or have had any experience with the subject knows for sure what transpired.

What Unspun finds troubling, however, is how some bloggers or readers automatically and unthinkingly jump in to side with Jeff and condemn the subject. Unspun‘s a great admirer of Oscar Wilde who said that anything realized is alway right. The obverse is that anything un-realized is bad.

Bloggers will do well to pause and seek truth from facts before posting.

unspun
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4 responses to “Why you don’t want to piss off a blogger”

  1. Jango Ang Avatar
    Jango Ang

    Jeff’s tiff with the guy was a personal one. He should not have made it public. Settle it man to man, not involve outsiders.

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  2. Jango Ang Avatar
    Jango Ang

    As an ardent visitor to Jeff’s blog, I would like to offer a friendly advice to Jeff. Be circumspect when it comes to personal problems. All the vitriol directed at Jumabhoy will come back to haunt you. Also I advise the acolytes who have no inkling of what transpired to stop posting messages of support. It is not your fight, you have no business wading into troubled waters.

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  3. Fu Ming Avatar
    Fu Ming

    I agree with Unspun and the two comments. It was a personal issue with the admittedly arrogant behavior of the guy, which he could have reported to the organizer, but instead Jeff goes on a hysterical rant against him. The posting (all those photos) is more troubling, a bit cringe-inducing.

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  4. unspun Avatar
    unspun

    Jango, Fu Ming: My comments may have been taken a bit out of context, so let me take stab of making things clearer. As far as I am concerned Jeff can vent against anyone since he’s doing it in his blog. Screenshots is a blog, not a newspaper and to judge it like one is to compare langsats with durains. I think getting personal and ranting and raving gives a blog its character. Having said that, the readers that leave comments usually exercise the wisdom of crowds to save the blog from the blogger. There have been times when many a reader has put Unspun back on to the right path when he had strayed from fairness or moderation.

    I totally agree with Jango about the acolytes bit and that was my initial beef with the comments in Jeff’s posting. The Jumabhoy character may be as obnoxious as Jeff paints him out to be but that is not the point. The point is that all we know is what Jeff said of him. So fair enough if people who have met the chap and found him offensive weigh in with the comments. But the others have no business wading in on what is essentially a personality clash between two people. Such behavior is unthinking, uncritical and dangerous because it gives way to mob rule.

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