*WARNING,WARNING - This post will sound as if my ego wrote it but in fact it only helped*
This post comes off the heels of some people chirping me and something I wanted to address a while back. The art of tweeting at players, and in this case... OHL Players. Yes I said the art of tweeting. I am going to sound like a prick for this single sentence but there is a point to it. When I tweet and @ players I do it because I am suppose to while there are people out there who do it for no reason. And what I mean by this is that I am media and you are not. Ok cue the hate mail. But let me explain this.
When I am at the rink, I get to see the things you won't through television, and even some stuff that is caught during the commercial break. Now sometimes the it isn’t mentioned how good or bad a players shift is and that is where I come in… ok maybe it is my self appointed duty that I tweet the positives and negatives of these players. And you know what… when they chirp me back it is rightfully so.
Last season in Niagara, Kingston was playing the IceDogs and I remember this vividly as I had a post game interview with Conor Stokes and Sean Jones. After the game on my drive home, I get ‘tweeted at’ by a Mr. Jeff Braithwaite. Now I do not hate him for this, heck I @ mentioned him and said something to the effect of, ‘the IceDogs goal came courtesy of @Braith05 not clearing the puck on 2 attempts.’
I was just noting an observation but by @ mentioning him, he has every right to respond back and he did. ‘@intheoradio why don’t you get a real job’
I laughed, I even responded saying, ‘I am trying to make this my job, how bout an interview to discuss my analysis.’
No response, not that I expected to have any banter with him after that anyways. Now here is my point, Kingston fans (gotta love them) who follow and saw Froats comments to me, were right there on the draw ready to stand up and come to my defence… and that I appreciate. They said things like, ‘if you played better then he wouldn’t have to point it out’, and such things like that. But this got carried away. I love the support I got, but you have to know when to stop. You can not keep harping on a player well after he stopped responding. Now you are just mentioning him and being a dick. And this has happened more than once. In discussion with other twitter followers, we began talking about various players. Where they would @ mention them. My question is why? Why do you always have to mention them on twitter? Especially when you are talking negatively about said players. Do you want these guys to leave twitter? You follow them to see what they are up to, or to chat with them if they choose to engage with you. So why do you think you can harp on them and expect them to even waste their time with you?
Players like Franky Palazesse and Mark Visentin have gotten off of twitter because of the hate. Now some of you will always say, Visentin hate is valid because he lost the gold medal game. first of all I thought hockey is a team game, and secondly, I will defend him till the end. Go talk to Mark and see what he says about that game. he doesn’t care anymore. And when he wins a gold this holiday season… wait lets get back to my original rant.
Again like I said at the beginning I sound like a giant prick up here on my media perch, but that is not the intent. Again, I am privileged to talk to these players off the ice, whether it is at the rink, or through the phone, email, twitter or carrier pigeon. And even on twitter I am humbled, and surprised even, when some players decide to follow me back. I have made some good relationships with guys like @cdesousa28, @buonomo20, @judder14 and @bthomps9 to name a few. But for all the love I get from these players, I am still going to get hate, and that is fair game because again… I am media. I am suppose to get hated on and have people tell me I am full of it and I don’t know anything.
A more recent example came during the exhibition season when I didn’t even know this player had twitter. Peterborough versus Mississauga at the new old Port Credit barn. I tweeted that Clark Seymour was having a good game on D because he was breaking up a couple 1 on 1’s… and then 2 periods later I tweeted ‘I take back what I said about Clark Seymour, average game and could not clear the puck on 3 attempts one shift’. Like I said, I did not know that @seabiscuit4 had twitter, and I never @ mentioned him. But I get a response from him saying ‘@intheoradio needs to stop mucking potato chips and pulling his own goalie #classicsuperfan’
Yeah I laughed, I laughed everytime I read that. Not just because it was funny, but because he had to search himself on twitter to find out I was talking about him. Really? A vanity search on twitter LOL. I did the same thing as I did with Froats ‘@seabiscuit4 appreciate the feedback, maybe an interview to discuss my analysis’… never heard from him again. But I still laugh at the tweet.
My point in all this if it has gotten lost in the shuffle, is that when you are tweeting at these players remember, they are not on twitter for you. They have other friends and they may be on twitter, and it the cool public way to text each other. Just because they are on twitter, doesn’t mean you can start spouting off at them and telling them that they suck. Really do you want to be the one responsible for having one of them get off twitter? I know some of you are saying that would be great, but seriously? Do you have nothing better to do than that?
Tweet these guys smartly, if you want to be negative do it once. Do not keep at it until they block you, or report you. But don’t forget it goes both ways, you want to chirp them… they will chirp you back. Like @bthomps9 did to me on a Saturday night… doesn’t he have something better to do on a Sat night than chirp me? I was walking my dog man what were you doing? Lol.
By saying all this I am not innocent. I have had players follow me and then a week or two later unfollow me. I have had them unfollow me for the summer because… well if I am going to talk about the OHL… no point in following me when there is none right? I have also had players block me… why? Well it wouldn’t be for tweeting at them negatively, but again it is their choice to follow, block, ignore, report whatever. So be smart when you are tweeting at these players. If you want to tweet me and talk negatively about players, just stop @ mentioning them. I have no problem saying Clint Windsor is a poor goalie, but I do not @ him… even though he now follows me… maybe he doesn’t anymore. These kids have enough pressure and they use twitter for fun. So don’t make them regret logging on to joke around with friends…
I will now get off my media perch and if you want… tweet me your hate mail for sounding like a prick @intheoradio odds are you already follow so I will be waiting for it.
Tweet smarter not… .what rhymes here?
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