On Twitter and via blogs, I subscribe to feeds from a bunch of vendors: HP, EMC, NetApp, Xiotech, Compellent, etc. (Please, someone point me at some good feeds for HDS, IBM, etc. Admittedly I’ve not spent a lot of time looking for them, but I’m still keen on finding them…)
There are days when I’m sorely tempted to find every vendor that I subscribe to on Twitter and unfollow. Why? Well, it’s not because I’ve lost interest in the industry, it’s just because I’m tired of the message that keeps on being sent. You see, Twitter has become a virtual boxing ring, except the fights aren’t by Queensbury rules, they’re all-in rumbles that have little attention to manners or what people are really interested in reading – facts and figures, real life analyses and implementation experiences, etc.
It’s all a bit petri dish at times – I sometimes imagine that it’s like watching an ethnic conflict starting from the very beginning. If you look at those conflicts and try to trace back reasons, it becomes a morass of “he did / no he did / no she said / no she said” style arguments that just can’t be unpicked; people don’t choose winners in such arguments, they get fed up and walk away from them, or become exasperated with both sides and choose a third option. I know I reach the point where I don’t care. I don’t care that X said Y about Z this week and it was a lie, because last week Z said a lie about X so it’s all just a fetid stink of payback.
I’m fed up. I suspect many others are too. So I’m asking all vendors out there to focus on customers and information, rather than doing your best to kick the crap out of each other. Who is with me on this one?
I am.
I’ve already started changing what I focus on when using Twitter.
Good post!! I had similar thoughts to what you said.
I personally treat others how I wanna be treated.:
Try these:
@az990tony — Tony Pearson (IBM storage)
@TiffanyWinman — Tiffany Winman (IBM Tivoli)
@ibmperformance — Elisabeth Stahl (IBM benchmarks)
@RichardSwainWork — Richard Swain (IBM storage)
@NicoletteMc — Nicolette McFadden (IBM POWER systems and AIX)
@bob_sutor — Bob Sutor (IBM Linux and Open Source)
@ibmstorage — Raj Subramaniam (IBM storage)
Tony, thanks for the tip, much appreciated!
Yessir. I’ve actually told a couple of them to cool it twice now. Why the storage guys? There are more competitive spaces where the Twitterers don’t feel like they have to be rude just to get attention.
My rule of thumb is: If you’re talking more about your competitors more than your own stuff – in Twitter, blogs, whatever, then you are failing. And several of the storage tweeps fall into this category.
Don.
Great post, I’m in.
For HDS, you may try
https://twitter.com/SaveOnStorage
or
https://twitter.com/HDS_NL if your Dutch is up to it 🙂
Thanks @Tony for the other vendors
A noble effort, and I agree wholeheartedly. However, when you get them to compete on Honesty, I do tend to think a number of vendors will start to realize they don’t have much of a leg to stand on. FUD tends to rule the day.
In hopes that you may someday find vendors following these ideas regardless,
Brendan