Social media spitefulness

Murrisk · 24-06-2017 08:37PM #1

My friend owns a chocolate shop stateside and she was telling me today that she is getting a rash of negative reviews on her shop's Facebook page and Yelp profile from the family of a teenager she didn't hire. Bascially she couldn't hire the girl because the girl is a member of a sports team whose practices clash with the shift she'd have had to work. The girl was persistent, kept ringing the shop. So the rejected walked into the shop today and overheard my friend telling one of her employees about the conversations she'd had with the girl and this is what set the girl's family off. My friend totally agreed she was stupid to be discussing the candidate in the shop and she profusely apologised. Was that really a big enough mistake for her business to be badmouthed on social media? And the parent should be teaching her child of how to deal with rejection better not being seen to back her up for not being hired.

Another case I read about recently was where Harry Styles of One Direction started dating a girl who wrote some sort of health and fitness book. The day the news came out, apparently the Amazon entry for her book was inundated with one star reviews from crazed Styles fans. I had a look myself and, yes indeed, it was very clearly what happened. There is a clear line between a normal mix of reviews and a sudden onslaught of one stars.

I am deeply uncomfortable with this kind of thing. Don't people understand that this kind of spitefulness can damage people's livelihoods? Just because they have been slighted in a minor way. I think the Harry Styles case is the most egregious because that woman didn't even make any kind of mistake that might deserve that treatment. It's sort of vigilantism to round people up to badmouth someone. I've actually seen numerous instances of this on social media. I've seen people post photos of people who have allegedly done something criminal, I've seen people who've had a bad experience at a restaurant telling people to share their story etc.etc. There's a whiff of the pitchfork mob mentality about it.

Has anyone else seen any examples of this on social media? And do you think it's fair enough?

nullzero · 24-06-2017 08:45PM

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Murrisk · 24-06-2017 08:47PM

nullzero wrote: »

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Well, I like social media a lot generally so I wouldn't really agree. It has good and bad like anything.

And weirdly, most people I know who say how much they hate social media still keep social media profiles.

One eyed Jack · 24-06-2017 08:48PM

Murrisk wrote: »

Has anyone else seen any examples of this on social media? And do you think it's fair enough?

I've seen plenty of examples of it and I don't think it's ever fair. What's worse though is people giving those who spread these kinds of spiteful stories, any attention.

nullzero · 24-06-2017 08:51PM

Murrisk wrote: »

Well, I like social media a lot generally so I wouldn't really agree. It has good and bad like anything.

And weirdly, most people I know who say how much they hate social media still keep social media profiles.

I don't have any myself.
Boards is about the size of my online presence.

Ash.J.Williams · 24-06-2017 08:52PM

There was a great Southpark episode about yelp reviewers thinking they're important... Twas bang on

nullzero · 24-06-2017 08:53PM

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

There was a great Southpark episode about yelp reviewers thinking they're important... Twas bang on

Boogers and cum, brilliant tune.

Murrisk · 24-06-2017 08:55PM

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I've seen plenty of examples of it and I don't think it's ever fair. What's worse though is people giving those who spread these kinds of spiteful stories, any attention.

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

I'm starting a discussion.

freshpopcorn · 24-06-2017 08:58PM

I'm always very cautious of reviews on Google on or Facebook.

Ash.J.Williams · 24-06-2017 08:59PM

nullzero wrote: »

Boogers and cum, brilliant tune.

Had to look it up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDlR_ccnZww

El Weirdo · 24-06-2017 09:02PM

nullzero wrote: »

I thought the primary function of social media was to provide a platform for ar5eholes to let their juices flow, so to speak.

Ah, I see you've read the Tommy Robinson thread too.

One eyed Jack · 24-06-2017 09:03PM

Murrisk wrote: »

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

I'm starting a discussion.

That wasn't directed at you Murrisk, it was a commentary on the kind of people who spread the stories and incite people to want to join in in destroying someone else's livelihood. The Christian bakers for example who were targeted by a small group looking to raise their own profile, and how that went on social media.

I thought their whole "campaign" was incredibly spiteful.

Flojo · 24-06-2017 09:03PM

People are ar5eholes and until something can be done about that, this will always be a problem. It's pretty rampant to be honest and puts social media companies in a difficult position by attempting to increase transparency and their stance on promoting fairness while also being careful of censoring people's legitimate opinions. This also goes the other way, I've come across countless businesses with blatantly fake reviews. Some sites threaten to track IP addresses as a way of counteracting the problem. But it's clearly not enough.

RoisinClare6 · 24-06-2017 09:08PM

Another example of the man who's picture was used to be shared around to notify he was a paedophile. He tormented by mobs of people and had to be protected by the guards. My mother's friends and a few elderly people I know just share these kind of posts without looking into it, seeing if it is correct information etc they don't think of the ramifications they think they are being helpful, that poor mans life must be in tatters, that's online forever.

Same with people sharing posts about restaurants and other businesses you just don't know if they are factual and people just share it anyway.

I just wish people would cop onto themselves

Grandeeod · 24-06-2017 09:08PM

Facebook in particular is pretty lawless. The whole "name and shame" mentality has spread across that platform. It doesn't matter about actual facts. It's now just a case of say what you want and encourage all and sundry to like and share. I know for a fact of small businesses that have folded as a result of the facebook mob mentality. It's just a real pity that they have never decided to talk about it in the legally accountable media. That said the legally accountable media seem to think it's ethical to source stories from the likes of FB and Twitter.

It's fooking poisonous.

Senna · 24-06-2017 09:15PM

Same with all online review platforms for services and business, product reviews are slightly better.
TripAdvisor is one of the worst, a perfect example was this week when I was looking for hotel recommendations for a holiday, one person had left a 1 star review and after reading it, the person had got mugged in the resort, nowhere near the hotel, and that was why they left a 1 star review for the hotel. People are idiots.

jimmycrackcorm · 24-06-2017 09:20PM

Murrisk wrote:

Well, this was inspired by my friend's story and her name isn't given here.

You'll need to give her name just to allow the whole boards community also give negative reviews. Just because.

Murrisk · 24-06-2017 09:21PM

Senna wrote: »

Same with all online review platforms for services and business, product reviews are slightly better.
TripAdvisor is one of the worst, a perfect example was this week when I was looking for hotel recommendations for a holiday, one person had left a 1 star review and after reading it, the person had got mugged in the resort, nowhere near the hotel, and that was why they left a 1 star review for the hotel. People are idiots.

I actually find Tripadvisor really good overall. The stupid or spiteful reviews are pretty easy to spot. Most people who are members do a mix of reviews. I have something like 15 reviews written, ranging from 5 stars to 2 stars.

LirW · 24-06-2017 09:27PM

Yelp is like a swap of miserable people. Every one star Yelp review ever results out of something like this or people that are like "Didn't like the food in this Chinese place place because I don't enjoy Chinese food and they refused to serve me pizza".
Facebook reviews are pretty much the same really. Couldn't give a toss. I'm sorry for your friend, because I know that with Yelp exactly this creates a huge percentage of their customer service problems (had an interview at Yelp and we discussed this).

24-06-2017 09:31PM

I'm a tradesman & my Business has a Facebook page. It's not really the type of business that gets a lot of Facebook visitors but we had about 15 reviews. All 5 star. it took 3 years for us to get 15 reviews. Then one day I got 30 one star review in less than an hour.
All of the 30 were Facebook friends of each other. I had done work for none of them. Facebook didn't see anything unusual in this & refused to remove them. The only thing I could do was to disable reviews altogether. So now I have no reviews, good or bad.
I no longer look at one star reviews at all. I now only pay attention to three, four and five star reviews. Most 1 star reviews are not an accurate portrait of a business imo

24-06-2017 09:37PM

RoisinClare6 wrote:

Another example of the man who's picture was used to be shared around to notify he was a paedophile. He tormented by mobs of people and had to be protected by the guards. My mother's friends and a few elderly people I know just share these kind of posts without looking into it, seeing if it is correct information etc they don't think of the ramifications they think they are being helpful, that poor mans life must be in tatters, that's online forever.

Totally agree. I've never shared photos like this online. You just don't know if it is true or someone causing trouble for someone else. Labeling someone a pedophile is probably the worst thing to do to someone. Years later people still think there's no smoke without fire

AllForIt · 24-06-2017 09:39PM

I think the issue is if one puts one business up on social media one can't expect it's going to be all positive. The whole idea of having a Facebook business page is to promote one's business ie advertising. If one feels that the negative feedback is unfair and untrue then it is equally plausible that the positive feedback is also untrue. Advertising on Facebook is a really cheap form of advertising and if one isn't open to criticism then I think they shouldn't run the risk of negative comments at all, in other words, dump your facebook page. Especially if one makes cake and would rather some customers would not eat it.

Murrisk · 24-06-2017 09:51PM

AllForIt wrote: »

I think the issue is if one puts one business up on social media one can't expect it's going to be all positive. The whole idea of having a Facebook business page is to promote one's business ie advertising. If one feels that the negative feedback is unfair and untrue then it is equally plausible that the positive feedback is also untrue. Advertising on Facebook is a really cheap form of advertising and if one isn't open to criticism then I think they shouldn't run the risk of negative comments at all, in other words, dump your facebook page. Especially if one makes cake and would rather some customers would not eat it.

I think any business is open to criticism as long as it's proportionate and reasonable. Yelp does take down bad reviews, indeed the one put up against my friend's business might well be yet. It just reads as airing dirty laundry publically.

leggo · 24-06-2017 11:12PM

The only thing your friend can really do OP is turn off reviews on their page (which should take away the star ratings if I'm not mistaken) and take their business off Yelp. With Facebook, people only really look at what's presented to them, so if they don't see ratings they won't look or think much of it, by and large. With Yelp it's a case of weighing things up and deciding if the damage poor reviews yield outweighs the positives. Then they can go back to both in six months when this has all blown over.

Grandeeod · 25-06-2017 12:36AM

Is there a blase attitude to the absolute and uncontrollable damage that FB can do to a person or small business? First it was fooking Liveline with its one sided moany hole BS and now its FB with its free for all BS that is a source for fooking Liveline! Social Media spitefulness has resulted in defamation, suicide and the ruination of lives, because there is no control. Boards.ie is a perfetct example of how it should be. No free speech.

Tigger · 25-06-2017 12:39AM

One eyed Jack wrote: »

That wasn't directed at you Murrisk, it was a commentary on the kind of people who spread the stories and incite people to want to join in in destroying someone else's livelihood. The Christian bakers for example who were targeted by a small group looking to raise their own profile, and how that went on social media.

I thought their whole "campaign" was incredibly spiteful.

The Christian bakers are homophobes
They should just make the ****ing cake and cop on

Grandeeod · 25-06-2017 12:55AM

Tigger wrote: »

The Christian bakers are homophobes
They should just make the ****ing cake and cop on

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

Tigger · 25-06-2017 12:58AM

Grandeeod wrote: »

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

I think they are entitled to be homophobic but if they don't wanna get hassle they should have made the cake
It's a business not at endeavour

Tigger · 25-06-2017 12:59AM

Grandeeod wrote: »

They are entitled to their opinions and shouldn't be rediculed on social media for it. This is the point that you and millions of others don't get and thats because you and millions of others think you can row in behind an issue and shoot your gobs off on social media. Wannabe journo's. Wannabe contributors and wannabe "influencers". All full of **** and opinions, thinking your **** and opinions matter. They don't, because you aren't perfect either.

Lol at me and the millions of others that are "Wrong"

Irish Guitarist · 25-06-2017 01:10AM

That ball for teenagers a few months ago springs to mind. They posted something on Facebook telling girls not to wear skimpy dresses which seemed fair enough given it was supposed to be a ball and not a disco. Dozens of spoiled self-obsessed girls posted nonsense on their page about feminism and 'slut shaming'. When I was a teenager if I wasn't allowed in somewhere because of my clothes I would have just went home rather than acting like it was a violation of my human rights.

One eyed Jack · 25-06-2017 01:11AM

Tigger wrote: »

I think they are entitled to be homophobic but if they don't wanna get hassle they should have made the cake
It's a business not at endeavour

If the representatives of the organisation had actually wanted a cake made in the first place, then a Christian bakery hardly seems like the most obvious place to make an order, unless what they actually wanted was a social media shìt-storm and a ton of publicity for their own cause. The unexpected aftermath of course was the social media mob taking matters into their own hands and actively trying to have the business shut down.

The same spiteful fcukers tried to get a printing business closed down too, and then they wonder why people detest them and don't want to have any dealings with them? It's bloody obvious why - because they can mobilise a social media mob in minutes to try and destroy the reputation of any business, or make their lives hell in the process.

Thankfully most people aren't so stupid as some people need them to be.

Social media spitefulness

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