I started this as a column that would shock most. I was ready to celebrate and cheer on a local football player and the Crimson Tide. But after the week’s social posts on one of our pages, I decided to push the celebration to later.
TPI social platforms are filled with supporters, non-supporters and everyone in between. Thank you to those of you who understand, support our efforts and choose to stay current with your community by subscribing to real news. Our staff appreciates you more than you know. We’ve considered hosting a subscriber appreciation lunch but, alas, that could potentially cause a riot because we didn’t invite the non-subscribers, especially the ones who love to hate us.
The never ending work done within the walls of TPI is carried out at the highest level with the community in mind. Even though it would make our jobs easier by taking up space, we rarely print national or AP news because we are local, and local news is what we are dedicated to giving our readers. Our sole mission is to keep subscribers informed with accurate facts about our communities, and our hope is non-subscribers will understand the value of 38 cents a day and join the cause.
Subscriber or not, we appreciate you. We appreciate your constructive feedback. We encourage people to ask questions. We understand more than anyone that a viewpoint that differs from ours can be a good thing because it starts a conversation. We all learn when we have open, honest, mature conversations. If you don’t believe me, try it. It works, and it is amazing, especially when you learn something new. And, ironically, we don’t judge you for having a different opinion. We respect your opinion and often learn from others’ constructive thoughts and ideas. Fancy how that works.
What we don’t encourage and what I adamantly stand against is online harassment.
So, before you hit that keyboard to sound off, consider asking yourself a few things:
Is this something I would say to someone’s face? The problem is above my pay grade if the answer is yes.
Is there a way to convey my point without being aggressive and critical?
Do I have constructive input, or is this just a blanket criticism wrapped in an insult or threat?
A post this week that caused me to pause my much happier story started as a criticism. We can handle that. The response, however, to Lizi’s platonic answer is an example of the problem with today’s society. The response was to insult Lizi and tell her she should be ashamed. (There could have been more but the post has since been edited). The bottom line is insulting an individual is cruel.
On top of being unnecessary, do you know what kind of week Lizi is having? Let’s just say she has a lot on her plate right now. Your loudness didn’t solve any problems and only made a bad day worse for a person who gives her all to this community and was simply answering a question from a neutral standpoint.
Did you think to ask how much money we would make from selling forum tickets before asserting yourself? If you had, we would have told you that if we sell remaining tickets, we are looking at making a whopping $100 in revenue, at the most. If you do the math, we’re in the hole. How many businesses do that for the good of the cause? Charging for tickets gives people a vested interest in showing up. The last thing we want are reserved seats that aren’t filled. Judging by a certain response, maybe that’s the reason for the anger as it seems a commenter is now asking for a boycott. And, honestly, who does that help?
My point is three-fold.
1. Call it online bullying or online harassment; neither is acceptable. There are ways to get your point across without being mean. And those that hitch their horse to the insult post are equally as guilty. Liking a post when someone is mean to another individual is giving it your stamp of approval.
2. Our subscribers are important to us, much the same way every other business appreciates its customers. We won’t back down from that, but we welcome everyone to join us and embrace the power of knowing.
3. Most importantly, do we really wonder why children are bullied online? How are we ever going to teach them to do better if they’re watching this? We must be more careful with our words. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for the example you’re setting.
I rarely respond to social insults. I’m usually a ‘consider the source’ type of person, but I hope this sheds light on a problem we have in our wonderful community. I hope this helps us all understand how to be less abrasive. Even if we don’t agree, even if you’re not a subscriber, there’s a proper way to communicate. We’re all in this together and the more we can work toward understanding each other and a common good, the better off our community will be.
Tippy Hunter is the general manager at Tallapoosa Publishers Inc.
