At one time I accused The Signal of being too slow, too passive and too stuck in their ways to be a real, breaking news source.
Now they’re too fast according to some Facebookers:
***OLYMPIC SPOILER ALERT
CLOSE THIS PAGE NOW.
MATTER OF FACT, CLOSE THE INTERNET ALTOGETHER THIS IS BIG NEWS MMMKAY
…..
DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YOU
….
ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO SCROLL DOWN?
OKAY YOU ASKED FOR IT***
I also clicked the “Like” button.
Sometimes it’s fun to spoil things for people. I’m reminded of this video, posted shortly after a new Harry Potter Book came out:
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USA! USA! USA!
TMS needs to STFU. I’m with Jeff Johnson on this one–not cool.
NBC is the real enemy.
oh that is sooooo funny! I just got done reading this on my ‘page’.
I was going to suggest to Jeff Johnson, that he remove that ‘friend’.
I’m torn; on one side, this is FACEBOOK afterall and that’s the point of facebook, right….get information RIGHT NOW. But, on the other, if you’re looking forward to seeing who won when you can ACTUALLY watch it, well yeah, it spoils it.
Agreed, Mike. What happened to live Olympic coverage?
Since it can’t even do the Olympics right, it seems 30 Rock is the only reason NBC has to exist.
That we can’t have it live in our own time zone puzzles me beyond words.
I guess you haven’t heard about Parks & Rec. Best season one to two improvement in TV history. NBC is good for 30 Rock, P&R and the more mild-mannered Chris Matthews panel show that follows MtP in most markets (check your local listings).
Spoilers in the internet age rule. I love it.
NBC coverage is horrific! 6 minutes of action followed by 5 minutes of commercials.
On the biggest medal day in US history NBC coverage lost to American Idol.
Well I will address the point that I was trying to make with my post.
1) I was not asking the signal to be slow in news coverage, merely to use a common courtesy on a social networking site post regarding a televised event that we on the West Coast hadn’t had access to yet. This is not at all dissimilar to a news outlet not reporting results from a tape delayed awards show before it airs on the West Coast. I would not have had a complaint about them reporting this event on their own site had I happened to wander over there. Just don’t play spoiler without giving your FB “friends” a heads up.
2) Really this was just a good lesson for me that The Signal, and other businesses like it are not my “friends.” They are in fact businesses and news organizations etc. It was a good example for me that I can go back to visiting their site when I want information as opposed to allowing them access to my profile on a social networking site.
All of this is a part of the experience as our means of daily communication evolve and I have learned that lesson now.
I have 349 “friends” on facebook and I did not see one of the other friends throwing this info up, so apparently there is an understood “common courtesy” aspect that people have developed in regards to these types of events.
3) The signal does some great things on FB with regards to local news including using it as a means to quickly get out a call for a missing teen… again, I will choose to visit their site periodically for these things. For all of the argument they (and others on their behalf) made regarding their “duty” to cover this as news, you will not see a single other post on their FB page regarding the Olympics prior to this, not one. They didn’t mention Bode Miller’s bronze or Hannah Kearney’s gold in Moguls, they didn’t even mention Seth Wescott’s back to back Gold in Snowboard cross. My point is that this was a very selective situation they chose to report and because I wasn’t accustomed to them reporting ANYTHING on the Olympics coverage at all, I wasn’t prepared to ignore their posts and miss a spoiler like this.
4) Is this all the end of the world (or am I even claiming it is???) Nope. I merely requested some common courtesy from them in regards to it. I will now ask if this was incorrect to ask for on my part why have they decided to comply with this request (while still taking potshots at me on their thread?) If I’m wrong then go about business as usual. If you look at their thread on this topic they even make this dig at Yahoo “BTW, if Yahoo chooses to sit on the news in deference to NBC, that’s Yahoo’s choice.” while following it up by saying they will be doing the exact same thing as Yahoo, which is to give a tease and then allow the reader to click through if they want to know the results.
In closing I think that the signal would have done well to dial back the smug just a bit in its response… considering it evidently got enough feedback on it to acknowledge it and change the way it reports on the Olympics. More importantly, I have learned a lesson in regards to way that I allow businesses access to my social networking profile and therefore see their mass posts, advertisements etc. They are on FB to improve their business model and reach out to people using this new medium, I am on there to get in touch with old friends, relatives and for social interaction… this may not be a fit for me as a “Friend” with what I intend to use FB for.
-Jeff Johnson
SPOILER!!!
Lysacek wins gold awesome!!!!