I just finished reading the article, “Just Wow”, and all I could say at the end of it was, WOW! I couldn’t believe the lack of maturity of both, Dave, and the owner of Ocean Marketing, Paul. I understand why Dave would be extremely flustered with the situation. I know I have been extremely annoyed by companies who don’t deliver what they promise from the gecko, but that still doesn’t give him the right to speak to them like he did. On the other hand, Paul had no excuse to speak to Dave like he did. Overall he was just a jerk and looked like a complete idiot. I mean, what kind of man who owns a well-known gaming company would treat a loyal customer like that? That is just all kinds of messed up!
After reading the original article (which was an email conversation between Dave, Paul – Owner of Ocean Marketing, and Mike – Owner of PAX and Penny Arcade). I did some digging to see what happen after the initial posting of the conversation on, Penny Arcade. What ended up happening was that the post-Mike had made on his site went VIRAL. When I say viral, I mean it ended up on all the social media sites that you could possibly think! We’re talking Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Kotaku, Fark, and Slashdot. This story got so crazy that Mike’s server temporarily crashed and Paul got tons of threats. It had gotten so bad he had to change his twitter name several times. Even though his “loyal costumers” would find him and keep threatening him. The next thing you know Ocean Marketing no longer exists. Crazy what social media can do!
In this blog post assignment, I must answer two questions that are related to this article.
The first question is, “Hypothesize: You have just been given control of the social media reign at Ocean Marketing at the end of the original article. What steps do you take to rescue the company?” You know, after making yourself look like a huge jerk. It’s really hard to recover from the error of your ways, but all you can do is brush yourself off and try to make things right. Personally, I would’ve contacted both Mike and Dave, and to apologize to them for the rude behavior. Then I would promise Dave that he would receive a full refund of his product, but I would also promise him that he would still be getting his controllers if he still wanted them. After that, I would make a public apology on all social media sites, and promise those customers, that had pre-ordered the product months in advance, that they will be getting ten dollars back from their order. By doing that, I can still continue the ten dollars off deal that they were advertising on their site towards people who were just ordering their product.
The next question I will be answering is, “Do you think the original poster (David) should, or could have done things differently? How about Krahuliks handling of the flame war as things escalated?” This question has me completely torn up. On one hand David shouldn’t have been so aggressive in his emails like he was, but on the other hand, it was really smart that he included those gaming news sites in the email. Let’s face it both of their maturities sub par, especially Paul’s. I condone David for including those other sites into their little email war because guys like that need to be taught a lesson. Yet, I feel like he should’ve kept his poise throughout the conversation. I know that I personally felt torn between both Paul and David from how they were acting towards one another, but at the end of the day, Paul wins the biggest jerk award.
As for Mike’s (the owner of Penny Arcade and PAX) role in this whole thing, I back him up a hundred percent for posting that email conversation. Guys like Paul need to be taken down. At the same time, Mike should’ve told people to back off on Paul. Sure he was a huge jerk about the whole situation, but that doesn’t mean you stoop lower than his level and send threatening messages to him. I mean what are we three years old? People, just need to own up to their mistakes and act their age, and not act like a three-year-old who steal each others candy and say to another person that they’re going to tell on them. If you really think about it that’s how this whole thing ended. A war between three-year-olds, or should I say grown men with the maturity level of a three-year-old.
So, what did we learn here today? We have learned that people need to slow down and think before they respond, because if you respond before you think. Then all hell is going to break loose and you will be exposed on social media. Don’t be a David, Paul, and Mike.
My Two Cents 