never underestimate the bitterness of the losers of small-time local politics. nor frankly, the bitterness of the big-time national sort. i've read things in the past week that would make your toes curl. but this is about the local sort.
the local group that i became part of back in june, has a website that's in its baby, infant stages. i say baby, infant stages, because websites take time. you can't have everything there all at once. for one thing, that would be dumb in terms of google searches (we're already dumb enough in that area, as our website name contains both the word "give" and the word "live" - just imagine how the google algorithms down-prioritize those common words) and for another, it takes time to build up content. stories take time to tell. it's the nature of stories. and projects. and life. and websites.
one of the few things we can put there, because we know it at this stage, is a little mini-bio of the board members. since in denmark, like most of the world, one is where one works, my profile includes a reference to my company. sans link, i might add.
this evening, a few members of the group received a series of mails from one of the bitter folks who wasn't elected that evening back in june, complaining about the "advertisement" for my company on the site. the mention in my profile is no more an ad than the two who work for the local schools mentioning them by name are advertisements for the schools. or the treasurer who mentions the business she works for (her husband's business) or the chairman, who mentions having his own architect firm. we are where we work, so i can see nothing wrong with mentioning that. and i have to say that it pretty much pisses me off to be accused of advertising for doing so. it seems you're damned if you don't say where you work and damned if you do.
what do you think? is it an advertisement to include your work information in your profile on an association website? or when i answer an email question about the site and my automatic signature includes my phone and workplace, is that out of line? these are my contact details, so i'm easy to reach. is that really out of line?
danish has a great way of describing a guy like this...his shoes are too small. way too small.
4 comments:
Nope you are not out of place showing your employment/company in your bio. I bio is just that, it explains who you are. Listing knowlege gained through employment is part of that.
Bad winners and sore losers, why can't we all just get along? You are not just where you work you are what you contribute. Your work benefits your family directly and the community indirectly. I would consider the source and see how it plays out because no matter what you say or do, you will not change Trog #2, he/she falls into the loser category in several distinct behaviors. If the attack is personal, which it appears it is, you may need to see advice on how best to handle this because he/she could potentially affect your business. That is called libel here.
Oh, for God's sake! What is wrong with people nowadays?! I was of the vain hope that Scandinavia wasn't as bad as Australia where we suffer from "the tall poppy syndrome" (meaning anybody who gets ahead a little needs to be cut down - immediately). Can the world just please take a deep breath; we have bigger problems than someone maybe getting some business through telling others where they work on a website. I'll be in the corner screaming...
what bugs me most is that I fell asleep thinking about it and woke up thinking about it. there is a special brand of small-minded righteousness in Denmark - odd that Danish doesn't have a special word for it. tho' it is connected to janteløven (Danish tall poppy syndrome), for which there only is a word because a Norwegian wrote about it.
Post a Comment