Maybe you saw our post yesterday about Kurt Greenbaum, the Post Dispatch’s Social Media Director and how he got a man fired because he posted a “vulgarity” on the comments of an STLToday article. If not, check it out, we go in to in detail there.
In that post, I dropped this little pull quote, suitable for twittering and the like:
…and then the internet skull-f*cked him.
I was wrong. The internet populace hadn’t begun to skull f*ck him at that point. They are now though.
Midway through yesterday, one of our commenters alerted us that this story had popped up on Reddit, a popular social news site.
That’s kind of where this story took off and turned ugly for Greenbaum.
First, there were comments like this:
…and then this (edited):
That would be his full name, address, every phone number and email address he has and his boss’ contact info.
…and then Twitter took off. Just do a quick search for people replying back to Greenbaum via Twitter and calling him a “pussy” (thats the word the commenter apparently used).
Oh and of course, you can also now visit: www.KurtGreenbaumIsAPussy.com
We aren’t going to stand here and tell you that all of this is cool, but we also aren’t going to say its all not funny. [Editor's Note: Address? Not funny. Website? Totally funny.]
If there is anything you can take away from this, here it is:
1. Don’t mess with privacy policies.
2. If you do, don’t call attention to it.
3. It is amazing how fast people can rally around a story that didn’t really take off until a day or two after it actually happened. Kurt may disagree with this right now, but that is a pretty awesome thing about the internet.
The good news for Greenbaum, and pretty much the only good news since he is probably getting pizzas sent to his house 24/7, is that internet hatred (or love) is fleeting. Sadly, though, images can kinda be forever….
Images via Reddit
