Tweeting with Athletes

[UtahsMrSports]

Last night on twitter, there was an incident. I am not going to name names, most of your probably saw it. But it was embarrassing. A fan of ours started an argument over the Jason Collins news with one of our incoming football players. It gave our entire fanbase a block eye.

So, it got me thinking, what are everyone's views on interacting with our players on social media?

To me, I don't follow any of our players. I don't think there is enough interesting stuff from them to merit a follow. Ill see stuff retweeted and thats cool.

I have seen, in addition to last night's debacle, some folks tweet at our athletes to basically just complain about the team not winning. thats also ridiculous to me.

I am just curious to know if I am being too much "twitter police" or if everyone kind of does the same thing.

[FountainOfUte]

Last night on twitter, there was an incident. I am not going to name names, most of your probably saw it. But it was embarrassing. A fan of ours started an argument over the Jason Collins news with one of our incoming football players. It gave our entire fanbase a block eye.

So, it got me thinking, what are everyone's views on interacting with our players on social media?

To me, I don't follow any of our players. I don't think there is enough interesting stuff from them to merit a follow. Ill see stuff retweeted and thats cool.

I have seen, in addition to last night's debacle, some folks tweet at our athletes to basically just complain about the team not winning. thats also ridiculous to me.

I am just curious to know if I am being too much "twitter police" or if everyone kind of does the same thing.

I don't disagree with your sentiments at all, but I accepted long ago that the social media world is the wild, wild west. There are pockets of civility, of course, but you just have to expect rampant idiocy and realize that's the reality of the Internet and it will never change.

[Edit]
I'll go one step further while this is still on my mind...

The problem is not *just* that most people are decent and a small population are dopes. Add to that that we all say and do dumb stuff online from time to time. Add that up over millions and millions of people and good folks are having their "Doh!" moment all over the place. I think I've been civil for the most part in my online interactions, but I know I've said or done a thing or two over the years that I've regretted. Some I had to apologize for, and maybe some I'm not even aware of -- and I don't think I'm wildly outside the norm of an "average person."

[U-Ute]

Last night on twitter, there was an incident. I am not going to name names, most of your probably saw it. But it was embarrassing. A fan of ours started an argument over the Jason Collins news with one of our incoming football players. It gave our entire fanbase a block eye.

So, it got me thinking, what are everyone's views on interacting with our players on social media?

To me, I don't follow any of our players. I don't think there is enough interesting stuff from them to merit a follow. Ill see stuff retweeted and thats cool.

I have seen, in addition to last night's debacle, some folks tweet at our athletes to basically just complain about the team not winning. thats also ridiculous to me.

I am just curious to know if I am being too much "twitter police" or if everyone kind of does the same thing.

I hadn't heard anything about this. But I guessed the culprit on my first try.

LOL.

[Hockeybeard]

Here's my input:

I find it interesting to follow college athletes, and Professional athletes as well, though they are not under the strict NCAA rules for "Booster Interaction".

However, I draw the line at soliciting anything, even responses, from the college athlete. I make sure that anything said is initially one-way, and if they happen to answer back, cool - they are interacting with a fan much like an autograph. However, getting into ideological or morality discussions via public forums like Twitter or Facebook just makes everyone out to be an ass in the end. I will say that I feel the athlete in this instance handled it all very well, and I'm particularly glad he is a JUCO athlete, because I think an incoming freshman may have reacted differently. But the fan in this instance lost a lot of respect from me (not that he would even begin to care), and I hope he can reevaluate how he goes about his online presence in the future.