Thursday, July 16, 2009

Hmmm. Someone is a bit sensitive....

Got the following email today from photographer/Twitter marketeer Scott Bourne:

"I have to say you do have big brass balls - enjoying the Drobo I gave you while you disrespect me for doing Twitter giveaways?

I think that says a bunch more about you than me. Perhaps you'd like to return the Drobo I gave you - then I'd at least respect you even if I disagree with you. Now I just pity you.

s"

He sent this to me because I retweeted a request for the people of Twitter to cease endlessly retweeting Mr. Bourne's marketing messages:

Here's the tweet I sent out earlier today:

RT @ShawnKing: Twitterverse: Please stop pimping/RT/working for Scott Bourne. ktxbye (I think I've got to agree here -AMR)

See, the thing is... I stopped following Mr. Bourne on Twitter a while ago for just this reason. I was seeing way too many promotional tweets from him and found myself constantly getting annoyed by this. This was not an easy decision for me to make since I did win a Drobo because I happened to be following him on Twitter.

[Though, I suspect the Drobo did not come from Mr. Bourne's personal stash of Drobos. In fact it was sent to me directly from the company that makes the Drobo. Also, I won the Drobo via a completely random drawing from Mr. Bourne's flock of Twitter followers - I don't think Mr. Bourne personally chose my name because he liked my Twitter avatar or something like that.]

I stayed with Mr. Bourne on Twitter as long as I could before I just got too tired of seeing the promotional tweets all the time. So today I retweeted, and agreed with, the sentiment that too many people are re-tweeting his giveaway tweets, many of those people I follow too. So, while I ended up un-following Mr. Bourne because of his promos, I still ending up getting flooded with Bourne Spam. I don't really want to un-follow all those people (many of whom I like and respect), but there is a part of me that wishes they would just stop re-tweeting his marketing messages. It's like third-hand smoke.

I'm not sure how Mr. Bourne feels "disrespected" by me voicing my opinion about his marketing techniques; I'm surprised that he cannot take a few slings and arrows in a public forum. I'm also surprised by the tone of his email to me. The fact that he thinks that I owe him something because he "gave" me a Drobo makes me wonder about how he respects other people. Just because I give a hobo a buck doesn't mean the guy has to like me. Sounds like he is use to people just bending to his whim or whatever. Well, if he thinks that just because I was a random recipient of a product he's endorsing, I should take it up the ass... all I can wonder if he's ever been tea-bagged by a set of big brass balls!?

BTW, I'm keeping the Drobo, thank you very much. I enjoy it every day. We sing and dance together, laughing away the worries of the world. Oh, Drobo, how I could not live without you. Every day we are together I am thankful. My life is complete now that I have a Drobo...

Antonio Rosario

P.S. Curious how Mr. Bourne saw my tweet today since it only mentioned his name and not his Twitter user name... Someone is doing vanity searches perhaps?

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh god yes i hate those fucking promo RT's ... we need the twitter police ;)

Unknown said...

Mr Bourne's propensity for spewing both snark and SPAM lead me to unfollow him long ago. I agree with you 100% about his getting his Bournians to do his SPAMming for him. I only still listen to him occasionally on his newest podcast because Rick Sammon is co-host...and RICK ROCKS! I don't understand what so many people see in Scott Bourne. Maybe they're only in it for the chance to get free stuff. If so, what a sad commentary on a talented photographer.

G Dan Mitchell said...

You are not the only one who has received a message like this from Mr. Bourne. Today.

Thomas said...

You'll like this then. I just wrote a fairly innocuous blog posting on the fears people were having about the future of Aperture, and I get a comment left by none other than Mr. Bourne accusing the article of being "Link Bait".

Now that's ironic. Curious how he had no problem linking back to his own site either.

TrashTalk2 said...

Thomas, that's hilarious! Got a link to Bourne's comment?

Thomas said...

Yeah. It's here:

http://www.thomas-fitzgerald.net/2009/08/05/will-aperture-suffer-the-same-fate-as-shake/

down near the bottom of all the other "lovely" comments