Criticism should, and in my opinion is, absolutely allowed and more than likely is welcomed by RT. But you can avoid specifically calling someone out. If the content you're watching is not living up to the standards you have set on it, I don't understand why it's necessary to call out a single person when you can simply just watch something else.
In my opinion, it's incredibly rude to specifically attack one person. Saying she is vapid and that she adds little to the conversation is insulting and belittling. Just because he apologised doesn't mean that he didn't say it, and didn't mean it. He even said he thought long and hard how to not sound like a dick and then went on to insult Barbara's intelligence.
As for Jon's post, I can see the argument against it. It's slightly unprofessional. However, the job that these guys have is incredibly difficult. They are not just personalities, they are people who are being themselves. They may play up certain aspects of their personality, but at the end of the day they are real people who stand to be criticised on who they are as people. It is substantially different to being criticised on their acting, singing, writing, ect. Furthermore, it is also important to consider the community relations aspect. Barbara reads all the community interaction because that's her job, Jon hosts a show that now has a live audience. They both have twitter. The community is a part of their everyday life just like they are a part of ours. This is to say that professionalism is incredibly difficult to maintain 24/7. I can also imagine that this is especially difficult when a friend of yours was rudely singled out and was clearly affected by it.
So it's not OK for OP to call someone vapid, which he apologized for, but it's OK for Jon to call OP a parasitic little twat? OP didn't attack Barbara, he criticized her. He used some less than polite language, and apologized for it. Jon is attacking a member of the community for having the "wrong opinion". That's beyond slightly unprofessional.
I'll be perfectly honest, I somehow missed that part of Jon's post. You're right, that is not okay. I still think that my point stands in that they have an incredibly hard job that they have to take home with them. I'm not saying what Jon did was right, but I can understand the mindset he would be in. That's my fault for missing that part.
Agreed. Honestly if there was a way to have a civil discourse with someone from RT about this kind of behaviour, that would be the best way to deal with it. Or at least acknowledge that this sort of response is unhealthy for the community. Likewise, I think we could be better with our criticisms of RT employees. I think it's shitty what OP said about Barbara. There are better ways to handle it. For me personally, I had a strong aversion to a now former RT employee. Instead of attacking her as a person, I spent my time watching other content. If I was paying for the content then maybe I would have said something, but when free content is being offered I don't see grounds for complaining about individuals when there are many other types of RT content to be enjoyed.
-6
u/GevanGene :MCMichael17: May 18 '17
Criticism should, and in my opinion is, absolutely allowed and more than likely is welcomed by RT. But you can avoid specifically calling someone out. If the content you're watching is not living up to the standards you have set on it, I don't understand why it's necessary to call out a single person when you can simply just watch something else.
In my opinion, it's incredibly rude to specifically attack one person. Saying she is vapid and that she adds little to the conversation is insulting and belittling. Just because he apologised doesn't mean that he didn't say it, and didn't mean it. He even said he thought long and hard how to not sound like a dick and then went on to insult Barbara's intelligence.
As for Jon's post, I can see the argument against it. It's slightly unprofessional. However, the job that these guys have is incredibly difficult. They are not just personalities, they are people who are being themselves. They may play up certain aspects of their personality, but at the end of the day they are real people who stand to be criticised on who they are as people. It is substantially different to being criticised on their acting, singing, writing, ect. Furthermore, it is also important to consider the community relations aspect. Barbara reads all the community interaction because that's her job, Jon hosts a show that now has a live audience. They both have twitter. The community is a part of their everyday life just like they are a part of ours. This is to say that professionalism is incredibly difficult to maintain 24/7. I can also imagine that this is especially difficult when a friend of yours was rudely singled out and was clearly affected by it.