Inhabitants of Burque just banned me from their page
For asking him to please not post personally identifiable information along with Hate-mail he had received. (kind of like Reddiquette)
The proprietor of Inhabitants of Burque was doing everything short of begging his followers to exact vigilante justice against someone who sent him hatemail that said something sexually insensitive about homosexuals (the guy called the proprietor of Inhabitants Of Burque a 'faggot'.) by posting the persons full name and facebook information, along with a portion of the message emphasizing the word 'faggot'. I hardly condone such behavior, but lots of people say lots of things on the internet, but don't deserve to have their family harassed over it. I called out the moderator of Inhabitants of Burque for doing this, in a civil and levelheaded way. I got about 5 likes from other followers before my comment was deleted. He proceeded to delete my comment along with scores of others, including one from my girlfriend defending me. I was banned before I could even press enter on a second comment that I tried to post after nothing had been done for some time.
I'm particularly butt-hurt because not only does he seem to feel no remorse for accidentally getting someone's family harrassed, but I really liked what this guy was doing. Inhabitants of Burque was a cool concept, and he's seen quite a bit of success with it (enough to literally quit his day job and do it full time). I was trying to give constructive criticism, about something that can actually be kind of a big deal. I only made 1 single comment. The guy he had shamed's family was receiving harassing messages by this point, after IOB followers used his full name to find his personal Facebook page along with everyone who shared his unique last name. But the proprietor of Inhabitants of Burque continued to do nothing but ban criticisms from his page, while allowing the post to remain.
He does not take criticism. If you post any on his page, he will delete it and ban you even if its one single comment (and potentially publicly shame you to his followers). Go ahead and look at any comment thread under any of his posts. Not even something a tiny bit snarky or critical. He made it clear he will ban anyone on the spot if you threaten to 'unlike' him for deplorable behavior on his behalf. He feels he is not accountable in any way for what he posts. He made it particularly clear that he controls the narrative on his Facebook page, and has recently been deleting between 5-10 messages of criticism per thread from his page by my estimates.
This has been for many reasons including his recent trend of posting vapid questions along with pictures of landmarks and restaurants, instead of high effort interviews, to generate likes and page views for more ad revenue ("link bait, low effort content"). It makes sense since he's been telling people of quitting his job to run Inhabitants Of Burque full time. I am disappointed by this development in the quality of his content. He has very much sold out in a sense and/or made a very bad choice quitting his day job. He also fills up peoples Facebook Timelines with more Inhabitants of Burque posts than most people get from any other user on their feed.
So how does Albuquerque feel about having someone like this being one of the louder voices of our city (at least as far as social media goes)? Are you part of his personal army? He claims to actually make a living off of doing nothing but run this Facebook page. I respected him. Its like being a child and meeting your hero and finding out he's actually a total dickbag, who's too full of himself to man up to his mistakes. Disheartening. He was really nasty to me in his private messages and never made an effort to reconcile or apologize, or even acknowledge his misjudgment a little bit. He did end up deleting the post in the course of our conversation, but his defensive and dismissive tone never changed. And even though his actions acknowledged his mistake by virtue of deleting the post, my ban was never lifted. And he continued to treat me like some kind of enemy combatant. I guess this is what happens when you rely on Facebook for your income, but misjudged your actual success. He seems to be having major problems making this work, which is effecting his personal life, which is in turn effecting the quality of his work and attitude drastically.
Edit: And please, dont make this about me getting banned. He's totally in his right to do whatever he wants, I could care less. This is about internet harassment, and inciting internet vigilante justice. Its unquestionably wrong in any circumstance, and anyone coming to his defense over it is certifiably horrible.
Posted Feb 20, 2013, 11:30 PM UTC · edited
What if the person who sent the hate mail was drunk?
What if they didnt really mean what they said?
What if it was their friend logged into their facebook account, doing a prank?
What if they were a minor?
Does someone really deserve to be publicly shamed, and their real life location disseminated to 7000 followers, who all live within driving distance of each other, with the potential for vigilante justice, just because they sent some hatemail on the INTERNET?
I think not.
I would have respected Inhabitants of Burque for having a discussion about how its wrong to call names like that. Or to remind people not to bully on the internet. But the second he posted personally identifiable information about someone over such a heated issue, he crossed a major line. And behaved much worse than the person who sent the hate mail. Its the internet. C'mon. You have to have a thick skin. I've been called the same thing, and much worse. Its not 'right' but you dont respond by doubling up your efforts to get someone bullied. You dont fight bullying with inciting more bullying. Its that simple.
I implore my fellow Burque citizens to UNLIKE Inhabitants of Burque until Leo apologizes and explains himself, about doing such a thing to someone, and about all the censoring he does on his page. He crowd sources his income, so why does he get to silence some of those voices who make his existence possible by their participation in Facebook? Everyone has bad days and makes mistakes, I am not beyond forgiveness. But at this point he's just trying to brush it under the rug like it never happened. I dont mean to blow this out of propotion, but you can seriously get people injured, property damaged, severely harassed, or even killed, posting their personal information along with a reason to hate them, to an audience of 7000 people on the internet. If Leo cant respect that, IDK if he deserves the success he has. Pretty much all major internet forums have rules against doing stuff like this. Someone capable of this much internet success should be fully aware of such things.
With the power of 7000 followers and enough success to quit your day job, you better believe I'm butthurt and am going to hold you to a high standard of responsibility for your actions. I was a huge fan. I enjoyed participating in his page. I gave reasonable constructive criticism. Dont taze me bro.
He makes his living off of chronicling OUR lives, he gets cut checks off OUR participation in Facebook (and now he has a kickstarter?). So he should have to answer to us too IMHO. Especially if he's irresponsibly wielding his wide reaching voice to incite his own personal army to do his bidding. Even when you dont encourage people to do anything, they will if you give them a persons contact info and a reason to hate them. This is internet 101 stuff.