Social Media Club Atlanta April Meeting

Last night the Atlanta chapter of the social media club met at the Earthlink headquarters… thanks again Dan Greenfield and Dave Coustan for continuing to provide us a wonderful room with wifi and a projector.

This is just our third meeting and we had a good group of 10 or so people.

The topic of the evening (discussed last month) was supposed to be “your favorite online tool” however Dan Greenfield from Earthlink suggested a topic shift based on the recent events with Kathy Sierra receiving treats. Thus we decided to discuss issues surrounding web etiquette, civility in the blogosphere, and how to deal with personal attacks and trolls within the social media realm. Stories were told, legal issues examinined, and developer strategies were discussed. We also tried discussing best practices and how individuals can handle trolls that spread ugliness and hate– just because they can.

Since we can only control our own individual behavior, the guidelines we came up with focus on what each individual can do to make the social media space more civil. They include:

• If you disagree with someone, keep your criticism to issues, topics and ideas. Don’t get personal.
• Don’t call people names.
• Don’t make threats.
• If someone gets personal with you, don’t make the situation worse by being a smart ass back.
• If you don’t own your own webspace or have administrative priviledges with the service you use, feel free to notify the company/administrator of the inappropriate behavior.

Dan, once again, provided snacks. A few others brought things, but it was good that Dan took care of it. We are lucky to have Earthlink being so supportive of this. Next month, we’d also like to encourage people to bring a snack– if possible. Also consider bringing a friend. All are welcome!!!!

Fellow clubmates— if I missed something or presented something wrong, please feel free to leave a comment.

John Wehr will moderate next month’s meeting on May 2nd. Stay tuned for the topic.

Thanks to Josh Hallett for the photo.