Welcome to Twitbook

30/06/2009 — efan78

twitbookHas it really been less than a month since I saw the way the wind was blowing and asked “Since when did twitter become facebook“?

That was a post aimed squarely at the creators of the Spymaster game, although a (dis)honourable mention went out to twitterscope – who seem to have changed their webpage…

But I will say this for the Spymaster team.  They listened to the public and gave people the option to opt-out.  So much kudos goes to them for that.  I signed up for it and almost completely forgot my rage.  But recently I’ve seen the one thing that really annoyed me about facebook.  It’s infected twitter and gone round the twitterverse faster than swine flu.  The inane quizzes have hit twitter.

I realise that people look for this sort of thing when they’re bored but surely, with the sheer scale of twitter, it’s possible to find someone tweeting about something that you’re interested in – then all you need to do is drop them a message then Bang! And the dirt is gone… Whoops, sorry!  I mean ta-da! You have a new friend who shares at least one interest with you.  Maybe you can learn something from them, maybe they can learn something from you…

I know one thing though.  Your followers aren’t going to learn anything about you from these arbitrary quizzes that you’ve taken online in 30 seconds.  I won’t learn anything about you from the What animal are you most like? quiz and, unless I’m going to eat you (and believe me that’s not going to happen!), the What flavour ice-cream quiz is no use either.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh.  There is one quiz that I’d like to see people take – the What Muppet are you? quiz.  But that’s only if the answer that comes up every time is “A right proper muppet who keeps clogging other people’s streams up with this pointless shoite!”

140 mafiaOf course once one game arrived then it became open season.  I’ve noticed a few tweets starting up for the 140 Mafia game.  Thankfully I haven’t had many, but it’s only a matter of time.

I hate to be the one to say “I told you so”, but I’m sure I may have mentioned the PirateNinjaMafia War – lo and behold – it came true!

Now, do you think I should start talking about the “Everyone in the world give Ethan a fiver” game that I can feel in my water?  It’s coming – it’s just over the horizon… I’m sure of it!

And now I read on Mashable that someone’s ported Pokes to twitter…  And I quote from the Poke.ly website: Poke.ly was launched with the aim of providing users with a new form of expression in the social space!

pokelyNew form of expression!?!  Is that like the iPhone’s “new features”?  New to the product but been around for years elsewhere?  I’m a huge fan of Open Source, and the fact that twitter has such an open attitude to use of its API is fantastic.  There are some great apps out there that tie into twitter and use the information in a fun and constructive way.

But all these pointless (anti) social networking games are just annoying.  Please people, take them to one platform and keep them there, let the rest of us have somewhere we can share thoughts.

I’ll be over on friendfeed…

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Has real time overtaken traditional news? Not for me.

26/06/2009 — efan78

twitter Logo

So, today’s been an interesting news day and once again real time social media has shown its strengths and weaknesses.  Alongside the long running #IranElections, earlier today it was declared that Farrah Fawcett had died after her fight with cancer.  I saw this and thought it was a sad day, but carried on, as did the rest of my twitterstream.

Tmz_logoThis evening however the early reports that Michael Jackson had been rushed to hospital started being tweeted.  This was met by some tweets by people who were concerned.  Then all of a sudden it changed, Michael Jackson is dead – TMZ reported, and it went around the twitterverse faster than almost any other story I’ve seen.

I’m all for updates and news coming through as quickly as possible – that’s the whole point of real time.  But I did get very concerned that a lot of tweets were going out saying that it had been confirmed when only one source had mentioned it.  So I asked for some restraint while waiting for confirmation.

I went on to explain my reasoning but the rumours kept on flying, Michael Jackson had been taken into hospital after a heart attack, after taking an overdose, he was dead, he was in a coma, the tweets just kept on flying.  It was confusing so I reverted to the only source of news that I truly trust.  The BBC were able to confirm that Michael Jackson had been taken into hospital, but not his death/coma or any other state.  I received texts from my step-daughter and a friend and was as honest as I could be and said that the news wasn’t confirmed.

To be honest, even though I watched the news unfold on twitter, none of my followers were eyewitnesses or in the middle of the situation, so my only choice was to turn back to traditional journalism for a balanced, considered and investigated story.

_44766357_bbc_news_channela_512While much of the twitterverse were posting their condolences (and jokes) I sat watching and waiting for the confirmation.  I knew that it was probably true, but I’m cautious about confirming information without verifiable proof.  Then it came through, I was able to contact those people who had asked me and tell them it was true.  The BBC had confirmed it and that was enough for me.  In fact, it reminded me about Bill Thompson’s article “Whose Service” about the licence fee, and the debate that’s going on at the moment.  I’m not sure on the debate but I do know one thing… I hope that any changes made to the licence fee won’t affect it’s (relative) impartiality and quality.

While twitter has shown its strength throughout the #IranElection, and the #bbcqt & #Eurovision coverage is fun I think I’ll still be relying on the traditional media for a while yet.

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It’s only answering the telephone…

23/06/2009 — efan78

This is a response to @AngryBritain’s “Helpless Centre” Beef.

call-centreOK, @AngryBritain – I love your tweets, you help to keep me sane on my way to work and I often find myself nodding and agreeing with you HOWEVER… I really need to put the other side of the Call Centre story across.

It’s Monday morning, like most of the country I’m off to work.  My mission?  To help customers, solve problems and generally make them feel good about the company I work for.

In short, I work in Customer Relations, we’re a team of people who’s purpose is to rescue a situation once everything’s gone wrong and help customers in the hope that they’ll return.  Now this means that we deal with people after they’ve travelled.  In the mobile phone industry we’d be called “retentions” in the car industry we’d be After Sales Care, but the important thing is we are a post travel team.

We have one of those touch-tone thingies that asks you to select which department is best for you.  Why?  Because otherwise we’d have to hire a team of receptionists to direct your call, and that would mean you’d have to pay for them.  But in these credit-cruch recessional times you want to save money, so we need to automate it.  I think that my company’s menu’s quite straightforward, for Sales press 1, Flight times 2, Help with your booking 3 and if you have recently travelled and want to talk to us about it? Option 4.  It’s not difficult.

So I leave the house and, like @AngryBritain I have the joys of the UK Commute.  buses that arrive if and when they want, smelly passengers beside me, coffee shops that aren’t open early enough on a Saturday, Big Issue sellers on every corner and a corner shop with an owner who has two speeds, slow and reverse.  But, like the millions of others, I fight my way through to the office and sign in to the numerous systems that I need, reservations, emails, complaints log, check-in, the list goes on…

Then 08.00 kicks round and I signin to my phone, start writing a reply to one of the passengers that I emailed last night and a call comes through.  ”Good Morning, you’re through to Ethan in Customer Relations, how can I help?”  I’m bright, I’m breezy, I smile down the phone and sincerly want to help this person…big_smile1

“Oh!  Are you a real person, Steven was it?”  comes the sharp, clipped voice at the end of the line.  ”Absolutely Sir, and it’s Ethan by the way.”  Still smiling, still bright – I’m sure we can get this sorted if the customer needs me.  ”Well Euan, I’ve been waiting for 15 minutes to get through to you!”  I look at the clock, it’s 08.03, the department’s been open for 3 minutes.  ”I’m sorry to hear that sir, let’s see if we can get things sorted for you…”

“I want to make a booking but your website’s broken, you’ve got no helpdesk number and I can’t get through to sales…”

Ah…  never fear, I know just the person that can help, we have a helpdesk AND a sales team, so let’s just see how we can get this guy to understand…

“I’m sorry to hear that sir, it’s very rare for the website to not work at all so I think the best thing to do would be if I pass you through to the helpdesk who’ll look into it for you.  Of course I’d like to give them some details so if I could just take your name…”

“WHAT!?!”  The tone is raised, the frustration is building, and who better to take it out on than a voice at the end of a phone?  I mean really, it’s not a real person there, sat listening and trying to help, just a voice.  They don’t have a face so it’s easy…

So it’s time to let this person have his rant, about how awful call centres are, about how it’s all my fault that he selected the option to come through to the wrong department, about how he hopes that we go bust and that I lose my job.  It’s not the first time I’ve heard it, and – while I know he’s just frustrated – it can be a little disheartening when I was only trying to help.

“I’m sorry sir, I didn’t mean to upset you… yes I realise that you’ve been on the phone to me for half an hour now (it’s 08.07 now, but what’s 25 minutes or so between friends!?!) and I’d like to get this sorted as quickly as possible for you so, could I just take your name, where you want to go, and the problems you’ve had?  That’s great Mr Angry, thanks very much, now I’m just going to pop you on hold for a minute while I introduce the call and then one of my colleague’s in the web team can help you.  If you need them in the future their direct number is 00000000 and they’re open from 08.00-20.00 daily.

0511-0811-0415-3734_Cartoon_of_a_Red_Faced_Angry_Man_clipart_imageSo there’s the first victory, but do you thing Mr Angry will be happy with that, or do you think that he’s going to blog about how awful call centres are because of the touch tones and the departments?

I know there are bad call centres out there, with a multi-tiered touch-tone (Sky TV, BT and T-Mobile – I’m looking at you!) and staff who can’t be bothered.  In fact, there are staff that can’t be bothered in every job, not just call centres.  I know there are call centres who outsource, granted their English is better than my Punjabi, but it can be difficult to understand.

But we’re not all like that, honest!

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My Experience of Question Time #bbcqt

21/06/2009 — efan78

QT Header taken from BBC iPlayerFor those people who don’t know, BBC Question Time is a long running political debate series that is shown in the UK.  It is recorded at different venues around the country and members of the public are invited into the audience to pose questions and comment on the answers given by the panel.  The panel is usually made up of three members of the main political parties (Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats), a journalist or other member of the press and another person, sometimes a celebrity, sometimes a business leader, sometimes a member of one of the smaller political parties or a lobby group.

I was successful this week in getting a ticket to be part of the audience.  You can see this weeks episode on the BBC iPlayer until 23.34 (BST) on Friday 18 June 2010.  It was a fantastic experience and, although I didn’t get to say anything to the panel (not for the want of trying!), it was an excellent experience that I would highly recommend to anyone who’s interested in political discourse.

So, how do you get picked? Well, firstly I signed up on the Question Time website to register my interest.  There are a number of questions on the form that need to be completed so that the producers can make sure that they have a good spread of the population.  The day before the show was going to be aired I received a phone call from one of the show’s producers who told me I was succesful and that she would send me an email with the details.  She also asked me to email a question in to the producers that evening and then think of a second question to pose that I would write down when I arrived.

The email came and I replied with my first question – as you may have guessed from my recent blog posts – it was about voter apathy.  The question needed to be less than 30 words and preferably around 20.  The question I emailed was “Voter apathy is at an all time low, in my house of four eligible voters only one voted. What is the Government doing to help turn the tide?” Basically, I panicked!  I should have asked what the PANEL thought we should do.

The email also reiterated that the panel was going to be the former Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, Shadow Business Secretary Ken Clarke, Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesman Ed Davey MP, Journalist Esther Rantzen and Guardian Columnist Polly Toynbee.

The next day I headed off to the Nissan Factory in Sunderland (well, Washington to be precise) and queued up to get in.  While we were stood in the queue being blown around by the wind in drove Esther Rantzen who walked straight in!  Of course that was a bit miffing as she had a bloody stylist to stop her from looking like a mare!  Anyway, we got in and were searched to make sure that no-one had any funny shaped vegetables for Esther (for those people who don’t know – Esther Rantzen presented That’s Life! for what seemed like a lifetime).  We then walked into the waiting area where there were some tables and chairs dotted about and we were given the card for our second question.nissan factory sunderland

I can’t remember how I worded my second question but it was something like “Considering the recent attacks on Romanian refugees in Northern Ireland and the BNP’s recent success in the European Elections does the Panel think Britain is becoming more bigotted?”

It wasn’t long before David Dimbleby came out to have a chat with the audience.  He told us what was going to happen, the way that the show would be filmed and what we could expect and also gave a couple of anecdotes about previous shows.  I’ve always held him in high regard from his performance on the show but this 5-10 minutes that he spent talking to everyone helped me realise that he’s also quite a nice, genuine and funny guy!

We then were given about 15 minutes for ablutions and to have a chat with each other before we went into the studio.  We were able to sit wherever we liked and then 5 members of the audience were asked to be “temporary panelists” so that we could go through a quick ‘dry run’ and get a feel for the show.  During the dry run the six questions that were going to be asked were selected and the people who had been chosen were taken away.

The way that the questions are selected are that they are put into piles and the a question is taken from each of the biggest piles.  This of course means that the direction of the show comes from the audience and it’s the subjects that the audience want to discuss that are posed.

The Panel then came out and we had a practice run with the panel before filming began.  The practice question was about climate change and the increase in temperature in the North East, which surely can only be a good thing!?!  The light-hearted question was an excellent ice-breaker and led quite easily into the show proper…

Oh, and for those of you who didn’t see me, here’s my hand (which was up for about 20 friggin’ minutes!):

QT Hand

And here’s me:

QT - Ethan

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I support the BNP

10/06/2009 — efan78

bnp-logo-thumb-174x68Very early on Monday morning I wrote a blog post about they way I felt that the British National Party had gained 2 seats in the EU Parliament election 2009.  I was very angry at the time, and I still am.  But that anger is now channeled at those people who didn’t vote.  Oh, and the policies of the BNP.

Let me make this clear just in case you weren’t sure… I don’t actually support the beliefs of the BNP but I am a Liberal, and believe wholeheartedly in democracy.  As much as I disagree with the core beliefs of any party that discriminates against any person regardless of gender, race, religion, sexuality, disability or any other reason it’s still the whole point of a democracy.  ANYONE can vote and any beliefs can be represented.

As Voltaire said “I do not agree with a word you say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it”.

As opponents of the beliefs of the BNP it is vital that people don’t make martyrs of the people who stand.  If we ridicule them too much they’ll become a figure of fun and people may overlook the abhorrent beliefs that these people stand for.  Yesterday Nick Griffin was pelted with eggs by protestors in London.  This gave him the opportunity to appear on the BBC News and promote his party.  Yes, I’ll admit, I felt satisfaction that people were standing up to him, but then realised… those protestors have given him and his party more ammunition, more coverage and more of an “edgy” feel.

Together we must fight against the policies that the BNP have, together we must spotlight the fallacious arguments they put forward.  Together we must highlight that this has all happened before and say “NEVER AGAIN“.

So, while I disagree with the BNP’s beliefs, I still believe wholeheartedly that they be allowed to represent them.  It’s a key part of the democratic process.  What we need to do is make sure that the electorate are aware of the beliefs, and are galavanised to stand up against them.  We need to make sure that 943,598 votes nationwide does not ensure political power to a party that does not represent the beliefs of the nation.  And we need to make sure that this never happens again.

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Why Bother?

08/06/2009 — efan78

european-union-flag It’s difficult to know what to say.  As I type this I know that the British National Party are celebrating.  They have been legitimised by the electorate and have a representative in the European Parliament.  I don’t know which side of this bitter, bitter pill tastes worse.  The fact that they were able to get together enough support to vote for them, or the fact that only 30.4% of the electorate bothered to vote.  

The BBC News website tells us that 12,236,761 people are registered to vote.  That seems like a very low number of permanent UK residents over 18 who aren’t incarcerated etc… In fact, I would say that this shows yet another problem – people don’t even bother to register to vote.  These people consciously decide not to bother voting.  As if that wasn’t bad enough 8,132,859 of those who could be bothered to register couldn’t be bothered to actually go and vote, or fill in a postal vote form.  This left the decision to 4,103,902 people. 

north-east-results

Taken from news.bbc.co.uk

 I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.  Here at home I was, am, and will always be – it seems – the only person bothered to vote.  That’s a 25% turnout from our house.  It’s a scary figure to work with  and I think it’s vital that those of us who do vote find out why people don’t and work together to encourage more participation.  I hope beyond hope that the voting in of the far-right BNP will be a wake up call for some of those people who couldn’t be bothered.

I vote for a few reasons.  Firstly – it’s my right to vote.  The only way that right can be taken from me is if the Government decide to take it.  The only way that the Government can decide to take it is if the electorate vote them in.  Therefore, if I use my vote, I can stop it from being taken away.

Secondly, I know people who vote for the far-right.  I know people who honestly believe that multi-cultural Britain has caused the recession, the idea of “Broken Britain”, violent crime and even more.  In fact, the castigation of one subsection of the population and legislation to deal with it has come up in history before.  In fact, I never thought I’d agree with a political post by a Conservative, but this post (How the BNP is replicating 1930s Nazi Germany) by Tony Sharp makes some very valid points.

I know that people think that their vote doesn’t matter, that they can’t make a difference, and that the politicians are all the same.  That’s not the case.  Really, as you can see from these numbers, just 20,000 more people voting Green would have moved the BNP even further down in the North East.  And in Yorkshire and the Humber (where the BNP won their seat) they only got 120,139 votes!

Please people, take the wake up call, do you really want the BNP to take over the country just because you couldn’t be bothered to write an X?  If you don’t vote, then you might as well have marked the paper yourself, and when the minorities are taken away to “work camps” and extradited (and yes, that’ll include me probably) you can pat yourself on the back.  At least you didn’t have to walk to the Polling Station/Post Box.

Still feeling relaxed?

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@BullyingUK – #CharityTuesday

02/06/2009 — efan78

I know a lot of the people I follow on twitter are also following @BullyingUK, and there’s a good reason for this.  Many of us have been bullied at some point in our lives and know just how awful it can be.  Being scared to go to school, or to leave the house, because the bully will be there.

But bullying isn’t just physical.  As a young person I faced bullying, firstly I was from a different area.  Originally from Lancashire – when I first moved to the North East everyone thought I was a little backwards because “I talked right slow like” (try saying that in a Lancashire accent!) and so people thought I wasn’t so quick on the uptake.  Couple that with the fact that my parents were on benefits so I couldn’t have all the latest gear (oh how I would have loved a pair of British Knights trainers!), I wore glasses, was good at lessons but bad at sports and I had target written all over me.  And do you know what?  Myparents made it even worse – they named me Michael Jackson!  I’m not kidding!

I lived with that for years but then realised that the worst was yet to come.  I was gay.  There was nothing I could do about it, but my family weren’t the most accepting of people.  So at 16 I left home (not as voluntarily as I would have liked!)

It was only after I left home and stopped speaking to my family that I realised.  I was a nice person.  I was friendly, outgoing, intelligent and had a lot to offer to the world.  But years of being told I was slow, I was a four-eyes, a swot, Wacko Jacko, a child molester, a faggot, puff, homo and a million other things really hit me.  In fact – I didn’t realise how much until I typed this – I’m getting a bit emotional now and so I’m sorry if this is a bit disjointed, but I’m going to carry on.

I’m 30 years old now.  Sometimes people say something to me in the street about my sexuality.  I am a bit of a stereotype sometimes!  But do you know what?  It doesn’t hurt any more.  That’s because I have friends who care for me because of who I am, what I am and what I offer them.  I am a friend, a partner, a step-parent, work colleague, agony aunt and tweeter.  

I am more than the nothing my father said I would be, and I’m more than the joke that the school bullies once picked on.

I am Ethan Kristopher-Hartley.  I was bullied and came out of it the other side better, stronger and more aware of everything that made me.  And you can too.

128x128_bloggingforacause1 

This is why I support @BullyingUK – and why you should too.  Take a couple of seconds to vote to win them some advertising on the sides of buses from Up Everyone’s Street.  Visit their website at Bullying.co.uk and donate to them as well.  And if you’re a blogger you have 4 days left to help them in the Blogging for a Cause campaign. 

This blog post is part of Zemanta’s “Blogging For a Cause” campaign to raise awareness and funds for worthy causes that bloggers care about.
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The National Tea Party

02/06/2009 — efan78

pembrokeshire-tea-ntp-badgeOK, I’ve spent too many posts whinging about this and that, so I’d like to make a more lighthearted announcement.

Today, ladies and gentlemen, I joined The National Tea Party via the NTP Twibe page, courtesy of the Pembrokeshire Tea Co, who are also known for their Emergency Tea Response Unit.

For those people who don’t know, the European Parliamentary elections are being held this week (Thursday 4 June 2009 if you’re not sure of the date!), and in some places in the UK local elections are also being held.  It’s quite concerning at the moment after the well publicised MPs Expenses row as there are so many people disillusioned with the democratic process, so anything that encourages people can only be a good thing!

So, brew up, sit back and don’t forget to vote!

And for those who are interested – It’s Lemon and Honey in Earl Grey – without fail.  Anything else is just a heathen abomination and therefore wrong!  Yes, that includes you Milk adders too.  I can only say “HOW VERY DARE YOU!“

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Since when did Twitter become Facebook?

01/06/2009 — efan78

twitter LogoIt took me a while, but in January this year I found twitter.  And it was a breath of fresh air after Facebook.  It was clean, simple and devoted solely to communicating with people.  No more would I be asked to join someone’s PirateNinjaMafia War or go hunting for Easter Eggs/Christmas decorations/Flowering plants.  Neither would I be asked to pop something in a colleague’s secret lady garden or enter a friends special spyring – before the US busts it :) (OK, I made those last two up just for double entendre’s sake – but you’ve all seen Facebook, you know what it’s like!)

But something has started on twitter.  Sure, I’ve been playing the hashtag games.  They’re fun, social and anyone can join in, but there’s a new game, Spymaster, that needs you to sign up before joining in, and it seems from the tweets that a lot of my friends have joined in.

Don’t get me wrong – I really want my friends to enjoy their time on whatever social network they choose.  My only issue is with the fact that these games impose themselves on my tweetstream, just as the others did on my Facebook posts.  Does this mean that we’ll all soon be taking quizzes and tweeting the results?  Oh no, I forgot, we have the daily Twittascope instead!

Who knows, maybe Google Wave is my answer – but I’m going to have to wait a while for that.  I only hope they actually make an Android app for it rather than waiting for someone to cobble something together like the gDocs app.  Yes it works, but it’s Fugly and just not what you want to see on behalf of Google.

I may be disillusioned at the moment but I’m going to watch this trend for twitter games carefully.  I won’t make a decision just yet though.

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