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Is this offensive? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Joe Bryant
- Start date
ChiefD
Footballguy
I personally didn't find it offensive, but it just seemed out of character for the @Joe BryantI know from these boards.
Alex P Keaton
Footballguy
I had to read it 5 times to see what would have been offensive, and even then I got it wrong. Voted 0.
Then again, after reading it 5 times it still wasn’t funny. Reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine was trying to understand why a New Yorker cartoon was considered funny.
Then again, after reading it 5 times it still wasn’t funny. Reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine was trying to understand why a New Yorker cartoon was considered funny.
ghostguy123 said:
The feedback I got was that people felt I was trying to "own the libs" with it. They were offended enough to let me know they would no longer be purchasing a subscription.
Which is pretty funny in itself if anyone knows me.
FairWarning
Footballguy
JaxBill
Footballguy
skol asylum
Footballguy
If someone got triggered by something so mundane as that they need a trigger lock installed stat.IvanKaramazov said:
skol asylum
Footballguy
More likely I think it's showing that alcohol lowers one's inhibitions and makes them more likely to speak their mind. It's a mildly amusing tweet and whoever was offended by something like that needs to closer examine their reading comprehension skills.Juxtatarot said:
Atomic Punk
Footballguy
I voted “clearly offensive”. Not because I was offended (I wasn’t and do not offend easily), but based on the world (US particularly), it clearly would have been offensive to some.
Im not saying this is right (it isn’t and I hate that this is what society has become), but it just is nowadays.
Im not saying this is right (it isn’t and I hate that this is what society has become), but it just is nowadays.
skol asylum
Footballguy
People are focusing too much on what the words/ideas of the inebriated person is saying instead of the main point that someone who has too much to drink can be annoying, no matter what their political or other opinions. That was Joe's point I believe. Hope your get together didn't devolve into something like that.
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Bracie Smathers
Footballguy
Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
It's not really political though - as you said the "drunk" could have easily been on the conservative "side" in order to make the same joke. The joke is merely that once people get buzzed and the situation turns political - Watch Out!!!
Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
Is it “people”? Before you said it was one person.
I'd say it if was just one person, it was an outlier - most reasonable people wouldn't be offended by that. At worst, it was maybe not appropriate to put a political joke into a fantasy football email - but like I said above the "joke" isn't really political - it's point is just "don't drink and discuss politics" because it's not going to go well. It's an old joke to not bring politics to the table.
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AAABatteries
Footballguy
Ramsay Hunt Experience
Footballguy
It's weird to me that the offended party thought the joke was trying to "own the libs." It seems to be an example of the common genre of jokes that liberals make about how hard it is to have holidays with extended family. The joke is told from the perspective of a liberal who is on his/her best behavior at the beginning of the meal and grows more frank as he/she drinks.
Anyway, my Fox News loving father-in-law is no longer with us, but when I used to head up to see my wife's family for the Holidays, I'd amuse myself by coming up with one kind of unhinged liberal position just to get him worked up a bit (to be clear, he was a great guy who just had some standard old guy Fox News opinions). My favorite was the time I told him I opposed circus animals.
Anyway, my Fox News loving father-in-law is no longer with us, but when I used to head up to see my wife's family for the Holidays, I'd amuse myself by coming up with one kind of unhinged liberal position just to get him worked up a bit (to be clear, he was a great guy who just had some standard old guy Fox News opinions). My favorite was the time I told him I opposed circus animals.
The bolded was exactly how I saw the joke. Which is why I was surprised. Oh well.
I do think folks are right. This went out 700,000 people. Out of that number, the fact that someone would object to something enough that they won't purchase from our business again shouldn't be surprising to me. Oh well.
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Just one that said I was trying to "own the libs" and won't be buying anymore. Others have said it was very offensive. I've been doing this a long time but still am learning and I think that's probably good.
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Captain Cranks
Footballguy
I realize those aren't all customers or even remotely close to the number of customers, but that's an impressive number.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Oh people thought you were making fun of liberals? I would have expected people on the right to have been the ones taking an issue. There’s nothing offensive about this.
Oh for sure. That's the number of subscribers on the free email list. Thank you for the kind words, we're proud of the connection we have with folks. And full disclosure, we're due for a "list cleaning" where we remove the folks that have gone "cold" and not opened emails in a while. I would expect we might lose a couple hundred thousand there but it's best to have as "clean" and interested list as possible.. Thanks.
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
Not trying to come at you—genuinely curious. You are a dude that had the sense to understand the need to separate a forum called the “Freeforall”—a name which indicates that everything goes—from a political forum—because a lot of sane and rational people prefer to pick and choose when they are exposed to politics. You move topics from this forum and the Shark Pool to the Politics forum when their content starts to steer towards being political in nature. Lots of people (including myself) were and are very grateful that you and your team are so diligent in separating politics into its own forum over here—yet—you unsolicitedly sent out a political joke to masses of people who subscribed because of fantasy football content—and seem a little confused about how some might not take it super well? Like I said earlier—-I would not be offended—nor would I ever cancel a subscription over something like that—but I certainly would feel that is completely weird and out of place. Do you not put the same thought in sending out your correspondence that you do in running these forums? The type of joke that you should be sending to a bunch of fantasy football fans during the Thanksgiving holiday should be the type of joke one would find in the Shark Pool without fear that it gets moved to the Politics forum. I would bet that if somebody posted a similar joke to that in the Shark Pool that it would either get deleted or moved to the Politics forum.
Thanks. I don't see that as coming at me at all. I posted this here as I was asking for feedback. If I didn't want that, I wouldn't have posted here.
The difference I think is I thought it was light hearted enough that it would fly. And the heart of it was how family dinner can get contentious, not politics. The tweet would have been exactly the same point if the stages had been about football.
It's not really out of place for the Random Shots column as there are often goofy things like that. I usually repost the SNL skit about Adele at the holidays calming down the contentious dinner with political talk. So it's not out of the norm. The Random Shots column is nothing like the Shark Pool forum.
But as I said, I'm always learning. And I learned something here. And to be fair, I doubt I'll ever have an email where there aren't a few people who find something offensive. And finding that balance of not being too afraid to say anything vs being too flip is always interesting.
Mainly, I think this forum is a good indicator of how lots of our readers feel about things so I like to bounce things off folks here to get a pulse on how folks are thinking.
Thanks for the help.
AAABatteries
Footballguy
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
Anytime—and I’m happy that my post didn’t come across as being confrontational. I’m always happy to provide feedback when asked for it. One thing that I would maybe recommend doing or adding to a poll next time something like this arises: I think that one of your options for answering should have been “not offensive but out of place from a fantasy football site”. People can get turned off by stuff that is not necessarily offensive in nature. I feel like you probably already knew that a very small percentage of people found the joke to be offensive. You sent it out to a large mass of people and only a small portion of them were vocal and gave you some pushback. I would however bet that a lot of people that found it to be non offensive probably would find it to be weird and out of place. That’s really the information you should be after imo. Anyhow—thanks for the discussion and for having open ears.
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Dr. Octopus
Footballguy
From Joe’s perspective I think the joke is I hope you didn’t have to listen to relatives fight over politics - but I guess it’s generally better to play it safe on things like this.
Thanks. I understand but for this column, just about anything is not out of place. I have NBA, baseball, , soccer, hockey, music and food stuff mentioned regularly in that particular column.
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jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
I feel you—but sports fans are generally okay with sports humor, stuff about food—-but jokes about politics and religion are a different animal. Lots of fans stopped following professional sports when they felt like politics were invading the sports world. You have to understand that asking a group that is predominately comprised of proud dudes if something offends them is probably not going to get a lot of “no’s” regardless of it does offend them or not. Even in anonymity—most people do not want to admit that they get offended easily. I however do think you are likely to get a more honest response if you inquired if people “wanted to receive” or felt it appropriate to receive that kind of content from you. That’s all I’m saying.
Of course. I already do totally understand. Thanks for sharing your opinions. Thanks.
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ChiefD
Footballguy
The bolded above is why I posted earlier about it being out of character.
The Joe Bryant that I have come to "know" from these forums would not post something like that here. But the same Joe Bryant feels comfortable throwing that out there to 700,000 people. In a piece that is an opt-in email but still what I would call a marketing piece for Football Guys. So I'm just not sure which Joe Bryant is the real one.
Like I said before: I was not offended by it. It just threw off my perception of you.
To me, I've always thought of this forum like the neighborhood bar. You get to know people. You get to know the points where you can needle them a bit and have discussions and disagreements but at the end of the day they are still your neighbors. That tweet/joke makes more sense HERE than in a marketing type piece.
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
You and I are in agreement. There is content that some people prefer to “look for” and volunteer to be a part of—and there is content that is appropriate for a company to send to the masses unsolicitedly as an advertisement or a correspondence. Just like you—I did not find the piece to be offensive—but I also did not find it funny—and most importantly—-I did not find it to be the kind of content that I would want or expect to come to me unsolicitedly from a fantasy football website. Asking if people are offended by it or if people want it are two different things—and a business owner should care about the content that their customers want and deem appropriate.
Apologies if I wasn't clear. Nothing we send is unsolicited. Our email lists are all opt in only. Nobody ever receives anything unsolicited.
For asking if it was offensive, I had a reader respond that it was offensive enough they would no longer be purchasing a subscription. So it seemed natural to ask here if others felt the same way as the reader.
As far as an "owner should care about the content that their customers want and deem appropriate." I hope it's obvious I care about this intensely. Trying to see where the upset reader fits against a bigger audience is exactly why I asked the question here.
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Apologies if I wasn't clear. Random Shots is just one of about 50 pieces of content we produce each week. It's somewhat unique as it's not serious at all and it covers all sorts of topics in addition to NFL Football. But it's not a marketing type piece at all.
I agree completely though about trying to read and know the audience. That's a huge part of connecting with the reader and something I think a ton about. Thanks.
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skol asylum
Footballguy
My understanding with inflation as it is nowadays, that "owning the libs" can get to be an expensive proposition.
skol asylum
Footballguy
Hawks64
Footballguy
IMO the more you try and walk that line to not be offensive to anyone results in you no longer being/showing the person you want the world to see. If people are so offended by what you sent out, then they do not know you whatsoever.
Atomic Punk
Footballguy
I run an organization with 260 staff and send out a quarterly newsletter to all staff and another 200 other people that we are connected with. I try to keep it to work topics but veer into other topics regularly. I typically receive dozens of positive response every issue. Even though I try incredibly hard to never write anything that could ever be taken as offensive (I also have a proof reader/editor), I can pretty much guarantee that someone will reply somewhat negatively, questioning my intent, meaning of my message, etc. ... every ... single ... time.
This is why I voted “clearly offensive”. Unfortunately, the world that I live in has people that want to be offended, be contrarian or challenge the “Man”. It’s is unfortunate but should be expected these days. Just roll with it. Don’t change you.
This is why I voted “clearly offensive”. Unfortunately, the world that I live in has people that want to be offended, be contrarian or challenge the “Man”. It’s is unfortunate but should be expected these days. Just roll with it. Don’t change you.
Hi Folks. Thanks a ton for all the thoughtful responses. This was super helpful to me. Thanks!
Mister CIA
Footballguy
I think I'm three of them, four if you count my yahoo email account which I have not used in years.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
Dan Lambskin
Footballguy
Imagine getting 700K read receiptsshuke said:
Rich Conway
Footballguy
Yes and no.shuke said:
Almost all marketing e-mails, list e-mails, etc. use a trick in which they embed a one-pixel image via URL within the e-mail. As an oversimplified example, think of it like http://emailimagereader.mydomain.com/?messageID=1234&recipientID=5678
If someone navigates to that URL, there is code that identifies the Message as outgoing message #1234 and the recipient of the message as Recipient #5678.
If the reader opens the e-mail AND either has the e-mail client set to auto download pictures or manually clicks to download pictures, the one-pixel image links back to the URL with the code to figure out which e-mail and which recipient. If the reader's e-mail client doesn't download pictures, the sender never knows for sure whether the e-mail was opened.
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
jvdesigns2002
Footballguy
I had no idea of this—and honestly—I find it interesting and kinda weird about it. It feels like a total invasion of privacy. Thank you for sharing this info.
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