Me, Her, the Boy and a Dog

A good blog post from my friend Todd regarding blogging and rumors…

toddwickersty:

A couple weeks ago, one of the contributors to the Butter Room posted a story about a rumored Phish festival in Georgetown, Texas. The story was titled “PHISH TO THROW SUMMER ENDING FESTIVAL IN GEORGETOWN, TX?”. It was clear to me and many others who read it that the article was about a rumor as evidenced by the question mark at the end of the title. There were some commenters and other blogs that were upset by reporting this rumor. Even Hidden Track, a blog I like, seemed to be a bit defensive about it. Here is their article this morning:

Remember when Phish used to be a secret society of sorts? Those days are a distant memory as a rumor a member of Phantasy Tour made up about a festival in Georgetown, Texas gained so much momentum that the FOX affiliate in Austin just ran a story telling us what those of us with some common sense knew - Phish won’t be playing a festival on a farm in Texas.

This story starts when Phish posted a video on Phish.com that uses Google Earth to zoom in on John Fagot’s farm outside of Austin. A PTer posted a falsified account of talking to the town officials where the farm is located in which the official hints that a group with a dedicated following was in talks to throw a festival in Georgetown. Most members of the message board saw right through the lies, but the rumor took on a life of its own after a number of blogs posted the account without verifying its authenticity.

The PTers who made up the story came clean almost immediately but the damage had already been done.

What damage is that? I really don’t understand people’s angst over rumors about where Phish might play. I started seeing live music when most of these bloggers and PTers were in diapers, and one of the most fun parts of following bands like Phish or the Dead is to shoot the sh*t about where their upcoming tours will be. The anticipation, whether it be before tour dates are announced or before the lights go down, can be almost as much fun as the show itself. There is no damage in discussing rumors if you are clear up front that it is in fact, a rumor.

However, some people didn’t get that memo. They perceived that The Butter Room reported the rumor as fact, as evidenced by my favorite comment that we received:

Seriously? You guys take what one person on PT wrote in a huge thread about having called down there and heard that a “large touring band” had inquired about using the space, and take it as fact??? That is totally lame. At least verify this kind of stuff before you post it. You are just feeding the hype. You realize this is just like Dick Cheney referring to the New York Times article about WMDs in Iraq—an article based on bad information leaked from the White House.

Lesson learned. Since some people don’t understand what a question mark is, next time we will write in big bold red letters - THIS POST IS ABOUT A RUMOR. In fact, we added something similar to the top of the original article, but it seems some people still didn’t pay attention to it.

Three words to all of these people who got their panties in a bunch about the Butter Room reporting this rumor as rumor - Get A Life.