Fuck you, Twitter
I was watching the “no god” thing on Twitter today because it was the top trending topic. I’m not going to get into my beliefs here because it doesn’t matter. (I do find it pretty ironic that it ended up being a trending topic in the first place as a result of some Christians trying to get the phrase “Know God… Know Peace. No God.. No Peace!” to trend after former Run-D.M.C.er RevRunWisdom tweeted it.)
What does matter, though, is that Twitter seems to have just removed it from the trending topics list. That’s pretty much censorship from my point of view and I get the feeling that they did it because they got a lot of complaints about it being there.
People, trending topics are a result of what’s currently popular on Twitter… not some conspiracy to turn your world upside-down in the event that you may possibly have been wrong about your choice of faith.
So, to Twitter, if you really did censor this because of some religious pressure, I send out to you one big fuck you.
Anthony
6:55pm, October 20
I thought that Twitter took down any trending topic that stayed up for too long. However, if that’s not the case, I don’t think it’s censorship. Religion is a touchy subject no matter what. By removing it, they just make the situation go away.
Michael
6:56pm, October 20
Agreed, and nicely done.
David McHenry
6:56pm, October 20
I don’t think they did it for censorship reasons, I think they did it because their shitty trending topic algorithm failed.
Granted, I don’t think it should have been removed either, it should have stayed and them adjust their program.
I’ll second that Fuck You if it was for censorship
Hans
6:56pm, October 20
I don’t think it was Twitter who did it. It was God.
Gaby
6:57pm, October 20
This isn’t the first time they’ve censored the Trending Topics.
Nick Wood
6:57pm, October 20
By removing it they made it go away for people of one faith. However, for those of us without faith, it’s flat-out censorship.
Unfollow
6:58pm, October 20
Unfollowing TapTapTap now…
Steven Fisher
7:00pm, October 20
Twitter seems to constantly manually adjusting the trending topics list. It’s not really censorship, just making sure it matches what’s actually being talked about.
For instance, when a celebrity dies, they’ll sometimes edit it so the query is actually “RIP First” as well as “First Last.” And if something gets up there that’s out of context, yeah, they’ll remove it.
Personally, I think the Know God trend should be deleted too. It’s just an attempt to spam the list. In the past, they’ve done this, but maybe they’re afraid to because of the implications. A reverse censorship, if you will.
(And I am a Christian, I just don’t see any point in spamming up trending topics for it. It serves no point other than being annoying.)
nfreader
7:01pm, October 20
Hey look, it’s the hijacking of free speech by the religious zealots!
Hi guys, glad to see you’re back!
Also Unfollowing
7:04pm, October 20
Unnecessary. Unfollowing.
Kevin
7:07pm, October 20
Yeah, what the hell. Unfollowing.
Bcc
7:07pm, October 20
You’re a Christian?! And you cussed in a blog post?! You give them a bad name. Unfollowing. Shame on you!
goblinbox
7:09pm, October 20
On the one hand, yeah. Censorship = teh sux0r.
On the other hand, Twitter isn’t the government. It’s a service. A silly, meaningless, opposite-of-brain-surgery service. One we all use constantly, even while bitching endlessly about it. So that’s just who WE are.
On the /other/ other hand, people who try to force trending topics are id10ts.
Yeah: fuck Twitter (if they censored). Except, if it were my box? I’da taken off the stupid fake trending topic too. Both of ‘em. For being stupid.
Also unfollowing.
7:09pm, October 20
Also unfollowing. They do it with virtually all the top trending topics when the spammers latch onto them instead of actual people.
Unnecessary.
Joshua Powell
7:10pm, October 20
For all of those unfollowing. Next time you want to protest… at least make it worth the effort and post who you are, no one likes a coward.
Still Following.
Grant
7:12pm, October 20
Part of me wonders if it’s an algorithm issue because if you look at the URL for “Know God” in the trending terms, it comes to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22Know+God%22+OR+%22No+God%22. Does the fact that “know” and “no” are homonyms have anything to do with it? Maybe.
randy
7:12pm, October 20
Bobagem.
Wisdom
7:12pm, October 20
Also unfollowing. Sorry posting for what I thought was a professional organization. Laters loser!
stenro
7:14pm, October 20
John, you are certainly entitled to what you feel. I will say this, though- Twitter has every right to “censor” itself and it’s service and it is no way impinging on free speech. My belief is that we need to worry more about censorship and attacks on free speech by any form of government. Weigh their removing a trending topic vs. the voice Twitter gave to those repressed in Iran and other places that crack down on free speech.
Jeff Byrnes
7:14pm, October 20
Still following, and I second Joshua Powell.
As for the topic at hand, I rarely even check the trending topics, so I never even noticed. In fact, the only reason I did notice is because of the tweet that lead here. So, while the language surprised me (but hardly bothers me), it also did it’s job: it got my attention.
Andrew Nicholson
7:14pm, October 20
@Steven Fisher: +1
Karl Peterson
7:14pm, October 20
I can’t believe all the unfollowers you’ve gotten from this tweet. I would triple follow tap tap tap if I could. It takes a lot of people watching and acting to stop censorship. Keep it up.
Jeff Byrnes
7:15pm, October 20
And I hate when I grammatically misspell its. Oops.
chefsteph407
7:17pm, October 20
Personally I don’t see why everyone is up in arms over it… stupidity breeds stupidity
@mattbisme
7:19pm, October 20
Hopefully Twitter will correct their ways, but I expect there will be a statement of “reason” appearing on their blog instead.
Thanks for the (very fast!) post, hopefully others will follow your lead.
-Matt
Justin
7:22pm, October 20
It will stop being a trending topic in a few days and no one will care. Does it really matter that they removed it now?
rprebel
7:22pm, October 20
Twitter can eat a bag of dicks for this bs censorship. Great blog post!
Matt
7:23pm, October 20
Seriously? Christians aren’t allowed to swear? I find religeon so funny.
Cheryl Z.
7:24pm, October 20
Unfollowing because while I abhor censorship, I find profanity to be totally unnecessary and vulgar.
So much for what I thought was a professional organization. Or perhaps the individual who posted that should have had a disclaimer “the following does not imply endorsement of my opinion by my employer.”
Kelley
7:24pm, October 20
It’s interesting that all of the “unfollowers” commenting here do so without providing any form of identifying link-back. Sock-puppetry? Or just run of the mill cowardice? In any case, censorship is shit, whether that be censorship of “inappropriate” language, or controversial ideas. This is an epic #TwitterFail, and a hypocritical one at that, considering “Know God” got a pass.
Bravo, Tap Tap Tap.
David
7:24pm, October 20
@Jeff Byrnes …and what about misspelling “led”?
Melwan
7:28pm, October 20
Unnecessary language from a professional company. Unfollowing.
Jesse J. Anderson
7:29pm, October 20
Wow, pretty temperamental over a pretty meaningless thing. If you angrily/emotionally post stuff like this on your company blog, I think I can do business with different companies.
And censorship would be if twitter was removing posts with “No God” in them, or whatever the phrase may be… Twitter removes things from trending topics all the time… calm down dude.
Unfollowed.
David Wieland
7:33pm, October 20
You’re entirely at liberty to use Twitter’s services just as much as you’re using Google. Google doesn’t make it a mystery they’re collecting gigantic amounts of personal information and you’re entitled to your opinion, but getting all “Now see here Google!” will not get you anywhere.
In fact, Twitter and google have the right to delete, censor or alter as much as they please or think is necessary. I’m in no mood to dig it up but I’m sure it’s in their ToA somewhere.
Hell - you’re not even paying for their services! What right you think you have other than the privilege to use a fine free network?
I would say: stop getting angry at this open society with its faulty trending topic (I’m surprised anyone takes this seriously) and start using that energy to blow a hole in things that really matter like biased media manipulating the elements in the news. Because this is just silly.
Shawn Milochik
7:38pm, October 20
Wow. It’s amazing how many people, obviously offended by the content of the post, falsely pretend that the use of the word ‘fuck’ is so awful that the writer, his company, and every thought he posts to Twitter are unbearable.
The problem is that nobody wants to talk about religion. Fine, but that doesn’t mean other people don’t get to talk about it. Get over yourselves and your “censorship isn’t censorship if it means I don’t have to read things that make me uncomfortable.”
Jean-Pierre Martineau
7:40pm, October 20
Not unfollowing, because I enjoy the f-word myself and I actually agree with your point, but you should definitely get a personal twitter account to post random shit like that.
zack
7:40pm, October 20
Really bad form here.
Unfollowed
Ace
7:41pm, October 20
I applaud you. I know you might have later reconsidered you’re exact working, but atleast you have a voice where many out there who talk about not having any freedom don’t do anything. Thanks.
gigapixels
7:41pm, October 20
There is no censorship here. If you check the search created by the “know god” trending topic, it is combined with both. Perhaps they should clarify that without having to check the actual link, but either way they’re not censoring anything.
Jeff
7:45pm, October 20
Unfollowing
Profanity is unprofessional and offensive.
John Bell
7:46pm, October 20
Twitter is a company with a website, not a public commodity. It’s not censorship, even if they did take it down.
I’m actually more offended by your making an issue of this on your business website where it doesn’t belong. Make a personal blog and Twitter account, THEN take up your soapbox. Until then, UNFOLLOWED.
Jeff
7:48pm, October 20
For all of the illogical:
Unfollowing is not censorship. It’s a decision and a freedom to read what you want. It is the opposite of censorship.
The author can post what he/she chooses, just as I can choose not to read it, especially if I find it classless, base, and offensive.
Sawyer
7:52pm, October 20
While I think censorship on the web is generally a pretty poor thing to see happen, I’m going to play devil’s advocate here for a moment.
Many Christians would view the “No God” trending as a direct attack on Christianity. Twitter would probably censor attacks on another group, be it racial, socioeconomic, or anything else. Perspective is key in this situation.
On the other hand, Christians need to understand that Christianity has been attacked since its conception. It’s nothing new. You’re only offended by what you allow to offend you.
Full disclosure: I consider myself to be a Christ-follower, so there may be some inherent bias in my opinion.
Twitter’s terms of service I’m sure allow them to remove content as they see fit. It is their service, the users aren’t paying for it. If it’s seriously such a big deal, stop using it. Move to laconi.ca or an alternative service.
Addressing the needless profanity in this post as well as in the Twitter updates, I’d expect a “professional” software company to show considerable more restraint and professionalism. It’s unnecessary.
GOD
7:52pm, October 20
Now I’m really pissed!
Fuck you, too!
HA
Melissa
7:55pm, October 20
Here here! Fuck you to censorship
Ian Storm Taylor
7:59pm, October 20
Still following.
Aga Wahyu
8:02pm, October 20
Unfollowed. Not something I want to hear from a professional organization.
GB Henderson
8:03pm, October 20
@DavidWeiland - Well said. I don’t have much respect for organized religion or the nut cases who think they have the key to God’s mind but a venue like Twitter seems to me to be a kind of a self regulating organism that will winnow out (good old bible phrase there) the chaff from the nice golden true grain. If some cabal of tangental thinkers get a large toehold on the site, trust me, it will equalize in good time.
Craig
8:13pm, October 20
a) Not very professional for a company blog, even though I agree with the sentiment I only followed to get TapTapTap related news
2) It’s still there on the Twitter front page as a popular topic, don’t see what the fuss is about
iii) Yes Sawyer I think there is inherent bias in your statement. The mere act of saying “no god” isn’t much of an attack on Christianity, it’s just saying that there is no god. If people were tweeting something rude like “Christians suck” or what ever then that could be considered an “attack”. “No god” is simply disagreeing and we’re allowed to disagree
Alan C
8:20pm, October 20
Oh all this gasping over some swearing, really? Oh heaven’s! Cover your poor ears! Please.
Kudos for saying what ought to be said! Fuck Twitter indeed! If people find that word offensive, so what. I find a great deal of their god nonsense offensive but I’m not going to tell them not to say it.
Jose Olarte
8:23pm, October 20
The unfollow trend here feels mobbish. We’ve all heard and said ‘fuck you’ once or twice. Get over it.
Still following, especially now that I see you got balls.
David McDougal
8:24pm, October 20
@digitalpure
I am torn as to decide to continue to follow your firm, and or buy any future products. I love the products, and till now been happy with the information (even if sometimes a little over the top).
I agree that censorship is a horrible thing, and we need to fight it as much as possible. I also think that businesses need to be responsible to the their clients. The use of such foul language, and vulgar tones is one that screams of disrespect. I would be more concerned of how you would talk about me if I were a client and you did not enjoy my ideas.
I will be following at a arms length. I hope this is a fluke, and not a trend in the kind of tone, and choices that will be shared on this professional company website. Keep this type of post to your personal site.
@mattbisme
8:32pm, October 20
Thought this should be mentioned. But on the twitter website, if you click the “Know God” trend, it will take you results of a ” ‘know god’ OR ‘no god’ ” search.
So it appears as though twitter has silently responded! (Maybe this was their plan from the beginning?) It would, however, be nice if the trend topic reflected that.
Though, again, the “no god” trend started as a reaction from “know god,” so you could call it a sub-trend (if you will) of the first. Making “know god” the appropriate label.
On the note of profanity: Although I agree that the cursing is unnecessary, I find it quite ironic in this case. Being an issue of CENSORSHIP, this has called out a lot of people here. Particularly the ones who remain nameless and (omg!) unfollow! If you are really concerned about censorship, you would have been tolerant of this post.
So, despite my feelings on the word choices expressed here, I applaud everything this post stands for.
-Matt
OregonMJW
8:36pm, October 20
In complete agreement with author - if Twitter pulled the trending topic #nogod they then should be severely sanctioned. That is total bullshit - A big FU to T, if true.
greenlight
8:40pm, October 20
I find it pretty fucking funny how many people here are offended by some curse words.
Unfollowing
8:44pm, October 20
This is not the kind of personal rants that belong in a company Twitter Feed or blog.
Unprofessional. Unfollowed.
Brandon Weiss
8:48pm, October 20
Turns out I’m already following you, but if I wasn’t, I would have started now.
Plus I love the word ‘fuck’. See? Fuck.
Rex Stevens
8:53pm, October 20
I’m really disappointed to see all the people who are now not following taptaptap simply because they had the stones to stand up for something. And i appreciate a company who can be personal in their blogs, people run business and i don’t see how showing that makes a company unprofessional. But if that’s how you really feel then hopefully you really will stop following taptaptap and we won’t have to see your comments anymore.
Maria
9:04pm, October 20
Please tell me that Twitter did NOT remove No God from trending topics.
Brandon Weiss
9:04pm, October 20
And I love the fact that a whole bunch of people seem to be unfollowing because of, what, “unprofessional language”? Bullshit. You hear way worse than that all the fucking time. At least 9 out of 10 of you are unfollowing because while although John said nothing for or against religion, his obvious distaste at the possible censorship of atheism seems to imply what side of the fence he probably lands on.
And that’s fine, you’re free to unfollow for whatever reason you want. But at least be honest about it. Don’t hide behind some veil of righteous indignation at the fact that you had to read a word you don’t like.
Oh, hey! What do you know? There’s a previous post entitled Fuck the VC’s. And look, no unfollows.
Michael
9:13pm, October 20
Shouldn’t “Trending Topics” just be renamed “A List of phrases that asshole advertisers have glomed on to in the hopes that you’ll click their links”?
Is anyone advertising with the “No God” or “Know God” tags? If not then it’s not popular enough yet…
Brandon
9:18pm, October 20
Well put Mr. Wiess.
Food for thought:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1910691,00.html
Tavallai
9:32pm, October 20
Mother fuck you unfollowers. Especially you fuckwits citing “unprofessionalism.” A single screenshot of a Tap Tap Tap app is more professional than 99% of the fuck-ass apps out there. Wanna see truly unprofessional? Come suck a fart out of my diarrhetic brown ass, you faux-outrage, can’t handle Jack shit fuckwits.
That said, my mama always told me if you haven’t got anything nice to say… Say it online.
Drew
9:39pm, October 20
Still following… but not impressed with the profanity. And to Mr. Weiss… I rarely ever read the blog posts… happened to see this one because of the Tweet.
Brandon Weiss
9:55pm, October 20
@drew You might read the blog posts only rarely, but as of yet this blog post has only a few more comments (and probably views) than Fuck the VCs does, and Fuck the VCs has no unfollows. Obviously it’s not a perfect comparison, as it only took a day for this post to get more comments than Fuck the VCs did in a year, but the point still stands.
Fuck the VCs: 0 unfollows per 60 comments
Fuck you, Twitter: 13 unfollows per 60 comments
Clearly it’s not the profanity that’s the problem here.
Joe
9:56pm, October 20
Still following also, however I agree with many here, not very appropriate or necessary, but eh, whatever.
John Fracampi
10:11pm, October 20
I only followed for that chance at a mac a whle ago. But now I’m unfollowing. Not for the profanity, but because of the strange anger at what twitter might or might not have done to one of their side panels. It’s not like twitter took down your tweet of anything, and even if they did, it’s their site, and you’re not paying them for it.
And yes, it’s only censorship if the government does it, not private companies.
peace out
Karl Peterson
10:23pm, October 20
To those that are saying that this does not constitute censorship: Call it what you like, but if Twitter is pulling topics based on unwarranted complaints that is censorship. Doing that is within their rights, but we have the option to disagree with them and to try to promote change.
Mark A.
10:56pm, October 20
Post this shit on your personal blog you unprofessional asshole. This is some whiny assed trendy Christian bashing, you are a pawn being used by a secular, liberal world. By the way, who cares.
How’s that for fredom of speech, fuck you.
Ben
10:56pm, October 20
Unfollowing here. I’m personally sick of people who can’t remain professional in a professional setting.
On a side note, get over it.
Twitter has a right to control its algorithms and censor anything it wants whether you I or anyone else agrees with ‘em. They’re a private entity.
Frungi
11:01pm, October 20
To tap tap tap: I might expect a tweet like that from a friend, or from some other personal account, but not from a professional account meant to promote an organization’s products. Unfollowed (for all anyone who might read this cares) for unprofessionalism.
To prior comments: Constitutional free speech means government may not censor. Twitter has the right to censor anything, seeing as it’s their service. I’m not saying they’re ethically right in doing so; for all I know, the Twitter staff are atheists or Islamic terrorists, or someone made a mistake and hit a big red “Trend” or “Untrend” button by accident (does anyone know how their trending works?).
Scott
11:14pm, October 20
Unfollowing. I thought I was following @taptaptap on Twitter to get news and updates on iPhone apps, not to get vulgarities and rants by unprofessional employees, even if they are founders of the company. Some may be OK mixing business with personal views in a forum like Twitter feed, but I would prefer they were kept separate so I can choose what I follow and what I ignore. I can’t ignore vulgarities in my feeds list. Nothing to do with the views expressed, everything to do with the manner and place in which they were expressed.
I wasn’t following when/if the VC post hit Twitter, or I would have unfollowed then.
You can try to read between the lines and tell me you know why I am *really* unfollowing, or you can just take my word for it…
Clint Bradford
11:27pm, October 20
No “censorship” occurred. Only a government-run service can be accused of “censorship” and/or abuse of the Constitution. The concept here is “editorial control” - which we ALL AGREED TO as we signed up for Twitter. You DID read the user agreement, didn’t you?
Michael
11:51pm, October 20
Twitter may have the right to censor whatever they choose, but their service was launched to provide people with a simple way to communicate and in that context, censorship of any kind on their service would be way more unprofessional than this TapTapTap blog post.
Granted, this type of blog post is unusual for a company blog, but it is refreshing to see a company’s leader sound off about something honestly and sincerely.
All those clowns in the White House could learn a thing or two from this guy.
Julian
11:59pm, October 20
If Twitter did in fact take down the post for censorship reasons, where will it end?
I send out the same message “F You, to Twitter!”
Tap TAp TAp,
Keeping it real! I like that
Ethan
12:09am, October 21
Still following. However, the tap tap tap blog is probably not the best place to post this. A tweet is fine, but I would think the blog would be focused on your products and company…please.
As for profanity, I don’t appreciate it. It’s not offensive to me, but I don’t think it belongs in a professional setting like this. It’s your blog though.
Ethan
12:12am, October 21
I too was following what I thought was a great iPhone app company. I was consistently impressed with what I saw on the site and in Twitter.
And then this.
At first, I followed the link to try to figure out if the account had been hacked. Surely such a professional organization wouldn’t broadcast such a harsh profanity. But it did.
I agree with the sentiment. If Twitter modified the stats, then they were (ethically, not legally) wrong for so doing. I would even have appreciated some intelligent commentary from TapTapTap on the matter. But profanity, particularly this word, is entirely unacceptable from a business.
If you post a full apology for the language and approach to the matter (again, I agree with the sentiment and don’t spite you the opportunity to use the company pulpit to speak up on what you see as unethical web practices), I’ll consider coming back and purchasing future applications.
Until then, no purchases, no recommendations to friends, and an unfollow.
Richard Neary
12:21am, October 21
If you guys choose to do so, please include this week’s sales figures within your reports for any app earnings posts. I’m sure there will be some sort of spike due to the publicity this post has generated (maybe that was the plan all along).
If this post isn’t a “publicity stunt” and you’re going to be opening this blog up to more controversial topics at least choose some that hold a bit more baggage. Twitter isn’t in the wrong…
Jordan Wan
1:31am, October 21
Following.
René
2:15am, October 21
I can’t see censorship here (only governments can governmental organizations can censor), so I don’t think Twitter did anything wrong here.
Still it’s fascinating how people lose their heads when they see the word “fuck”. It’s just a word, get over it!
Still following.
jiji
2:33am, October 21
It is nice to see that your twitter followers hold businesses in such high esteem. I, for one, have never looked to businesses for any sort of ethical guidance. For that matter, the only way you could find a worse code of ethics would be by observing lawyers or politicians.
Aurélien Lewin
2:38am, October 21
Who cares.
David F Mansfield
3:01am, October 21
I am a Christian, I agree with your view on censorship, I just don’t want that sort of language landing in my inbox. Very unprofessional.
Unfollowing.
FUCK
3:42am, October 21
Great post
Doc
3:55am, October 21
Funny those people commenting on the subject, talking about profanity and unfollowing. I’m not very good at this faith thing but doesn’t the Bible say “Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast The First Stone”?
A lot of hatred in those comments, seems not very christian to me. So what’s the name for people like that again? Oh yes, hypocrites!
And regarding the word “profanity”: Welcome to the 21st century.
Anyway, maybe this wasn’t a good topic for a business blog.
Andre Nuse
4:10am, October 21
Unnecessary language from a now very unprofessional company. Unfollowing.
Edward Cook
5:41am, October 21
Unfollowing TapTap for obscene language.
Greg
5:44am, October 21
Now following. Wasn’t before.
rwheadon
7:43am, October 21
Your fbomb in my filter just got you dropped from my following list. Was nice following your product up until now.
congratulations on being more offensive than twitter’s (suspected yet not proven) censorship.
Tyler Cornett
8:47am, October 21
Unfollowing.
Not for any profound moral / ethical reason, but because this post reeks of a whiny bitch’s cry for attention. Who gives a fuck, honestly?
Mahmoud H. Al-Johani
8:52am, October 21
Greeting,
I think you made a great mistake yourself by posting such an inappropriate language. When I first followed you I thought I am following a company or a developer who respects followers and willing to share them some good information that they will spend time reading them without regret.
When I read your tweet, I thought that it was a mistake … but when I read your blog … I found that you made a big mistake.
We can’t control you or your tweets, but please pay us (your followers) some respect as we come from different countries different beliefs and different culture. If you are not proud of us and willing to show that respect, then let us unfollow you.
Sorry, this is NOT the right way to express your opinion about Twitter action, if you believe they did a mistake (and they should have not), you too did a mistake. (so do not blame them of what you think is a mistake!)
My regards,
Dr. Mahmoud H. Al-Johani
SaudiDent.com
Ben
8:56am, October 21
Unfollowing. You make great apps, but I can’t have F-words scrolling by on tweetdeck in an open office environment.
Steve
9:16am, October 21
Removing the trending topic is no censorship. Removing the tweets would be censorship. The tweets are still there. No content was deleted.
Would you consider moving something from the front page of a newspaper to an interior page censorship?
Joe
9:52am, October 21
Gentlemen:
You can respectfully disagree but when putting this up with your company name behind it, you need to act responsibly. Having a computer and an internet connection doesn’t give you license for vulgarity. I would not do business with a company that demeans itself so.
GOD
9:54am, October 21
Simple. You were right AND wrong.
CENSORSHIP = bad
using the F word in a business
environment = UNPROFESSIONAL
which is worse? hmmm.
Randy
10:24am, October 21
I will buy no more apps from you!
Branden
11:51am, October 21
I’m absolutely amazed at how easily offended these people all over either 1. A swear word 2. a No God topic.
Listen, I’m religious but everyone has their own opinions. The second you become close minded and start attacking people because they don’t believe what you do is when you lose all credibility to your opinion or beliefs in the eyes of others. Do you think God condones such behavior as hate on others for a different of beliefs or the lack thereof? I highly doubt it.
As far as swearing goes, yeah it probably wasn’t right to put it in a business blog but if you’re so offended by every little thing then maybe you shouldn’t get online. This is the new social world where businesses are individuals and you’re likely to see the mesh of too. I can’t deny that TapTapTap makes some of the best apps out there and a simple blog like this isn’t going to change my opinion. That doesn’t mean I don’t look negatively on it but I prefer to be peaceful and not jump to conclusions, hate, or close myself off with spite.
As far as Twitter removing a trending topic that’s just wrong. Sure Twitter might own their own free service but this isn’t China. It looks bad on a company when they attack free speech. Part of what makes you free is the fact that you can voice your opinion. If you simply ignored a “No God” topic it would of died out of the trending topics.
The fact that government is slowly removing religion everywhere doesn’t really surprise me when I see people act like this. Religion is a touchy subject and it’s obvious some people can’t be adults and hold their composure over such topics. Learn how to discuss and debate instead of attack and hate.
Oh by the way I believe in god and I’m leaving @taptaptap on my twitter list.
Bob Baggarley
11:56am, October 21
John,
I must admit being somewhat conflicted by what has transpired here. I give you credit for speaking your mind, but I do wonder about the wisdom of such a post in your business blog. But hey, it IS your company and that’s the beauty of it all, isn’t it?
To those that are soooooo offended by the use of the all-to-commonly-used word “fuck”, I ask you this: what movies do you watch? Disney only? “Christian” only? For the rest of us, it is quite hard to name a movie that DOESN’T use street language. But, whatever. It still comes down to a matter of choice, and I will always support a film that I like, regardless of whether so-called offensive language is used.
I also would tend to agree that many of the folks who suddenly no longer wish to follow you on Twitter are basing it on their religious bearings and nothing else.
Perhaps you should have used a foreign language? Ah, but then the wingnuts would have fried you for not being patriotic in your swearing.
I also find it hilarious the folks who say that they will not buy any more (if at all) apps from you. I wonder how many of the them know that a large number of app developers actively participated in a public decry of the original iPhone Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA), forcing them to essentially create most of the original apps in a vacuum environment, by posting and contributing to a site called FuckingNDA.com?
What, are these horrified app users going to stop buying (or using) all THOSE apps as well?
I purchased “Classics” from you some time ago and love the clean and original interface. I just now purchased the other five. Keep up the good work and maybe some day folks will realize that (gasp!) we are no longer live in Victorian times.
frustrated_lust
12:39pm, October 21
There should only be one form of censorship and that is self censorship. It should be left to an individual to determine what they do and don’t like. Being exposed to something you dislike is a daily reality - don’t try to make others feel guilty for your own preferences. If you really weigh your evaluation of a person from one comment, then I think they’re lucky you’re exiting from their life.
I’m too stubborn to unfollow like these flakey pansies.
Ifanna
4:39pm, October 21
You unfollowers - did you ever thing about God? How can you be so pissed hearing about Him? what makes you this angry and touched? You don’t want us to talk about Him? Well fine, than I require, you you won’t say anything against Him and faith in Him. Still following
Frungi
1:03am, October 22
Ifanna: If anyone’s upset with John for religious reasons, it’s because he disagreed (very strongly) with Twitter’s apparent anti-atheism, and because of the language he used. Nothing to do with hearing about God.
@jdweb
1:13am, October 22
Unfollowing.
Joe
1:29am, October 22
Oh, and another thing. A while back, a famous band said a few things into a microphone that riled up the country and they paid a terrible price through the loss of income and opportunity. I agreed with what they said but a couple years later, you can see the humbleness in their eyes. That band was the Dixie Chicks. Let’s see what financial impact this unprofessional act on your part will do to your company, John.
MacTyler
2:43am, October 22
This is what sums it up for me. I could care less about religion or swearing.
CENSORSHIP is not good.
Using language on a business blog is unprofessional
If it was a personal blog it would be a different story. But if you wonder why you would never see this on a real company’s page it is because they are a bit more mature than you are coming across as. But it’s not really my decision. It is your own reputation that you are hurting…
MacTyler
2:47am, October 22
Oh yeah, unfollowing and also wont be purchasing any future products. You guys really aren’t much more than a marketing outfit with some good UI design. I mean honestly who gets excited over a convertor app, who cares, you guys don’t offer anything new and it is kind of sad that you lead as many people into your pathetic products as you do. Thanks for reminding me as to how much I really shouldn’t care about you guys…
ToFollowOrNot
4:36am, October 22
I can’t imagine people getting riled up by one post about censorship. Those who’ve decided to unfollow, it’s your choice and if this is all it takes to get you to unfollow, this should’ve happened a lot sooner. You seem to have missed the whole point of the post, which was about censorship and not about whether or not your faith is fine.
As for me, I’m still following taptaptap. I don’t like censorship, but even if this is not censorship, I don’t really make fickle choices based on one tiny harmless blog post.
Dan
7:58am, October 23
If you remove something to make it go away. … Isn’t that the definition of censorship?
Matt Lundstrom
3:05pm, October 23
The definition of censorship has no mention of government.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/censorship
Matt Lundstrom
3:08pm, October 23
What do you mean “I don’t want to do business with a company that…”?
I bought the DVD of Seven, and Benjamin Button, and Fight Club, and David Fincher drops a “fuck” every 10 seconds on his directors commentaries. I read Chuck Palahniuk and he says “fuck” in all his interviews.
michael
12:00pm, October 26
What’s with the language? I used to use that word when I was a teenager in high school. Removing from my Google Reader feeds. See ya.
Bob Baggarley
1:34pm, October 28
@michael, and all the other recent “unfollowers” who blindly follow folly,
Please let the door hit you on the way out.
On another note, I am really curious, John, as to whether you have seen any spikes, up or down, in your App Store sales? Personally, I would love to hear that this has had zero effect on any app sales, but I’am curious none-the-less.
jono
12:42pm, October 29
I feel almost as though this whole thing is in itself, the entire reason that no-one is happy anymore. A guy writes his opinion somewhere about how if THIS is like THIS, then he’d say THIS. Kinda like “So help me, if you don’t clean up your room,there’ll be no vanilla ice cream after dinner!”
Here’s a hypthetical situation for all who are reading this…
Hypothetically you DO have pull, and you see something that you don’t like so….. you change it. And one by one the world starts changing to better suit your needs. Now, what if one day you make a mistake (you wouldn’t…. but let’s pretend) and now someone else wants to change the thing that you screwed up………
what would you tell them?
If you don’t have the power to be informed, or inform someone else of FACT!!!!!!!! Then don’t state your knowledgeless, hypothetical opinions, because they are things to say, rather than fact.
Food for thought
Drew
3:59pm, November 1
Whether or not you share someone’s religious views, it seems silly to say they are “only” doing something for religious reasons. If they really believe in their faith it’s supposed to guide how they live. If it guides them to hurt other people that’s a problem but I don’t find it particularly upsetting if they’re offended enough by John’s language and not very subtle poke at their faith to unfollow. I don’t mind dropping the f-bomb (although it does read very unprofessionally here), but I do find intolerance inside and outside of religious circles upsetting. It seems that intolerance is what is potentially on display on both sides of this issue.
dna42
1:48pm, January 19
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_osQvkeNRM