Be careful what you Tweet....

Ok... So I posted a tweet today that I thought pointed out something interesting. 

The latest "Becoming YouTube", Girls on YouTube, caused a bit of a stir as it seemed to suggest that there just weren't as many girls out there making videos. It actually opens with the question "Why do you think more girls don't do YouTube?" - the assumption is there for all to see and this idea continues throughout the whole thing.

I won't go into details as I already made a response to it (you can see it here), but, in preparation for a shout-out video for some fellow ladies, I went back to the channel and noticed something interesting.

Some channels have a "Featured Channels" list. I don't personally have one at the moment as I currently prefer to do shout-outs in videos or tweet videos to my followers. However, it is something I'm considering adding at some point - it paints an interesting picture, showing who people like to be associated with and who they like to promote, so I decided to look at the one for the home of Becoming YouTube to see if there was a reason why they thought fewer girls did YouTube than in actuality.

Maybe there was a reason. 

I noticed that ALL of the Featured Channels on the page, were male.

I thought this was intriguing & decided to share this with my followers & mention Benjamin Cook to point out to him what I had seen. My tweet was:

Now, I am restricted character-wise by Twitter. Also, just because you read something on Twitter in one way, doesn't mean that's what the writer meant.

After watching the BYT episode, I got the impression that Ben was hugely underestimating just how many girls are out there making good videos. Now, in my tweet I said "any girls" because I was addressing that there weren't any girls in his featured channels.

When Benjamin read it, he assumed I thought he thought there weren't any girls on YouTube. He bombarded me with tweets & told me to stop "spreading lies". I apologised, as I phrased it that way because I was focusing on the channels list, not saying he'd said that, that I was exaggerating to point out something about that list. I pointed this out again later in a tweet, just in case anyone else had missed it.

It became a huge mess of tweets that I lost track of, some of his tweets to me disappeared/have since been deleted & I just stopped replying to him because I didn't want to get into a heated argument & he became extremely rude and patronising (and I was starting to slip into being that too). Nothing I was going to say was going to reassure him that I didn't actually think that and that you can't take every tweet at face-value. All he said about the list was that "you have the same number of girls in yours" - yes, none, the same number as boys in my list, because I don't have one as I just promote in-video instead. Anyone reading only his tweet would think I was a hypocrite with a boys-only list like his. I'm not. I don't have ANYONE on my list, at least not at this moment in time.

Anyway, Benjamin, I'm sorry it came across that I was "spreading lies". I wasn't, honestly. My followers hopefully knew exactly what I meant as they should've already watched your BYT video and my response video to it. I was just restricted by Twitter character-limits and made an exaggerated tongue-in-cheek statement as a commentary on the list to make a point (maybe girls aren't seen much because people don't promote them as much). That was a mistake as it came across like I was just being rude about you & I will make sure to spell stuff out a bit better in future so that no one gets the wrong idea from my tweets. I wasn't having a go at you, or trying to start an argument either, I was just interested to see what you'd say about your featured channels, that's why I @ mentioned you.

I would've tweeted this all to you btw, as I wanted to come back a little while after I left our 'conversation' & apologise if I came across like a mean-spirited cowbag in my original and subsequent tweets, but I can't, because you've blocked me. I'd understand you doing this if I'd hounded you with tweets, but I didn't; I walked away, you hounded me (and have since deleted many of your more patronising and rude tweets to me). Oh well. Sorry anyway - hope I didn't upset you too much. I honestly wasn't trying to be a bitch to a stranger online.


Anyway, let this be a lesson to everyone on Twitter - be VERY careful with what you tweet because, without context & not knowing you, people might not know when you're being tongue-in-cheek and think you're just being rude. Then, they might get offended and have a go at you. Similarly, don't take every tweet at face-value - someone may be joking, being sarcastic or exaggerating for effect.

Ya gotta love Twitter...