@tdhurst: f’n genius, slightly flawed

There’s been a LOT of debate today about Ignite Phoenix and Tyler Hurst’s blog posts (Why I hate Ignite and How I’d Improve Ignite). The discussion has been extensive and many good ideas have been publicly debated. This is an excellent thing for Ignite and the Phoenix community in general, and I say that Tyler is a a genius for sparking such an avalanche of commentary. He wants Ignite to improve, he wants people to debate about the best ways to do that and that’s exactly what he did today.

Tyler, I do want to address the approach you took however. I’m not a big fan of the way in which you triggered the discussion. I would have preferred a much smaller cup of Haterade with my serving of Ignite debate points. While I don’t think you really hate Ignite, the tone of your post was antagonistic. I know you doesn’t want people to take things personally, but for many people who put effort into Ignite or are passionate attendees or presenters, it’s very difficult to emotionally separate Ignite and your less than ideally worded criticism of it.

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t constructively criticize or start a good discussion. I’m just saying that taking an approach which doesn’t cause people to have a strongly negative emotional reaction would achieve your goal without triggering virtual rock-throwing.

  • Diplomat with balls. Nice, Shane... Matthew, I think you should keep that one. Use as your new title.

    I enjoyed the back & forth myself. And I was provoked enough to sit up & write a 3,000+ character reply myself at about 2:30 am. Too bad for the 1,000 limit at that time.

    Tyler, while I dig your unfiltered approach, it feels like you're scrapping with people just to scrap lately. Bums me out a little.

    I get the point of your tone in the original post - to provoke response.

    But I don't get the point of your tone toward Jana, Evo, Holly. If you want people to question and disagree with the status quo, I would assume you would give people the freedom to question and disagree with you??? I thought Jana was all fired up but not mean or out of line?
  • I don't like Jana. She's already made comments about me after having never, ever talked to me and I don't like that. It got personal.
  • Jana hasn't talked with you, but she dislikes your social media persona because you said things that piss her off.

    Have you made an attempt to get to know her? I know from experience that you're a way less douchier guy in person than online. You may find the same is true of her.
  • She's made negative hearsay statements about me to people I know,
    before she had ever met me. Not cool with that.
  • Probably not the best choice on her part. Despite that, I encourage you to get to know her. Make a mistake, move on, end of story, right?
  • Although Tyler came across as a dick, he really provoked honesty. Everyone tends to censor themselves a little bit, especially in debate. They don't want to put it completely out there - most of the time - because if they were totally honest, they could say something way more than they intended. ....that is until you piss someone off and call their passion shit. Then you get honesty. Everyone got honesty today and it was a fun drama to watch... but, also provoked a lot of thought.

    Way more good came out of this for Ignite, than bad.

    Tyler, keep on keepin on. Matthew, you're a diplomat with balls. I applaud both of you.
  • My point, while certainly antagonistic, was to provoke an honest opinion. When people are angry, they are pretty damn honest.

    I don't even think Ignite sucks. I don't think Ignite should go away. But there are certain things that I hate about it.

    The volunteers and the presenters all do a great job, and I've said that more than once.

    Been quite a day, no?
  • Anger does beget honesty, but the honesty can also get distorted through the lens of anger. Thoughtful and less angry discussion gets more honesty without the distortion.

    Sure has been one heck of a day! In the end, I think it was productive.
  • If you wanted to dress as a white knight to podcamp, I was thinking about going as a black one.
  • C'mon, I know you don't see this as a good cop/bad cop kind of issue. I'm probably gonna wear my #heckarad shirt...you should wear one with your name on it. :)
  • Nah, I'd be too much of a target. I'm going to wear a @markdudlik is a
    unicorn shirt.
  • Let's confuse people. You wear the Dudlik shirt and I'll wear one of yours. Then we'll get Dave Brookhouser to wear an "I <3 Scottsdale" shirt to complete the trifecta!
  • I think @davebrook wearing an I <3 Gangplank shirt would be more appropriate.
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