Rebecca

Most Influential on Twitter in the Cotswolds
Most Influential non-celeb woman on Twitter (UK)
Klout UK Top 100 List
Shorty Awards Finalist
Ms Twitter UK Winner
Featured in The Spectator Arts and Culture blog as authority on Twitter
Quoted in The Times (about Twitter)
‘Totally nuts’

Thank you for taking the time to comment. I intended to keep your name out of the discussion so that only the people directly involved in the argument (or those who witnessed it at the time) would know who I was talking about. As you have written to us, the game is up anyway and I feel I owe you an explanation and an apology.

My understanding of the argument (which may be wrong, but that’s my opinion) is that it started over a simple question that wasn’t meant to offend anyone. One of the unfortunate things about using Twitter is that we sometimes miss the subtle nuances, or pick up on ones that were never intended, because we are talking online with 140 character limits. If the same conversation had happened face-to-face it may well have gone very differently.

My aim in using your argument as an example on the blog post was not to ‘capitalise’ from it. I simply wished to illustrate how things can go wrong when people talk and argue on Twitter. My colourful descriptions were meant to convey to readers who had not witnessed the ‘fight’ how it made me feel as an observer.

As a representative of Cheltenham’s Social Media Cafe I tend to write about social media news and how people are using different social media platforms. As a human being I thought you may have got the wrong end of the stick about the argument and overreacted. This is a personal judgement, which is why I kept your name out of the story. Given that some of our followers witnessed the argument anyway it may have been a mistake for me not to strike a more neutral tone, perhaps by not mentioning I had ‘unfollowed’ you. As far as I’m aware no one actually planned to, or ever did re-enact the argument (as joked about on Twitter) but I’m sure if someone has they will be in touch about the video clip.

Clearly this article has caused great offence and I am sorry to have been the origin of this. It was an unintentional side effect of seeking to entertain, inform and highlight the possible ‘dangers’ of arguing on a public platform to our readers. Since you are aiming to become a published author and are already a local celebrity you may have to get used to people forming opinions of you, even when you’ve never met them.

As I currently do not follow you on Twitter you are unlikely to become the focus of any future blog posts. I only hope you can accept my sincere apologies for the offence caused and move on from this event as everyone else has.

Best wishes,

Rachel
PS. In response to your wish that I focus on something positive, may I draw your attention to the first half of that offensive article? Thanks.

I’m sorry if you and your friend were offended by my need to defend a best selling novelist, and a book seller that felt – rightly – that their brand was being threatened. I’m glad you were able to capitalise so successfully on the pain I was caused by stepping up and doing this for those affected. If you would like to post a video of you and your friend re-enacting this event, in the style of your chosen cartoon characters, I would be happy to host it on my blog for everyone to poke fun at. Until that time, maybe focus on something a little more positive.

Thanks,

Rebecca