This is NOT yet another post to bash tweet.sg for the recent decision the owner has made.

My mei nicole brought to my the attention this blog post on tweet.sg. For those who have no clue what tweet.sg is, it is a free service that allows Singapore Tweeters to update their Twitter page by sending an SMS to a local Singapore number.

I have not used tweet.sg before, though I have caught glimpses of it on wall updates on Facebook. For e.g.

From what I have gathered, it all began with some complaints about the (long?) lag time between the SMS-Twitter update. This then slowly degenerated into some sort of flame war between Jym Cheong, the person who built the system, and some users over tweet.sg’s Twitter.

I took a look at the site, and while I do find a few ad units on it, the commercial benefits coming from them would be negligible, since most users will likely have visited the site at most a few times, to find out how to use the service, and probably never to return other than to check whether the service is down when their sms did not appear in Twitter. If there was any intention to take it commercial subsequently, I would have no confidence whatsoever with the business model. As such, I have to agree with Jym Cheong that there is little incentive to operate this system. In short, he has all the right in the universe to ban from his system anyone who is unhappy with the free service, and / or makes a direct personal attack on him.

It was a rather simple and straight forward matter with really nothing much to talk about. Yet, that was not to be. Apparently even the people who have stopped using his service, or has nothing to do with the quarrel at all now joined the fray – in the holy name of the ‘this is an example of what you shouldn’t do on social media’. *Yawn*

So I read on and from the chatter of some of the people I do follow on Twitter, it appears that an allegedly new face in the Public Relations (PR) industry has joined the fray in attacking Jym Cheong. This is in spite of the fact that her friend, who runs a well known blog aggregator in Singapore (and according to some sources, allegedly has full intentions of selling his site) has often handled the same way, people who directly criticise the blog aggregator itself, or disagrees with his unspecified users policies. (The only difference, as a friend pointed out, was that the blog aggregator’s admin would simply kick you out of his service unceremoniously and quietly.)

Again that was really nothing to complain about – his service, his rules – though some of us in our own follies did still complain and earned ourselves the eternal enmity of admin of the blog aggregator. And I certainly don’t recall the new face in the PR industry having an issue with that. I am puzzled by the blatant hypocrisy double standards applied to this matter. Again, I seem to recall that some the users banned in the blog aggregator were also criticising her as she was then holding some position there. It is then quite understandable why her position is now completely different regarding two similar matters. (By the way, it also reminded me that she is also quite dismissive of many things Singapore – like Singlish, our way of life, etc, which you can find glimpses of it on her blog. It surprises me that someone who held my nation with so much contempt did not already leave and yet shamelessly continue to enjoy the hospitality and employment opportunities my nation provides.)

Beyond her, some self styled social media ‘guru’ (who according to RSNA – aka RoadSide News Agency – is allegedly still jobless half a year after graduation, and had once boasted that graduates from his varsity makes the most money after graduation) has also jumped into the fray. What is most interesting, was that this same ‘guru’ who now bashes tweet.sg, has seemingly applauded the similar action taken at the blog aggregator last year too. He even gone so far to say that the departure of some users has actually ‘improved the standard’ of postings there.

But just like he has been wrong about his self importance, he has also been wrong on this account. Several months later he whined about how things has really gone south at the blog aggregator.

Subsequently, instead of helping to make things better, he beat a hasty retreat. Clearly, the so-called ‘guru’ has failed to see the fact that the so-called naysayers were actually the mainstay of a group who has been keeping the very posts that so disgust him in check.

Looking at just how wrong he has been in this past incident, and then how wrong he has been in jumping on the bandwagon to make a fuss out of tweet.sg’s predicament, I personally am not surprised that he has remained among the ranks of the unemployed for so long. Then again, perhaps all the current jobs available on the market are all ikan bilis (aka small salted fishes), and he is just waiting for the dream job befitting of his imagine stature and clout on the Internet.

Anyway, this incident once again reminded me that social media in Singapore is really a freak (怪胎). Where in overseas it is meant as a platform to benefit the general public, in Singapore it has evolved into nothing more than a private playground of cabals that would jump on anything to promote their own agenda, or to bring themselves into the limelight. It is an avenue for them to create some personal influence and good ideas are sometimes torn up by these people in the process, simply because when they aren’t ‘in’, then whoever who didn’t include them in these ideas are ‘out’ and ruthlessly destroyed.

And if you think you can try to be ‘in’, it’s not so easy either. Some of these individuals already think of themselves as ‘somebody’, and their guideline on how to treat people in real life is thus based on how much they value the imagined online clout of the person.

Indeed, to some of these individuals, bloggers or people who are considered to have nothing much to offer or to contribute to the personal agenda are ignored. These people may breathe and talk much about social media, but they never do the real thing.

If you want to know who these people are, keep your ears open. Sooner or later you will pick up complaints from certain bloggers such as: when you follow this person on Twitter, he / she don’t even get a follow back. Ask around and you might even hear bloggers complaining about not even getting so much of even a proper hi and greeting in a real life function from certain individuals! You can always keep an eye on who are excluded or ignored by certain social media personalities and check out their blogs and the conclusion why it is so, is really not hard to imagine.

That shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anybody. After all, once they have already written someone off in their minds, there isn’t really any necessity for them to spend more time on that individual. But don’t be too happy for those who are now still considered valuable. I shudder to think about their fate, once their usefulness in furthering the agenda of such individuals has… expired.

Well, I am a nobody in social media or blogosphere anyway, so take my complaints with a pinch of salt. After all, I am quite certain some people will be telling you: ‘This guy is just whining because he wants in and simply not getting it. Just look at his piece of shit blog.’

Right. As if I am hard up for any of these events at all!!

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