An MGoPlea to All Michigan Fans: Do Not Harass Recruits on Twitter.
Twitter.
It's a common topic of debate on MGoBlog—is it good, is it bad, should players have them, should they now—it's been discussed thoroughly. One area that seems to be the most often discussed here is whether it's okay for fans to tweet to recruits, many of whom are juniors and sophomores. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I think it's creepy to tweet to high school kids. But on the other it seems like the recruits and players enjoy the interactions with fans, the positive ones at least.
There is one area where I'm fairly certain we all should be able to agree on though: it's not okay to tweet negative things to high school recruits or players (on Michigan or otherwise). Yet it still happens. For example this last weekend, after tweeting about his visit to Ohio State, recruit Joey Bosa (DE from Florida) made a comment about how he planned to go "up north" (to visit Michigan). This apparently angered some of the denizens of the Michigan-twitter-sphere, who proceeded to reply to him with a variety of negative comments to him.
This is not okay.
From a recruiting perspective, it's terrible to have a player think that an entire fanbase are asses and hate him for saying a short 140-character comment about how he likes a school, and be turned off because of that. From a personal perspective, this is a high school kid people are harassing, not some multi-millionaire star-athlete on a professional squad, but a regular 16, 17, or 18 year old kid.
We get all up in arms when other fan bases do it. Ohio particularly comes to mind, especially after the whole Kalis incident (I'm not trying to compare the magnitude Bosa twitter-incident with the Kalis backlash after he decommitted from Ohio, I still think they were markedly different). We like to think that Michigan fans are above that kind of thing, and the vast majority of us are, but all sides say stupid things, even our fans.
I know the vast majority of people here never have contacted recruits via twitter or facebook or other social networking uses, and the out of the few that do, most of them are likely positive messages of support to the players who have committed or are be recruited. And that is okay, it might be a little odd to tweet at a 17 year old, but if you say good things no real problems can come from it. However, to the few who do say negative things to recruits or players (whether for Michigan or any other team), I—and the rest of the Michigan fan community—implore you to stop. It makes us all look bad.
Other fan bases may do it, and so be it, we can't control what other fans say and think. But for a fan base who prides themselves on being mature and respectful, this is completely unacceptable. We always talk about whether or not players should think before they tweet, but the exact same goes for the fans.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:44 AM ^
April 16th, 2012 at 12:47 AM ^
Quibbles over the adjective you choose to describe it with aside, it is always ill advised. Just don’t do it.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:51 AM ^
I completely agree, if your the same age or younger, you can say good things to recruits or players. But it's fairly safe to say that the majority of MGoBloggers are older than 17.
However, whatever your age is, you shouldn't say negative things to recruits. It's just not cool.
Am I being punk'd or do both of you not know when to use "your" and "you're"?
your = possessive
you're = you are
Same goes with "its" and "it's". It's not that difficult to remember.
Yes. Your being messed with, its all a joke and there messing with you.
Thanks, you're post their really helped clear things up alot. Its what I meant all along.
April 16th, 2012 at 10:40 AM ^
That's a mistake people make alot.
April 16th, 2012 at 10:05 AM ^
I see what you did their.
Thank you for pointing out such a simple concept. I'm not being a smart ass, but rather trult gracious. I can't stand it when people misuse those words.
Elementary English, people.
Well I kept reading and apparently it was a joke all along, but I'm not positive.
Still though, the amount of people who speak English and misuse those words is frightenly high.
Are we assuming that every moron who sends an ill-advised tweet to a recruit is an mgoblog user? That probably isn't the greatest assumption to make.
Absolutely not, but I think it's silly to think that MGoBlog is completely free of them. It's a huge source of Michigan information. I'd venture to guess that the majority of morons who get their accounts bolivian'd still visit.
I can tell you that most of these people troll facebook. There is a Michigan facebook group filled with idiots that talk about messaging recruits and what not. I know most of them don't post here because they get negged and have trouble completing sentances.
"There is a Michigan facebook group filled with idiots that talk about messaging recruits and what not."
Right, so in that case it's just fucking stupid, instead of creepy and fucking stupid.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:46 AM ^
It's a really good message that everybody needs to read, and if there was a way to get it past the MGoBlog reach that would be great. As Michigan fans I want us to be ahead of everybody when it comes to class, I want to be arrogant we because we're the best when it comes to stuff on and off the field.
However, recruits also need to realize that just because one or two people are asshats, doesn't make the rest of the fanbase asshats by association. We call TSIO and MSU fans asshats because we have a long list of evidence to back it up, and it's not just a few angry tweets
April 16th, 2012 at 12:51 AM ^
I agree. Unfortunately, it will fall on deaf ears. I wish I could say we're better than Ohio in this regard, but I'm not seeing it. I looked into some of the tweets to Bosa, hoping they were "fake" fans, but they definitely were not.
Let's face it. All fan bases have asshats. The bigger the fan base, the more the asshats. Maybe our asshat percentage is 5% compared to Ohio's 10%, but that's still a lot of asshats.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:55 AM ^
you hit it on the head zoo. every fanbase has idiots, and our idiots (like everyone else's) love to heckle recruits on twitter. sadly, we can't do anything about it but shake our heads in disappointment.
Michigan has just as high of an "asshat" percentage as other schools fanbases. Most of them don't come here, because they get run off when they do, but go to the comments section at mlive or espn and you'll find plenty. It's the reason I don't go to those sites, those fans embarrass the school and a vast majority of the rest of the fanbase, and it's irksome, cringe-worthy, and extremely aggrevating having to read idiots like those make me look bad by association.
The asshat Michigan fans on mlive represent the minority of our fan base; the asshat OSU & MSU fans on Bucknuts and the RCMB represent their majority.
Absolutely nothing will get directly done from this forum post. The idiots that do this aren't of the MGoBlog demographic.
However, people here with Twitter accounts can indirectly help a lot. When something like this happens in the future, berate whoever the fan is and immediately apologize to the recruit and let him know that the fan is either a) of the idiotic minority or b) a MSU or Ohio troll.
Nothing good ever happens after midnight on Twitter.
April 16th, 2012 at 12:50 AM ^
April 16th, 2012 at 12:55 AM ^
I'll give you that, the vast majority of MGoUsers would never dream of doing this. But this is by far the biggest Michigan fan site, so if I say it here, there is as good a chance as anywhere that it is heard by the entire spectrum of Michigan fans, including the people who would say these things. (I'm guessing some of the most irritating posters from MLive come here to get a lot of their information too, just not to comment, as they would be in Bolivian in a minute)
April 16th, 2012 at 12:50 AM ^
Don't be "that guy" tweeting to recruits period. Its creepy and it makes us look bad. These kids are in high school forgodsake. Read a book, watch a BTN Classic game, or do something productive.
...posting on an internet message board. Definitely TOTALLY different than posting on Twitter.
Are you stupid?
April 16th, 2012 at 10:21 AM ^
How do you get -8984 points?
April 16th, 2012 at 12:55 AM ^
but no matter how reasonable your plea is most of the douchebags of the fanbase will not hear it. There will always be bad fans and there is nothing to be done about it. There are bad people... some of them will support the good guys in Maize and Blue.
I should just scrap the death threat i made from a collage of newspaper clippings and Ojemudia's Rivals photo. Hmm, I guess...
Edit. Ah, Keyword here wasTwitter. My bad, it helps when you actually read before you post. I guess I can save that letter afterall. /s
If you say something to the effect of "Great game on Friday night!" why will they care? They have no idea who you are. If you say something like "Can't wait to have you in Ann Arbor next year!" it'll make you seem weird since, again, you don't know them at all. And there is definitely something to lose by commenting negatively on their visits to other schools. After all, they're deciding not only where to play football but deciding on education, course of studies, and campus environment, among other things. These are all areas in which the University of Michigan excells.
We don't need to do anything to edge a recruit one way or another. This university speaks for itself, and I completely trust the coaches to get everybody they need to assemble a quality team without outside influence.
I know this applies to most people…. But he can’t be speaking about me, right? I mean, I’m just so clever and hospitable! I can’t just leave these kids’ recruitment up to chance. Obviously we don’ want the other rabble contacting the recruits because they’ll just screw things up. But I’m smarter than that, right?!?
/s
and a lot can also be lost. Numerous recruits talk about how interacting with the fan base online is great and how it played a part in attracting them to a certain school. Some recruits just like the attention and want the feeling of being important, as all people do. Other times, you have cases like with Kyle Kalis and Tom Strobel, where Ohio fans burned all bridges. Like it or not, fans play a huge part in attracting players to a school. While saying, "This is Michigan.", might get most of us to commit on the spot, most recruits don't grow up as life-long fans and you can't rely on the university speaking for itself. While that view is certainly idealistic, it's not at all a reasonable one.
It's up to the coaches to sell the school to the recruit; that's what I was saying by the university speaking for itself. Additionally, visits that recruits take to games and UM facilities play a more important role, in my opinion. That way they can see what Saturdays in Ann Arbor are really like and see how passionate the fans are there. Outside of that, I'd rather leave it up to Coach Hoke and staff to woo a recruit.
Just as you say numerous recruits enjoy interacting with the fanbase there are stories like Kyle Kalis and Tom Strobel. Do you really think Twitter interaction is the factor that seals the deal for somebody to come to your school? I think interactions with the coaches, players, and events they attend are more productive and positive. In my opinion, the risk to do damage with a wayward tweet is more dangerous than the reward of telling them "Go Blue". Negative comments are more likely to be remembered than simple pleasantries.
I think it's for the best to stay away from tweeting 16, 17, and 18 year old kids that you don't know outside of the fact that UM is recruiting them. You're not entrusted to recruit for Michigan and you're not paid for it - the coaching staff is.
I don't have a Twitter and I don't plan on making one any time soon.
Obviously game day and actually seeing Ann Arbor and the facilities are bigger factors than Twitter interactions. I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that interactions with a fan base are an increasingly important factor in recruiting.
Most recruits want to play in a fan base that intensely follows the team. They want to feel wanted. Fans tweeting at recruits make those recruits feel wanted. It's not the deciding factor, but an important one. If I was being recruited and one school's fans tweeted at me and the other school's fans didn't, I'd feel more wanted by the fans tweeting at me. It certainly won't make as big of a difference as a difference in facilities or environment, but if it's a close race, that might stick out to me.
But still, people will believe what they want to believe. If they have a negative perception of Michigan already, they will latch on to a few negative tweets by Michigan fans and remember those instead of the positive ones. If they have a positive perception of Michigan, they'll latch onto the postive ones and not the negative ones. Recruits will believe what makes them feel better and what will confirms their biases.
It's being lost somewhere along the line that Twitter is not a personal form of communication. Twitter and Facebook are very impersonal. Twitter interactions, even more so. A large part of me feels that the difference in opinion in the fan base lies along generational lines, in which the elder portion is overreacting to the modern way of doing things.
using that I thing instead of paying attention to where you are going! Hell, us old folks are lucky we can still talk, let alone use one of those electronic gadgets.
If a few tweets is what seals the deal, we should start posing as fans of opposing schools on twitter and facebook. Hell, we'll bring that championship home in no time.
In the eyes of the NCAA if you are or have ever been a season ticket holder you are a booster. Once you are a booster you are a booster forever. Contacting a recruit via Twitter could be an NCAA violation. I've never heard of a school getting in trouble for this but I sure wouldn't want to be the first as it would likely mean being banned from games for life.
April 16th, 2012 at 10:58 AM ^
This is fact. Probably wouldn't be inforced but it is fact.
Mods probably won't even bother to enforce it, either.
Well...ok. But not because you say so!
I dont think it's worth worrying about what somebody says over the internet. You don't know who's saying what. You can't be sure whether they're michigan fans or whoever, and the recruits shouldn't take what people say to them seriously either.
find a distinction between tweeting recruits and tweeting celebrities, as they're really one and the same.
If you're kidding and I'm missing the joke, I apologize for misinterpreting.
If not, I completely disagree. These are kids who happen to be good at football and want to have a Twitter account like the rest of their friends. They aren't actors, musicians, or politicians who decided to make themselves very public figures and have much more experience with this (and life more generally) than high school kids.
I follow recruiting closely and am guilty of helping to support this, but there's a lot in that world that worries me. If you've been around the Michigan sites, you've seen amateur bloggers interviewing high school freshmen. Those kids are 14 years old. They won't be allowed into R-rated movies for three more years. I'm happy as hell that no one interviewed me when I was 14, both because I was unprepared to talk like that and because I think that it would have been terrible for me to have people treating me like a celebrity at that age. These kids aren't required to be public figures just because they're good at sports and adults are interested in what they do.
any different than talent in sports? Actors and musicians make the same choice to utilize their talent that the recruits do. These people, along with their parents, make the conscious decision to enter into the spotlight, making themeselves public figures, and to face all that comes along with it. By wanting to play for a D1 program, recruits are required to become a public figure, whether they want to or not.
Does that mean that kids who are really good at sports shouldn't play unless they're willing to: [1] be a public figure at a ridiculously young age; or [2] publicly declare that they won't play in college? I think that's really unfair to those kids.
Plus, where does it stop? We're paying attention to younger and younger kids each year, and the level of direct access to them is unprecendented. If a 9-year old is extremely good at basketball (and wants to play), is he required to become a public figure at that age whether he wants to or not?
it's unfair. No one ever said it wasn't. Sadly, that's the choices athletes, and anyone else with talent, face today.
9-year olds getting media attention is the exception, not the rule. 9-year olds don't receive the same scrutiny that the 16 and 17-year old athletes do. It's an extreme example that's not particulary relevant to the original argument. Still, to answer your question, if an extremely talented 9-year old wants to play basketball, the player, along with his parents, are knowingly entering into an arena where it's fair game to have every detail of your life dissected.
It boils down to this: In today's society, if you have an exceptional talent, and you choose to utilize it, you will be subject to scrutiny far more intense than your peers. Sports is the business of entertainment. If you want to entertain people, your life will be scrutinized. It's the nature of the beast.
I think that we have some control over this, since we, as diehard fans, aren't far removed from the cause of the problem. For example, I think that occasional threads like this are healthy in that they get fans to think about whether it's a good idea to send a confrontational message to a high school kid. I, personally, also avoid saying nasty things about particular kids, never contact them in any way, and try to speak up when I think that a Michigan blog is doing something that I find questionable (e.g., interviewing a 14-year old without talking to his parents/coaches first or harshly criticizing the non-D1-material high school teammates of some of these recruits).
I don't think we have to fully concede the point that by signing up for youth sports a kid turns himself into a public figure. I also think that we, as fans and reporters/bloggers, have some obligations here, since this is dangerous, unregulated territory.