mmm @wezzo and @stefano I am not with you guys on this, perhaps its for selfish reasons though. You see I have an Autistic son who will have to go through life filled with people who don't understand him and sometimes don't even want to make an effort to understand him. Autism is a life long disability, many autistics cannot communicate at all. I know there are blogs out there by "Aspies" who do not support this, but Aspergers is *very* different to Autism. I therefore support anything that is trying to raise awareness. I admittedly didn't read everything about the campaign so I don't know the details, but look at all the huge amount of advertising that you are bombarded with everyday. How can something for a good cause be any worse?
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Hi Neville,
For me it's not about autism and the campaign - I commend the guys that are doing their bit. It's about the amount and frequency of the tweets, blog posts, muti posts etc. With a spam mail, I know that any future mails from that address will be spam and I flag them as such. With all the social media tools it's a little difficult to "un-friend" & unsubscribe from certain folks who are hell bent at getting their message across. Next week they might be on about something really interesting, and in the long run are worth following. With the amounts of "streams" I follow it's tiresome removing people from my friend list and re-adding them later. That's where I'm coming from.
Bye the way, I'm sorry to hear about your son's autism. I wish you and your family well.
Wes
Nic
· 1 year ago
But Nev - Do you think that forcing it upon people will help to educate them or help to create a "billboard" sort of ignoring about the topic? Surely forcibly pushing the topic at people insufferably is not the right way to do it? It's overkill and all it ends up doing is desensitising people to the real issue at hand. This is NOT criticism of the cause in any way, shape or form, it is a comment on the mechanisms being used to promote it.
Neville Newey
· 1 year ago
> But Nev - Do you think that forcing it upon people will help to educate them
No I don't think so, I think you guys are probably right. I think perhaps it needs a good blogger to blog real life issues autistics face, perhaps like a Tertia.
Nic
· 1 year ago
Great idea, real life blogging from that perspective for the cause, consistently, not in a barrage of content!
Jono
· 1 year ago
@wezzo - I could not agree with you more.
@Neville, I really don't think anyone is criticising the campaign or the drive to raise awareness. There is no argument that this isn't a great initiative.
I think the issue here is that this is being pumped to a couple of hundred "geeks" who follow twitter - and - although it's been filling my reader for days - this perhaps isn't the kind of awareness that's needed.
I would also say, that what's kind of grating me about this "social media drive" is that the bulk of it seems to be bloggers congratulating each other on how well they are doing and the amount of noise they are making - and this is not the real issue.
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Hey Jono,
Well after my initial "scathing" tweet, Rafiq asked "@wezzo if you were told you have 14 days to raise R500k to help the wwworld, what would YOU do differently?"
I responded with "@rafiq spend R100k on traditional media advertising and make 600k. Pumping it to 500 SA geeks (max), I'm not so sure about." - It's a little hard getting your point accross in 140 characters or less, but what I meant was exactly what you're saying. They are pushing the concept to the wrong audience (and a tiny one at that).
unodewaal
· 1 year ago
I agree. I think it's a bit opportunistic, which is great for the cause of Autism, but it does detract from the larger message of Autism. I feel there is a larger focus on "how we did this" than "what is autism" I don't think it is authentic and that's what is pissing people off.
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Yeah I also get the feeling that this is not so much about the cause and campaign but more about a social media case study, that will popup on SEOBlog anytime soon.
Anonymous
· 1 year ago
At first I was very supportive and now I've realised that there is a difference between creating awareness and spam. I'm tired of all the news points being filled up with jail4bail rant.
Fred
· 1 year ago
Right now, you're talking about it, which means Jail4Bail is job well done.
Autism in South Africa doesn't stand a chance against some of the more noticable causes, yet it's a really important issue. Jail4Bail is the first autism campaign to make a real impact on the general SA public and continues to do so.
Gerhard's stated aim was to raise awareness as much as raise funds.
Whether Jail4Bail is spam is debatable, but at least it's succeeding in putting a marginalised cause on the map for the first time in SA. Thanks to Gerhard and co. 'spamming' people are talking, and we should be commending and supporting them for it.
Nic
· 1 year ago
Fred - I'm not sure I agree with you. A marginalised cause hasn't been put on the map, unfortunately it seems as though the mechanisms used to promote the campaign have been put on the map and punted across the board by bloggers and geeks alike. Not the cause. And I think it's a crying shame that this is what has happened.
Fred
· 1 year ago
Nic, I understand your point and I fully understand the point of this rant - BUT, still, you cannot deny that people are talking about the project. Lately I've heard people mention it at braai's, in meetings, and at work. People are asking 'what is autism?'
To be frank, I think a only handful of bloggers are now talking about the 'mechanisms used to promote the campaign'. I think Gerhard can live with that, because far more people are talking about autism.
That's a good thing.
Mandy de Waal
· 1 year ago
I reckon it is a case of over zealousness - but smart point. Blogs fine and well - you have the choice to read them or not, but on Twitter and other social media networks one needs to tread carefully.
Social causes need to have the same spam, privacy and other issues intact. Just because you're passionate about the cause doesn't mean you can make other people's lives hell. One still needs to be respectful about boundaries and online rules and mores. If you don't you will do more harm than good.
Nothing useful is every forced - particularly not on social media where people will switch off if issues are shoved down their throats.
I think in this case it is a matter about people caring very deeply about the cause they represent. While this should be applauded I reckon your post is very valid - and regardless of the cause the rules of social media should apply.
EveDmochowska
· 1 year ago
I think you are all missing a very important point: Jail4Bail did not power the social media drive - Rafiq did (mostly).
And that is the "problem" of social media: one you get your message out there, you LOSE OWNERSHIP of it. Someone (Rafiq?) can become over-passionate and with the best of intentions can actually taint your cause.
The challenge is to invite social media networking and viral spread, and yet still remain the main voice of the campaign (whether you are selling jail4bail or cotor cars).
Tough challenge, and one that social web strategist battle with every day.
woganmay
· 1 year ago
There are several issues with the jail4bail campaign. I think I'll point them all out later. Too much work to do right now :/
In short, Wezzo, you've hit the nail on the head. I think that the efforts are a little over the top...
Guest
· 1 year ago
AGREED. But I believe it was more of a social media experiment by the "experts" and daylight robbery by the cellular networks.
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Yes very much a social experiment in my book, not to sure about the cellular networks though. I never received any sms' (or phonecalls), did you?
Guest
· 1 year ago
what i was referring to was the fact that they take 50% of the cost of every sms sent and Autism Western Cape gets the other 50%.. so R2 million had to be spent via sms so that AWC can get R1 million.
Guy McLaren
· 1 year ago
I wrote about this issue and Rafiq spammed me right there in my own comments section.
I think Rafiq fails to understand what spam is, Maybe he and Nic should do some studying together
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Hey Guy
Yeah I saw that, left a comment.
I was a little lost with Nic & Rafiq having to do some studying together though, huh. Did I miss something?
Nic
· 1 year ago
Hahahaha... um, ok, whatever man.
make fake id's
· 10 months ago
Hi, I am totally agree with Nev. " I think perhaps it needs a good blogger to blog real life issues autistics face, perhaps like a Tertia. " .
Jail4Bail
· 1 year ago
TYFYC
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Rafiq, do you care to give a more in depth comment other than TYFYC? I'd like to hear more from the people creating the spam.
Jail4Bail
· 1 year ago
TYFYC - Gerhard Pieterse aka Jail4Bail
Wezz
· 1 year ago
Gerhard I'm not too sure if you are aware, but this is definitely not the way to comment.
Warren
· 1 year ago
Quite frankly, people use the internet to continually push social topics of no particular concern into our inboxes etc. Now that really annoys me. Honestly, I think Gerhard (someone who I actually took the time to chat with one evening) has done something worthwhile here with his time, his efforts in bringing awareness to all using the free media at his disposal. My take, if you don't like the media or what it brings to your doorstep (inbox), use something else.
BTW Wezz, have you contributed at all to the Autism campaign? Perhaps if more people contributed, the campaign would end sooner, correct? ;)
All Comments
I therefore support anything that is trying to raise awareness. I admittedly didn't read everything about the campaign so I don't know the details, but look at all the huge amount of advertising that you are bombarded with everyday. How can something for a good cause be any worse?
For me it's not about autism and the campaign - I commend the guys that are doing their bit. It's about the amount and frequency of the tweets, blog posts, muti posts etc. With a spam mail, I know that any future mails from that address will be spam and I flag them as such. With all the social media tools it's a little difficult to "un-friend" & unsubscribe from certain folks who are hell bent at getting their message across. Next week they might be on about something really interesting, and in the long run are worth following. With the amounts of "streams" I follow it's tiresome removing people from my friend list and re-adding them later. That's where I'm coming from.
Bye the way, I'm sorry to hear about your son's autism. I wish you and your family well.
Wes
No I don't think so, I think you guys are probably right. I think perhaps it needs a good blogger to blog real life issues autistics face, perhaps like a Tertia.
@Neville, I really don't think anyone is criticising the campaign or the drive to raise awareness. There is no argument that this isn't a great initiative.
I think the issue here is that this is being pumped to a couple of hundred "geeks" who follow twitter - and - although it's been filling my reader for days - this perhaps isn't the kind of awareness that's needed.
I would also say, that what's kind of grating me about this "social media drive" is that the bulk of it seems to be bloggers congratulating each other on how well they are doing and the amount of noise they are making - and this is not the real issue.
Well after my initial "scathing" tweet, Rafiq asked "@wezzo if you were told you have 14 days to raise R500k to help the wwworld, what would YOU do differently?"
I responded with "@rafiq spend R100k on traditional media advertising and make 600k. Pumping it to 500 SA geeks (max), I'm not so sure about." - It's a little hard getting your point accross in 140 characters or less, but what I meant was exactly what you're saying. They are pushing the concept to the wrong audience (and a tiny one at that).
I think it's a bit opportunistic, which is great for the cause of Autism, but it does detract from the larger message of Autism. I feel there is a larger focus on "how we did this" than "what is autism"
I don't think it is authentic and that's what is pissing people off.
Autism in South Africa doesn't stand a chance against some of the more noticable causes, yet it's a really important issue. Jail4Bail is the first autism campaign to make a real impact on the general SA public and continues to do so.
Gerhard's stated aim was to raise awareness as much as raise funds.
Whether Jail4Bail is spam is debatable, but at least it's succeeding in putting a marginalised cause on the map for the first time in SA. Thanks to Gerhard and co. 'spamming' people are talking, and we should be commending and supporting them for it.
To be frank, I think a only handful of bloggers are now talking about the 'mechanisms used to promote the campaign'. I think Gerhard can live with that, because far more people are talking about autism.
That's a good thing.
Social causes need to have the same spam, privacy and other issues intact. Just because you're passionate about the cause doesn't mean you can make other people's lives hell. One still needs to be respectful about boundaries and online rules and mores. If you don't you will do more harm than good.
Nothing useful is every forced - particularly not on social media where people will switch off if issues are shoved down their throats.
I think in this case it is a matter about people caring very deeply about the cause they represent. While this should be applauded I reckon your post is very valid - and regardless of the cause the rules of social media should apply.
And that is the "problem" of social media: one you get your message out there, you LOSE OWNERSHIP of it. Someone (Rafiq?) can become over-passionate and with the best of intentions can actually taint your cause.
The challenge is to invite social media networking and viral spread, and yet still remain the main voice of the campaign (whether you are selling jail4bail or cotor cars).
Tough challenge, and one that social web strategist battle with every day.
In short, Wezzo, you've hit the nail on the head. I think that the efforts are a little over the top...
I think Rafiq fails to understand what spam is, Maybe he and Nic should do some studying together
Yeah I saw that, left a comment.
I was a little lost with Nic & Rafiq having to do some studying together though, huh. Did I miss something?
I am totally agree with Nev. " I think perhaps it needs a good blogger to blog real life issues autistics face, perhaps like a Tertia. " .
BTW Wezz, have you contributed at all to the Autism campaign? Perhaps if more people contributed, the campaign would end sooner, correct? ;)
Keep up the good work Gerhard.