Interesting stuff either way!

I think it’s now become apparent that I have messed this up. I made a couple of rather amateur mistakes, namely that I wrote while angry, and also that I tried to make the event conform to my (quite possibly wrong) broader perspective. So, can I just to say to everyone: I was wrong, I’ll do better next time. On the plus side though, I used ‘clusterfuck’ in a post title

But I am still troubled by what I read as the sexist reaction as news of the event disseminated. It seems that most now agree that the in-the-moment response was not determined by a sort of misogyny, but I still wonder to what extent a mentality that privileges masculinity and masculine behaviour amplified the vociferous - and often vitriolic - response.

-Nav

like others above, i wonder if you might have had a different reaction had you been there in person. after 45 minutes of an interview that made me thin “what twilight zone episode did we step into?”, i don’t believe it was surprising most everyone in the room was frustrated enough to vocalize their feelings. and yes a few hecklers took it a bit further, but most folks kept their cool for quite a bit before things boiled over. even mark himself seemed to be trying hard to help her recover, and was actually rather reserved throughout the situation. but his “you need to ask questions” comment seemed to hit a nerve with the audience, and at that point they heartily agreed with extended cheers & applause.

still i don’t agree the crowd became a “lynch mob”… they were simply expressing a strong opinion that they wanted a real interview, and that sarah was waaaaay off track. oddly, she still had plenty of time before the 0:40-45m mark to get it together, but unfortunately it never happened and ultimately she herself decided to let the audience take over (& opened the floor to questions).

finally my post about sarah not being a geek wasn’t an attempt to emphasize geek conformity, but rather an explanation for why so many people think it’s “hard” to interview mark. i don’t think it’s a call for conformity to ask that the interviewer have some relevance to the material being discussed. that fact of the matter is that IT ISN’T THAT HARD to interview mark if you ask questions that he cares about / knows about, and have some understanding of the world he comes from. to wit: the following day at the Facebook Dev Garage, he took a number of [occasionally tough] questions from a largely technical audience about Facebook platform & strategy, and he sounded intelligent, eloquent, and at ease.

maybe after this happens a few more times, people will realize it’s not just a coincidence that when people who don’t know tech keep asking him why he’s so young, so rich, who he’s dating, etc etc that the interview ends up sucking ass. anyway, maybe i’m a biased geek, but that’s my perspective.

peace,

- dmc

One thing I will take objection to, however, is the idea that being in the room doesn’t matter. It mattered a great deal, actually. I was in an overflow room, and I’ve watched the video. The video misses a significant part of the story - the fact that the room was nearly alive with frustration and annoyance and confusion as literally hundreds of people grew more and more uncomfortable watching the oddness.

Have you ever been caught a few feet away from a couple fighting? Incredibly uncomfortable in a “down in the gut” sorta way, right? Then you try to explain to someone else just exactly how uncomfortable it was, and they’re simply not able to comprehend?

Yeah, same deal here.

‘Course that said, you know how much I respect your opinion, so I’m not entirely disagreeing - as I said, I wasn’t there, and I also did a crappy job with this post, so… thanks for the comment dude.

(That said, there’s was definitely a male/female dynamic of flirtation going on up there. I’m not sure how to analyze that though. I bet it did contribute to the irritation of some.)

But this was a planned production, not a simple interview. Thus the blame lies with the casting director (Facebook and SXSW flacks), the interviewer (Lacy) and her co-star (Zuckerberg). All parties, not just Lacy. The Twittertard revolt is something entirely different, but is also blame-worthy.

@Veronica: I obviously misread your comments in the heat of my (inexplicably angry) reaction to the whole Lacy/Zuckerberg mess. I do think that there is a centralisation of perspective on ‘the internet’ that is rooted in a very North American/European perspective - and I do legitimately think that there is possibly inadvertent potential for elitism there - but it seems I was just looking for targets rather than doing good analysis, so I’m sorry for unnecessarily singling you out and offending you. I actually consider myself a fan, so, yeah - apologies dude.

I don’t claim to be leading any kind of web revolution. My job is to simply inform and entertain. I’m sorry if you somehow found my coverage offensive.