Ospreys say NO use of Twitter is lunacy

Phil E


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No. He needs to come into the 21st Century.
Twitter and other social media are here to stay, so saying people shouldn't use it is just blinkered.
IMO
 

Davet

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As a serious supporter of the principle of free speech I would object very strongly to a ban on anyone saying what they want to say without some overwhelming reason for doing so.

However stupid they may be in offering up a hostage to fortune.
 

Robert Burns

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Nothing Nigel Owens tweets is controversial. In fact the tweet SJ refers to was in response to a Scarlett's player asking Nigel to keep an eye on the ospreys trio. In light hearted banter.

The wish for more open and approachable referees followed by criticism of one that is open and approachable.

I think SJ is just trying to take attention away from his insufficient coaching abilities.

Very poor show.
 

Ian_Cook


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Simon Thomas


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Social media like Twitter, Facebook and numerous other sitres, blogs etc are a part of our digitised world. They are another form of communication, just like conversations, word-of-mouth, letters, newspaper articlres, TV interviews and so forth.

Anyone in a position of responsibility or involved in a regulated corporate, sporting, or other group needs to excercise the same level of caution about what they say, to whom and about what. With the power of social media through immediate distribution to a mass audience on needs to be even more careful - as the Apple shop ex-employee who dissed his i-phone online discovered.

A referee should maintain the same level of caution on facebook and twitter regarding conversations & banter that they would maintain in clubhouse and training ground conversatrions.
 

Dixie


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No. He needs to come into the 21st Century.
Twitter and other social media are here to stay, so saying people shouldn't use it is just blinkered.
IMO
I have sympathy with your view, but to a large extent I also disagree. Twitter etc is like writing a letter to a newspaper in the hope of publication - except that there's no-one filtering out the "good" letters from the "bad" - and newspapers have beena round for hundreds of years, so there's no need to consider this "new" media: the rules are the same. I imagine most employers would consider it a disciplinary matter to write to a newspaper and sign yourself as "product manager, XYZ company" if you had not cleared your communication through official channels; my employer has very strong rules as regards associating the company with any personally-held view, adn they seem completely reasonable to me. Exactly the same rules should apply to Twitter et al.

However, if the only reason anyone is reading the drivel you tweet is because of your professional position, then pretty much everything you tweet in an allegedly personal capacity associates your employer with the "personal" view you have just tweeted. I'd then say that any tweet that is not cleared by The Machine becomes a disciplinary matter. Just because it is POSSIBLE to tell the world what a tosser you find the captain of Club A does not mean it is wise to do so - free speech, civil liberties etc notwithstanding.
 

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I'd be more worried by clandestine meetings between Nige and players. It was all open, effectively, in the public domain. Johnson is trying to mask his own failing by throwing the smelly stuff around.
 

Davet

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Just because it is POSSIBLE to tell the world what a tosser you find the captain of Club A does not mean it is wise to do so - free speech, civil liberties etc notwithstanding.

That's rather the point of free speech - let the nutters convict themselves in their own words.
 
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