This is an open letter to Jetblue airlines and Morgan Johnston (aimed primarily off the Twitter accounts of @jetblue and @MHJohnston). For everyone else, you'll be able to get the gist of what's going on from what you see here. And for those who know me, this letter will surprise you none.
Folks,
You may not remember me, but I'm an All You Can Jetter from last year, who is doing it again this year. I met the keyboardist of @jetblue at last year's mid-AYCJ meet-up (http://wenderbender.blogspot.com/2009/10/all-you-can-jet-day-24-new-orleans-la.html).
Simply put, I'm writing to you because I'm trying to score a jacket for myself and my traveling accomplice.
From a raw propaganda point of view, the biggest difference between this year's AYCJ, and last, is your addition of Facebook (FB). Last year the public side of AYCJ was almost entirely Twitter, but it's become clear to me that much (if not most) of what you're doing this is based on Facebook.
I'm not a fan of FB and I don't use it -- there are several reasons, but these are the core.
* I run my technology, I don't let my technology run me. I refuse to keep adding things to my life under the auspices of making it "better" when it's simply making it more complicated.
* I don't trust FB. I don't like the way they handle data and information.
* I don't like exposing myself to the public in extremely easy to search ways. I'm an old skooler in that I hold a fundamental belief that there is such thing as privacy.
* You have to be a member of FB to see anything involved in FB.
* I know several of the top FB people personally and I do not like them, nor the way they view their subscriber base.
To be clear, I'm not some 20-something jetter who thinks he's got some sort of divine inside line on the world; nor some retiree that isn't sure what the relationship is between jpeg and html. I'm both more different and more scary than that. With a 25 year background in the Silicon Valley that includes many years at Apple, development of the T-Mobile Sidekick, and creating the bidding schema that eBay uses today; it's very possible I have a closer association to technology than anyone you've ever known.
So when I say I have my reasons for not using Facebook, for goddamn sure I have my self-righteous reasons.
When I saw you were going to use FB this year, I fired a tweet off right away saying I don't use it. I got a response back from @jetblue right away (thanks) that said there would be other forms of communication.
Which would have been great if it were true, but it's not. As near as I can tell, all the meet-ups of this year's AYCJ (including last night's party in Las Vegas -- ironically the city I now live in) have been directly promoted by FB.
This is problematic for me in two ways. One, I don't know what the hell's going on -- and I've pretty much made it a point in my life to not be the stupidest kid on my block. And two, it makes it damn hard to score swag.
Now it could be that your response is: Here's the deal, punk, you have to be on FB or you can fuck off -- which has been your de facto operation for the last three weeks. That's fine with me as long as you openly admit it.
I'm a huge supporter of Jetblue. Go back and look at my Twitter stream (redelvis) and dive deep. See how many tips and answers I've given. Look at the t-shirts I did for last year (and consider that I donated all the money from them to carbonfund.org). Promotion is in my blood -I was an evangelist at Apple, for chrissake- and I'm like a walking billboard for you guys. I've got not one, but three people -strangers mind you- that I'm notifying about if/when your passes go on sale next year. (Morgan, you partied with @isawyouonjetblue last night -- I arranged a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge with him last year http://wenderbender.blogspot.com/2009/09/all-you-can-jet-day-6-jfk.html.)
You should hear the way I talk about your airline -- every day. It's embarrassing. I'm like a walking, zombied, commercial.
All right, all right. Just forget everything I've said to this point. I see this whole deal falling one of two ways.
* You hold back two jackets for me, if for no other reason than to get me to shut the hell up. I feel like I've accomplished my big goal and everything's fine.
* You ignore me -- which is collectively what's been happening since about September 10. I'll escalate this letter campaign to people you don't want me to escalate it to, and to give you an idea of what I'm capable of, have a look here: http://continualcar.blogspot.com/2009/12/and-rain-came-down.html).
I can't believe I'm sitting here writing this, literally, in the shadow of Chichen Itza, while Morgan is 20 miles from my house ... but if there's anything the Maya can tell you it's that the world sometimes doles out unusual forms of justice. If they could have written self-serving 'blog postings, maybe things would look a little different down here today, eh?
Thanks for reading,
b1
PS I'm way behind on posting for this year's AYCJ. It'll all get finished a couple weeks after the trip itself is done.
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Dude really? You're going to go straight to anger and threats? I understand you don't use Facebook and I respect that. I also meant what I said at the beginning of this year's AYCJ. There are all sorts of forms of communications, and we'll play with them all.
ReplyDeleteBecause you don't use Facebook I suspect you may be under the impression there is more going on there than there is. Let me first clarify that. The Vegas meetup wasn't organized by JetBlue (or me) on Facebook... In fact it wasn't even organized by anyone at JetBlue or indeed anywhere on Facebook. It was organized by customers on Meetup.org, none of whom knew we had decided to show up until the day before. We decided to show up because we saw an opportunity to meet and talk with a large number of AYCJ customers who had already decided to meet. It's as simple as that.
We've organized very few "official" meetups, and where we have, we've talked about them on Facebook sure, but also Twitter and on our own BlueTales blog. Transparently, official meetups take quite a lot of resources to organize and manage. We haven't spent a great deal of time trying to force our own events when customers continue to come up with much more interesting ideas. And those few times where we've popped up in a location with gear, we do so pretty quickly, and with little or no notice. -an intentional act to help control crowds that could otherwise form and cause potential safety issues.
So yea, I'm sorry you weren't in Las Vegas for the event. It would have been great to see you again, but before you try to throw public pressure and shame at me, or start a campaign to attack some perceived slight, how about you start by just fricken asking? I look for chances to match my schedule with AYCJers as they pass near me. You obviously know how to get ahold of me, but you go from a couple of tweets of disappointment to public demands in a single day, and that doesn't make me feel particularly warm and fuzzy. Dude really? You're going to go straight to anger and threats? I understand you don't use Facebook and I respect that. I also meant what I said at the beginning of this year's AYCJ. There are all sorts of forms of communications, and we'll play with them all.
Because you don't use Facebook I suspect you may be under the impression there is more going on there than there is. Let me first clarify that. The Vegas meetup wasn't organized by JetBlue (or me) on Facebook... In fact it wasn't even organized by anyone at JetBlue or indeed anywhere on Facebook. It was organized by customers on Meetup.org, none of whom knew we had decided to show up until the day before. We decided to show up because we saw an opportunity to meet and talk with a large number of AYCJ customers who had already decided to meet. It's as simple as that.
We've organized very few "official" meetups, and where we have, we've talked about them on Facebook sure, but also Twitter and on our own BlueTales blog. Transparently, official meetups take quite a lot of resources to organize and manage. We haven't spent a great deal of time trying to force our own events when customers continue to come up with much more interesting ideas. And those few times where we've popped up in a location with gear, we do so pretty quickly, and with little or no notice. -an intentional act to help control crowds that could otherwise form and cause potential safety issues.
So yea, I'm sorry you weren't in Las Vegas for the event. It would have been great to see you again, but before you try to throw public pressure and shame at me, or start a campaign to attack some perceived slight, how about you start by just fricken asking? You obviously know how to get ahold of me, but you go from a couple of tweets of disappointment to public demands in a single day, and that doesn't make me feel particularly warm and fuzzy.
Morgan
Seriously. Over a jacket?? A simple jacket?? You're getting all worked up over that? It's just a jacket. A couple jackets will make everything okay? Why don't you step it up and ask for free AYCJ passes next year instead?
ReplyDeleteAlso does Jetblue owe you something cause they have a Facebook page and you don't like FB so you don't read anything that is going on over there?
Like Morgan said, there was a huge presence at Meetup.org. Lots of people getting groups together to meet in certain cities.
I'm surprised Morgan responded to you. I would have just ignored such whining.
Look at this thread if you're ever trying to find an answer to the question, "what is passion?"
ReplyDeleteOn Valentine's Day, everyone in my 4th grade class was given an award. I was v handed "Most Enthusiastic."
And I was PISSED for 2 reasons:
1. I didn't get Best at Math. (My best friend did, for the love of God!)
2. I had no idea what the word meant.
So this... This is how it all ended up.
As with everything in the world, consider it all to be an advisory.