A competent community manager would delete the post and start with some gentle corrective action - maybe a polite note asking you to cut it out. Only after it becomes completely clear that you have no intention of cooperating will it be escalated to your manager. A competent manager would probably be able to figure out the appropriate carrot and stick that would make you toe the line.

Of course, that's assuming a competently run company, and a competent community manager.

I saw one hilarious example of this a while ago (though it was not intentional, just someone posting something silly where it could be viewed by the wrong people). It was removed and the poster was asked very nicely to not do that again. All was well.

Yes. But since it's one based on a product that we sell (not a public facing one), I have no issue with it.

You should get a job as a Community Manager. They indeed can make up all the details. Including the name

While you are technically correct, you are ignoring economic realities and pressures. Sometimes just because you *can* quit doesn't mean that you will be able to find another job. There are places in the country where if you lose your job, you will have to move.

On rereading, except for the first sentence before the comma.

I could not disagree more with every single component of what you just posted.

Disclaimer: I work for Jive Software, one of the leading vendors (if not the leading vendor) of Social Business Software, so take it for what you will. I'm just a hosting engineer though - not a marketer.

That said, I think this question actually entails two separate issues. The first one is, will having their employees collaborate socially save them time, money, and energy? I've seen many, many examples of companies coming to depend on social software - there are plenty of examples on Jive's site (and it's not just blowing smoke, I've seen firsthand evidence of this and have even talked to some people on the sales floor who swear by it). Some customers I work with have grown so dependent on social software that they cannot tolerate even a minute of downtime. Social business is, in many ways, the wave of the future, and to criticize companies for trying to get on the bandwagon and realize the benefits for themselves is not something I'm prepared to do.

The other question is: Should the company provide a sandboxed environment for this kind of collaboration, or should they force their employees to use solutions that potentially violate their privacy or have other issues? I'm not going to say that any of the solutions out there such as Facebook have those issues necessarily, but they are obviously very much less sandboxed and do not have the interests of corporate and personal privacy in mind near as much as a vendor whose software can be sandboxed to provide some safety for personal information and company secrets.

At Jive we eat our own dogwood, and we use a social instance of our own software in the company, and I can't imagine working without it. But if a company were to force me to collaborate on publicly available sites where my grandmother (for example) would also post, I'd seriously wonder what they were smoking.

Likely he hasn't even talked to Apple about it. But now that he's made the announcement, if Apple rejects the app, they look like the bad guys. Hefner may be a creep, but anyone who can get tens of women to service him each night is no idiot.

There is no way to explain to someone such as you what I have experienced or why I believe it to be true. I will relay what I have experienced when asked or given the opportunity, but will not try to convince or defend. So go your own way with my blessing. Just know that I've heard it all before, and nothing you have said has swayed me one inch.

No, but that's the first time I figured out what your point was. Maybe it's just me.

There's nothing I could say that would change your mind. It has to come from above or it doesn't happen. So let's just agree that our paths are different.

It's not out of line, but it's certainly incomprehensible.

I was an atheist. I am no longer. Because I had experiences I can't explain.

You want to call me deluded, wonderful. I really don't care. You run off and do whatever you do, and I'll follow my own path.

Nah. Quantifying these things is difficult to impossible, and he just moves the goalposts anyway. If they don't want to be seen, they won't, and frankly, I don't encourage it. It's a personal experience and that's all it is.

There is nothing to fear, but I suspect for different reasons.