How about we get to 50k with a bit of class?
UPDATE: If you aren’t on Twitter, this may not make any sense to you (also, if you are, you may not care)
It started out as a self-righteous duel to 50,000 followers between two of the NBA’s most prolific young-guns/Tweeters. Looking from the outside in, it smelt of a cheap way to get followers up while having some fun. However, it quickly deteriorated into a fan backlash by many of us on Twitter.
Now if you’re not on Twitter, you should sign up and follow the lot of us on RR asap (@altraps @arsenalist @rapsfan @realizar and of course @raptorsrepublic), but for those of us who @reply, retweet, #hashtag and DM the hell out of things,to say this whole thing is a disappointment is a gross understatement.
While there isn’t anything wrong with having a friendly competition, the nature of this particular one just rubbed us all the wrong way. Twitter is about joining the conversation, letting people know how you feel about a certain GM, supporting political/human rights causes or mourning a pop-idol. The fact that people follow you means that they like what you have to say, and want to have a conversation with you. Not that they want to be dictated to and sold a bag of magic beans.
So back to things… CB4 and CV31 trash talking each other was all good until all our streams were polluted with an incessant amount of “follow me” “I need 50k followers before he gets it” “I’m close!” “My penis is gigantic” blah blah blah. Things went from mildly amusing to outright disappointing. We already watch, blog and generally shower you guys with praise and gratitude, but everything has its limit.
Slowly the two sides forked in their direction:
Chris Bosh stayed the course. Even promised to stay up to answer everyone (that poor dwarf you have tweeting on your behalf, he clearly didn’t answer everyone, but you have to give the little guy some credit, he has short fingers, and typing so much takes it toll). Just looking at his stream (@chrisbosh), it’s all “@reply thank you’s” and “RT, I need more penis’ to make mine bigger.” It all resulted in his business partner snapping out in a rather disgusting fashion, then deleting it.
Charlie Villanueva went the other direction, turning his quest to 50k into a charity event, donating the equivalent number of followers needed (3172) to get to 50k of sneakers to charity. He even reached out to some shoe dude.Wow, that’s a conversation I want to be apart of.
Chris, you’re my man, I’d give you a max contract in a second to keep you in Tdot. We know that’s not all you on Twitter, two different styles (yours and the douchebags), but you gotta get rid of that dwarf – ASAP. He treats people poorly, is slimy to our ladies, and is a poor reflection on you. At least change your twitter password and keep him the hell away from it. Better yet, let us rep you on Twitter. We’re doing a damn good job of reppin the Raptors on ESPN, and we’re holding it down on Twitter.
37 Raps
huh?
A wasted read !!!
wow, my tweet made the blog!!
Don’t really know much about Twitter, so I’m confused. Did Bosh post that message about mothafuckas, bitches, and haters? And if so, at who?
Bosh’s business partner, Hadi, sent it to altraps.
What is also “funny” is that throughout the season, if we ripped on Bosh either in Roll Call or in the post game wrap up, we were accused of being “haters”.
With respect to twitter and the game Bosh(Hadi) and CV were playing, I’m actually all for it if there is a cause behind it. I think Charlie’s donation of sneakers was a stroke of genius. Sure, Bosh did some autograph sneaker giveaways, but right down to him tweeting on-air during his chat without using his keyboard and reading texts/emails he was being sent that told him what to say and what to pump up, Bosh came off as a puppet looking to expand his off-court mailing list. Follow that up with incessant blasts to “invite your friends to follow me” for days on end and it was like watching an infomercial.
On the other side, Charlie didn’t spam his followers and he seemed to be doing the tweeting himself.
At the end of the day, though, I do find it funny that a perennial allstar was neck and neck for followers with, well, Charlie Villaneuva. No shot against Charlie, but if I were in Bosh’s camp, I’d be wondering what the hell is going on.
+ 1
“At the end of the day, though, I do find it funny that a perennial allstar was neck and neck for followers with, well, Charlie Villaneuva. No shot against Charlie, but if I were in Bosh’s camp, I’d be wondering what the hell is going on.”
Ok, CV joined twitter waayy before Chris Bosh, and didn’t he get a lot of exposure with ESPN when he notoriously twitted during half time last year? From that argument you stated you must think then that Charlie V is more popular than Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade and Kevin Durant because he has more followers. Right? You sound like a grumpy 50 year old.
“From that argument you stated you must think then that Charlie V is more popular than Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade and Kevin Durant because he has more followers.”
Huh? That makes zero sense. I was saying I’d be more concerned if I was Bosh, had a guy who specializes in new media working for me, and I was behind, then neck and neck, with a guy who didn’t. It was technically two against one.
That said, Durant is at 45,000 and Wade at 39,500 with no spamming and no media reports sent out about a competition. Not too shabby.
Hadi needs ro go what a douchebag
Bosh’s thirst for the limelight might be his ticket out of T.O.
I hope he learns from Carter’s mistake,he’ll never have a bigger stage.
Thanks for the laughs yesterday altraps and Sam. :)
I was just as guilty at times in adding fuel to the fire with my own petty comments, but couldn’t help it. My beef wasn’t necessarily with Bosh because I’m not surprised in the slightest with his constant self promotion, but more with his fuckin’ dipshit sidekick Hadi.
Hadi walks tall only because he’s apart of Chris’ entourage. Does anyone think for a second that people would even know who he is if he wasn’t an “associate” (and I say that very loosely) of Chris’? Absolutely not. So he can sling mud and insult places like Raptors Republic who actually provide some insight and thought in what they do, but Chris might want to reconsider who he has to represent him in the public eye. God forbid Chris actually make an attempt to talk with his fans himself, so if he isn’t then he should consider hiring someone with ALOT more class than Mr. Hadi.
I’m just glad this is over. What was at first a fun competition deteriorated into an extremely annoying spamfest.
I wish Charlie V. had won, he wasn’t as shameless as Bosh.
Didn’t Charlie V stated in one of his tweets 7 hours earlier (when he was leading by 800 followers),
” @chrisbosh remember no rules :) ”
ALSO, didn’t he out of desperation was giving away $3100 worth of diamond cufflinks.
He did, but he also gave out 3 thousand shoes to charity and made his challenge a charitable one instead of just a way to get a bigger mailing list. Mind you, there definitely was an element of that as well.
I personally think Hadi is rude and from following his tweets regarding his personal thoughts on things does not look good on bosh, since Hadi openly posts his connection and his co business partner.
I think if an athlete uses twitter, she/he can gain followers my marketing their twitter user name out there and then it comes down to the tweets. Personally taking the time to answer tweets goes along way and makes the fans feel important. Even if they don’t have enought time to answer all of them. Twitter is two ways. Not, I follow nobody and 50,000 people follow me.
Athletes on twitter will win in the long run if they connect with the audience. Fan’s want to know a little more into the personal life of them, so they need to tweet a bit on what they are up to and maybe share some thoughts on things going on in the sport or life in general.
I seen the post that Hadi posted and later deleted. An that post shows exactly who he is and what he is about.
Question: I don’t think Bosh is the type of person that Hadi is. So I wonder what he thinks when he does see any off his tweets that are sour in taste? People say you should surround yourself with good people and anyone not up to that… you should drop. I wonder if that would happen?
If Bosh leaves Toronto… will Hadi tweet that he is late for his front row seats for each home game at the ACC?
Hi All,
I help operate WeHeartToronto which aggregates tweets from Toronto locals and personalities such as Chris Bosh.
http://www.wehearttoronto.com
However ever since the 50 k came about and even before that I was very reluctant to follow him and his tweets. I like Chris as a player and imagine that his tweets will add value and insight into the streams with the rest of the Toronto Raptors fans and reporters.
But like you said most of his tweets are downright useless to the general public. Instead of trying to reach a number, maybe Chris should go and learn the actual use of social media in terms of Twitter.
He seems to be doing a great job in getting Youtube and video social media to work well, but in terms of twitter, he needs to realize the object is to build a community, not to spam.
Great site man!
This blog and website is a whole bunch of fail. The twitter battle was great and you need to get overyourself. This website sucks as well.
Wait you’re upset about that tweet by hadis? You’re talking about class, when your pic on twitter is a person giving the middle finger? You attacked him first and his response is reasonable. You do like sound a jealous person.
I’m not upset at all, actually. I think it was beautiful (and I’m not being sarcastic).
He got upset that I was copying him on tweets from Raptor fans that were disgruntled by Bosh’s use of the medium. I suggested people unfollow him and some did. He got his knickers in a knot, posted what he posted and then second guessed it and deleted it.
I don’t represent, nor make money off, a public figure nor do I run a company that purports to be the online image of their client, so my picture and how it represents myself to others is irrelevant. Matter of fact, I changed it at one point and some people suggested/requested I change it back.
I will say that if I did have a job where I represented clients, I wouldn’t be flinging out the messages that Hadi has for months. Ask around and check online history if you like. Personally, I couldn’t care less as it rolls off my back, but judging by emails I received and DMs on Twitter (plus the public messages on twitter), his actions did more harm than good, which is a shame at the end of the day.
I’m far from jealous. I have 2 great jobs, had lower bowl season tickets for 10 years that I owned personally, 2 homes that I own, great friends, have great contacts in sports and entertainment, can get into any club I want, always pay for my friends when we are out, etc. I could not be happier. People who rage are the ones who are jealous and putting on a front.
Anywhooooo…thanks for the posts under what must have been a taxing time for you to come up with a brilliant posting name. If the site sucks, I assume we won’t see you back which is a shame considering your effortless prose.
Hmmmm …. can get into any club and will pay for your friends? Considering we’re both in Ottawa, maybe I can be apart of your “entourage” here alt. ;)
Lol, you can really tell the character of someone when they pull the, look I’m rich card. I have season tickets, 2 homes, can get into any club etc. All that does is strokes ones own ego and is not something other people really need to hear. So you once again exposed your classless character.
Nope, just answering your assertion that “You do like sound a jealous person.”. He implies that people are jealous of his financial success and connections, so my reply is it is impossible for me to be jealous of those things since I already have them. This has been a constant theme of his over the past few months toward many others.
If, however, that is not what you meant, then feel free to explain further. What would I have to be jealous of?
Not that I’m accusing you of being jealous, but jealousy – insecurity – boasting are all different facets of the same thing. Beautiful women are often jealous of other beautiful women, but respond to accusations of jealousy by pointing out how beautiful they are.
“but respond to accusations of jealousy by pointing out how beautiful they are.”
They = they themselves or They = the other person?
I agree with the boasting part (ie. continually sending messages about having courtside seats and how they will be empty tonight, for example), there is no room for that anywhere, especially if you are using it unwarranted. I think everybody has jealousy within them as you’ll meet people along the road of life that you’d love to switch places with even for just a day or an event or a vacation. Same with insecurities, be they physical or emotional, everybody has them.
To be clear, I wasn’t boasting above, merely responding to an accusation. I have zero interest in being someones representative in any line of work and the only other matters Hadi boasts of via twitter are going to the “in” places and hobknobbing as well as making money and collecting swag from sponsors and other deals. No need for jealousy there as I have that covered. So if there is another angle of his that I should be jealous of that I’m missing and the anonymous poster above can point out, I could be wrong and am indeed jealous. As it stands, though, no.
Awful piece of writing and I am surprised it is in the first page. The article is full of jealousy, demeaning comments and rubbish accusations.
Bosh is a young guy who is having fun. This is something that he is doing in his privet life and is no one else’s businesses.
I am very disappointed to read this on this board where there are so many good and informative articles. Waste of time.
You think trying to get to 50 000 followers is a “private matter”. I think some people who like Bosh the basketball player, just don’t like to see others point out that Bosh the person, and more specifically his entourage, seems like a douchebag, to them.
And the rest of us are saints!!! We do nothing wrong and act perfectly in every single private matter of our life!!! Our friends are perfect angels coming from heaven and in our spare time we help the poor and… The point is not if he is Douche as you put or he is an example of perfect citizen. The point is that it is a private manner and this is an issue off the court. He is NOT Harming anyone, He is not setting a bad example by his little match with CV. So let’s leave it alone and focus on him as an athlete and what he does on the court.
Maybe I’m misinterpreting alot of this, but I don’t think the bone being picked is necessarily with Bosh himself, but more with Hadi and how he handled it. Bosh I guess is just guilty by association in this case. Hadi definitely should be someone with thicker skin and show a little more maturity and tolerance instead of slinging mud and sounding like a 13 year old gangsta wannabe. JMO
You got it.
Yep…
I think bosh is cool and he is doing more on social media and can improve with his twitter. I also think it’s more with hadi… and if you follow him or follow others that he bashes, then you would understand.
If I was bosh and Hadi was great and making websites, youtube and blogs… then I would let him do that. But Hadi openly throws out to anyone that listens that Him & bosh or co-partners… so anything out of his mouth or his fingers can be put against bosh’s brand.
Honestly… I’m sure Hadi does have true friends. But I’m sure he has people trying to be his friend (not for who he is) but they want to be closer or connected to bosh.
Spend some time… and go backwards on hadi’s twitter and you will see his character come through.
there was no jealousy in this article by anyone, not sure you were reading the same article as you’re commenting on. The other stuff, there was.
secondly, there is no such as private life on twitter, not when you are begging people to follow you, and are privy to what you post.
I couldn’t care less about this race to 50K. It’s stupid and pointless, but whatever. If you’re having fun, and it’s not illegal or very innapropriate, then go ahead, do what you want to do. I’m more than happy to ignore it.
HOWEVAH
Anyone, let alone an associate of a very public figure, that uses the phrase “U wish u was me bitch!” IMMEDIATELY qualifies for first ballot entry into the Douchebag Hall of Fame.
Um…what? What does this have to do with the Raptors?
I would just like to state…that stupid little twitter tag on the side of this page is annoying as heck. Can it be put somewhere else instead of covering the start of paragraphs?
*starting to dislike twitter as much as facebook*
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