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Cam is a cynical untrusting grump
Feb. 9th, 2009 05:21 pmSo around David Tennant comms this link has been floated. It's basically a YouTube user warning against online fakes pretending to be David Tennant, and don't trust anyone contacting you pretending to be him unless you have independent confirmation it's him.
So far, so sane - this is good advice in general. Don't trust everything on the Net.
But youtube user also claims David Tennant contacted *him* and he's in contact with David's people and they're asking him to make this video, warning of the danger. He also encourages spamming the video everywhere (instead of just warning about not trusting anyone who claims to be David Tennant) and his video description says: Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you have been (or know anyone who has been) contacted by Not-David, please message me and I'll pass you onto the right people. :)
Okay, hold up here. Now maybe I'm just a cynical untrusting grump, but several things here seem a tad dodgy.
1) If someone actually is on the Internets claiming to be David Tennant and trying to lure people into meeting him/her, that is indeed serious. So why would David's people only be contacting some YouTube kid? Why not talk to the media? It would get the information out there a whole lot faster. I'm pretty sure more than one outlet - and certainly the BBC - would find it a newsworthy story and it would reach far more people then.
2) So David Tennant doesn't use social networking sites, but he has a YouTube account. Um. Sure.
3) Asking people who've been contacted by possible fakes to talk to the YouTube user first? If David's people really wanted contact with them, wouldn't they have left some more direct means of contact? It seems rather cumbersome going through him in every case.
4) Speading half the video telling people not to trust anyone claiming to be David just on their own, the expectation seems to be to take him on his word that David's people have contacted him about this serious issue. Kid, if your general point is not to trust anything on the Net without proof, maybe you should offer some of your own. Not to mention the warning could easily have been made without this particular claim at all.
5) The insisting about spreading the youtube video with the warning and so many helpful tips on how to do it makes me think the YouTube user just wants attention. It feels spammy and draws a lot attention to him rather than the message. In the comments, he gets a lot of 'you're a hero for spreading this!' and my eyebrow twitch a little. His other videos also get increased hits and comments through this.
In short, I find more than one reason to be a little sceptical here. But he does make a point - you should still be very, very wary of people making claims to be famous people on the Internet. If you come across cases of this, here's a few helpful tips:
( A few things to check and ask for )
So, am I the only untrusting grump here?
So far, so sane - this is good advice in general. Don't trust everything on the Net.
But youtube user also claims David Tennant contacted *him* and he's in contact with David's people and they're asking him to make this video, warning of the danger. He also encourages spamming the video everywhere (instead of just warning about not trusting anyone who claims to be David Tennant) and his video description says: Oh, and I forgot to mention. If you have been (or know anyone who has been) contacted by Not-David, please message me and I'll pass you onto the right people. :)
Okay, hold up here. Now maybe I'm just a cynical untrusting grump, but several things here seem a tad dodgy.
1) If someone actually is on the Internets claiming to be David Tennant and trying to lure people into meeting him/her, that is indeed serious. So why would David's people only be contacting some YouTube kid? Why not talk to the media? It would get the information out there a whole lot faster. I'm pretty sure more than one outlet - and certainly the BBC - would find it a newsworthy story and it would reach far more people then.
2) So David Tennant doesn't use social networking sites, but he has a YouTube account. Um. Sure.
3) Asking people who've been contacted by possible fakes to talk to the YouTube user first? If David's people really wanted contact with them, wouldn't they have left some more direct means of contact? It seems rather cumbersome going through him in every case.
4) Speading half the video telling people not to trust anyone claiming to be David just on their own, the expectation seems to be to take him on his word that David's people have contacted him about this serious issue. Kid, if your general point is not to trust anything on the Net without proof, maybe you should offer some of your own. Not to mention the warning could easily have been made without this particular claim at all.
5) The insisting about spreading the youtube video with the warning and so many helpful tips on how to do it makes me think the YouTube user just wants attention. It feels spammy and draws a lot attention to him rather than the message. In the comments, he gets a lot of 'you're a hero for spreading this!' and my eyebrow twitch a little. His other videos also get increased hits and comments through this.
In short, I find more than one reason to be a little sceptical here. But he does make a point - you should still be very, very wary of people making claims to be famous people on the Internet. If you come across cases of this, here's a few helpful tips:
( A few things to check and ask for )
So, am I the only untrusting grump here?
