Metromix is running a local DJ contest, tournament style, and I awoke to some not so pleasant e-mails in my inbox about one of the brackets. It seems that DJ ONE (names have been withheld to protect the innocent) beat DJ TWO by a thousand votes. Which is curious because DJ ONE was trailing by 1000 votes the night the voting ended.

After MM looked into it it’s clear that someone automated votes for DJ ONE, so those votes were thrown out and the real winner was declared. Unfortunately, MM still showed the fake numbers and here’s where it got interesting.

Adults, professionals, using e-mail accounts linked to their jobs, sent nasty e-mails. I’ve included my favorites. This one came from someone who represents a statewide trade group.

“Why did [DJ TWO] move on when [DJ ONE] won? Do you guys not understand math?”

This one came from a marketing professional.

“[DJ ONE] got 56% of the vote but yet you show [DJ TWO] as winning? What gives? I want an explanation. Why bother with the voting if it doesn’t matter?? Again – I want an explanation.

I’m sure your advertisers would like to know a little more about this. And how upset you’ve made a lot of your readers. As in – we won’t visit your site again. How long do you suppose it would take for them to decide to not waste their advertising dollars?

Here’s what I see:

[DJ ONE]
56%
[DJ TWO]
44%

It’s not even close! Again – I want an explanation.”

I like that she threw down the gauntlet of never reading the product again AND called our integrity in question with regards to advertisers, all before we even had a chance to provide the explanation she demanded.

It’s crazy to me that professionals, marketing professionals, even, fail to realize that the internet is not a separate world but an extension of the one we all live in. If you wouldn’t kick someone’s door down and start running off at the mouth in person, don’t do it in my inbox. It makes you wonder if they act like assholes in every professional setting or just on special occasions.