Sw brt

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Yeah, I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways.

You can't want a politician to be incredibly accessible to every citizen via low-barrier to entry means like social media, and then crucify him for engaging with citizens on multiple issues.

How many of you ever got a chance to interact with Bronco or Duerr? Was that a good thing for the city? Did you feel connected to your elected representatives? Did you ever even have discussions with your colleagues about the mayor more than once a year?

In the time it took me to type this, Nenshi has retweeted two lost pets to an audience of 285,000 people.

Go get some perspective.

Sure you can. What is so terrible about pointing out that social media is incredibly powerful, for both good and ill?

I think it is great that people are having discussions about the mayor. I think it is also valid that the discussion might pertain to whether retweeting lost pets is the best use of a mayor's time.

[Coach]

You guys realize it takes like 10 seconds to do that, right?

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Fighting Banana Slug

Sure you can. What is so terrible about pointing out that social media is incredibly powerful, for both good and ill?

I think it is great that people are having discussions about the mayor. I think it is also valid that the discussion might pertain to whether retweeting lost pets is the best use of a mayor's time.

It doesn't hurt his cause, imo. It takes him...10-15 seconds to hit a retweet? If that? This is the first mayor I've ever even felt heard anything I, as a sort of 'everyman', had to say. I can tweet at this mayor, if I want, and get a response from him.

It feels like this mayor listens to 'me', and actually gives a damn about me, despite me not being a super wealthy white middle aged guy.

Does this mean he occasionally gets sucked into pointless back and forth's that he probably shouldn't? Yep. But no one's perfect. This mayor actually feels like a mayor for/of the people, not just a mayor of the really rich people/businesses.

[Looch City]

You guys can't change northcrunk's mind. The guy has personal beef with Nenshi haha

[Fighting Banana Slug]

Again, social media can be good and bad. Sometimes at the same time. 10 second tweet, no problem. How many tweets per day? How many does he read without retweeting? Perhaps not enough to worry about, but I still don't think it always a great thing. I don't think we are friends or that he listens to me, based on twitter, personally.
Clearly it is working for Nenshi, and I don't begrudge that. But I think he does open himself up for criticism, as a 140 character text doesn't often give enough context for more complicated issues.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Yeah, I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways.

You can't want a politician to be incredibly accessible to every citizen via low-barrier to entry means like social media, and then crucify him for engaging with citizens on multiple issues.

How many of you ever got a chance to interact with Bronco or Duerr? Was that a good thing for the city? Did you feel connected to your elected representatives? Did you ever even have discussions with your colleagues about the mayor more than once a year?

In the time it took me to type this, Nenshi has retweeted two lost pets to an audience of 285,000 people.

Go get some perspective.

So yeah, it looks like social media alpha is the new model for politicians.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by WhiteTiger

It feels like this mayor listens to 'me', and actually gives a damn about me, despite me not being a super wealthy white middle aged guy.

Does this mean he occasionally gets sucked into pointless back and forth's that he probably shouldn't? Yep. But no one's perfect. This mayor actually feels like a mayor for/of the people, not just a mayor of the really rich people/businesses.

He makes his followers feel good. Sure. The other side of it is I've heard that colleagues, peers, and even the media are scared to express any disagreement with Nenshi because he'll unleash his rabid twitter mob on them.

Social media can be a way to reach out to people. It can also be a way to attack them and to fuel divisiveness. Personally, I'd rather not see civic politics dragged down to the level of internet forum flamewars.

[northcrunk]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

He makes his followers feel good. Sure. The other side of it is I've heard that colleagues, peers, and even the media are scared to express any disagreement with Nenshi because he'll unleash his rabid twitter mob on them.

Social media can be a way to reach out to people. It can also be a way to attack them and to fuel divisiveness. Personally, I'd rather not see civic politics dragged down to the level of internet forum flamewars.

Perfectly put. He will retweet your missing cat tweets as long as you continue to support him and don't offer and constructive criticism. Then he will block you or go into "teenage drama" Nenshi and start a flame war.

[Addick]

Originally Posted by Frank MetaMusil

Why is the score 1-0? Nenshi had to apologize, which is what he should have done in the first place.

The score would be 1 Legitimate Lawsuit to 0 Frivolous Lawsuits with a grand total of one lawsuit.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Yeah, I'm sorry, but you can't have it both ways.

You can't want a politician to be incredibly accessible to every citizen via low-barrier to entry means like social media, and then crucify him for engaging with citizens on multiple issues.

How many of you ever got a chance to interact with Bronco or Duerr? Was that a good thing for the city? Did you feel connected to your elected representatives? Did you ever even have discussions with your colleagues about the mayor more than once a year?

In the time it took me to type this, Nenshi has retweeted two lost pets to an audience of 285,000 people.

Go get some perspective.

It would be nice if he actually tweeted at people and had real discussions instead of cherry picking his battles. Since he retweets only trolls that don't respond he is using it to build his base.

Anyone with actual arguments and winning opinions he simply ignores.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Addick

The score would be 1 Legitimate Lawsuit to 0 Frivolous Lawsuits with a grand total of one lawsuit.

I would say it is still 0 legitimate lawsuits to 1 frivolous one.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by northcrunk

Perfectly put. He will retweet your missing cat tweets as long as you continue to support him and don't offer and constructive criticism. Then he will block you or go into "teenage drama" Nenshi and start a flame war.

It's kind of entertaining that the people who criticise him of that do so while actively engaging in it.

Nothing like a group of grown men acting like teens by being purposely (dare I say it) dramatic.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by MattyC

You guys realize it takes like 10 seconds to do that, right?

Exactly. Both our cats are rescues we got last year, both discovered through Nenshi RT's. So I'm especially partial to liking how he does that.

[edslunch]

He supports our arts organization with tweets and retweets. I think that's a great use of his time - not specifically supporting us but many groups around the city. Boosterism is one of his responsibilities.

[Bigtime]

Retweets take ten seconds? I guess if you count the reading time they might. Also keep in mind Nenshi has "down time" while travelling from meetings/talks/events in which he has time to do this stuff.

Now if you'd all excuse me I'm late to take my daily dose of Purple Kool-Aid.

[Roughneck]

Originally Posted by Weitz

It would be nice if he actually tweeted at people and had real discussions instead of cherry picking his battles. Since he retweets only trolls that don't respond he is using it to build his base.

Anyone with actual arguments and winning opinions he simply ignores.

It's how all the councilors use their twitter accounts. Nenshi just has so many more followers what he does packs that much more of a punch.

Sean Chu's twitter dealings were so bad he had to hand it over to an aide. Druh retweets her supporters and things she likes. Carra might give some responses to criticism but is generally focused ont he positive stuff, etc. It is how political twitter accounts work.

And Nenshi hasn't ignored any winning opinions because the only winning opinion out there is mine, and I have never tweeted the mayor.

[Bigtime]

So Nenshi versus Norm, who's your pick?

Big Purple versus Six Dad.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

The other side of it is I've heard that colleagues, peers, and even the media are scared to express any disagreement with Nenshi because he'll unleash his rabid twitter mob on them

You make it sound like this never happened before social media. You think previous council members/mayors in this city didn't get their buddies in the media or in industry to start giving someone or some group grief when they disagreed with them? Or do the people you keep hearing these things from have no recollection of how things went in the past?

[RW99]

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-...alse-pretenses

A citizen’s group critical of the city’s plan to build a 22-kilometre bus rapid transit project in the southwest submitted a petition with 3,400 signatures Monday calling on council to reconsider the project.

But Mayor Naheed Nenshi dismissed the petition saying multiple eyewitnesses said Ready to Engage collected many signatures under false pretenses.

“For example … the petition was being used in place of a sign-up sheet for the city open house,” Nenshi said.

And it continues!

[Looch City]

Haha I love it, Nenshi's not backing down.