I have this love/hate relationship with MyBroadBand. Nothing serious on the hate part to be honest. They just don’t like it when my comments are directed towards them.

In fairness it is their website and I do get that you need policies that govern the comment section within articles. But damn, if you are going to remove my comments at least do something about the issue with the article I pointed out to you. I would honestly respect you more if you did.

MyBroadBand Clickbait Titles

I don’t appreciate clickbait titles on websites at all. So if you write a headline title that states, “Bad news for load-shedding — here is the updated schedule“, then I expect it to be bad news for load-shedding, not for us as the general public.

Dear international reader. Load-shedding is this thing we have in South Africa where our state-owned electricity provider Eskom just kills our electricity for a couple of hours based on a schedule. It is a real thing, just Google it…

Joe Diedericks – Eskom Victim

The article in question is actually about load-shedding getting worse, meaning that it is bad news for us as people… paying customers. It is not bad news for load-shedding. The true interpretation of that clickbait title is that load-shedding has been hit with a solution and is struggling to maintain its control over us. Hoorah!!!

So I point it out to them in the comment section… and they remove it…

MyBroadBand Comment

I must admit I was a bit grumpy as I just came out of my own round of load-shedding and was really hoping for some good news based on the title of the article. Cool, you removed it but still decided to stick with your poor title. Probably realised that the strategy works and they need the clicks.

It is not the first time I got censored

On a previous occasion they had an article about the SA stand at an expo in Dubai. In the title they asked for it to be judged. 112 other people gave their 2 cents and like sheep agreed that South Africa’s stand at the expo looked bad.

I did not agree, as seen in my now removed comment below:

Why are they scared?

If you are wrong you are wrong. It is really that simple. It is human and you just go with it. You don’t have to like being wrong but you can be mature and take it on the chin, learn from it and either move on or take action.

They choose not to do any of those and simply resort to removing the comment if and when it puts them in the firing line.

I mean let’s be honest here. What is the worst thing that can happen:

  1. Other readers see my comment and agree with it?
  2. If point 1 is true then it places the responsibility on them to write better titles and articles?
  3. They are held accountable?

Don’t get me wrong, these are not bad guys at all. In a previous life I have met several of the MyBroadBand guys at product launches and they are proper journo’s/bloggers. The only one that is useless is the MyBroadBand Staff Writer. So I really do not take it personal. I actually think that if they remove my comments then it means I struck a nerve and it validates the reason I posted it in the first place. Egg on your face much?

NOTICE: WTFDude.co.za does not have a policy on commenting. I am the policy and will act as I see fit. But if I get my ass handed to me and get schooled I aim to have the humility to learn from it and do better the next round.