Agreed that he should have had a little more tact in the tweet you've referenced, but I think Greenbaum's point might have been that the (now) unemployed offender posted his vulgarity DURING work hours.

Just playing devil's advocate here, but I'm also thinking the original vulgarity was worse than Greenbaum's (admittedly, I haven't seen it). Regardless, if you're going call the kettle out, it'd behoove you not to look like the pot when you do it.

Hi Chris,

The vulgarity was worse in the original comment (female genitalia was the reference), hence the moderation.

Yet with regards contacting the employer (a school), surely it's the job of the IT department at the employee's place or work, as opposed to Greenbaum (or anyone else)? Unless no-one else has ever read a blog, visited a website, etc, on company hours...? ;-)

Not condoning G-baum's Big-brother-esque move to contact the school; was merely commenting on his boasting of the actions w/ the above tweet. He clearly took a matter into his hands personally that was really none of his business.

In SM, people seem to think it's okay to make everyone's business their own. The consequences that reverberated IRL for the original poster are unfortunate -- but he also can't blame this solely on Greenbaum.

TBYT - Think Before You Tweet; or in this case Post.

Madness. This is my rules of PR for next week.Thank you for posting this & giving me something to think about!

do i think he should have gone as far as to call the school? definitely not. the only obligation greenbaum had was to delete/moderate the vulgar comment. that said, perhaps the fact that it was from a school hit some sort of nerve, and that's why he overreacted. either way, he should have taken a few minutes before acting so rashly. just as we all have to - as chris put it - tbyt - we also have to think before we step out of line. think through to what the consequences of our actions are. after all, the guy who posted the vulgarity (who is completely out of line and gross) is out of job. and while yes, the offensive poster should not be posting something like that from work (though i would say ever) - it is not the job nor the place of the site moderator to get so personally involved. after all, while the poster's comments were his own, greenbaum's phone call started the chain reaction that caused the guy to resign.

I think that's one of the areas that both Greenbaum and those that agree with his approach are missing, Judith. Okay, the commenter didn't do himself any favours by trolling a news site. And he was using work property and time.

Yet at the same time, it's up to his employers to handle that and monitor his usage, not an external source. So however Greenbaum wishes to paint it, as you say he set off the chain reaction.

Hi Danny,

You've raised an interesting point about the ethics attached to social media. With the advent of civilian journalism, we've all been subjected to content that is neither objective or fair. When someone builds a powerful social media network, what rules, standards, guidelines are there to ensure civilized behavior?

I question Kurt Greenbaum's actions. Was the offense worth someone losing their job, especially in a tough economy? I agree it was a vile comment and don't endorse the action.

Greenbaum proved with his subsequent tweet he's not adverse to offending people with his own language. Yes, it's a mild expletive (and not very imaginative). Still, there are people that find any profanity unacceptable. Why would he do it and then act surprised when he was taken to task for lack of professionalism?

Thanks for raising the question. I think the ethics debate in social media has only just started. My prediction is we're in for a bumpy ride.

If there are people who find the word pussy objectionable then they had better be prepared to live their lives in purdah. You can hear worse than that every day walking the street in just about any city in America. For someone to break their own sites privacy policy, let alone destroy their own online credibility, for such a nonsense is completely inexcusable. If he doesn't want vulgarity on his web site then there are plenty of tools to automatically delete it. He was too lazy or too incompetent to implement them. If he didn't want to use the tools he could have deleted it manually, but see above about laziness. What he should NOT have done was go snitching to a school about the poster. It was wrong by the company's privacy policy, it was cowardly (does anyone think he would have done it to a lawyer?), he thought he saw an easy target and took a shot at it. As it happened he succeeded. But karma is a bitch. Now he's the target and I'm guessing he doesn't like it very much ( http://www.kurtgreenbaum.com ). Tough, I have no sympathy for him whatsoever. His cowardly, vindictive, moralistic, holier than thou actions have cost him his career. He's finished in any job to do with internet journalism. And if you think I'm being harsh then visit the above site and take a look at the copy of the video he posted online himself. If you think "pussy" is vulgar, then how about the motherf****r bomb?

Hi Jon,

To be fair, I actually thought it was the "C" word that was used. You're right - pussy is a lot tamer than most of what's said, and the context it was used in especially (humour)... well, Greenbaum didn't do himself any favours.