Last night, I fell asleep at my keyboard for a bit. (Cut me some slack, it was 2am.)
While dozing off, I had a dream about the MVP Summit. Not so much a dream really as a kind of an instant replay. I do this sometimes... it's my brains way of processing things later (on a separate thread I guess.)
In my dream, there were several semi-related events boiling down to a single slide-show:
1. Drunken Podcast in the Westin Hotel lobby. I watched several intoxicated MVPs attempt to pontificate on (something... I could never quite figure out what) and also get fussed at repeatedly by the management for bringing their own booze in with them. Oh and Scott Bellware was a total sexist ass* to the management.
2. Open Spaces talk on
user group community was dominated by some colossal egos. It got so bad that the moderator pretty much gave up and let another MVP run the session. It was pure chaos, with personal agendas overriding group discussion. One guy (whose name I missed) even commented on how he SELLS HIS USER GROUPS MEMBER CONTACT INFO. (omg the scandal)
3. During some of the product team sessions, people would just randomly interrupt and yell things out while the person was presenting. (There's nothing wrong with having a question, but damn... it's rude and quite disconcerting to have someone just start yelling at you while you're presenting.)
4. A certain Canadian XBOX MVP who shall remain nameless felt it would be ok to expect/request certain "favors" from female MVPs during the Hockey Puck quest. This same MVP was smart enough not to ask men for the same favors.
I don't know about you, but I'm seeing a common thread here. What I'm struggling with, is trying to figure out how why people are such a-holes? I blogged on this a while back (you can read it
here) and got a couple comments back then, but this event is fresh in mind (obviously, since I'm dreaming about it.)
So... where is the line between constructive criticism and asshole-ism? How many folks bother making that distinction? Let's face it, saying "I'm just being honest" isn't really a valid justification for being an arrogant jackass.
(*In Bellware's case, yes I'm aware that he was drunk off his ass, but I'm not sure that was really a contributing factor.)
Please don't misunderstand me, most of the people I met at the summit were very nice and it was great making new friends and reconnecting with old ones. But some folks, well... you know.