Rahaf Harfoush

One of the best things about the web is the whatever you’re doing for, someone, somewhere is an expert. The worst thing about the web is that whatever you’re doing, someone, somewhere is an expert. I recently had an interesting conversation with a few friends about online reputation and managing the fall out if you do something wrong.

Little did I know, that a few days later I would have a chance to practice what I preached! Last week I co-hosted an episode of CommandN with my friend Amber Mac. It was my second time on camera in a hosting capacity (the first time was the Foush Reports) and I was super nervous!

Anyway, one of the stories I talked about was the Copy Act article and some of the restrictions it contains. So the first time around, I say everything normally, but for some reason or another we had to redo the story, and by third (and final) take, I had jumbled up some of the words in my mind, and instead of saying “Canada’s version of the DMCA act,” I said, “Canada’s DMCA act.”

Now I didn’t even notice this, until one of the CommandN viewers pointed it out to me, which made me so glad  since I’d much rather know that something is wrong than continue on unaware. So I was faced with the dilemma of what to do. Do I ignore the comment? Just pretend it never happened and go on with my blogging?

That didn’t really feel right to me. So I thought that I would tie both the conversation and what had happened into a mini-case study of what I recommend doing if you make a similar misstep.

1) Apologize, but don’t give excuses or pass the blame

2) Give people the necessary information

3) Learn from your mistake going forward.

I mean the reality of the situation is this: when you put everything out on the web, you’re bound to make a mistake. As long as you are quick to correct it and take responsibility for it, you should be ok.

So, it should look something like this:

CommandN – Retraction

On Episode 137 of CommandN I gave misspoke during one of the stories. Instead of saying “Canada’s version of the DMCA” I said “Canada’s DMCA.”   What I meant to say was that there is a bill being introduced to amend the Copyright Act, and make it more similar to the United States’ DMCA.

Here is some information on the Copy Right Act

For an actual expert on the topic, check out Michael Giest’s Blog.

Thanks to the CommandN viewers who pointed this out! I will definitely be extra diligent when communicating these types of stories from now on.

When to not respond

Now among the nice and constructive comments there always seem to be those few people who enjoy just making mean remarks. Don’t respond to those. As long as the comments are well intentioned then you should respond, otherwise, just move on.