TextAmerica succumbs to Community Outrage

(This posting disappeared due to technical problems at Typepad. It was originally posted on 11 July, am reposting it now)

We wrote about TextAmerica suddenly abandoning its customers and threatening to eliminate stored files. It sparked a wide response from the blogosphere. We joined that protest of course as this was legitimate "Communities Dominate Brands" news hitting to the very core of the message in our book. So we blogged about it in the posting entitled "Tempting the Ire of a Digital Community - TextAmerica about to delete stored memories" which was then covered in many places including Forum Oxford, Wireless Watch and for example at the Engagement Alliance with their reporting of the story as the "Campaign against cruelty to customers".

And much like Kryptonite, Dell and others before it, TextAmerica of course had to back down from its draconian position. They now promise to maintain the (old) customers' data and files into perpetuity, as originally promised. And that is good. What is fascinating is how TextAmerica is trying to spin the story as if if was a good thing. As Xeni Jardin writes at BoingBoing in the article "Update: Textamerica won't kill off free accounts after all" the TextAmerica PR spin message is this:

"We are pleased to announce: In light of recent changes and the outpour of positive support, textamerica will continue provide free memberships to users."

And just like Alan and I have frequently warned in the book, our speeches and writings and on this blogsite, you cannot escape the truth in the blogosphere. The BoingBoing article gives the contrasting position right with that TextAmerica PR quote, saying that there is a lot of buzz about the real issue for example at the Flickr group dedicated to the TextAmerica fiasco. Our friends over at MobHappy are also reporting the story in its "truth" form, and our friend Russell Buckley puts it in very plain English in his blog entitled "TextAmerica in massive u-turn" this is how online errors should be managed for the best long-term credibility:

"It would have been far more graceful, honest and authentic (all important characteristics for today’s brands) to admit 'Hey, sorry, we screwed up. But we listened to you and here’s what we’re gonna do…'"

First, I want to thank TextAmerica for being intelligent about it and doing the right thing. This is a new medium, new rules apply, and we should not judge TextAmerica too harshly for making a mistake - they did learn from it and correct it quite rapidly in fact, and we should applaud that.

For all other businesses, this should serve as yet another very potent reminder that you need to tread very carefully in the new digital community space. Its a rough environment here, the power of the masses will overwhelm you - like Alan Moore says, nobody is as clever as everybody.

Secondly, I want to thank all of our readers and friends and fellow bloggers who joined in this crusade. We did make a difference. I am very proud of all of you. I wish I knew everyone who took part, and could actually name all. But you know you are in our hearts. It is beautiful to see the virtual gang-power in action like this, on a good cause. We thank you.

Comments

[Sal Salazar]

What are you guys talking about? about a month ago, Textamerica erased my moblog without ANY notification. My entire family depended on the family picture updates I used to post there.

I have emailed, called and then emailed as much as possible. I made about 10 calls in 10 consecutive days without ANY response from them as to WHY they cancelled my account.

Their inside links are dead and I can't access my files. :(

What is going on??

[exTA]

More info here http://www.flickr.com/groups/extamerica/

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