There’s been a long running joke with regard to online interaction. Something Awful uses it as as a tagline:
The Internet Makes You Stupid
Of course, this isn’t true. The internet doesn’t MAKE you stupid, it just exposes you when you ARE stupid. Anyone who interacts with others knows how true that is.
This morning, I saw another such example. It’s almost not even funny, because it’s so sad. The Buffalo News, ran a story about the possible effects HSBC’s retail branch sale might affect their interest in naming rights on the arena downtown. A relevant topic, and it did a good job explaining what could happen, while making sure to point out that HSBC has made public comment that it’s not planning on taking their name off the building anytime soon.
Then…the comments start…and the stupid happens. We have this little gem from Ms. Elisabeth Brauza of Cheektowaga.
Given that HSBC is abandoning Buffalo and their stake here, I don’t think their name belongs on our arena any longer. I, too, believe a change to a “less corporate” name is called for.
This struck me as odd in many ways. HSBC isn’t ‘abandoning Buffalo’. They’re only selling their retail banking business. They still have a huge presence in the area in non-retail businesses, and have no plans to shut any of that down.
I thought about this, and decided that maybe I was being too harsh. Maybe Ms. Brauza didn’t know that HSBC wasn’t leaving town. Then, I scrolled back up the page…
HSBC is showing no signs of wanting to give up its naming rights at the downtown arena and went out of its way to suggest otherwise.
“These things always have value,” bank spokesman Neil Brazil said Tuesday, “and we do have a good relationship with the Sabres.”
Zimbalist said it’s possible HSBC, given its continued corporate and commercial presence here, might consider the naming rights valuable enough to retain, especially if the price is right.
There we have not one, but two separate references to HSBC not planning on skipping town, right on the same page. You have to get by these words in order to even place comments!!
It was revolutionary for The Buffalo News to make people register and use their real names when commenting on stories. Maybe they could jump further ahead of the curve and devise a way to make people READ the stories they talk about.
We can only hope.