Bent Corner

Blogging from Williamsport, Maryland so you don't have to.

The most obnoxious request I have ever recieved

I got an email last night that ranks right up there with some of the strangest that I’ve received. And that says a lot.

Here it is:

From: Amanda Heckman
To: rick@bentcorner.com
Subject: Google Image Search
Date: Thu, 2 Jul 2009 23:11:29 -0500

Please remove the Virginia Tech tag from your article on Cho. His image is one of the first that pop up when someone wants to find an image for Virginia Tech. It could be as simple as changing the tag to “Virginia Tech Tragedy.” I don’t want people to think of what he did every time they want to look up Virginia Tech.

Sincerely, Mandy

I write a blog post about the Virgina Tech massacre and I tag it with the words “Virgina Tech”. That’s what you are supposed to do when you write a blog post. You are supposed to tag what you’ve written with any applicable keywords. It allows search engines to find what you’ve written. It’s considered good search engine optimization (SEO).

When I first read this early this morning, I thought it was a goof. After having my coffee and reading it a second time, I came to the conclusion that it’s actually legit. This person, Amanda Heckman, evidently thinks that she is within her rights to ask me to edit something I’ve written because she doesn’t like how it’s showing up in search engine results. It’s not even about her, nor is she representing Virginia Tech in any type of official capacity. She sent the above email from an American Online account.

How obnoxious is that?

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2 ResponsesLeave one →

  1. Lee B.

     /  July 3, 2009

    This isn’t that surprising- I write often for Network Computing Magazine, Information Week and others- every once in a while I’ll get an email from somebody saying I can’t or shouldn’t use generic terms like “server” or “KVM” because their company claims it as trademark or whatever. People are basically nuts.

    FYI- there is no Amanda Heckman in the Virginia Tech directory, and a quick but thorough search turns up nothing connecting this person to Va Tach. Sure- could be someone who got married or whatever, but you don’t post something like that without explaing who you are and what your role is.

  2. Rick

     /  July 4, 2009

    Lee, I think it’s just somebody that likes to tell people what to do.