BBC calls its own Facebook fans "saddos"

BBC Sport was guilty of a false start this weekend when it launched a half-baked Olympic microsite with some unfortunate - and unflattering - holding text in place... see if you can spot it (scroll down for a close-up and some other screengrabs): 

It seems despite the importance the BBC has put upon all staff getting to grips with social media, somebody within the BBC still doesn't quite respect the audience it is seeking:

Among the other highlights on the BBC's premature microsite, under the headline 'A suitable strapline here', was a wall of names and faces where one bore very little relation to the other.

My personal highlight is the Pakistan hockey player (a group who were the subject of another separate BBC faux pas this weekend) who bears a striking resemblance to our own dear Queen.

And I know what you're thinking... Tom Daley's let himself go:

Thanks to everybody who flagged this on Twitter... you saddos.

Comments

[Chris]

Email is a great way for people to keep in touch, and has been around for years. Social networking does the same thing, but is more public.

Typical twitter posts are, "Oooh! I'm about to get a new iPhone!"

Well, sir, I am very excited for you. But why did I need to know that?

Twitter and facebook are very useful tools, but they do seem to have been overrun by people who use mainly use them to show off. As this sort of attitude has been one which people have always considered 'sad' I don't think the comments on the BBC page were out of place. Facebook and twitter users should stop and consider just how they appear to people. Nobody wants to know how wonderful you are, or whether you're on your 25th holiday to Cyprus.

[mt10]

Hello saddos :-). I have no life, too!

[Joe Schmoe]

Most accurate thing to come out of the BBC for a while

[marek]

but an overwhelming majority of them are characters with nothing to say but with an ego the size of a giant ipad. Trouble is, in public media, you can't call a spade a spade, so whoever on the beeb put it on their website will face dire consequences, disciplinary hearing, perhaps a sack. This is even sadder.

[Ben Gallop]

Thanks for flagging this - clearly a mistake, and we are looking into how a test page came to be published. The 2012 Olympics site is still being built, but needless to say some of the placeholder text that was up there at the weekend was inappropriate and we apologise for that.

Ben Gallop, Head of BBC Sport Interactive.

[Blog HTML]

the Olympic micro site is amazing.

[OS]

So at last the BBC is exploring the benefits of using a CSM system

[DforDerivative]

@Chris

Thanks for your well thought out, considered comments. I love how you managed to group together 500 million people at a stroke despite, I suspect, not knowing all of them.

Yes, there is a large amount of dross on facebook or twitter but the beauty of them isthat you don't have to look at them if you don't want to. However, if you find a group of people who share your interests and post thing that you will find useful or amusing or whatever, then social networks can be a useful and powerful tool. Should we dismiss them at a stroke because you don't like the fact that some people choose to let their friends know when they're on holiday?

On the other hand, as someone who has been paying the Beeb's licence fee for these last twenty years, I do feel sad about the fact that they think it's okay to slag off their customers. #justsaying

[exe]

doesn't the guy realize that a vast proportion of the UK population uses facebook, mainly 15 to 30s, but even a large majority of 30 to 50s use facebook as well.

[Dan aka. Killjoy]

I don't know how many times I've told my developers to think before conjuring up "funny" text fillers. Whoever's heading up the IT team for this part of the BBC needs to have a talk with their devs :P

[Bobisonlybob]

Pffahah. This is standard practice. The sad guys in web dev who come up with these comments are just bored out of their skulls. Yeah, they do need to be more careful, and they should probably limit the extent of their 'humor'. The SUITABLE STRAPLINE HERE and mixed-up photos aren't a problem. The "saddos" comment is gonna get someone a warning at minimum.

And yeah, commenting using Facebook Connect: how much of a saddo does that make me? :D

[Dankoozy]

Facebook *is* for saddos. socially inept fucktards looking for attention and gossip

[Helix Zone]

The web designer must have gotten reamed. But let's be real Facebook is getting to be out of hand. The question used to be "Do you have e-mail?" now its "Do you have Facebook?"

[antisocial]

"doesn't the guy realize that a vast proportion of the UK population uses facebook, mainly 15 to 30s, but even a large majority of 30 to 50s use facebook as well."
You say that like it changes something, it doesn't. All this tells us is that a vast proportion of the UK population are "saddos", ok, i'd use much stronger words than saddo, but it'll do for the time being. Facebook's nothing but a massive game of pokemon with people, the quest to collect hundreds of strangers, it's just a shame you can't battle other facebookmasters using the wild "friends" you've captured and trained.
I laugh out loud every time a TV programme tells me that i can become its friend on facebook, or follow through twitter for that matter, the BBC's focus on social media is simply over the top.

[BR]

That web developer has a bright future as an executive with BP.

[wsburrows]

Hey, BBC!

Any more Python in the vaults?

Send someone down with a torch and check it out.

[Rob]

I love the word fucktard and in the right place it can really add some bite to an otherwise feeble denigration. However, Dankoozy, in this instance you obliterate any punch added by the patently incorrect assertion that users of Facebook are socially inept. Fucktards, quite possibly, myself included, but the vast majority are being socially adept in their use in my experience...

[Sam]

lol people are so wound up over a temp page; seems just the sort of jolly nonsense to fill the page with until it's published. Whoops it got published but it should be a bit of a laugh eh! Cuh!

[Mark@Ephedra]

LOL is this the federation of bored people too?

[Ayew]

A big mistake made by BBC.... I completely agree

[Brad Fallon]

What a mistake. They never know what this will cost BBC. Right "saddos"?:)

[Licence Fee is a Con]

The BBC are an absolute joke, repeats, repeats and more repeats.
Now this year oh what a shock Sky(robbing bastards) has ALL of the Formula 1 races yet the godamn mug licence payers get only half of them, one day the fucking sheep that repeatedly pay your extortionate licence fee for what at best can be described as a second rate third world TV service devoid of any decent sport anymore are going to stop paying you and hopefully destroy the long running con trick that we must pay you for a licence or we go to jail if not, I mean who thought of this fucking joke of a law, then again the law is a joke anyway, you'd get longer in prison for not paying those twats at the BBC than killing someone, BBC you fail and you fail hard and hopefully soon there will be a revolt against your ridiculous "fee" that obviously gets spent on directors, chairmans, champagne dinners rather than managing to hold onto things like sport, £145 x how many people and you cannot keep hold of stuff, absolute joke.