You know, for a new era in communications, it sometimes feels like one step forward, 19 steps back when it comes to communication and social media, especially in Scotland.

Time is precious for everyone, so let’s do the short versions of this:

Iain Hepburn went to a PodcastMatters New Media Brekkie event. Podcast Matters got snitty (for the second time) over his comments. Huff ensues, blogs/comments deleted, no one comes out looking a winner and PodcastMatters get to look bad in the eyes of the national digital media by virtue of who reads Iain’s comments. (my thoughts on the event are here).

Stephen Fry chucks Twitter after someone said they didn’t like his tweets. (but then he came back and was very honest about the whole thing.)

But these two points are just part of something larger I’ve noticed recently. No one seems able to take either a differing or contradictory viewpoint without suddenly getting grief for it.

And we’re the poorer for it. Yes, there will always be trolls looking for the windup or to annoy someone. But quite often people offer criticism as a suggestion to improvement.

And if you can’t take it, then don’t put it up for the world to see. Or grow a pair.