@Pigspotkzn and @Pigspotterkzn were created last year. The original (in)famous @pigspotter was up and running and I thought it was a great idea. I started submitting updates to Cliff, and after a while he responded saying @pigspotter was for Jhb only. No problemo, @Pigspotkzn was born. At the time I also created @pigspotterkzn thinking people searching for a kzn spotter may find that one and then could just be redirected. In hindsight, not such a good idea as it just created confusion. Anyhow, its all done. Rather follow this account (@pigspotkzn) than @pigspotterkzn, it has more followers and activity.

Cliff does a really great job with @pigspotter and seems to live full time on twitter. Since I didn’t have that luxury of time and still wanted a community for KZN I investigated and found a retweet service (Spotd) which seemed as though it would do the job. It has done a great job bar a few patches of downtime (mainly due to twitter API changes).

So why this code of conduct then?

The community has been remarkably well behaved. This document is intended to keep it that way through self regulation, and provide some hints and tips on using the service.

The retweet service works such that any tweet that starts with @pigspotkzn (or @pigspotterkzn) is picked up and retweeted by the service, placing the originators name at the end of the tweet preceded by a ~.

This means that there is no censorship. Badly behaved users will offend others and can cause chaos. Not the makings of a good community. For the most part we have been lucky and this hasn’t happened except for one incident where some insults and abuse were hurled around, @pigspotkzn was accused of being racist and a section of the community threatened to leave. I only found these posts a few hours laters, stepped in and deleted them (which is always hit and miss on twitter), apologised to the offended and asked the offenders to please behave. Thankfully that was that and within a day all was back to normal.

Still, it got me thinking at the time that given there was no code of conduct, the @pigspotkzn community had been quite fortunate that people were generally respectful of each other. Let’s keep it that way.

As an aside, the re-tweet service ONLY picks up tweets beginning with @pigspotkzn or @pigspotterkzn, so tacking it onto the end of a tweet or including it in the middle will result in your tweet not being sent out. So if you thought your were being ignored for any other reason, thats the only one.

So when does the lengthy code of conduct begin?

Never, and right now. Let’s get into it.

• Avoid using swear words. I know a lot of the tweets relate to being stuck in traffic and we all get very frustrated. We understand Humour is perhaps a better way to defuse the tension for all of us. And pictures of the offending traffic are welcomed too.
• Try not to abuse our traffic officers. They have a tough job. Some of them may be arrogant and insenstive, but there are a lot of helpful and pleasant ones too. Let’s not tar them all with the same brush. Follow @amsammy if you don’t believe me.
• Don’t abuse our fellow contributors. If people mess up, get locations, times, directions all wrong, ask for more info in a polite way that encourages others to contribute.
• Tell all your friends about @pigspotkzn and encourage them to view and participate. This is a really awesome service and it is us, the community, that make it so.
• If you don’t like the service, you don’t need to spam the followers, you are welcome to unfollow.
• Constructive criticism is always welcome.

That’s it. If you have any additions or modifications you would like to see, add them to the comments and we can make it so.

Some abbreviations in common use

• MT/MC – Mobile Trap/Camera
• FT/FC – Fixed Trap/Camera
• TLO – Traffic Lights Out
• RB – Road Block

Finally, thanks for being part of a great community and adding values to your fellow Durbanites. For a list of other traffic related twitter accounts to follow check this link.

Justin

 

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4 Responses

1. 

   kesavan Gounden:

   Itz a wonderful idea thanks so much

   19.10.2011 21:42 Reply

   • 

     Justin:

     Keep spreading the word and participating

     20.10.2011 17:38 Reply

2. 

   FezzaKzn:

   Great work Justin! Keep it up. We will definitely keep the community thriving.

   Time for the people to unit against the evil forces of traffic, and outdated all of the unnecessary traffic controls that go with it. Viva freedom, Viva.

   08.05.2011 09:59 Reply

3. 

   Public Servant:

   I received your link on my wall – http://www.Facebook.com/TrafficKZN – a traffic & updates page for KZN not only for Traffic and it is linked to the Twitter Profile @PublicServantKN.
   Thanks.

   08.05.2011 07:23 Reply