Discspeed why does CDGC not respect cyclists?

[Jesse B 707]

Blah, I'd have told that guy (cyclist) to just fuck off instantly, find a road with a bike lane or live with the risk of death

[warobert]

If its a non issue dont talk about it

This does nothing good or bad for disc golf. It won't matter. In 1 month you won't be talking about this. No one will

Did they approach it wrong? Yeah. Mom and pop stores don't really have a PR dept

Talk about the good in disc golf. Don't dwell on this. We are the ones feeding this, it shouldn't be that way

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[Pwingles]

ZJ, i mostly agree with you, but lets say this was something that involved DN, maybe not involving you personally but another employee. How would you personally handle that? Both internally and PR wise on the forums and such.

[rodman20]

Kinda surprised that scott (the driver) handled it as well as he did. Ive seen this guy blow up on and off the course.

[Pwingles]

You say that as if he had a reason to be upset in the first place..
That guy can suck a dick, still have respect for discspeed, but cwdg has been "unliked" on my fb

[Bingo]

I've shopped at CDG quite a few times over the years but certainly don't know any of them by any means.

Is how they are handling it out of character or anything? I've seen more than a couple references to either people not liking them or Scott's actions not being surprising.

That's the thing that baffles me most of all - seeing how they are responding as a business. The complete lockdown of anything. Almost like a kid covering thier ears going 'NANANANANANA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!' sort of reaction.

Anytime I've had to stand up in the spotlight due to bad PR best course of action has always been from a position of owning it and dealing with it unless it's totally over the top like a customer stabbing a fork in someone's face or something.

Hell, look at how Letterman took over that whole sex scandal thing. Talked about it right up front, owned it and guess what? No one talks about it or cares about it. Compared to say, that bathroom stall gay sex guy, Craig or whatever his name was. Utterly ruined him.

[JHern]

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Don't you know, when you say that, it only encourages more posts?!

The real lesson (at least for me) is simple: When I carry discs, use equipment with disc golf names written on it, talk about disc golf, etc., I'm representing the sport. So...I shouldn't be an asshole...very very simple principle. Because, even if just temporarily, it reflects upon all of us. It's a really sad truth that people tend to generalize the behavior of an individual to an entire population of people who share a single interest...but it's a truth, nonetheless. Just think about your own biases that you have about certain "groups" in your own mind, everybody has them, and you have to admit that not all of them are very well-informed. It's the same for non-discing-Joe Schmoe out there, who doesn't have the slightest clue about the sport and who very likely hasn't been exposed to all the wonderful (but sparse and poorly funded) PDGA image control efforts.

Anyways, I know I'm as guilty of sometimes looking like an asshole as the next guy. I'm no Saint. But at least this is a good lesson to encourage me, and maybe others, to be more careful, and just be cool.

And as they say in politics: "it wasn't the crime that mattered so much as the cover-up!" Clearly the person who posted that response for CW was not constrained by the good advice of a public relations department, or even the advice of a simple everyday good dude. The video showed that the bike lane was merging into the regular traffic lane, and the bicycle had to move inward due to encroachment from the edge of the pavement. Possibly the van driver couldn't see that the bike lane was disappearing (although there should have been a road sign warning for it) and was instead focused on trying to pass before the car going in the other direction got too close, and merged right a bit too soon, and too close for comfort. Anyways, since all of this is on the video, it seems silly for CW to argue that it didn't happen, since we just saw it for ourselves. This is the most disappointing aspect to the whole episode, I think. The next most disappointing is that the guy could have simply apologized and said "thanks for minding me about the 3' rule," and none of this would have happened. Oh well.

[zj1002]

ZJ, i mostly agree with you, but lets say this was something that involved DN, maybe not involving you personally but another employee. How would you personally handle that? Both internally and PR wise on the forums and such.

That isn't my department. We have a customer service department. I would not be involved in the public "statement"

Clearwater is just in a tough situation because they have someone driving one of their vehicles. I drive plenty of DN merch to between locations, but I do so in my own vehicle. So I am personally responsible if I cause harm to someone else on the road. Disc Golf stores aren't really trained or prepared on how to respond to such situations and very few have the focused service dept that we do. They are obviously choosing to stick behind their employee. I know Disc Nation would fully support me publicly but at the same time do their best to rectify the situation. Clearwater used a statement with poor wording but I don't see how you expect them to let people willing trash all over their Facebook. We delete comments all the time on Disc Nation facebook. For disc golf companies facebook is a valuable tool for reaching our customer base.

Clearwater will learn from this and you can bet other companies paid attention to how it played out(Disc Nation has). The more this sport grows, the more we will have to deal with this stuff.

Public opinion doesn't make anyone guilty/innocent. There was nothing illegal that happened. Things could have been done better on both sides(Clearwater and the Biker).

I also see things from a different view point by working at Disc Nation and having received a degree in Criminal Justice

[7ontheline]

I was a first responder to a guy who lost a leg in a tragic but similar situation. That driver was dangerous, don't apologize for him, and please stop defending how other's may feel about him as if their frustration its an attack on disc golf.

Unless he's an owner, I'm okay with CW. There are millions of unemployed yet employable good drivers out there, some of which are decent guys who huck plastic.

[Pwingles]

ZJ, i mostly agree with you, but lets say this was something that involved DN, maybe not involving you personally but another employee. How would you personally handle that? Both internally and PR wise on the forums and such.

That isn't my department. We have a customer service department. I would not be involved in the public "statement"

Clearwater is just in a tough situation because they have someone driving one of their vehicles. I drive plenty of DN merch to between locations, but I do so in my own vehicle. So I am personally responsible if I cause harm to someone else on the road. Disc Golf stores aren't really trained or prepared on how to respond to such situations and very few have the focused service dept that we do. They are obviously choosing to stick behind their employee. I know Disc Nation would fully support me publicly but at the same time do their best to rectify the situation. Clearwater used a statement with poor wording but I don't see how you expect them to let people willing trash all over their Facebook. We delete comments all the time on Disc Nation facebook. For disc golf companies facebook is a valuable tool for reaching our customer base.

Clearwater will learn from this and you can bet other companies paid attention to how it played out(Disc Nation has). The more this sport grows, the more we will have to deal with this stuff.

Public opinion doesn't make anyone guilty/innocent. There was nothing illegal that happened. Things could have been done better on both sides(Clearwater and the Biker).

I also see things from a different view point by working at Disc Nation and having received a degree in Criminal Justice

Ya i assumed you werent head of the fictional PR dept it was just a hypothetical question i was genuinely curious about being as discspeed has been pretty mum onthe whole thing (smart imo) and theres only a couple of other guys here who work for a disc retailer.

I didnt see the statement made by cdg can anyone post it for me?
I can respect them not pubically crucifying their employee but i would be curious to know what if any disciplinary action was taken.

Just because nothing illegal happened (or cant be proven without a tape measure rather)
doesnt mean much, all it means is that the authorities aret going to be involved, but it doesnt mean it wasnt dangerous and really not smart for someone to do "at work". The fact the cyclist was on the road is irrelavent, in most places cyclists are not pedestrians and arent allowed to be on the sidewalk , and they dont have the right of way on either. So the argument he shouldnt have been there is void and now it boils down to who was most negligent which is inarguably the driver who almost clipped the rider but was very close to an oncoming car as well.

[zj1002]

yeah CW runs a large risk with having a van wrapped in their logo/info. The actions of the driver will reflect the company. I bet they are taking internal action, it just isn't our business to hear about it.

[Leopard]

i am defacto head of all fictional departments btw



also i only expect pitch-perfect PR from bazillion dollar companies.

[Bingo]

I didnt see the statement made by cdg can anyone post it for me?

Thier statement was:

Clearwater Disc Golf Store wrote: "It seems around here we have a lot of aggressive bicyclists with helmet cams that go out and try to antagonize drivers. We talked to the police about it and it seems its an ongoing issue. Too bad they want to take it out on a struggling mom-n-pop local business.

If you have an issue take it to the local police. Don`t slander hard working people on a public forum. I promise I won`t try to move my bike in front of your car and film it and blame it on you.

I have a teenager who rides his bike around here too, all the time. 3 feet is the rule and everyone I know tries there best to abide by it.

Now if you want to hate on us there isn`t much we can do about it.

I think that response really did nothing but add a large dose of gasoline to an already spreading fire. Unfortunate, really and that was the straw for me that made me lose what little respect I had for them.

[Frank Delicious]

That is not a good response.

[Pwingles]

Thanks Bingo.

Yeah, some people shouldnt be allowed to make public statements on their own. I dont personally think this was a case of a cyclist going out of their way to start trouble with anyone let alone their "mom and pop" business, although i have no proof either way.Employees are an extension of your business and the company is responsible for how they act. So this statement is pretty juvenile imo, and i would hope they would make a new statement trying to rectify the situation in some way and hopefully repair what decent image they have left