[TriLUG] Posting complaint about company ...?

[Magnus]

William Sutton wrote:

> about a month ago, I had the pleasure to see someone picketing the New 
> York Life offices in Tyson's Corner, VA.  He was by himself.  He had set 
> up signs on either end of his picket path and was carrying a sign as he 
> walked back and forth in the cold windy morning.  The signs said things 
> like "lie", "cheat", "fraud", etc.  Nobody was bothering him, and the 
> motorists seemed disinterested in his particular plight.

I think the public has become numb to things like this.  Protesters
often use signs that are meaningful only to those in-the-know, or with
so much text that nobody can possibly read it all without stopping (and
asking for the protester to stop walking).

If you're going to protest someone or something, make sure you have
these things going for you:

1) Moral high ground
2) Publicity
3) Positive suggestions for change

Some would even say 4) get arrested.

That is mostly to act as a catalyst to publicity and enacting change.

One person picketing with one-word signs is, by all appearances, nothing
more than a nutter.  They aren't claiming any moral high ground, they
aren't going to get any publicity, and they aren't going to affect
change (though they may get arrested).

With the overshadowing threat of litigation always looming in the air,
it can be very hard to share stories of negative experiences with your
peers.  Of course, it's a double-edged sword; anyone who sics the
lawyers on you has to contend with potential blow-back from customers
(both the actual current paying type and the potential/future type) who
sympathize with the defendant.