Rudeness Abounds on Facebook

Rainy Days Caffe Facebook Page

Ham on Wry is convinced that many Facebook users have no idea what manners and good taste mean when it comes to posting on the site. She has witnessed family members having an online dispute, inappropriate pictures, mindless posts that list every detail of a mundane day, and now a coffee shop owner in Washington state posted a photo unnecessarily embarrassed a customer publicly for a supposed heinous offense.

Lorraine MacDuff, aka Rainy, owner of the Rainy Days Caffe (she evidently doesn't know the correct spelling of the word), asked Kellea Poore and her one-year-old and three-year-old, as well as her friend and children, to leave the restaurant after spotting crumbs on the floor from the scones they were eating. She said that she had just paid $50 to have the carpet cleaned, evidently an exorbitant amount in her mind, and told the mother not to return to the cafe with her children again. MacDuff  must not realize that even the most delicate eaters would have difficulty eating a scone without some crumbs winding up on the table or floor. Since she had her floor cleaned, previous customers must have made messes as well.

MacDuff then uploaded a photo of the "crime scene" to Facebook and thanked all the customers who brought children that weren't so messy. Once Poore spotted that post, she placed it on her FB wall, spurring several angry military wives to spew venom about MacDuff's treatment of Poore, who is also a military wife, thus compounding the problem and making national news. They evidently didn't understand the sarcasm that MacDuff said she intended. For that matter, Ham and Wry doesn't believe that sarcasm conveys well in writing of that nature.

MacDuff has not fully apologized to Poore and sees nothing wrong with her behavior, so Ham and Wry offers this suggestion to her. If you have a restaurant open to the public, you must expect some crumbs to fall and coffee to be spilled. It's all part of serving food and drink. Get over yourself and lighten up.

This blogger urges all who use FB to do so with consideration for others. Mark Zuckerberg did not envision his creation as a dumping ground, yet many use it for that purpose. She leaves you with the following admonition: think before you write. It will prevent users from being subjected to others' dirty laundry.