I recently saw this posted on a friend’s Facebook page:

Have you got a minute while I break down how pathetic this is?

Let’s call the person who needed a website “A” and the website builder “B“. I’ll also assume that they’re both men, just because it’s easier to use those identifying pronouns, but I don’t know for a fact if they are or not.

So A sends B a private message via Twitter. Even if A had literally just seen B post or retweet or click “like” on Twitter before A sent the first message, there’s no reason to assume that B will still be on it, or that even if B is on it that he will see it in real time be able to respond immediately. B may have just logged of, or turned off his phone, or something. But A apparently expects an immediate reply. Look at the time stamps between A‘s first message and B‘s first respons. THREE MINUTES! Just three, damn, minutes, and A is already so frustrated at the lack of response, apparently convinced that B is deliberately avoiding him, that he’s threatened to take his business elsewhere! That right there is a huge red flag.

Believe it or not, I’ve seen some folks claim that B‘s initial response of Sorry, I’m not on Twitter 24/7 is rude.

Really?!?

Come on. If anything, I think B was being overly restrained. I may not even have bothered responding to A, if I were B. Let him go take his “business” elsewhere. And I put that word in quotes because, as you see, A wasn’t planning on paying B any actual money to make a website for him. I guess B was supposed to be paid in “fame.” Y’know, the fame that was sure to come from developing A‘s website, which A needs for his “million dollar idea.”

I’ve seen and heard of people making these types of entitled requests before. If you have a particular talent at something, people will often expect you do that thing for them, but for free. I know that this is a problem many of my artists friends have encountered over the years. I have friends who are full-time freelance artists, meaning that getting paid to draw stuff is literally how they eat and pay rent, yet people will think they should draw something for them for free (because, y’know, drawing is “so easy”).

But this situation really takes the cake. I can’t even begin to understand A’s mentality here. So he’s convinced that he’s got some business idea that is sure to guarantee him fortune and fame, but he needs a website, in order to get started. And he doesn’t know how to build a website himself, so he needs someone else to do it for them, but if that person expect to be paid to do that, that makes them an asshole? Again, I can’t even comprehend that logic that is at work here. What does he think? That all business websites were created for free?

I really wish they didn’t black-out A’s name, I’d love to know who it is, just so I could keep track of their progress. I want to know what this million dollar idea is, and see how A goes about getting it started. And, hey, maybe the idea is potentially valuable, but I don’t have much faith in someone who thinks words like “rates” and “estimate” are bad to create and run a successful business.

But the kicker for me really is the ending. With that typo. He was trying so hard to come off like a big tough guy, showing how B was a making a big mistake, and yet he wrote “BUG TIME” (in all-caps), and so had to come back to write a correction (this time in all lower-case letters).

A knew he effed up, and you know that’s just killing him. He felt stupid, and that’s why he then quickly blocked B, so B couldn’t reply. This way he gets the The Last Word, and can try to tell himself that he “won” the argument. What a loser. Don’t be like this person.