Sunday, Florida State's twitter account asked fans to submit questions to be asked of QB Jameis Winston during media day, using the hashtag #AskJameis.
Almost immediately, the idea was criticized on twitter.
Surely, people on twitter criticizing the idea weren't claiming that Florida State shouldn't promote the most popular player in college football -- one who has never been arrested or charged with a crime, right?
It would be foolish to believe that the sentiment didn't exist with at least some of those criticizing the move, but the larger criticism seemed to be based on the idea that people would use the hashing to make jokes about the quarterback. Critics claimed that FSU should have sought to avoid the negative attention.
The jokes certainly came. There were hundreds of harmless jokes about crab legs. There were, unfortunately, also people trying to make jokes about rape. And there were racial elements to some of the responses elicited by the hashing.
But none of that is new.
Any search of Jameis Winston on twitter, or a look at those tweeting at him on a daily basis will turn up jokes about seafood, rape and a healthy dose of racism. Winston sees the vitriol from rival fans on a daily basis.
Florida State's hashtag was not the genesis for the expression of those thoughts, though it seems more joined in on the twitter mob scene than would normally do so on any given Sunday, and it probably gave the jokes and racism exposure to a wider audience than normal.
It's impossible to completely evaluate the wisdom of the twitter campaign without examining the circumstances around which it was used.
We have seen twitter hashtags go very badly before, like when TV shows put up a rolling stream of them without first carefully screening, or worse, ask one of the non-screened questions to the interviewee in a public setting.
If FSU had done that, this article would be very different. But that did not happen. FSU was only looking to pick out a few questions from fans -- a completely controlled situation, the results of which will run on the FSU website later in the week.
Social media is quick to judge every idea with a thumbs-up or down. Kevin McGuire, of NBC, wrote that FSU was a winner for its social media use. Others criticized the idea.
But in this case, the idea was neither great nor terrible. It lent greater visibility to those who want to talk about Winston, but it also allowed fans to interact via social media.
Ultimately, the idea could probably have been executed better via Facebook, or by requesting responses be turned in via email -- two methods which don't go viral quite as quickly.
What do you think? Major blunder? Idea that could have been better executed via a different medium? Or a good idea? Let us know in the comment section.