Let's pretend you've paid good money to see a major new theatrical production in your city. It's not going well, and after a while, you get bored and antsy. What is your first reaction?


A. Heckle, "Get real actors!" or "I could do that myself!"
B. Get up and politely walk out
C. Endure and then talk about it afterward
If you're like most people, you probably would have chosen B and/or C. If you attended the Mark Zuckerberg keynote at SXSW, then A could very well have been your reaction.
Here's my take: what happened at SXSW was despicable, and downright rude. Enough is enough.
Let's get the disclaimer out of the way. I wasn't at the keynote. I wasn't even at SXSW. My info comes second-hand from talking with colleagues who were there, reading all the tweets and blog posts that followed, and watching all the video clips that are now starting to trickle out. Go ahead and move on if you feel that disqualifies me from being able to comment.
Here's my take: what happened at SXSW was despicable, and downright rude. Many in the crowd didn't get the kind of conversation or answers they wanted, so instead of doing the normal thing -- walking out or talking about it afterward -- they decided to treat the venue like it was their living room and heckle. Instead of calling out this behavior as rude, many well-respected A-list bloggers are praising it and identifying it as a new kind of model for moderated panel discussions.
What makes it worse is that this was not the only "revolt" of its kind to take place at SXSW. A panel on measurement also got the same "inmates taking over the asylum" treatment. You can read about it here.
Just to be clear, I'm not painting the brush wide enough to include *everyone* who attended with this behavior. It's evident that these were isolated incidents. I'm also not rushing to defend Sarah Lacy's poor interview. I don't even like Sarah Lacy (for private personal reasons that stem from my time while working for a different employer). I also happen to think that side-conversations and Twitter back-chat is fun and adds a refreshing side-angle to public events. But this wasn't about fun or interesting side-conversation. It crossed the line into boorishness and unacceptable public behavior.
Here's my question: when did this kind of idiocy become acceptable public behavior? It's not cute, it's not cool, and it's not fun. If you don't like the content of a panel or keynote, here are your options:
*
Walk up and leave
*
Blog about it
*
Tweet about it
Notice the option that is missing? This isn't your living room and it's not MST3K. Don't sit there and yell at the stage!
I make my living in part by putting on these kind of events, and as a moderator, I know that you ought to be able to carry on a public event like this without fearing it's going to be overrun by a horde. Not because I'm some anti-free speech Herbert looking for sanitized discussion, but because boorish heckling doesn't contribute to what everyone is (theoretically) there for in the first place: having a good, interesting conversation.
Enough is enough. It's time that we as a community -- especially the A-listers who get quoted everywhere as so-called "experts" -- stand up and call it like it actually was: rude and unacceptable.