When one think of HardWareZone, probably the first thing that comes to mind is their lively forums where you can participate in a variety of topics, from discussing the latest in tech, educational and travel advice, and even the best places to makan.
Deep in its underbelly though, lies arguably the forum’s most visited, and rightfully controversial, sub-category named Eat-Drink-Man-Woman, or more popularly known as EDMW.
So recently, local app Wander and its founder Krystal Choo, was the subject of a much discussed thread in this sub-forum.
Wander CEO Krystal Choo enters
In case you haven’t heard of this app called Wander, it is basically a mobile platform to connect with strangers, and chat about common interests. Now in its second iteration, Wander used to be a single traveller’s app to connect with people overseas when they travel.
It started off with an innocent introduction to a newspaper article and a question asking if anyone has used it before.
Not long after, Krystal herself came in.
And of course, all the guys became more active. So she answered some of their questions.
Krystal also attached a photo of herself too for good measure since some of the guys asked for ‘verification’, and following that, the forum thread erupted.
After a while, Krystal came back to answer some more questions.
This time with a photo of her typical office look when she’s not having meetings and events. This, of course invited endless replies from all the users (presumably guys) in the thread.
All good so far
I think that the way Krystal patiently replied to the few posts in the thread has been nothing short of graceful and seeing as how certain questions can be perceived as offensive by ladies.
For someone who is not familiar with EDMW, Krystal has definitely not taken the indifferent culture of the forum personally, and answered both genuine questions regarding her app, as well as those made in jest.
Admittedly I have visited EDMW before, and was even active across multiple sub-forums back when I was still schooling. In those years, I have seen some local female internet personalities (ladies with large followings on social media and blogs) tried to reach out to these ‘fans’ in the same and failed miserably.
While Krystal wasn’t the one feeling offended, someone else soon did, and here’s when it gets sticky.
Photo GalleryWander CEO Krystal Choo answers questions and posts photos in HardwareZone forum
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A female reader comes in with disgust
As with any fairy tale of a lady making her presence known to the guys of EDMW, scenes like this is almost always the calm before the storm.
With an account registered just yesterday, user ‘tarastar’ came in and posted a very lengthy post (part 1, part 2) to berate the men of EDMW, of which in summary, is made up of stereotypical statements about what female entrepreneurs traditionally face.
This of course didn’t sit well with the users.
So how now?
All I can say is, know your context before blindly scolding a bunch of strangers on the net, because it will only just blow up in the face if you are not careful.
No worries though, once again Krystal has taken some time to write a long post to calmly explain the situation – and answer more questions.
So here’s what happened. User ‘tarastar’ is actually a friend of Krystal’s, and through their conversations together regarding a separate thread on EDMW that touched on some matters that Krystal would rather not discuss, was not all too happy about it, and taken upon herself to post her opinions on her own volition.
This of course set off a chain of events which hopefully Krystal has helped to alleviate with her post.
As of now, it seems that the thread has gone back to normal, somewhat, with Krystal continuing to reply the other forum users.
What can we learn from this?
Well for starters, don’t be a vigilante. When a friend confides in you something, and it involves the Internet, best to take a step back and look at what you are potentially dealing with first before embarking on your crusade.
Secondly, ignore the trolls but accept and reply to both positive and negative statements nicely. While the thread did attract multiple trolls, those who were in it to strike a conversation with Krystal, about her or her app, are met with similarly genuine replies.
Lastly, EDMW unfortunately is not a place where it is made up of nerds who are on their computers 24/7, posting endlessly and constantly ogling at pictures of pretty girls. People need to understand that online communities are made up of people from all walks of life, even though some websites are targeted at certain demographics.
As hard as it is to believe, EDMW has lawyers, investment bankers, doctors, and the likes, all the way down to students. So if you were to post a topic about anything there, chances are, there is someone knowledgeable in it.
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