Spotted on the ERC24 website after today’s ERC events at Lydden Hill:

“The ERC24 team will be back tomorrow with more updates and news, although this is reliant on the internet service. Who would have thought that a 21st Century Motorsport would be unable to provide 21st century means of communication.”

ERC24 does a great job of keeping people updated on the events they cover. They always have. But there’s a much more professional, and constructive, way of going about things than this.

When I was covering GRC independently last season, there was no shortage of fodder for criticism—it was a fledgling series, and you have to expect that. But those criticisms were addressed every time they came about. And part of what helped was covering them in a mature manner and offering solutions.

This, though? This comes across as bitching on the Internet, as a total first-world problem. In this day and age of instantaneous communication, everyone wants to report first, and that’s fine. But taking a shot at the organization that puts on the events you cover reads as immaturity and little else. And an organization that makes a habit of making comments like that sets itself up as an easy target for competitors to surpass them.

Noting that service is spotty is one thing. Doing it that way is another entirely. That comment need not have been made publicly—or, if done while dealing with the event promoters directly, likely not at all.

The lesson here: Present public criticism in a mature matter, lest you come across poorly in your communications. There’s no need to make yourself look bad while pointing out a problem.

Update: It has been brought to my attention, and I would be remiss not to note, that the aforementioned quoted paragraph has since been removed from the article in question.