Yesterday, EntreCard announced a widget that would display tweets that anyone posted about them. The blog post, included an update:

Just a quick note that Entrecarders are expected to be on their best behavior. Any intentional use of profanity or harassment directed at other Entrecarders or Entrecard Staff using Twitter will result in immediate account deletion. We have a zero tolerance policy for harassment at Entrecard.

It is not clear if this update was put up before or after Turnip of Power tweeted Is that asshat from Entrecard still wearing his asshat?.

As a result, Turnip of Power has been banned from EntreCard. One person asked, “Can I still speak poorly of Entrecard’s users on my blog? How about in my living room?”

It appears as if Entrecard is making the classic mistake of inexperienced startups online. The danger of online social marketing is that you can’t control what people will say about you. An even greater danger is what happens when you attempt to do so.

It isn’t a new lesson. Last November, conservatives used the #dontgo to try and get their message out on twitter and beyond. The problem is that liberals hopped in and used that to promote their own message. The website that was set up to monitor #dontgo messages was quickly modified to filter out message that the conservatives felt were inappropriate.

It is even more problematic when people running one website place conditions on what people can say about the site on other websites. A response on the Entrecard blog is entitled ‘Embracing negative publicity’. It sounds like the classic mistake done in damage control. Instead of admitting an error and trying to address the problem, it is a defensive, “I meant to do that” response.

Meanwhile, more people, including top droppers have been leaving EntreCard. The discussion on Twitter is predominantly critical. It is too bad. EntreCard is a great idea, run horribly. It is surprising that a viable competitor to EntreCard hasn’t sprung up yet.

It will be interesting to see what happens next.