Social Media Group head Maggie Fox shared an interesting post today about the dark side of crowd-sourcing–namely the snarky commentary that frequently turns up on back-channel Twitter streams. Think of it as a passive-aggressive form of tossing the proverbial rotten tomato. But as Maggie points out, in the social mediaspace where everyone feels entitled to an equal voice-and all too often, to publish the first unmediated thought that pops into their heads–this chatter can veer quickly into uber-rude mobspeak.

The real issue here isn’t about those folks who think it’s cool to be cleverly snide. The larger question is whether civility (especially in professional meetups) and transparency can co-exist within this social medium. Sure, there will always be trolls and flame wars. But behaving badly in public forums, as opposed to productive candor, simply lowers the collective level of useful discourse.

Want to amp up the noise to signal with your witty snipes on Twitter? Be my guest–but here’s hoping you don’t expect much cred from your peers, or prospective clients. //