Why 'Fifty Shades' author should have seen Twitter fail coming

Twitter is a scary place. Trolls and bullies and public shammers are lurking in every dark corner. Everyone knows that - well, everyone except celebrity publicists, who keep throwing their clients to the wolves.

The latest casualty: "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James, who encouraged a Twitter chat Monday with #AskELJames. The questions she received were predictably mean-spirited, making fun of the writer for her subpar prose and accusing her of romanticizing abuse.

It's true that James's writing is pretty shabby, but let's be real: Her books have sold tens of millions of copies, so the joke is really on us. That being said, some of the zingers were pretty good.

But mostly it was just cruel stuff that would appeal mainly to the most schadenfreude-loving among us. But how bad can we feel for her? Shouldn't she have known better given all the precedents? Apparently not, so let us count the ways a Twitter call-out is anything but a brilliant PR scheme.

1. #AskRKelly

Remember when R. Kelly offered to answer fan questions about his album "Black Panties"? It devolved quickly into questions like this:

"@strongarm4: #AskRKelly on a scale of blue ivy to willow smith what's the oldest female you would date?"

2. #AskThicke

This time VH1 was to blame for inviting people to ask "Blurred Lines" singer Robin Thicke questions. The timing wasn't ideal, what with his separation from Paula Patton and photos surfacing of Thicke with another woman.

"Which Axe Body Spray scent did you use to seduce the women you cheated on your wife with? #AskThicke"

3. #CosbyMemes

The Thicke questions were fairly tame compared to what happened when someone from Bill Cosby's publicity team requested that people put their own spin on photos of the Cos.

4. #OzsInbox

Television personality and weight-loss miracle pill schiller Dr. Oz asked people to send him their health questions.

".@DrOz what's your favorite snake oil? How do you sleep at night? #OzsInbox"

5. #myNYPD

It's not just individuals who get attacked. Corporations have had some of the worst luck with this type of press strategy. SeaWorld and JP Morgan learned the hard way, as did the New York Police Department, which asked New Yorkers to send photos of themselves with cops. You can probably guess what happened.