Comments on: Where Are Your Manners?

By: Renee M

Renee M — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 21:16:12 +0000

As I decided to switch my focus to meeting positive people, bingo, it happened. Yes, you’re so right about the cliques, they’re not worth beating your head against their walls. Thank you and all the SEO Chicks for a blast of fresh air!

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 12:39:26 +0000

The outright nasties are quite rare luckily, as far as I have seen. The “you don’t exist” ones though, those are almost worse. You have every right to feel jaded but remember that the narcissists are the minority. It just does not always seem that way. There are definitely a few cliques out there that the rest of us will never be asked to join, but that is most likely going to save us a great deal of boredom anyway.

By: Renee M

Renee M — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:36:53 +0000

Julie, thanks for pleasantly speaking about the unpleasant. As a newbie, I’ve had good experiences with top SEOs and negative ones. Negative meaning “you don’t exist, you’re not even a fly speck” rather than anything outright nasty. Am beginning to get more involved with social media and I feel at times that social media has become a beacon for narcissists. Dialogue? Teamwork? How can we help each other? Replace with “monologue,” “me, myself and I” and “what can you do for me?” Just feeling a little jaded today.

By: Julie Joyce

Julie Joyce — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 10:22:38 +0000

Thanks everyone…it would be nice if we could all get along wouldn’t it? Where is the love?

By: Rebecca Kelley

Rebecca Kelley — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:16:32 +0000

Excellent post, Julie. I agree that it seems as if our industry has been getting kind of nasty lately. We’ve certainly had our fair share of angry Sphinn discussions and blog posts pointing our way. Can’t we all just get along?

By: SEOinSeattle

SEOinSeattle — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:12:52 +0000

In a way this is a “here we go again” situation. We have seen it with links, Diggs, friending and any place on the net where more is better.

The reality is that many of the A-List and top SEO and SMO folks rose to the top by supporting each other via links, votes, and other methods. People networked, exchanged contact information and used it. And you know what? It was good. Why? Because people rolled-up their sleeves and lots of effort into something they could be proud of. And when the emails and IMs went out it was not really about begging for votes. It was because people were proud of their work and were excited about sharing it.

Of course time and size changes everything. People see a short-cut or they see dollar signs so they collect email addresses and bug everyone whom they believe can help their cause. Once this happens it becomes a snowballing avalanche and it cannot be stopped.

All the email from people they have never met becomes akin to being decapitated by a swinging blade that lowers one millimeter every pass. (Happy Halloween) The old skoolers retreat into an inner-sanctum. They create secure lines of communication privy only to the trusted. The gaping void between the experienced and the wanna-be Internet marketer grows. Those on the inside throw-up their hands. Those on the outside grow bitter.

“All we are is dust in the wind.”

By: g1smd

g1smd — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:57:52 +0000

Oh, and yeah, I agree, JC is always fair game.

By: g1smd

g1smd — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:56:25 +0000

The various Social Media sites springing up are bringing yet more ways for the spammers to spam, and the manipulative to manipulate, or at least attempt to.

Luckily there are some people out there that can see through it all. A few of them are fighting back, but the clique of spammers is already well entrenched.

There are some well known names that should not be representing the industry, as by their very own actions they are destroying the very fabric of it.

It’s nice to see that some people are calling them out on it from time to time.