I'm done. I've had all I can take of the vicious, nasty, cr@p that has been going on in our little industry. Sure, SEOs have disagreed with one another from day one, usually on forums. That's nothing new. Sometimes it got nasty. That's nothing new. But I've never, ever seen things get this bad before, and you know what I blame it on? Blogging. That's right. Blogging.
Don't get me wrong. I love blogging. I love blogs. I love the interaction, the conversations, the ability to get to know people, and the ability to read different viewpoints. Blogging can bring the best of those we never knew before to light.
Unfortunately, blogging also brings out the worst of the worst, who now have easy access to "speaking their minds". And the nasty remarks made in blog posts simply feed more nasty remarks made on more blogs, and those remarks feed conversations in forums and social networks, and more blogging occurs, feeding more nasty remarks, and those remarks...well, you get the picture.
You want to know what else I blame all this nastiness on? Boredom. Our industry has stagnated. We "know it all" already. The mystery is gone. There's nothing left to talk about that hasn't already been said a thousand different times, and a hundred different ways (with the other 900 times being rehashes of the same things others already said - dup content, as it were).
If you are blissfully unaware of the latest goings-on, I'll let you stay blissfully unaware. I won't link to any of the BS. I won't summarize it all for you. You either have been slapped in the face by it, or you're tip-toe'ing through the tulips without a clue. (And that's a state I wish I could return to).
Those that are being the most vicious...I wash my hands of you forever. I refuse to even think your name in my mind. Poof! You're gone.
Those that are feeding into the nastiness, but aren't actually being vicious yourselves, I humbly ask you to stop for a moment and consider stepping out of the entire situation as I am doing right now. I understand how easy it is to get involved, and how hard it is to reject the situation completely, but all I can do is ask you to at least consider doing so. If you choose to stay and participate in the feeding frenzy, I won't judge you or feel any differently about you. But I hope ... maybe ... some of you will walk away from it as I am doing.
Only by completely rejecting this ENTIRE type of viciousness can we hope to defuse it. Well, that's my opinion, anyway. I might be wrong, but it doesn't look like participating has defused it any, right? So how about we try something different?
For those reasons, I'll be scarce at our industry's biggest social network(s), where much of this is bubbling up. In addition, I'll be much quieter ... everywhere, including here.
For the next few months, I'll be spotlighting the people in the Search Bloggers list, as I've already begun to do. I can assure you that I will NOT be spotlighting any kind of nasty, negative blog posts such as I've seen lately around our industry. Instead I'll be focusing on showing you blog posts from the wonderful people in our industry that you may or may not have heard of. And during this time of focusing on our industry's best posts, I may not be doing much blogging here myself, simply because I need to refocus on the positive aspects of our world. And the best way for me to do that is to concentrate on shining some light on the positive people and their positive thoughts. That's mostly what you'll see here for the next couple of months. If that's not what you want to see, let me apologize in advance. But I need to step back and simply highlight the people and ideas that I think are worthy "out there", rather than risk feeding into this negativity by being unable to hold my tongue. I hope that's ok with at least some of you.
Hopefully, in time, there will be new SEO mysteries to write about, and new attitudes in our industry. At that point, I'll likely have lots more to say. 🙂
Peace, y'all.
I’m sorry but I love viciousness in the industry. As long as it doesn’t concern anyone close to me.
Am I bored? — Yes.
Do I have thick skin? — Oh yes.
Am I easily shocked? — No, I’m Dutch.
I feel that ever since SM kicked in and people started hunting for rep, linkbait and excitement rather than just linkjuice, things have turned a bit prickly and personal.
– It’s a fair cop, but society is to blame.
— Ok, so we’ll arrest them instead.
In other words: I don’t blame people for speaking their mind and getting personal anymore. If you think I’m wrong, then please PM me an example of someone overdoing it.
I think this is a learning experience.
Words are words on a page. We don’t know the motivation or intent in some cases. Emoticons help but they’re not used in blogs. It can be so difficult to understand what someone is writing sometimes. The use of cuss words and name calling is a good indicator of emotion and intent from some people. But even at that, it’s still not always the whole story and we have very little to go on.
So we rely on existing reputation, past actions and other things. Those things are helpful but can also be manipulated, such as editing blog comments.
We can choose to be hurt. We can choose to inflict hurt. We can choose to focus on our work for our clients. We can choose to not participate in places where freedom of speech = permission to destroy, compete and slander.
We can choose to create peace.
“There’s nothing left to talk about that hasnt already been said a thousand different times, and a hundred different ways (with the other 900 times being rehashes of the same things others already said – dup content, as it were).”
But wait! There’s more!
There is quite a bit more to talk about! There is “still” plenty of signal in this industry and I see quite a bit of it right here in this topic. Why does it need to be “segmented” like this? There needs to be a Social Networking Community for this industry that everyone can feel “safe” and “comfortable” in, yes? Can’t you take back what has been taken away? Where’s the fight that “used to be” in this industry? That is where the signal is, where the fight is!
Let’s not forget that this whole SMO/SMM exploded on the foundation of SEO/SEM. Somewhere during that transition a disconnect took place. I’d like to see it connected again, I really would.
Donna, I “really” wouldn’t write this off just yet. The industry is maturing. SEO has matured leaps and bounds from the 90s which is what many are still talking about these days unfortunately and that is where the “rehash” take place. Everyone who has been to “one” conference becomes an expert and starts producing “basic content” that in some instances can be proved to cause more harm than good.
Basic SEO is a foundation and if that foundation is not built with quality materials, performance fails. SEM/SEO/SMM/SMO IS NO LONGER BASIC! We are now in the “High Tech Era” of it all and have been for quite some time.
There is this entire underlying community of signal and “I” surely don’t want to have to traverse through all the Social Media Brothels to find it either. Someone help me! I really don’t want to have to sign up for all the gadgets, gizmos, widgets, whatchamacallits, etc. Those “chiclets” are killing my browsing experience, even in Firefox. 😉
Donna, I’ve just recently started reading you and want to say thank you for your contributions. You’re an excellent read too! Can I ask that you reconsider your position on all of this?
Thank you for writing this post. The negativity is so unproductive, its bad theater at best. This happened in forums years ago and now it is happening in social media settings to an even greater degree. If the energy used for this type of in fighting would be spent helping businesses or the industry it would be better used and produce a positive outcome. Not hard to do, just make a choice to make things better not worse.
not sure how I missed it all – still not sure what side I was / is on
Dave pst I’m a Search Blogger 🙁
This seems to be the hot new seo hangout now.
Thanks for a really thoughtful post, Donna. I had a friend in high school that acted weird and tried to get attention all the time: they didn’t mind being praised or trashed, as long as someone was talking about them. Eventually I figured out that the only way to handle situations regarding this person was just not to talk about them. Sometimes that’s what it takes: a conscious effort to step back and go do something else when someone is trying to bait you.
I can see the headline now:
SEO’s and Insulted by other SEO’s more often than any other job type.
I can see many reason for this
1. We are a young group
2. We run our own show most of the time, we dont really answer to anyone
3. The industry doesnt really have checks and balances. it is still the wild West out there
On an on…
C’mon, group hug.
I guess it’s to be expected though, really, unpleasant as it seems. Wherever you go on the internet you’ll find people who get a kick out of being douchebags online when they wouldn’t dare be so in “real life”. Naturally our career choice attracts people who enjoy spending a lot of their time online, so it’s safe to assume that a higher than normal proportion of us are going to be said douchebags. Put us all in a forum like Sphinn, essentially a massive popularity contest that encourages us to compete for attention, and you’ll be exposed to the heights of douchebaggery.
Most of us have far better things to be getting on with (work, for example). Best just to laugh at them really.
(comment censored by DD)
Well said! Back in the old days those people hung out at the local bars smacking heads. Nowadays they hang out on the internet smacking heads with words. Same breed – new arena.
wow….. gotta say that I am with you as far as crawling back into our own bubbles. To me it’s about writing because we enjoy it and hanging with others because they matter to us.
As we’ve chatted about a few times over the last week it is all distasteful and troubling. Animosity seems to be far too prevalent over the last while and I’d be so much happier if we worked on our common passion; search.
I will certainly miss your musings, but love the fact you are focusing on showing love (highlighting bloggers) instead of falling into the counter-productive drama….
… maybe we can hang on ‘Private SEO’ more…. seems like something worth building….
Dave,
you can have my old bubble, i’m not using it anymore and it’s in good condition.
=)
Wow.. that’s two posts on two sites that I don’t understand at all because I missed everything and now it’s censored. Bummer. Not that I wanted to read the trashy events, but having read all this is such a waste when the meat’s gone already.
There’s TON of depth to SEO today, but sadly not enough depth in the online community. Just like the printed press…. “mother of twin alien girls plus… a two-headed alligator!” makes the headlines over anything geuine. At small SEO meetups I get the same sense from some people.. they barely have patience to think for more than 30 seconds. If it’s not obvious or they don’t get it right away, they become anxious to flip it off and move along. Like it would be intolerable for them to admit “I don’t understand”. Geesh…
Sometimes it’s worth thinking.. even a little maybe.
@Paisley …. thanks for the loaner ;0)
@John, it is very true…. spend 2 weeks writing about a more technical aspect… no one cares… Write a rant or talk about industry BS and voila… it’s a home run…sigh..
Thanks so much for this post! I think much of the nastyness comes from lack regulation in our industry and everyone is very cut throat. My policy is if someone is nasty to us then that just shows that they have nothing better to do and have way too much time on their hands :o)
Wow… I feel like I missed the TV show everyone at the water cooler was talking about the next day. I didn’t even see / hear what happened (fine by me) So I’m in the same boat as DaveN not sure what side I’m on/in 😛
The funny thing is it probably started out innocently enough (as maybe controversial Link-Bait) I’ve seen that cause HUGE problems before.
Relax ppl it’s the internets… be nice… and name calling is NOT link bait!
.02
Hi Donna
Not spoken to your for a dogs age, just came back and saw this post and what you say is correct in its entirety.
Do you know what I have done for the past year? I have been concentrating on building a few wonderful websites full of unique, fresh content.
Because I am building great sites, I dont have time to get involved with the arguments.
I learned a long time to go that energies are best spent on ones own site – something that we discussed many years ago.
There’s a lesson for all there, folks. Forget the silly arguments. Any time that you are not spending writing/adding to your own sites, reading attacks/arguments and so on, you are letting money slip through your fingers.
Peace and Love 🙂