End of an Era

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I'm not sure "saddened" is the right word, however I was moved the other day when I saw that Jason Davis had decided to pull the plug on his involvement with Recruitingblogs.com.

The institution in Recruiting circles, OK my Recruiting circles that is Recruitingblogs has done so much to help shape my outlook in the Recruiting game. It has acted as a font of knowledge and learning, a guilty pleasure, a treasured obsession. It became part of my daily routine, and after a small amount of time lurking, I truly discovered, what you can get out of being involved in a community, in fact what social media is all about. (Wow... looking back in the archives... my first post was April 28, 2008. I still remember pressing "publish" and the dread I felt.)

I felt like I had found the answer, I was sitting at the feet of masters daily and soaking up the knowledge. I was able to debate, learn, reaffirm, comment, question, all with people with an underlying familiar passion. (And I didn't sound too stupid putting my $0.02 in either) It's funny, finding so many like minded people in one place kinda cemented or legitimised me and my chosen career path. Being a Recruiter was no longer something to be ashamed of or hidden in conversation. I am eternally grateful for that.

Whilst at face value Recruitingblogs.com is a website, a commodity, something to be sold and bought (Check out the auction site here people) it is genuinely a community. People globally converse about Recruiting issues, and when the chat function is working (Which has come and gone and come back again over the years, and probably receded a bit since Twitter took over the world) about completely obtuse, "life" stuff. Many the time I found myself still chatting at 2-3am (yes, it was a sickness).

Whilst, I can only hope that one day I can sit in a room, share a beer or a coffee with all the wonderful people I've "met", "befriended", skyped, conversed with or argued with, from around the planet. I still feel like I know them, and call a number of them friends. (That sounds a little weird huh, but it's true)

I've tried other sites, ERE seemed too smart for me (no offense readers), Recruiter Earth, well that kinda lacked soul I thought, so I became a Recruiting Community snob for a while there, Recruitingblogs.com was my online home.

I'll admit of late, life and work have got in the way of my involvement here, but I always check in.

Well here we are, again, well past midnight and 111 blog posts later and I still can't get enough of the site.

Now Jason AKA Slouch is moving on. All I can say is thank you for setting this up, for driving it the way you have, for the conversations and the chats and the other cool stuff that has been born from Recruitingblogs.com. It really has changed my Recruiting life and I can't say that about too many things. Good luck in what you choose to do, from speaking with you I know you'll be a star! And to whomever buys this site..... YOU HAVE BIG SHOES TO FILL! (no pressure)

Comment by Slouch on June 8, 2011 at 11:14am: Thanks for writing that Dan. It's a nice post. It's amazing to have been a part of this and to see how the community has grown over the years. Thanks for all of your contributions and we should talk soon.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on June 8, 2011 at 11:59am: Dan,
What a very nice tribute to Jason. I think many of us echo your sentiments. I believe you have captured the spirit of what RBC has been to a lot of us who have made it part of our day to checkin every morning to see what the group have to say today and sometimes get involved to the point that we have to work a little later that day to get things done.

I will always believe that the success of RBC is due in large part to the fact that Jason was and is a recruiter who has been in the trenches, made a firm work and work well and has experienced the ups and downs of this profession. The DNA of this site has been recruiting. Great Post ,thanks for saying what we all feel.

Comment by Valentino Martinez on June 8, 2011 at 3:31pm: Dan,

I also agree with your take on Jason and RBC.

@Jason--however you got the moniker of "slouch" I'm guessing it's similar to calling big guys "Tiny". You were never a slouch in the literal sense--and the creation and maintenance of RecruitingBlogs is testament to that fact. RBC is a brilliant platform to discuss and learn about all things recruitment related. THANK YOU FOR THAT.

You've managed to attract participants far and wide with diverse opinions, but common bonds to recruitment. Your investment of sweat equity, time and $$ can only be known by you--but for us the benefits are priceless and will hopefully be ongoing.

I look forward to your continued contributions to discussions and blogs on what becomes of RecruitingBlogs.com

Buena Suerte (Good Luck...in your future endeavors),

Tino

Comment by Slouch on June 9, 2011 at 10:30am: Hi Jennifer. Ning is about 40 bucks a month at the pro level. What is being sold is the ability to control the site in terms of everything related to RecruitingBlogs.com. The site is powered by Ning and of course Ning is not being sold. I have seen Networks on Ning sell and what happens is the administration for the site gets changed and the new owner has the ability to change the site layout, grow the site , charge advertising to those who want to advertise to the membership including shutting the site down if they wanted to but I don't think that would happen. The domain name RecruitingBlogs.com is owned by me and that of course is part of the sale. Once the auction is over the person/company with the highest bid will become the new main admin for the site and I will no longer have that access and no longer own the domain name RecruitingBlogs.com or the ability to administer/control the RecruitingBlogs.com network. I hope that clarifies your comment.

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