Know Your Blogging Etiquette or Face the Hounds..

Ok, So we all have to start somewhere and I have recently launched myself into the blogging sphere and not without a few bruises along the way!! It seems that there is a protocol when it comes to the blogging world, but a protocol that you are not warned or advised about, it's similar to going on a roller-coaster for the first time and hitting a peak at the top with a vertical drop, nobody told you it was going to be there you just had to experience it and deal with it yourself!

Recently I created a blog post about my wonderful new buisness product/service (which I won't mention for fear of being accused that this is just a blatant spam!), that since its launch has attracted great reviews and paying customers both in the UK and the USA. Now forgive me for perhaps getting it wrong first time round but it seems that you are not allowed to discuss or promote your services on blogs as this is frowned upon? Now I accept that if someone appears onto a blog, makes a single post and then disappears into the Wild West never to be seen again, then this most definitely could be taken as a blatant spam, but what if the the blogger was genuine, what if they wanted to promote their product to the blogging world relating to their industry sector which in this case was recruitment? What if the blogger was that excited about something that is helping recruiters globally that he wanted to share it with others. What if the blogger had 16 years of successful recruitment experience behind him to realise the potential of what his product was capable of doing?

Now this blog post is not about discussing my product and service, I believe the product and service is excellent and so do our customers, I do not expect everyone to agree with me, we live in a democratic world, not everyone loves the iPhone and I do not expect everyone to agree with my posts. This blog post is to bring to everyone's attention to the unfair and in my opinion quite rude and blatant attacks that are put upon new bloggers from the hounds of the blogging world. The only way I can describe it, is when a new child joins a school and is not accepted by his fellow classmates, they form a gang and one by one they taunt and bully the child. There is always a gang leader and his fellow gang classmates of weak and bad judgement who then decide to tag along for the ride in fear of being a victim themselves, in fact one of the classmates in the recent attack even claims that one of the instigators has an image that we 'ALL know and Love' ?? Well let me say that I don't 'Know' it and I certainly don't 'Love' it..

Now I'm not going to go as far as saying this is cyber bullying and personally I was never bullied as a kid at school but can really understand what it feels like and would want to protect my own kids from this ever happening. This is just sheer rudeness of the highest degree, rudeness from adult people who utilise a 17 inch flat screen computer monitor to sit behind and have their little sarcastic and offensive rants. I do wonder if these bloggers were if ever put into a civilised environment (god help us) within a room of people, they would still be as blatantly offensive? The computer and social networking for some people seems to have given them the right to judge and belittle others with extreme ease.

I did wonder why we have the option to moderate comments on blogs before they are publicly displayed? I now know why! It seems that if someone writes sarcastic and abrupt responses they then find it odd that the person who initiated the blog post will not allow their comments to be shown? How strange can that be that if someone uses the term 'Absurd' or an actual individual who supposedly works for the site then uses the term 'we are gonna get shit' can then expect their posts to be publicly displayed??... It then amazes me that the witch hunt continues and these bloggers then have enough time on their hands from not doing what they should be and recruiting, to then go and attempt to repost the original blog for others to see??

A warning to ALL new bloggers, be careful out there in the blogging world.. Dip you toe in gently and look out for the hounds that feel that this part of the internet world solely belongs to them because they have been around it longer than you have. Do not shy away from blogging, do not feel bullied to respond or accept comments from people who do not have the common sense to communicate decently. Do keep blogging about what you believe in and what you have an opinion about, but ALWAYS respect others and the tone in which you communicate. A rule of thumb is that if you wouldn't speak to someone face to face in the way that you blog, then don't attempt to post the blog in the first place.

Now maybe us Brits with our stiff upper lips are lets say slightly more sensitive when it comes to sarcasm and down right stupidity but there should be a global rule for everyone with regards to blogging which is; don't use a blog to offend others just to win yourself points from your small little clan of followers, use a blog constructively to talk and discuss about things relevant to the blogs industry and topics of conversation. If you really do not like something you see on a blog, rather than publicly trying to embarrass or undermined someone's comment, maybe consider a direct message to the individual to discuss things in a more mature and business like fashion.

Blogging from what I can see is here to stay, it's a social network tool but is also a great way of business people communicating, it is not an excuse to have a fight with kids at play time. For those King Pins in the blogging world, sit back, take a deep breath and remember that us newbies to the blogging world will NOT be put off by silly comments, be respectful of each other and that way we will all have a more harmonious experience.

I have learnt my lesson with the more experienced bloggers, but hope that they will learn theirs and never to assume that everyone knows the rules.. I am a happy family man and a successful businessman trying to make an honest decent living, I hold no grudges and do not go out of my way to offend people or make enemies, I refuse to be made to feel uncomfortable by others and will stamp on anyone that behaves inappropriately. All that said... I now know the 'unspoken' rules.

For my fellow new bloggers like me, welcome on board, its great to make your acquaintance! For the other bloggers, you know who you are... Lets start again.

Comment by Mark Lennard on July 27, 2010 at 10:52am: Hey Miles... Thanks for the featured post, more stuff to come!! and yes maybe see you in the office soon as part of the the gang!! Have a great day... ;-)

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 27, 2010 at 12:55pm: Mark,
Speaking as one of those "rude, absurd, bullying, hounds of hell, members of the so called cult of witch hunters with too much time on their hands, let me say this for your edification.

As a successful business person, would you walk into any meeting, conference, social gathering or any other group of more than one other person, deliver a promo for your product that was a one way diatribe, then turn around and walk away before anyone could ask a question, make a comment or take exception to what you had just said? I would suggest that if you did, you would be immediately tagged as someone who was only there to promote their product and had no interest in engagement and would quickly be thought of as someone who was a walking billboard to be avoided.

The internet being an open forum most folks when they put something out there take what comes. The main reason for moderating comments in my opinion is not to kill anything you don't like but simply to eliminate something that is not germane to the blog or post. If we need to protect ourselves from critical comments , disagreements or someone taking umbrage to what we have to say pertaining to our opinion, a product or a rant about something it would seem that we should not put it out there then filter
anything that we don't like. If you want to liken things to being childish, i would opine that moderating comments to keep any disagreement or sarcastic comment from being seen in response to what we write is a bit like a child sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting LA, LA, LA, i can't hear you.

The response to your ad that promoted your product was perhaps generated in part by your headline that read "Bye Bye, Cold Calling". I believe that was what generated the "absurd" response as well as you not being willing to engage or further defend your ad. Which it was,an ad is not a blog. Those of us who have been in the industry for more years than we can count know that there is no "Bye, bye to cold calling" so perhaps your headline set a bad tone for the promotion of your product.

From this blog it is clear that being called out for posting a blatant ad twisted your knickers into a knot to the point that you now feel you need to call anyone who took umbrage to your ad a list of names and hit back. Keep this in mind. Responses to any blog or comment is not a personal attack on the fact that you may or may not be a family man, a successful business person, a nice guy or the visiting reverend brown from out of town. It is simply a response to that particular posting or it's content. If you take comments as a personal attack that need to be responded to with testy name calling you probably should not post anything or take umbrage if you refuse to allow anything you perceive as negative to be posted.

If you want to post an ad and don't want comments simply buy advertising on the site.

In response to your email which i answered on your wall , which is also moderated, Yes this is my picture, it is really me. Feel free to comment on any blog or post i write, your comments will not be moderated and will be responded to , it's called engagement on a social network.

Comment by Mark Lennard on July 27, 2010 at 4:45pm: Great profile picture Sandra, you should be in the movies not on the recruiting stage!!

Now as for your response, you have your views and I certainly have mine. If anyone actually wanted to put some sensible relevant questions to me about the outlandish post, add, comment, blog, spam, ham or whatever else we can call it, then I would have gladly entered into a really great conversation, but alas this did not happen and I won't respond to someone totally attempting to dismiss something before they have given me the opportunity to discuss their views.

Now all this said, I make you right with your comment about getting my Y-Fronts in a twist and yes in hindsight the blog post or whatever we shall call it, was lets say very much geared to more of an advert than an opportunity to discuss things, I did make it clear earlier today but lets do it again here and now that I understand that people don't take too kindly to adverts on here, I also get the reason why and believe me, I will not be making that Faux Pas again!

As for the comment of the visiting reverend brown from out of town lets say I'm more of a visiting rabbi bringing chicken soup to the party.... and WOW what a party it's been so far!! This blogging malarkey is really an eye opener and something I think I'm going to get my teeth right into.

I will look forward to our great relationship on here and will be keeping an eye out for your un-moderated posts. Until such a time that I get to grips with things and am still a virgin on here, my posts will still be moderated.

I have now downgraded you from a hound to more of a puppy and its been delightful to make your acquaintance.

P.S. Let me know if you want a free trial of MyResourcer.com A Recruiter's Best Friend - But if you don't I promise I wont be offended ;-)

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 27, 2010 at 5:22pm: Thanks for your kind compliment as well as being enough of a "mench" to post my comment.

Ya see Mark the deal about blogging and commenting is that what may be relevant and sensible to you may be hogwash and garbage to me so the fun of blogging and posting and debating and arguing is exactly that, fun and furious exchange of opinion that many times gets pretty rough and tumble.

Trust me when i tell you that this bitch is not a puppy. Nor am i a snarling, rabid dog who delights in chasing defenseless virgins. You will find that all of the people who responded to Jerry's post will fall into the same catagory. You just simply got a wedgie from a group of experienced recruiters because they tried to respond and you wouldn't post the responses.
Ok, you screwed up , don't sit behind a wall and chunk rocks. The reluctant virgin routine is silly.

It's only an internet blog for God's sake not a comment on your entire being.

thank you for your offer of a free trial but your product is not my cup of tea. I hope you and everybody else who comes up with something makes a million dollars next week.
Promoting your product may be best done with the kind of emails that you wish everybody would have sent you.

Get off your high horse and come out and play in the sandbox with the rest of the big people. Nobody is going to eat you...they may however nibble around the edges a bit. You may find out that if one person goes after your opinion another one will defend it.

Fits about being bullied are in my opinon just a passive aggressive way of trying to bully someone into not saying anything negative back to us. think about it.

Cheers.

Comment by Mark Lennard on July 27, 2010 at 5:28pm: I've thought about it.. I've made a new friend.. it feels good.. and from one mench to another... good night.. I'm in Turkey on vacation, its late!

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 27, 2010 at 5:31pm: Then post my comment so neither of us look like idiots. It's an open forum. :)

Comment by Mark Lennard on July 27, 2010 at 5:33pm: Whoops.. Sorry, I forgot I'm still a virgin who moderates his stuff....

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 27, 2010 at 5:43pm: See what happens when you moderate shit. Just let it roll if it is totally obnoxious you can remove it later and splain as to why or not.

Comment by Mark Lennard on July 27, 2010 at 5:53pm: This post and all my others are now un-moderated.. I hold ya fully responsible Sandra!! ;-)

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 27, 2010 at 6:00pm: I will take the heat and i promise that if somebody beats on you i will put on my helmet with horns and rise to your defense if you wither in the face of the mogolian hordes and are not able to defend yourself. If anybody "gets" you send mother McCartt a note and i will review to see if you need your butt kicked or they do.

Welcome to the world of real blogging.

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