A Blogger’s Tiff.
There might just be one or two of you wondering what’s changed round here.
Have we all had a haircut? New dress? Liposuction?
No, Mr. Streight has packed his bags and taken all his content with him. Some of you may think it’s canny, some may think childish and some good riddance.
Personally, I think all of the three and none of the three. It was his decision to leave. I’m not going to sit here and patronise Steven thanking him for his sterling work and efforts. I’ll be honest and diplomatic - there’s been a fallout and a difference of opinion. But, what he’s done for BLOGthenticity in the short time he’s been here has been astonishing.
I won’t go into details out of respect for all parties involved. (I’m also not 100% as to what went on.) As Harry Hatchett pointed out to me last night, “Group blogs are a nightmare.” And there’s more than a tiny grain of truth in that.
I regard Steven as a blog ally and a good blog buddy and I’d hate to think we’ve fallen out on a personal level. But, it had become a bit of a circus sideshow round these parts with Steven and myself as the main clowns. From the BLOGthenticity point of view we had to regain a bit of perspective and balance.
BLOGthenticity started life as a wee place for real business bloggers to discuss how and what they did and to provide a window for Robert’s students to see into that discussion. And that is the focus - plain and simple.
There was never an intention to take on the whole business blogosphere in some form of civil war. Granted, I despise all things fake with regards to business blogging. I take a very polarised view - there are those who are Cluetrain and there are those who use blogs as a cheap alternative to do what’s always been done.
Whilst I’m here, you ought to know that it isn’t going to be some fluffy little marshmallow blog giving out oodles of blog love to all and sundry. It also isn’t some place for blog fundamentalists to strap on the semtex and take out any innocent blog bystander that might not say the right thing. We shall say it as we see it when we want to. We just won’t be saying it four times a day.
Oh, and one more thing. This isn’t an opportunity for anybody to vent their spleen in the comments box. I welcome reasoned discussion about your thoughts - if you actually give a crap.
Filed under: BLOGthenticity, General, Paul
This would be an excellant time for you guys to put forth a clear mission statement about what you’re really trying to do here. What kind of audience are you reaching out to? What kind of two-way communication with your audience are you looking for?
The blogosophere is evolving every single day. Your mission statement needs to keep pace.
– Jack Krupansly
Good post Paul.
Considering Ensight started off as a group blog, I totally get where you’re coming from.
Doesn’t mean I agree with what seems to have happened, but it also doesn’t mean I’ve lost any respect for anyone involved.
Sad. Even more sad is the taking down of posts, which has left a gash all across the blogosphere for the hundreds of us who’d linked to Steven’s posts. We now have nowhere to reference and we look like a bunch of dumbasses.
Tris, thanks for commenting.
Jack, good point.
Here is the original post of our purpose. Also, I refer you to a couple of posts by Paul and myself from early on.
Be True To Your Blog And Your Blog Will Be True To You., and What is BLOGthenticity? (Read the comments, too.)
And, this post illustrates how we are trying to involve students in the conversations. Blog for your company? The questions to ask first…
We should refine and restate these goals further. I believe we will work on that in the coming days. Thanks for the reminder.
While we’re talking about it, what do any of you feel our purpose and goals should be re: your view of what is BLOGthentic business blogging? What does authentic blogging, blog voice, mean to you?
OMG, Please no mission statement - read Art of the start -PDF on changethis to get fresh ideas. Good luck.
Jeremy, thank you, too. Just saw your comment.
I agree. This is not how I would have handled the parting, but the decision was not discussed. It was Steven’s choice to handle it this way without speaking with anyone before he acted.
I truly want Steven to be happy and find the voice and place that suits his goals. I appreciated his work and efforts.
I am sorry for the resulting problem with anyone’s links/trackbacks, etc.
It is important, if only for clarity, for all of you to know that no one - I mean no one - asked Steven to leave.
I was trying to work with him to enable a way for him to continue all of his projects on the blog. I repeatedly thanked him and praised him for his efforts. Were there differences re: the volume of posts and the way in which they were posted? Yes. But, those could have been dealt with in a postive and constructive manner.
I thank everyone for their interest in the blog and pray it will continue to develop in a positive manner.
All this talk of “no one asked Steven to leave.”
+
Robert said he saw no value “for the students” in the Guest Contributor posts (Doc Searls, Cory Doctorow, Richard Edelman, etc.)…and stated that I had “taken over the blog” and had “not allowed others to post or make comments”.
+
Rather than merely change my posting behavior, and leave the offending, valueless, usurping posts, I decided it would please Robert if I simply removed the posts, eliminate the “clutter” so to speak.
+
Now all the other contributors have plenty of room to breathe and post and comment. If I upset anyone, it couldn’t be helped. At the time I purged the material, it seemed the most diplomatic and beneficial thing to do.
+
I’m not here to debate, just to clarify a few things to Jeremy, Robert, Paul, whoever else might be interested in my side of the gory story. I have not chosen to post anything about this at my other blogs, though I have emailed my Guest Contributors to explain why their posts are no longer displayed here.
+
None of them has expressed any disapproval or shock at my actions. And Richard Edelman, Tom Peters Company, Christopher Locke, and others are on board my new project. So this site is thriving and happy, and my new project is thriving and everybody dies happily never after. heh.
I will offer this, solely because it should be known that I did value the posts of the contributors Steven was cutting and pasting into the site. I was just not keen on the way they were being posted in the blog. I do value the writings of the people he was borrowing from, as I read them and refer my students to them. And, I was working to create dedicated pages for them to remain in blogthenticity. Here is the link:
http://blogthenticity.com/guest-contributors/ (last edit date: 2005-04-21 6:39 pm)
So, for full factual quotations of my sentiments and why Steven’s selective quotes mis-state the reality of our conversations, I offer these fuller quotes of my emails. Decide for yourself.
and this reference to ‘value’…
The problem was that Steven’s posts, at the time we discussed this, accounted for 24 of the past 36 on the blog. It had become his blog. The contributed content was good and was appreciated, but it could have been better presented in dedicated pages. These were the real issues.
And yes, it is true. “No one asked Steven to leave.â€? This is all over. I don’t want to get into this nonsense further. This will not devolve into an argument. I’ve avoided that during all of this and refuse to be drawn into one.
(Note: Here are links to four of the pages deleted by Steven for anyone wishing to fix links that are now dead.)
Finally, you should also know that all comments have been set to moderation since this all happened. Nothing has been posted, and then removed. I swear to that. Steven’s comment above was received and ’stayed in moderation’ until the other founder was consulted as to what to do with the comment. It never saw the light of day until this morning when I received Paul’s opinion. I concurred and posted Steven’s comment. Those are the facts, folks.
Hmmm, my old nemesis, Steven bro, yet again I’m amazed by your behaviour. Removing the posts to give other bloggers “room to breathe” is childish to the extreme. Once, when I was 16, I had a fight with a girlfriend and tore up all her letters in her face - I felt stupid after that, I imagine you’ll feel stupid about this too some day.
Also, will you never tire of your name-dropping? C’mon, if your content cant stand on it’s own two feet then I’d be worried.
It’s a shame really, as I actually think you have some good points at times…!
To avoid having this drop deeper into nonsense, I’ve closed comments to this post.
Those that wish to carry this on will have to do it elsewhere.
Note: Every comment that has been received, has been posted to the blog. Nothing has been edited, solicited or removed by the blog’s owners.
Yes, nothing has been deleted, but it was my suggestion to close comments on here, so I don’t want anybody blaming Robert.
~
I’ve also decided to open them again because nobody was, or intended on being abusive. There’s nobody here at BLOGthenticity interested in closing down debate, or making sure voices aren’t heard.
~
Apologies for my own anti-bloggishness. I was suffering from blog fatigue.
~
I think there’s some potentially good feedback to be gained from this particular thread.