Notorious R.O.B.

And the drama has escalated once again.  The brouhaha was sort of dying down, but the flames have roared into life once again, with this from Dustin Luther (obviously a great and influential blogger), then this, and this, and I’m sure others I’m missing.

The comments in the Luther post are fascinating.

As a brand newbie into the RE.net, it’s fairly obvious that I have no dog in this fight, bloodhound or otherwise.  I like them all.  And Marc Davison’s original rock star post, despite my puzzling over it, hardly seems like the likely candidate for igniting such controversy.  He seems like a very smart guy — and apparently he held my current position before I got onboard (hey, a pun!), so I feel some strange connection to the man.  Seth Godin is a really smart guy too, but sometimes, he says crap that makes me scratch my head too.

I am a veteran in the political blogosphere (and even more vicious, the video gaming world), so this whole kerfuffle strikes me as a whole lot of much ado about nothing.  So some blogger was a prick to some other blogger.  Happens every hour of every day.  Far harsher things are said in that world than in this one, and I get that.  At least RE.net shares a common worldview, and a common reality, even if people disagree on what should be done within that reality.

If I might make a small suggestion — and I realize this may be presumptuous coming from a brand newbian — that everyone put away his or her outrage at one or the other side, internalize it, and move on?  Unsubscribe, bash each other, etc. etc. but I’m thinking it’s time to get back to business.  Maybe apologies all around and kumbayahs and joining hands might be good too.  I just don’t see the point in getting all personal about frikkin’ blog posts on either side of this controversy.

I figure, the blogosphere isn’t really about personality at the end of the day.  It’s about intelligence and insight.  Either someone says something worth hearing, or he doesn’t.  The nicest guy in the world could have nothing to contribute to the conversation, while the meanest son of a bitch might have insights that are useful to the various participants.  Or vice versa.

There is a valuable lesson here somewhere, however.  And I think it is this: On the Internet, it’s not who you are, but what you say, that matters.  These are just words on a screen — there’s no way to capture the tone of voice, the force of personality, the relationships, etc. that make up a person.  Some agents and companies love to blog about “personal” topics — for example, this post from Zillow.  In small doses, that kind of content can help humanize what would otherwise be a faceless corporation.  And that’s good.  But you have to have something worth reading, some insight, some viewpoint, some information as the rest of your content.  Otherwise, you’re just a nice guy with nothing to say.

As one might imagine, I’m trying to fit this into the official OnBoard blog strategy in my day job.  It’s actually a lot harder than it looks, so my hat is off to the people at Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Bloodhound, 4realz, 1000watts, and elsewhere that keep a lively blog going with useful information, thoughts and viewpoints worth checking out.

As for me, I’ll read any blogger, any blog post, that has interesting things in it — even if I disagree, flame the post, flame the poster, whatever.  Because it isn’t about them, but about me — what am I learning, what thoughts am I provoked to have, what assumptions am I having to question, etc.?

Having said all that, seems to me it would be a simple thing for Mr. Swann to just apologize, Mr. Davison to accept the apology, and there can be a nice happy ending to this drama.

-rsh

I had a feeling I would not be disappointed in entertainment value of this little kerfuffle.  And I was right.

Joseph Ferrara from Sellsius lets Greg Swann have both barrels, for Greg letting Marc Davison have both barrels.

Ah, a grand melee.  I’m happy to be a voyeur in these little dustups.

-rsh

I thought I was perhaps being a bit unkind to Marc Davison in wondering why a marketer would post what he did about being a rock star.

Greg Swann over at Bloodhound looses both barrels on him:

I should probably stop picking on this little nebbish, but he’s such a champion at leading with his chin that I find him hard to resist. His theme? “Rewriting the book on how to kick ass.” I wish I were joking. I’m gonna guess that he wasn’t among the first picked on the ass-kicking team in grammar school, and I’ll bet a large dollar he wasn’t even in huge demand for the coloring-outside-the-lines squad. I just love it, though, that he’s so completely dysclued that his ass-kicking theme song is entitled — wait for it — Unchained. And before you trouble yourselves trying to imagine Kevin Boer and Noah Rosenblatt in day-glo-hued spandex tights with huge cod-pieces — these two being Davison’s envisioned rock stars of real estate — stop for a moment to consider that we are talking about marketing in the world of Web 2.0. Rock stars are all about “Me, ME, MEEEE!!!!” This role belongs to the customer, not the vendor — this according to this same mental midget a few weeks ago. Brian Brady and I are rewriting the book on real estate marketing, an iterative endeavor that will see its next big advance at the real Unchained. But if you want to find a Web 2.0 star, it’s not me or Brian or Kevin or Noah. If I were to pick one person who best expresses what consumers are looking for in a Realtor or a lender, I would pick Dan Melson. There’s is nothing of a rock star in the man, but if “fiduciary” had a face, it would be his — and that comes through in everything he does.

Since I’m a relative newbie in blogging about real estate marketing and such, I had no idea I was witnessing some ongoing soap opera.  This should get interesting.

Even more amusing: Greg praises Teri Lussier, so I checked out some of her stuff.  She is good, and I’m looking forward to reading more of her thoughts.  But one of the things she posted seemed so apropos the kerfuffle-that-is-about-to-ensue:

 If you are a RE.netter, you can stop reading now. This next part is between me and the ninety and nine. Are they gone? Okay, now that we are alone, between you and me: I don’t quite understand the inner workings of the RE.net power bloggers. I don’t know about you, but I got my head down, trying to keep my nose to the grindstone, scrapping out a meager existence. They make a lot of inside jokes and references to posts that first posted back in the dark ages when they all began to blog. They seem to break off into clans… Now there’s an idea- perhaps my first video for the RE.net will be a whiteboard scorecard so we can keep track of who is pissed at whom.

This week reminded me of the once-upon-a-time when I was a Dance Mom- think soccer mom in a world of pink tulle. You’ve never seen such gossiping and grudge matches and political posturing- and that was just the moms. It’s the kind of world where otherwise sweet girls embrace the pure ugliness of highly charged and competitive behavior. I was quite thrilled- you have no idea how thrilled, I mean you really can’t imagine how thrilled I was- to leave all that behind when my daughter said she had had enough.

Once my daughter bolted from that convoluted world, we were able to sit together and look back and laugh our butts off at one perfect glimpse into the world of twisted politics at the cliquish level. Just like in the dance world, just like in the ancient world, just like high school, sometimes the RE.net world gets a little um, mean.

You don’t say, Teri… you don’t say…

Still, I’ve got my popcorn, soda, and candy ready to go.  The next chapter could be fun and interesting.

-rsh