Twice now I have personally seen private conversations that Matt has had with webmasters appear on the net, personally I’m in two minds on this.
So this is good news for SEO’s that haven’t fucked Matt over by publishing private convos. It will do one of 2 things….one it will make Matt much more wary of helping or at least talking about spam issues with people that have outed him in the past, secondly it may even stop him trusting anyone new, either way this is bad for the SEO industry in General
What’s really really bad for the industry, is that Google is the most powerful provider of traffic, and yes I take shots at them all the time, but I will defend the people that work there, or have worked there, to the hilt people like Matt, Aaron, Evan, , Amanda, Vanessa, Mike etc etc.. why because it’s just their Jobs / Careers that you are fucking about with. I have seen People get quoted for saying things that they didn’t, but still these people put themselves in the most vulnerable position possible talking to webmasters that would stab you in the back to get a few links!
Sorry Rand I know it’s no great loss, I think personally you have a great Team and I like you a lot but I don’t want that crap in my RSS.. people often ask me why I don’t actively participate in Forums, Personal attacks on my friends are my Achilles heal ..
DaveN
16 Comments
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24th July 2008 @ 15:49
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I’m for Matt in this one, private should mean private. R.E.S.P.E.C.T
24th July 2008 @ 16:27
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Dave - I think you’re being a bit unfair. I neither posted, nor do I endorse the content you’re referencing. As many of the comments noted - you can have it open or you can have it always positive, you can’t have it both ways. We’ve opted to make SEOmoz a more open, accessible kind of blog/forum/social-media-thing, and sometimes, it bites us in the ass.
I think a great majority of our content is worthwhile, interesting, positive and valuable. If you don’t, please unsubscribe, but if you’re upset about one piece of content from a YOUmoz-submitted entry, I think it might be a bit egregious to take that brush and tar the entire site and the organization that runs it.
I won’t defend Marty, but you’ve said so many things in public and in private that cause umbrage, I guess I’d expect a higher tolerance (and a more accurate direction for your thoughts).24th July 2008 @ 16:38
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The SEO handbags are out lol More reference to private conversations. eek. Why do people expect or presume on other people’s thoughts ?
Dave may speak his mind, but privacy is never an issue.
24th July 2008 @ 17:29
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Rand you know i have great respect you and your team, but Seomoz I read Youmoz I don’t.
Pushing that article into my RSS, did offend me I thought the timing was in very bad taste.
I wonder if he had compared Danny’s SMX and his speakers to a Hilter’s henchman and the ss would it have been pushed to SeoMoz Proper, with 13 thumbs up, 26 thumbs down I feel that your community found it distasteful too…
DaveN
24th July 2008 @ 19:38
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added secondly, I read SEroundtable and seomoz everyday it’s not what I expected, You and Barry have set a High standard which is what I have come to expect from both sites, I set my level low
but you are right iI should be more tolerant, and I will try24th July 2008 @ 19:50
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For the record Dave, I had no idea that the conversation Marty referenced was a private one, and it wasn’t made clear until Matt Cutts said so.
24th July 2008 @ 21:58
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yer I totally understand and sorry I jumped the gun,, just a bit pissy today
24th July 2008 @ 22:08
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With Matt interacting with thousands of webmasters and SEO practitioners every year, I think it is fairly amazing that more private stuff hasn’t been published in that time, ‘cus there’s always one.
I guess he will now be re-evaluating his future dealings with the community.
24th July 2008 @ 23:24
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I like cat’s
25th July 2008 @ 04:44
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I agree with some things you say Dave. I believe that if people such as Matt can risk their lievelyhood, by trying to make sense of questions from webmasters, then they should be respected. The question whether such info should be passed on to one webmaster and not another is a separate one.
Regarding SEOmoz - I am a regular user of the site and submit a lot of stuff to youmoz - I am glad for the platform. I agree that the article had questionable content, and i agree it took a while for SEOmoz to react, but I also think that the way its been handled is commendable - see the thumbs that the apology received vs the post.
Actually the post itself covered an interesting arena, however as we all agree by now, the pointless sarcasm was unwarrented.
25th July 2008 @ 08:51
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I think Daven’s right seo’s need to get there heads round the concept of “on the record” or “off the record” just like Journalists do.
Fucking over Matt or any one else doesn not do us as an industry and good same as the antics of the news of the world do not help serious journalisiam.
25th July 2008 @ 10:03
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“you can have it open or you can have it always positive, you can’t have it both ways”
….wow I can’t believe I just read that.
Yes you can have it both ways. We can be totally open about addressing ideas and issues while not allowing personal attacks to create distractions. Censoring personal attacks doesn’t make conversations “less open.”
What I find disappointing is some people’s inability to take a strong ethical stand on an issue because they’re too busy performing a diplomatic juggling act.
25th July 2008 @ 12:47
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Halfdeck - you’re misinterpreting me. I mean that SEOmoz can either be always positive (in which case, we do a lot of censoring and holding material back), or we can be open and allow stuff to be published that we don’t agree with or maybe wouldn’t even want associated with our brand. Certainly, as you said, an individual writer can choose to be both open and positive.
25th July 2008 @ 15:25
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SEOmoz is a great blog, but private conversations usually should not end up in the public domain…. thats common sense even in Scotland.
If everybody starts outing everything me and Lyndon have some stories
PS - And don’t mention the war
25th July 2008 @ 20:13
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Hey Dave you may get an apology too
28th July 2008 @ 13:16
Copyright © 2004 - 2009 David Naylor. All rights reserved |
It all comes down to respect. I have a few things I don’t want Matt Cutts to know about and he did rip me a new one over the Fakebaitgate. But that’s business and I respect him for that the same as I respect Calacanis or Shoemoney when they do the voodoo that they do so well.
I may not agree, but professionally people in the industry at this level should get respect and at least know they are not going to have words misquoted to advance a bloggers agenda.