Following on the from the recent debacle regarding Rand Fishkin’s unprofessional behaviour, it seems that SEOmoz employees are again showing an amazing lack of integrity and professionalism on their very own company blog. Yesterday, Rebecca Kelley launched a scathing attack on an SEO who asked her to vote for his content on social media sites.
35 Comments
35 Comments
Comments
The only unprofessional person here is the person Rebecca wrote about and anyone who uses it to try and get a bit of buzz by bad-mouthing the Moz for a post that made a perfectly reasonable point.As far as I’m aware she didn’t name the person in question, so what’s the big deal?
Yep, I think she was pretty patient actually. That guy/gal should re-imburse her for time wasted!
I agree totally ciaran and Kalena, I was just coming in here to ask him what the heck he’s talking about. I already told her on SEOmoz that she was more patient than I would have been. This is a very unfair post.
I say she showed a great lack of restraint in not actually naming the perp. I think I would have done, and called "spammer" loudly.Her post is about harrassment, being spammed, and people thinking they have a right to tell her what to do for them.Rebecca; now you know what many ODP editors feel like, except it isn’t one or two people, it’s hundreds.
Well im not going to sphinn this but your point holds some value I suppose. I get spammed every day asking for stumbles/digs/sphins etc - I thought this was just the way of the gun at the moment - no need to blog about it
"Yesterday, Rebecca Kelley launched a scathing attack on an SEO who asked her to vote for his content on social media sites."LOL. Are we an industry full of overly-sensitive, politically correct geeks or what? She didn’t even name names. Besides, she’s been sharp-tongued from day one (remember her controversial "bloggers are attention whores" post?)Seems SEO bloggers who have nothing to say about SEO use Google, Rand, SEOmoz, or whatever else to grab a few seconds in the spotlight. If you have nothing meaningful to publish, stay away from the keyboard.
Thanks for your comments, guys. They’re all appreciated.I don’t blame Rebecca for getting irritated at all - I just feel that perhaps it’s often best not to display that when you’re in a professional position. Even once it had been done, losses could have been cut by not blogging about it straight away. Of course, we all snap occasionally, but I rarely see those people screaming ’Hey, look what I just did’ about it.We’re all bugged by people on IM, and I can imagine that the Mozzers are bugged more than most, but they’ve put themselves in that position of high regard through their own hard work. They’ve got a reputation to uphold now, and I think there were far better ways in which Rebecca could have responded. Requesting that the links be emailed, or politely asking that they be stopped altogether would have been the way I’d have done it. I certainly wouldn’t have used ’ass’ or the other deleted expletives to someone who had requested my help or asked a favour - no matter how many times they asked it.Rebecca’s a great blogger, a great SEO/SMO and I admire her passion for the industry. I just felt that this could have been dealt with in a far more professional manner.
Just to save you the extra click - the original post is here.http://www.seomoz.org/blog/please-stop-spamming-me-for-votes
Where’s they "bury" button?
The responses are interesting, guys. Thanks to those of you who have elaborated on your disagreement :)One question for debate, though... What if it was said to a client, rather than another SEO?
tamecrow, but it wasn’t said to a client. While I wouldn’t want my staff posting their personal IM correspondence to our company blog, Rebecca’s post does a fine job of communicating her point.
I would hope that a client would pay for the sevices rendered.
As much as the Moz team has been put through the wringer recently I think Rebecca called it right this time. i do agree with halfDeck’s comments though: "overly-sensitive, politically correct geeks" -- hits the nail on the head regaring this post.
Clients aren’t beyond getting fired for being too pushy, too demanding, over-bearing, and/or clueless, either.
If it was a client, you would tell them that promoting poor quality content doesn’t give them any benefit at all, in fact it could have a negative effect on their overall social media profile as a quality resource.Asking a SEO or SMM specialist to promote junk is asking them to tarnish their reputation amoung the friends that monitor what they submit.At the same time we have to be careful...Do you vote based on the quality of article, or based upon an article supporting your personal agenda?
AndyBeard - Personally, I’d vote based on the quality of the article/comment, which is why I’m about to go through the comments posted here again and give positive votes to the ones I feel made a valuable contribution, regardless of whether I agree with their viewpoint. By the ambiguous nature of SEO itself, we’ll never find a topic that everyone agrees on. Offering a differently slanted view on something can often make people think. That’s half the fun :-)
You might vote on the quality of the article/comment, but the whole point of Rebecca’s post was that she DID vote on its quality...BY NOT VOTING FOR IT. One email / IM is enough when you’re trying to get Diggs & based on the overwhelming positive response of the ’moz community to her post (41 +, 1- at present), I’d say several people can empathize with her situation.
Hi davidmihm,Thanks for your comment. You’re absolutely right, and I did mention that I empathised with her situation - several times, in fact. We’ve all been there and it’s a pain in the backside. After being on the receiving end so many times, I now see the real use behind the ’block’ function on IM clients.For the record, I wasn’t the one who voted the -1 on her post :-) Just like you mentioned in your comment, I’ll vote on the quality of something by not voting for it. :-)
From the post:SEOmoz employees are again showing an amazing lack of integrity and professionalism many SEOs feel that this position has been abused in recent weeks there’s absolutely no excuse to swear at, or blow your top at anybody - especially not an industry colleague I have, however, lost a fair bit of respect for Rebecca and SEOmoz following these recent outbursts and antics That’s pretty rough...
tamecrow - ironically, you have handled the criticism in the comments very well ;-)
HamletBatista - Thankyou. In fact, I rarely post my real views or opinions. Sometimes I will post controversial opinions, but sometimes they are just that and aren’t always mine. I generally like to offer the other side of the coin to make for interesting debate. I think it’s good to consider the possible views and opinions of others - including any criticism in comments.Rand - thankyou for your comments also. You may be right. My apologies if you were offended by the post - it was merely offering the other side of the coin :-)
In fact, I rarely post my real views or opinions.Wow. So much for transparency and authenticity...
I certainly love how people like riling up SEOmoz and stirring controversy just to get a bit of traffic. tamecrow: As many said, Rebecca showed a lot of restraint in not revealing the names of the individuals who were responsible for the spam attacks. Since I know a little more about who was asking what (and I was a victim as well), I certainly can see where she’s coming from. I think you need to walk a mile in our shoes to understand the perspective and to see how frustrating it is to get so many requests at once. Sometimes a little aggression to ward off the spammers is necessary. "Industry colleagues" should feel that on the merit of their good content, they’ll do just fine. The SEO industry is getting a bad name for excess gaming and it’s not good for any of us.
The "excess gamers" are spammers. Simple definition that we all understand.
tamar - Thankyou for your comments. I’ll certainly take that into consideration :-)
Unfortunately some people just don’t get it.
"Sometimes I will post controversial opinions, but sometimes they are just that and aren’t always mine."So you think it’s a good idea to post vitriolic, damning statements like, "SEOmoz employees are again showing a great lack of integrity and professionalism," just for kicks? Just as a casual way to inspire controversy? Yet you have the gaul to criticise Rebecca’s post for being aggressive or unprofessional? Her post, at the very least, was based on a factual and legitimate stance."Hey Kettle, this is Pot, you’re black."
"In fact, I rarely post my real views or opinions. Sometimes I will post controversial opinions, but sometimes they are just that and aren’t always mine."That stood out for me too. So my understanding is that this is a fake story about a fake issue just for traffic and controversy.And some people wonder why others don’t vote for their posts. It’s called credibility. You’ve lost it by posting a transparent negative spin marketing tactic that wasn’t even written well enough to get anyone to post that they agreed with it - which is a feat in itself, admittedly.As a matter of fact, it’s only redeeming value (if it could be called that) is that it’s a classic example of the stuff people DON’T vote for, and why, thus supporting Rebeccas post far better than your own.Rebecca wins (not that it was much of a contest) by being honest and upfront. That still counts, you know - as old fashioned and analog as it may sound.Ian
Comments: 29Sphinns: 4That says it all.
Admittedly, I’ve been on both sides recently - I’ve both defended SEOmoz, when warranted, and I’ve also been critical when I thought there was some discussion that’d be useful re: ethics or whatever...But enough is enough! Let’s cut them some slack - it’s kinda like a public servant who devotes his life to promoting the needs of a minority but then when s/he gains fame or considers running for office s/he is suddenly a power-hungry demon or worse yet a "politician". Sorry for the political analogy. But for all the good work that SEOmoz does on behalf of the community let’s give them a break. It’s OK to vent once in a while. We are all guilty of that, including original author here.
Thanks for the further comments guys! TimDineen - guilty of venting as charged :-) g1smd - You have a very good point and I didn’t exactly expect the post to be very popular in the community. It does, however, offer another side to the argument and is, of course, a personal view. Thankyou to those who respected that.
I would like to say that Jill fucking rocks.
I second Jill’s "grow the fuck up". Actually, without nice ladies like Jill and Tamar setting the records straight in such a polite manner I wouldn’t have found this fucking ridiculous piece. ;)
Wait, does this mean we can now use the word "fuck" on Sphinn?
I guess fucking so!