I can imagine a million + 1 reasons some will be stubborn about making comment ip addresses public. But a few sinister ones come to mind. I’m not saying this about anyone or any company in particular so lets just make that clear now, this is more about the future credibility of the forum and blog communities that have the capacity to set public opinion in a direction in which they choose, or take advantage of those venues who are not paying attention to the direction at all.
One must look no further than the story of John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods and how he admittedly used sneaky means using blogs to sway opinion about the value of a competitor. The truth about what is said of John Mackey can be said of many who are guilty of it in other ways all around the blog-o-whatever. Reality tells us that unscrupulous people will do unscrupulous things to further their gains, but the question you have to ask is why more isn’t done to at the very least curb the problem. That’s easy. Many of those who will protest such a move may be guilty of silly things like prodding conversations using the same hidden methods- a different email address that isn’t public, a new name you’ve never seen in a blog before and voila you two can sway a conversation- or better yet, goat another blogger into a frenzy to get blog ratings. Everyone loves a great verbal fist fight even though we publicly protest such childish actions.
The act of using blogs as a means of furthering ones own public relations efforts is not uncommon. Over at sandiegohomeblog.com a certain commenter became famous when he was banned for nasty comments only to reappear as someone else using the same slant (he later confessed to his multiple personality disorder when caught). This commenter would inject himself into conversation and blast whatever the Bergs were saying that day. Did this hurt the overall point of the message? Not if you were a Realtor or fan of the Bergs, but if you were a consumer the thread would read as if Kris or Steve’s comments were ill advised, they were ill informed, and thus a challenge to their overall credibility. Add in the possibility of the mystery commenter injecting his opinion in the same post under several names, his attack now appears to a consumer as an consensus, but it was never that- simply, it was a lone gunman and his valued opinion. The Bergs were able to isolate ant out this individual, but in a larger venue such as a forum, how do we know this is not more wide spread? If a consumer had all of the information, then they could gauge for themselves, and remove the idea of consensus, and then a consumer is left free to consume the information in an honest and sincere way.
How big is this problem? One must only look back to the 2001, 02, 04, 06, and now the soon to be 08 elections to see how political blog spin today is now being used in business blogs. In the age of the instant opinion, one must google no further than “real estate blog” to see this same political tactic in action. Does it happen in other professions? Of course, it is a more subtle method but you see spam in blogs daily posing as sincere comments. But under the surface, what you have is a comment with a motive.
Many want to stop it, but I have a feeling there are many motives as to why not to stop it, but there is no damn good reason that we should at least make every effort to at the very least educate the consumer that the may be being spun in much the same way digital media is used to spin the facts.
Does ip exposure stop the madness? No. It has simply become our focus to encourage major forum and blog moderators to take responsibility and begin the conversation of ideas to create ways of insulating from this type of commentary, as well as exposing the abuse of the past. Every moderator sees every ip address, and every consumer hopes the moderator monitors for this activity. But the larger the forum or blog grows the harder it becomes to isolate. That is why it is imperative that the information be given to the consumer so that they can make their own judgement calls as to what is the truth.
It seems many realize the problem but want to just ignore it, we hope you will help us expose this very anti-web2.0 style of marketing and consumer manipulation.
Okay, we were sitting around doing funny quotes from famous movies and thought, why not share them with you all. None of the quotes below have a source or a movie name. Why? Because we want you to test your pop culture knowledge in the funny quotables genre.
I finally got a chance to listen to Russell in his phone interview today and honestly, I’m glad I did. Sometimes you just need perspective and a sincere voice to gently knock you and your business back into focus.
This just in- Realtor stocks up! Several factors are playing into this sharp upswing in Realtor trading:
The Black Pearl is awarded to the entry that presents the best practical, technical or marketing idea of the week. This week that award goes to Benn Rosales for 
Jonathan Dalton reflects on the state of the industry. In 
Lani Anglin writes a fun rant titled, 
Patrick Kapowich, of Silicon Valley Broker, discusses 
Benn Rosales reminds us about self-fulfilling prophecies in 
Craig Shiller, of Home Staging, talks about the values of staging a home in 
Kevin Boer on 
Here’s the gist:
into knots over whether they’ll actually make out like bandits. Interestingly, they do sometimes succeed and other times,great tv is made when they fail miserably. But if you think back even further, late at night you see the idiots telling folks to send them $200 bucks and they’ll teach them how to buy and sell real estate and make millions by tomorrow morning- I’ve never met anyone who would admit to ever buying one of those kits which tells me that more often than not, folks either fail to follow through, or they realize it’s more of a pain in the rear than the lamer on tv made it out to be.
I sometimes give link love because I feel an article informs, but every once in a while I find an article I think is good for the soul as well as informing. Interestingly, the article by Kris Berg got little commentary- maybe because it left people thinking the same way it did me. But just in case it was posted on a slow day and missed, I wanted to pull it back to the top.
As many of you have guessed by the shorts, flip-flops, tank tops, and intense heat in the air at even 5 am, it’s officially summer time! We as a Brokerage really don’t have the luxury of a VC firm paying our bills so a 23 day moratorium on helping buyers and sellers is moot, and wouldn’t even if we did. But to answer the question of where my focus is at, honestly, it isn’t on blogging. I’m in the middle of several projects that have me really excited- you know those kinds of projects that keep you up thinking and processing well past 3am. I’ll be sharing those projects with all of you soon, but for the moment I do well enough to keep up with clients, customers, a family, and the dog- cat, sea monkeys, and the two water turtles out back. I’ve barely been able to keep up with a couple of my personal favorite blogs- Summer can be murder as you all well know. But I’ve not gone far.
If that is the case, get a life- and we all know it has nothing to do with whether you’re a yellow-belly or not. It’s all about protecting the career you’ve worked so hard to build.
BuySide Realty Inc. launches in Seattle and goes head-to-head with Seattle based Redfin Corp. Buyside Realty through Iggy’s House lists home for free while Redfin charges a flat fee for their MLS listing.
comparison to Buyside who will operate online and by phone. Refdin does offer limited personal service at their discounted fee.
confrontational approach:
like. What bothers me more is what is going on “under” the desk, or even beside and behind! Namely the nearly 1/2 mile of cords and cables that drape the sides and and floors of my business and home offices. It’s absolutely insane!
I just purchased a JVC Everio G series which you can read about 
