Moral of the Story: Psycho Blogger Edition (With Bonus!)
So we at IttyBiz have been following a post and some comment streams between what seems like my fellow home business owners James and Harry at JCM Enterprises and basically the entire free world with an internet connection. This got me to thinking, and because the comment streams were so huge I figured I’d write a post instead. But first, a disclaimer:
WARNING
The preceding and following statements represent the opinion of this blogger alone and are not necessarily those of the entire blogosphere. We take no responsibility for any debate, dispute, argument, fight, falling out, wars, acts of terrorism, or any other negative reaction that may result from these thoughts in any form. (We’re thinking about making this a standard disclaimer for our blog. Maybe we’ll copyright it and sell it to other bloggers. Speaking of income streams…)
So for those who may not have seen this, the bottom line is James took a hard but honest stance on an issue he feels strongly about. (Edited to add: The issue is PLR. At Jarkko’s smart request, here’s an explanation of that. PLR stands for Private Label Rights. By definition, it means I write it, you take credit for it, like ghostwriting. That’s the official meaning. What actually happens is I write it, sell it to a gazillion people and they all pretend it’s theirs. Either that, or I write it 600 ways to breakfast, sell it 600 times as original content, and people spam the bejesus out of the Google front page with a bunch of rewritten articles that say the exact same thing.)
The response to his comment was outrage, and at one point the blogger in question turned off comments. James has apologized for offending anyone WITHOUT retracting his original stance (way to go James!!!!) but the fallout seems to be continuing.
Basically, here’s a metaphor of what happened:
Them: Hey James, here’s a bunch of resources about how to run a pyramid scheme! You should check them out!
James: Dude, that’s a pyramid scheme. I don’t want to run a pyramid scheme.
Them: HOW DARE YOU say we’re running a pyramid scheme? [screaming and character assassination ensues.]
I’m not saying PLR is a pyramid scheme, so just settle down. You get the point. This is a metaphor.
This led me to think about the actual purpose of a blog. Now I may have missed the point entirely, but to me, the purpose of a blog is to create an online community in which we are free to share our opinions and foster debate and discussion. I understand that to some people, debate is a dirty word that makes them feel uncomfortable, but my experience has been that the average commenter (commentator?) can respond with a contrary opinion in a very mature and non-offensive manner.
I realize that this is just my opinion and that not everyone will agree with me. I also realize that I have no right to tell people how to run their blogs. However, doing things like removing comments from a post seems anti-blog to me. I have no issue with moderating first-time commenters (we all know there are very good reasons for this) as normally the blogger is only confirming that the comment is not spam. They are not erasing contrary opinions from their site.
If you do not respect or want comments then you do not want a blog - you want a website. Or a soapbox.
I believe that James and Harry handled this situation with grace and with a true spirit of open debate. James did the grown-up thing here by apologizing for offending anyone and stressing that he did not mean for his comments to be taken as a personal attack, and kudos to those bloggers who accepted the apology.
I can understand those commenters who personally attacked him and Harry when they felt they themselves were being attacked, but I have absolutely no respect for the ones who continued the attack after an apology was publicly issued. I (perhaps mistakenly) assume that we are all mature enough to be able to make our points without the personal attacks.
Moral of the Story? There’s a big difference between legal and ethical.
By engaging in activities your professional colleagues deem to be unethical, you open yourself up to criticism. If you truly believe what you’re doing is right, defend yourself to the ends of the earth. If you run away like a scared little puppy, it’s probably because you can’t defend yourself. And you can’t defend yourself because you’re in the wrong.
Bonus Moral of the Story. Don’t be a baby.
(Naomi’s busybody note:I have a few things to add. One, generally, when I’m attacked, I let the attacker do his or her thing and burn out. I don’t feel the need to wave my gun around saying, “Don’t YOU attack ME, motherf*cker!!!” Maybe that’s just me.
Secondly, one of my favorite expressions in business is “management by objectives”. When it comes to any type of corporate communication, know what the hell you’re trying to do. If you want to create a group of adoring fans and call it a “community”, fine, turn off your comments. You’ll lose the respect of everyone except your sister and your mother, but whatever.
Third, this whole fiasco was about PLR, also known as article spinning. For those of you who are not freelance writers, this involves taking an article - either one that you wrote or one you got from somewhere else - and basically changing a teensy, weensy bit of it to make it pass Copyscape tests. This is not about using an article or a publication for research. This is about changing “like” to “love” to “enjoy” or similar, every third word or so. Then you do it 600 times and resell it.
Not like any of you care, but I’m with James. According to my definition of legitimate, this ain’t it. It’s not illegal, but neither is taking a really young looking 18-year-old, dressing her up in a school girl outfit, pretending she’s 12, and marketing it as child porn. It’s dirty, but it’s legal. Just like this trumped up version of plagiarism.)
Discuss. I promise I won’t turn off the comments. You could also subscribe to the feed. Then we can duke it out in comments every day of the week.
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**disclaimer** I don’t really know what PLR is–I’ve only heard about it second and third hand.
That having been said, if one were to use a PLR article in place of what I lovingly call “the shitty first draft” and then re-write it into something good, I can see how that would be a valuable time saver–since writing that first draft sucks and re-writing it is much easier.
However, it seems unlikely that that is what usually happens so for 99 cases out of 100 I’d have to say you are right on this one.
Hi Liz! I’m all over the shitty first draft - when I first heard it (people who aren’t familiar - it’s from Anne Lamott’s Bird By Bird) I fell in love. I think the PLR thing could theoretically be used for good. I just think that like you said, in the vast, vast majority of cases, it’s not.
Thanks for commenting. I think I may open up a world of bad, bad things with this post.
I had never heard of PLR before (maybe a short explanation would be in place in the beginning of the post), but just like Liz, I’m with you - and James - on this.
And Jamie! You said to me in one of your earlier comments that you’re no good in writing edgy blog content. I guess you were lying ;)
This post is just as edgy as a post written by Naomi - and most likely an excellent conversation starter. And that’s exactly what blogs are about (and what at least I as a blogger am striving for): conversation.
Jarkko - good point. I made an edit at the beginning. And you’re right. He lies all the time. It’s disgusting, really. I don’t even know why I let him write on the blog. Completely destroys my credibility as a hard-hitting journalist.
Wow - like husband, like wife. I totally thought I was reading Naomi’s rant until I read Jarkko’s comment.
What a duo!!
Through passion a blog poster we make… glad I lit a fire under your ass, alter-ego Jamie. That post had me bursting out laughing more than once - which was great, because I needed the break from the stress.
For those who are interested in my plights, the drama has just ended. At least, for me. Some very frustrated and nasty people are heckling my blog, and I’ve called it a day. I’ve apologized enough - cripes, it wasn’t even that big a deal. Some people made it that way, though. Oh well. Live and learn.
On to my thoughts about PLR articles. I wrote PLR articles and managed a business that churned out spin-ready PLR articles for a net guru at the rate of 400 to 600 articles a month for eight months. Note that one spin-ready PLR article can be “spun” to create over 27 versions of the same bloody article with its paragraphs rearranged. So that’s my experience, which gives me the right to speak up.
PLR floods the already-overloaded Internet with the same content. Not quite duplicate but damned close, it creates a cesspool of tarpit molasses for people like my 14-year old daughter researching an English project on peanut butter an impossible task.
Go ahead. Try it. Type “peanut butter” into Google. Now start reading articles. I’ll get back to you next year or something when you’re finished.
WHAT AMAZING ADVANCEMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE! WHAT KUDOS TO OUR INTELLIGENCE! We have effectively - through massive amounts of PLR - glutted the Internet with cheap content that regurgitates the same concept over and over!
PLR makes a ton of money for many people. It also drives down the market rate for copywriting (YAY! I love being poor!) and lowers respect for writers and their profession. (WHAT? SKILLS? Give me a break. Just rewrite this article. I’ll give you $5 for it. Who needs skills when you have PLR!)
But hey - money’s all that matters, eh? Who cares about respect? Who cares about integrity? Who cares about pushing up the market value of a 500-word article to where it should be? (About $45 CAD and upwards.) Who cares about what people are doing with the stuff after it’s sold? (When your kid starts buying drugs, you’ll sure as hell care about the dealer who sold them.)
Now that I’ve had a bit of a rant (thank you, I feel better), I shall go don my flak jacket and helmet before entering my bunker to prepare for the onslaught of abuse about to be heaped on me or my blog because I dare to call a spade a spade.
Oh - for those who feel there are pros, please do share. I’ve been known to change my mind about things I feel strongly about.
Hey Jamie - nicely written rant. Have nothing to say so I’ll just keep quiet … wait .. hmmmm ….
damn
You guys rule. If Jamie keeps this up I can quit.
Okay. I’ve read through all of this, and I have to say that the wahm forum people do have a point that there are different purposes for blogs. Clearly their world collided with the problogger world today. I am definitely a ‘blog for community’ kind of gal but I can see their point about blogging to advertise their writing services.
However. If you’re going to have comments open on your blog, then you need to be ready to deal with the reality that people aren’t going to agree with everything you say. It doesn’t look like the OP entertained that notion seriously before today.
What’s saddest to me in all this is the reaction of so many that seemed to me (imho) to be quite sensitive. I saw nothing offensive in James’ original comment. How did we get to a world where every little disagreement is considered a hostile attack? I was amazed by the evolution of the conversation. Clearly individual people in this little drama had differing versions of reality. I was most surprised by the OP’s decision to close comments and complain to the forum when her initial responses seemed professional and competent.
It’s clear from the aftermath that it wasn’t the best venue for the discussion, but in the end everyone’s true colors were most definitely laid bare for the world to see.
I think the hits were got and everyone benefitted.
I think the original post should be closed, but hell, if you’re getting hits. . .
I disagree that James “apologized” or was it harry? I dunno, but I do know that I woulda been damn pist, too, if someone insulted my way of writing, and then did the whole “get outta jail free card” thing “I was j ust trying to generate discussion!” Bull.
I think the aplogy mixed with an insult is what kept people going. And still going today.
I also think it looks like people have stopped READING and just started throwing their two cents in for the joy of the game.
He got what he deserved, he got hits, it’s done, eh?
PS sorry I still don’t understand PLR, but if it’s a money maker- I’m GAME!
I make a ton of money from PLR. I garnered a ton of hilarity from that post.
I didn’t however, run over there, and leave my comments like scat droppings and bug out like SOMEONE from this post did.
“Respond to the post, not to the person” is a basic concept that a lot of folks do not seem to understand … but if they did, the internet would be a much friendlier place.
That said, Jamie is absolutely right that personal criticism is a possibility that you need to accept when you start a blog. Not everyone is going to like what you say, that is the reality of life both off and on the internet.
I noticed some of the posters on the other threads making the “it’s my blog and I will delete posts if I want to” argument, which is something you hear a lot (especially from bloggers who write about more personal issues). And it is true, you can delete posts if you want to … the technology is there, and it is literally your domain. But what you gain in peace of mind you also lose in credibility over time, and that can lead to less traffic. Deleting posts indicates a “I can say what I like but you cannot” on the part of the blogger, and most people who participate in blogs want to experience a dialogue, not a dictatorship.
Look! See! Comments are still on! Isn’t that cool?
What’s even cooler is that I haven’t been shot yet :)
It’s still early, dude. Only 3 p.m. Plenty of hours in the day. :)
WOWZA. I read through the whole thing.
What’s funny is that the poster- Courtney- said “please stop.”
But the thing is it stopped being about COurtney and PLR round about here:
When Melissa says “They’re so high school~!” But then makes sure to put the thread up.
When James says “I’m sorry BUT-”
When harry says “play nice” and threatens to ban Allen, but let’s words like “snottiness” and “nasty” go through cause they’re from his is supporters.
Sorry, it’s a great blog, James, but you did contribute to messiness and no PLR was ever really discussed!
I’ve found in blogging, as the controller of the blog, you have to step back and let the drama play itself out. You both kept coming back, and not very evenly, either.
I would say that YES the owner should generally try to participate in discussion, but this would be the exception!
@James: You have an extra three hours to go on this coast
@Kimberly: I can’t take credit for the “play nice”, that was all James, but it’s easy to get us confused.
Looking back, I can see where things might have been handled better or differently, but when you’re in the thick of a flame war, it’s difficult to maintain your focus. Hindsight is 20/20, after all. It’s so easy to get caught up in it all and end up doing exactly what you didn’t want done to you in the first place.
Best advice? Ignore it, don’t feed it. Let the flamers burn themselves out. And with that, I’ll end with a quote from the most wise Forrest Gump:
“And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.”
As the “psycho blogger” in question (ouch), I felt the need to respond. I guess I need to explain my point of view from turning the comments off. I always perceived my blog and blogging to be about teaching. I got a lot of questions about how I work from home as a write, and so I started the blog to collect it all in one place. “Here’s the way to write from my point of view…etc.” James’ original post, as he has admitted, was worded poorly.
I do see his point, and the point he was trying to make at the time. We’ve discussed a lot off list and things are “all good” so to speak. It wasn’t a knee jerk reaction. I just wanted to streamline things and in my estimation, if he felt so strongly about PLR, he could post about it on his own blog. I’m not a problogger, I never wanted to be, and didn’t know there were “rules” to allowing content. I was directing the content to the methods I was teaching, and from my perspective got totally flamed for doing so. I thought he was up for a debate on legitimacy, and I wasn’t interested.
That being said, when I saw the post on his blog. I had no idea what to do…therefore I posted on the Wahm forum. After that point, the whole thing got way out of hand. I didn’t encourage people to post on his blog, and didn’t even read what was being said until recently. I was very embarrassed to be a Wahm and a member of the forum, and the fact that those ladies were doing it “in my defense” was insulting to me, my blog and the work at home mom community at large (on that forum and wahms in general). It was petty, mean and unprofessional. I wrote several privately to ask them to cut it out and regain some composure, and then tried to do what I could on James’ blog to minimize both my involvement and the damage.
I do commend James for dealing with the criticism, apologize for any drama I caused by my attempt to figure out what I’d done wrong by turning off the comments. Again, I have learned more about how the probloggers’ view things, and am regretful that my blog’s exposure to a wider audience had to be through this terrible ordeal.
Your estimation of PLR is much different from how my clients use it, and I personally use it. And I can see how under that description of PLR, it’s definitely a bad thing indeed.
I write short reports and articles for a specific group of marketers on self improvement subjects. I don’t write them very often (which is ironic considering I’ve somehow become the poster child for PLR), and I limit the purchases so they aren’t spread everywhere. I’m honestly busy with my original work most of the time and have often considered just selling the PLR domain in the past. When I rewrite articles, I paraphrase the entire article and bring in new research (rewriting - also something I also don’t do very often). I know there are a lot of big PLR sites that have hundreds and thousands of articles. I think I may have 40 or 50 on my site right now and a few reports.
Not having PLR out there isn’t going to mean that people can afford copywriting. PLR in my experience has been the in between. And most marketers know that it needs be heavily rewritten, not just spun, to be used on the web. All in all, PLR is kind of going out of style due to the bad, spun content that is out there…so I don’t expect there to be much money in it in the long term. The whole series came out of a few questions I got about how to fill in the gaps between jobs and make some extra money. I honestly thought I was helping out, based on my experiences with selling and using PLR. It’s definitely a slippery slope though.
So that’s my .05 cents.
S’worth 0.06 cents here in Canada…
@ Kimberly - I’ve apologized enough, I know what I’ve done wrong, I know where I unwittingly inflamed things and I see where I should’ve stepped back. I handled the situation the best I could at the time - trust me, being caught in the crossfire like that, trying to patch things up and make piece, is exhausting. I tried to word things carefully, I tried to be fair, and I’m still trying to be fair. Gimme a break, k? I’m trying.
The long and short of the story is that it was a very small incident that turned into a tanker full of gasoline burning down, baby.
Thanks for the compliments about the blog!
Hm… that’s make peace, not make piece. Piece is what they nearly made of me…
@ Courtney - Damn, girl. That was good.
First off, “Psycho Blogger” was NOT you. It was about bloggers going psycho, and I (and I do mean “I”, being the headline writer in the family) was not referring to you.
You made a hell of a lot of good points there, but the one I’d like to draw special attention to is this one - you weren’t the one “defending” yourself, other people were. I’ll freely admit, it never even crossed my mind that people would be out there trashing on your behalf without your knowledge. You raise a very good point, and duly noted.
WAHMdom is tough. I’m not part of that forum (never even heard of it till yesterday) but these kind of situations can be incredibly difficult. I remember being on a frugal living forum on iVillage years back and having my face eaten off because I bought store bought oatmeal. (On sale, if anyone’s interested.) I mean anger like I’ve never seen in person in my life. Some people, and honestly it’s usually women, become absolutely vicious in situations like this. I can only imagine what it must have been like for you to have come into all that mayhem after the fact.
Bottom line, good for you for coming here and saying what you did. That’s pretty f*cking impressive.
Quote: ” was very embarrassed to be a Wahm and a member of the forum, and the fact that those ladies were doing it “in my defense” was insulting to me, my blog and the work at home mom community at large (on that forum and wahms in general). It was petty, mean and unprofessional.”
@courtney- That thread stopped being about you long before those women came. As soon as the Mysterious Melissa McCann came around, things went downhill.
So, no skin off your nose, hun. And don’t keep that kind of passionate support at arms length.
In fact, I would venture to say the thread was more about her little snitch then anything else. Things really didn’t go down hill until the MMM used words like “nnasty” and “snotty”.
I don’t know any of the people involved in this but I have to say that I found the entire thing embarrassing. I’m in my 11th year of “web writing” and all I can say to the people who were offended by James’ initial comments is this: If *THAT* is all it takes to offend you, I suggest you take a long, hard look at whether or not you should be writing for the web at all.
This whole situation is just silly. I understand Melissa thought it fair to alert James and crew so they could defend themselves, but she crossed a line too. Now the WAHm people are taking it to a whole other level.
Someone on the Wahm crew started a fake thread about Melissa McCann and they have “her” apologizing and saying she’s jealous, fat, untalented and has bad skin.
It’s all kind of sad, but a valuable lesson about how courageous we become once we’re securely hidden behind our keyboards.
As for PLR - I think it’s just what you said it is. The same articles rehashed over again. It’s why it’s hard to find any REAL information online anymore.
If you all think that this got nasty and out of hand… try leading a forum of over 7000 elementary school moms (meaning moms with kids in elementary school) and have someone create a thread about putting up posters in a public school that read, “In God We Trust” and THEEEENNNN see what happens. Reason why I don’t get overly invested in discussions like this one is because I am busy trying to keep moms from shoving rosaries and crosses in eachother’s backs.
But I will say I’ve learned a lot from all the posts on PLR, blogging communities and even flame wars. I’ve even found a few new blogs to read, when I am done scraping the carnage off of my forum, I’ll be reading and catching up what I’ve missed.
@ Nikki - You can be damned sure I will not visit that forum :)
@ Lisa/Kimberly - In Quebec where I live, Melissa’s actions of advising people so they can defend themselves independently is common practice and widely accepted as the right choice. Everyone’s line is different.
Melissa really didn’t cross at a line at all. I would have done the same exact thing if I were in her shoes. I should have gone to James directly instead of asking for advice on what to do. But in the heat of the moment, we sometimes do the wrong thing. I left that particular forum years ago because of similar things, and their general love of low paying work. I guess some things never change!
@Naomi - Thanks. You’re right. For some reason women and moms can get downright nasty to each other online. I’ve witnessed some things on boards that would be reprehensible in face to face society.
@Lisa I’ve said other places that I wasn’t offended per se, but confused at the time. And reacted badly. I’m not sure anyone would react well to being called an illegitimate writer, which is what I interpreted it to be at the time.
@James I am throwing the baby out with the bathwater there too.
Courtney, you, yourself, called his posts “rather insulting” and (2 paragraphs later) and said, “he got in his insulting remarks”. But, perhaps “offended” means something different to me.
I went back and read James’ original comment and, to be frank, I never “got” that he was talking directly to you. I took his post as a roundtable-discussion kind of comment.
Sweetie, you HAVE to develop a thicker skin. As you continue in your career, you’re going to hear people call you every name in the book and maybe even threaten you with physical violence–just because THEIR small minds need to make you “wrong” so they can feel “right”.
Are you REALLY cut out for that?
Yep…I am cut out for that. As I’ve said before, told James, told Wahm, told everyone under the sun, I am sorry. I’ve been called every name in the book before, and I’ll be just fine….thank you very much! Sorry you saw things differently….but I can only speak from my perspective. :)
And that is the last I will ever write on this topic in public. Lisa, if you want to contact me directly that’s fine. I’m moving on…
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[...] Moral Of The Story: Psycho Blogger Edition (With Bonus!) This is a guest post from my husband, Jamie. Wherein I interrupt, graphically comparing PLR to child pornography and say a very bad word. Moral Of The Story: Generally Ashamed Edition Wherein my customer service skills are put to the test. [...]