According to my last check on Wikipedia, fundamentalism is a “deep and totalistic commitment” to a belief… usually of religious or moral nature. But what I have seen in the SEO community far too often is a “holier than thou” thumping of the general SEO population, that is by nature, narrow.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have morals. I stick to my personal set of ethics, both in my personal and professional life. They might not be the same as your values, but that doesn’t mean they are wrong.
Last week I stumbled (social) on a very entertaining story (bait). So entertaining in fact, I thought I would share it with some friends (viral) not realizing it was written by an well known SEO (bad ass). The story was about a 13 year old who stole a credit card to play halo with hookers. Who doesn’t want to read about that? It’s HILARIOUS! So hilarious in fact, it ended up getting mainstream media coverage from the likes of Fox News and such.
The story did not claim it was actual news, or even true for that matter. It was an entertaining anecdote, and people ate it up. Except for a whole bunch of SEOs who reacted harshly to it. Reading the sphinn comments on the story really started to test my patience. It felt like I was hanging out with my neighbors who always try to save me and take me to their church… which I am not a fan of BTW if you are reading this Eric.
Sentiments like “Social Media is ruined forever” and “SEO sunk to a new low” are preachy, at best. Jill Whalen, you and me go way back from my days at HighRankings, and the last thing I want is for you to feel offended here… but I don’t want to go to the SEO Church of Link Morality or subscribe to somebody else’s code of ethics. Establish your own, that’s fine and respectable. Just don’t thump us with them. We can all decide own how we choose to operate.
There is no black and white. Everything is shades of gray. We all must way the risks and rewards for our own actions, and think laterally. Sure, there are times I do wish others would up their own set of personal or professional ethics, but I’m not going to be the one preaching it to them. I’ll do what I do, you do what you do. Just don’t tell me what to do and we’ll be cool. Cool?
May 16th, 2008 on 2:32 pm
Aww Chris, it’s a shame you’re not interested in hearing other people’s opinions any more! Nobody’s forcing you to agree, but you’re saying we shouldn’t even post them?
May 16th, 2008 on 2:41 pm
Jill, this is now the second touche of the day from me to you. I would never want to argue with you in person for fear I might feel smaller when we were through.
But I don’t mind hearing opinions. I just don’t like when people tell me what’s wrong or right, how to think, or that my outfit is unflattering. People’s morals in SEO touches 2 of those three things.
May 16th, 2008 on 2:46 pm
Chris, I think (hope) if you read my posts on the subject that you’ll see I was simply providing my opinion. I don’t think I told anyone what to do or how to act. I also think that Kimota’s posts were written in the same way. Not preachy at all, just opinions.
Perhaps because you disagreed with the opinions you saw them more as preachy?
May 16th, 2008 on 4:38 pm
Dude, did you bait me? Damn…it worked.
May 16th, 2008 on 4:55 pm
@Jill
Your comments were on that particular thread were not the driver on this blog post, just the catalyst to finally write about the preachinesss in general that I’ve seen in the SEO community for years. I promise, this post is not about that thread, or written in response to that thread. But that thread *did* inspire me to finally write on the subject, which has been top of mind for me since I started SEO.
May 17th, 2008 on 6:24 am
I’m tempted to bite, but I’m not going to… ;-) I think Jill’s already made the point.
May 17th, 2008 on 11:10 am
Being the “evil” linkbaiter as accused, I feel I have been stomped on by a gang of Scientologists, talk about people taking the high ground.
All I did was write a funny story and submit it to digg, you would think I had nipped down to the local maternity ward and slapped a freshly born in between two slices of bread, added the mayo and chomped down.
There is something very “thought police” about this, like as if you can only write stuff which conforms to the rules.
I would rather have my skin nibbled off by rabid squirrels.
No one tells me how and what to write.
May 19th, 2008 on 10:31 am
Ew, you eat newborns with mayo? Deli mustard is the way to go.