When Bloggers Attack!
Original image sourced from: MunseysBearCamp.com
I’m done lying down, I’m done being nice so let’s get our pitchforks, march on and live for tomorrow. We shall NOT stand for anymore bull crap and we will be successful in what we choose.
You may be wondering why I am all riled up and feeling all Castro-ish. Plus what the hell the photo is all about?
Well…… to start we will have to go right back to a time when things were innocent, men were simple creatures. After a day working the fields all a man wanted was to relax with a cold beer and a spend the lonely nights with his beautiful wife………………
Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/Tractors_in_Potato_Field.jpg
Actually I’m talking about this morning!
I was taking a stroll around the Random Forest and I came across a clearing which looks out onto a large lake. I saw the normally docile Garry Conn bear off in the distance waddling along by the lake side. From distance looking quite content. I walked a little closer and then I could tell something was wrong, he looked agitated. In the blink of an eye Garry Conn bear went nuts and started attacking everything in site! The big furry creature pulled down a tree, roared at Vic the snake (who should not be in my forest anyway!) and then dived into the water. The whole saga ended with Garry Conn bear reaching his mighty paw into the murky waters and ripping John Cow salmon’s wriggling, writhing body from the depths of the lake… Obviously I had my camera so took a quick snap, as you saw above!
I have not been very happy with John Cow Salmon for a while now but have been reluctant to banish him from the Random Forest. The actions of Garry Conn bear means that we are very unlikely to be seeing John Cow salmon residing here anymore.
Ok sorry for the child like story but I knew no other way to tell such a tale but in the most fantastical way. Basically today I went over to the home of Garry Conn and he has had the balls to write a post against some of the other, in many cases, worthless bloggers in his MMO niche.
The post “Flipping Blog Scams MMO Niche is Full of Jerks” basically shows his angst about a new rip off trend known as Domain Name Flipping. He then goes onto slam, intelligently, some of the other MMO bloggers who have been rude and harsh about some of the poor people that have been scammed by this process . Finally his angst must have torn at him so badly that he ripped into John Cow.
Domain name flipping basically involves people getting a new site, running it for a few months, cheating the stats and selling it for far more than it is worth. Some poor bugger buying the site on good faith is left with a worthless piece of junk. It hurts me that people are that desperate to make money.
Garry’s stand struck a chord with me. I am a student of many blogs and expect to learn from these people who claim to be teachers. Recently the A-listers and middle weights, in my opinion, are not up to the job. There are a few such as Garry but I am finding lots of my information from the new boys in town. I like to think of this niche as “Learn as I learn, MMO” and these people are still human enough to care about their readers. I find Webdiggin and BuzzmyBlog interesting reads.
Of all the people he attacked John Cow is someone whom I have had respect for in the past and think is a very intelligent man. However Garry said exactly what I have been thinking. In the rage. He may have slightly misread part of John’s original post but points out that John Cow is basically pooping out sh*t and serving it to us on a fancy plate. If there is any quality to find there, it only exists in the design.
The post was great but the responses are better. Everyone is chipping in and Garry is showing why he is the MMO blogger that I respect and follow the most. I’m on his side, you should mosey on over to choose yours.
Wow that is a lot for me to say! I am hardly a successful blogger right now so know I may well get attacked by the Cow. It’s a stand I am willing to take as I believe that us students have the right to not get scammed. I am sick of the Chow’s and Cow’s of this world leaving patties everywhere. Translating that to real life. I am losing them and many A-listers from my RSS reader and will concentrate on reading what I want. Not what the MMO herd expects me to.
Garry has embarked on an epic. I expect Don King will be emailing Garry and John soon to try and arrange an event for “Super Middleweight Bloggers Champion of the World”. I expect it will be held at Madison Square Garden and I hope I can afford ring side seats.
This is a sign of good times for us humble bloggers. Maybe reform is on the way, and the scammers will slowly be pushed out of the niche. Expect bitch slaps, pregnancy’s, break up’s, make up’s, tears, joy and the occasional natural disaster as the MMO Soap Opera starts.
You can thank Garry Conn personally for this.
Don King image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Don_King.jpg
Your comments and opinions on the matter would be greatly appreciated!
Isn’t Don King a rather handsome chap? If you think so, or not! Then why not sign up to my RSS feed and if you feel really adventurous you can also sign up to my shiny new mailing list.
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April 17th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
That graphic of the Garry Conn Bear is priceless. On a more serious note, I have to say that it takes a lot to set me off. A lot of things have been building and I guess discovering that some guy named Marc got scammed out of 10K and then having Vic from BloggerUnleashed rip into him kinda was the breaking point. I am sorry for anyone that I have offended, but what I said in that post comes from the heart.
Forest you’re a real humble guy, thanks for adding some humor and light to this situation. The graphic made me laugh. Take care.
Garry
April 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I’d missed all this on Garry’s site, but the opening image of Garry as a bear is very iconic!
I personally find it a disgraceful thing to be doing (effectively conning people out of their hard-earned cash), respect to Garry for actually going to town on these guys!
April 18th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Interesting read, and thanks for the link to Garry’s post as well. I don’t need to get involved, so I won’t really comment about that issue.
Like the wooden RSS and mailing list image. Fits in nicely with the theme. (Have you thought about decreasing the height of your header logo to give you more real-estate on the opening serve? The forest is nice - I appreciate not having to look at shiny sports cars.)
By the way, before you sign up for Yahoo Search Marketing, do a google search for a 100 dollar promo code. (We don’t have any yet, or we’d give you one.) Apparently there are lots of different codes and I think from reading at the digital point forums, you can open up more than one account with Yahoo (as long as you use a different promo code). Bottom line is you’ll have to dish out $30 to activate the account, but you should be able to get $100 free credits… which is more than the $25 free credits that I started out with. Damn.
Good luck and keep us posted!
April 18th, 2008 at 3:09 am
So he ’slightly misread’ our post huh? We think he read it backwards as it was clearly not in favor of Vic’s behaviour. Garry turned it around 180 degrees, calling us the assholes for ‘fueling the fire’. So he got mad, wrote his post, had to add his personal feelings towards us, and discovered he completely misinterpreted our post.
So what do you do? Garry chose to try and not lose face by simply not admitting to his mistake, instead give the whole story a twist so his public ‘judgement’ of our blog would seem justified in the context within his post. Sure, he says sorry in the comments, but he knows the damage has been done, and attack is the best defense, right?
How much of a hypocrite is Garry? Have a look at how he replies to our comment, but quotes only parts of what we said, effectively trying to use our own words against us by not telling the whole story. Why did he never reply to the fact that he requested a link exchange, he got his link exchange from us and he had removed our link without letting us know? Is that being honest with your readers?
Garry is loving every minute of this, as he tries to play the part of the savior, but really he’s trying to milk this situation for all that its worth. If we’re not mistaking, he’s even bumped the post in question up to the top of his front page again. Could have sworn there was a new post after that, which has vanished.
Actually, try Google and you’ll see that the first result on his name shows a post he wrote and published yesterday, the 17th, about the new Alexa rank system, yet as of today, the 18th, that post is nowhere to be found on his blog, and he chooses to try and get as much exposure for this post because he sees there’s a ton o comments coming in. Is he really all that he claims to be, the nice guy that only wants to help his readers, or is he trying to get as much attention as he possibly can from the blogosphere for his own winnings?
April 18th, 2008 at 8:48 am
Great article! Love the pictures and the story. Thanks for pointing us to Garry’s post. I’m glad you like my blog. Thanks for the link!
April 18th, 2008 at 9:24 am
[...] the debate/flame war, feel free to drop by Garry’s blog, or have a look a what we had to say about the issue over here. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share [...]
April 18th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Looks to me like you’ve got a nice little fight going on between you and some other bloggers. John Chow sure did rip into you today.
Any press is good press… I would have never found your site otherwise.
John Fit
April 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
@John Fit, Thanks for stopping by. Never intended a war just wanted to be honest and humorous! I am a very busy bee today so probably won’t have a chance to properly reply to Mr Cow’s comment until later today or tomorrow but I will reply.
@Jeff and Webdiggin, Blogs like yours will be the future. You both have very different approaches but good minds and I think that if you keep your personal touch then people will keep coming and learning from you.
@Zath, I know it’s horrible. I sometimes feel bad about doing paid posts! God know how I would feel if I conned someone out of $10000!
@Garry, I love your blog and you have been nothing but help to me so this stupid war of words won’t lose me as a reader. A while back you stayed away from naming people that were dissapointing you and your readers urged you to do it. So your readers asked and you delivered. I respect that.
@John Cow, I will reply hopefully intelligently very soon. Like I am trying to point out I have not been enjoying your blog as you have not been teaching me personally how to make money online. When you first started you were much better.
April 20th, 2008 at 8:08 am
just joined your mailing list
April 20th, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Thanks Jim.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Thanks for visiting Full Tilt Blogging and commenting Forest.
I have mixed feelings about the whole controversy. When one buys a business it is a “big boy game” and the buyer is responsible for due diligence. So far I haven’t seen the sellers having committed any fraud, just possibly over paying. I have a right to sell my websites for any price I choose. No one has to buy them.
Garry believes the sellers misrepresented their traffic. Maybe they did, maybe not. To me it looks like they provided the best view of their websites and the buyers took it at face value.
I’ve been in business a long time and look at any business purchase with a good deal of skepticism.
Possibly I am not seeing the whole picture here, and feel free to correct me, but acting as if it is fraud seems–to me–a little extreme.
April 21st, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Well this started a firestorm didn’t it. I don’t read any of these folks so I just don’t care one way or another. I have noticed that people can get very ugly out here in cyberspace. It’s a shame too. That’s why I don’t get involved in these messes. Not worth it in my opinion. Have a great day.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Garry obviously is a good entrepreneur and a very successful one indeed. Take for the example, the MMO post. Garry achieved a lot -
1. Garry took out his frustration, at someone else’s cost. Garry’s own words “And to be quite honest, I’ve had more fun in the last 24 hours on my blog than I have had in a while”. The intention is clear.
2. Garry got a ton of backlinks
3. Garry got the attention he was dying for since many months
4. Garry’s main agony of nobody commenting on his blog solved.
5. Garry’s traffic problem is eliminated.
6. Garry made a ton of like minded friends, who think like the Con-man.
7. Garry had his first successful linkbait and viral post.
8. Garry gets an entry ticket to the A-List that he has been calling himself since months. A-Lister Garry.
I don’t know if you believe in freedom of speech Forest, because I posted this comment at Garry and he deleted it, instead of approving it, obviously because he knew the above was right. Guilt sucks.
*** I have deleted one line here (Forest) ***
Lets see if you approve it. Will be great.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
@ Dave.
Thanks for stopping by… Firstly, I do believe in Freedom of Speech. But I also believe that a blog is your personal space. Let’s just say it’s not a blog and that it is a pub.
So Garry Conn the OWNER of let’s say… the “Bloggers Arms”, the finest drinking establishment in his area has the right, as the landlord, to say what he wants in his bar. If you come in and sit as his bar…. and let’s say you said a political view he disagreed with. He has the total RIGHT to either discuss the matter further, or ask that you leave the establishment.
Our blog is our own. Personally I approve most comments, good or bad, but that is my choice. I deleted one line from you comment.
My re-buttle to your list…..
1. Yes he did, so did I. I don’t take bad points against my blog personally but I realized that most other bloggers do. Sadly I have a minor regret about some of the stuff I said. I don’t hate Bob (John Cow) but I have been displeased with his webiste and I was trying to express that. Nothing personal but it got personal for some reason.
2. Yes he did, I even got a few, I don’t feel guilty about that. I am a blogger, I am looking for alliances and back links. I also want to make money.
3. Every blogger wants attention. Are you a member of blog catalog, entrecard or any traffic system?? If you don’t want attention then just keep a personal diary or make your site subscriber access only.
4. Everyone wants to solve this….
5. Traffic is a constant problem for anyone. You have to keep the material and promotion up. Yes these kind of posts can help.
6. Garry is yet to have conned me. If he ever does, I will talk to him personally, if that fails I will rant. Most products he promotes come with full money back guarantees so you can’t really be conned by that aspect. Also I think I am very different from him but love visiting his site. We can be friends, have disagreements and still co-exist. People are people. Take David Cooley, a good friend of Garry. They constantly disagree on many subjects. Our blog is our opinion.
7. Well, well done to him. Mine was only half success :). I jumped in because I felt the need to. I don’t know what will be the next controversial subject to rile me in such a way.
8. What does this even mean? I am going to call my self c-list forest from now on. LISTEN ALL YOU BLOGGERS OUT THER, YOU SHALL CALL ME BY THAT NAME OTHERWISE I WILL NOT REPLY! Garry has never called him self an A-lister, as far as I can see. And so what if he did? He has given me some invaluable advice over the last few months, more than any A-lister. I read John Chow briefly…. no luck there. I got sick of T-shirts on Shoe Money but did find his advice pretty cool. I have never even visited Vic’s site and will not. Caroline’s sounds appealing, she seems like all mistakes are documented and I like that approach.
Now a question for you? What is your blog URL? JohnPark.com does not work? Who are you?
And back o a point made earlier. I am glad you came by to comment. I like all angles of comment on this blog and will always try to answer honestly.
Now….
@Mr Cow, Sorry I still never gave that FULL reply I promised. I thought about it and kind of realized I had said pretty much everything. If you want some more explanation for anything I have said then please do put in another comment or you can chat to me on GTalk (Anything said would be private). I might have said horrible things but I am not in this for any battling or war. I always try to be honest though!
April 25th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I am happy you approved my comment and for the response. I don’t own a site or blog. I am a reader of around 10 blogs and 3 of them were related to this mess. I wanted to voice out. You provided me the ground. Thank you.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:12 am
[...] up for himself in a niche filled with jerks. Told through a humorous story with amusing pictures.http://www.therandomforest.com/2008/04/17/when-bloggers-attack/A and A Resume - Humorous Interviewing StoriesHumorous articles on what can happen during a job [...]
May 8th, 2008 at 7:12 am
[...] the debate/flame war, feel free to drop by Garry’s blog, or have a look a what we had to say about the issue over here. (Our comment there might still be in [...]