My family’s heritage is German/Austrian on one side and Irish on the other, and I like to romantize that mix by thinking it’s a perfect blend that makes us both strong and passionate. Some of my favorite memories are of family get togethers over dinner. We talk through the dinner, we clear the dishes and spend an hour or more talking, sharing, discussing, arguing, laughing, loving, enjoying each other for the different views and voices we bring to the table. Everyone is welcomed and encouraged to take up a position and defend it strongly; the devil’s advocate is a frequent guest- fence sitters garner no respect. It all makes sense now, doesn’t it? Yes, in that respect Bloodhound Blog is like family to me.
I wrote a snarky little post on ActiveRain about point whoring- leaving insipid comments for the points. I wrote a more thoughtful companion post as well, but the snarky post got some link love from Maureen McCabe and her post sparked more discussion (both Maureen’s post and the snarky post are member’s only). The nature of AR is that members get points for leaving comments on other posts. Okay. Fine. Whatever. While this encourages comments, it doesn’t encourage actually reading a post, and does nothing to encourage thoughtful comments.
I love comments, but I don’t love all comments. I love the give-and-take of conversation that is created in a good comment thread. I love discourse and discussion and yes, even disagreements. I’m not fond of the “Great post, thanks for sharing” comments that are so ubiquitous on ActiveRain, and I’ve since created an abbreviation, GPTFS, that I think point whores and lazy commenters should use. If you use GPTFS, then I’ll know that you are commenting for points or because you want to leave a link, but not because you really give a damn about my post.
Apparently I’m in the minority about this on ActiveRain and the question came up “Would you rather have no comments…?” and my answer is yes. Yes I would rather you didn’t use my time, my blog, my thoughtfulness, as a place to deposit your big signature, your spam, your point whoring… But forget that. What goes on in AR should stay in AR. What I’d like you to consider is that if you are not leaving thoughtful comments, you are missing a real opportunity to share your unique view with your corner of the world.
Jeff Brown talked about this at Bloodhound Unchained: A thoughtful comment is an art and one you should practice; it can show the world who you are, what you think, what you have to offer. If all you have to offer is GPTFS and your signature “HomesInSoCal” (if that’s your signature, nothing personal, top-of-the-head created) then what you are really sharing with the rest of us is that you have nothing of value to share with the rest of us, and that’s too bad for you, because what many bloggers don’t get is that a thoughtful comment is an opportunity to participate in some of the finest social networking there is. You don’t need to twitter, ning, plurk, or plaxo, and you don’t even need a blog- you can leave a link to a website with your real name. By reading your local blogs and leaving intelligent comments on a regular basis, you let your market see you for who you are. Links on your blog are lovely, links are fine, but every blogger wants to know that someone not only read what they wrote, but that their writing prompted a real thought.
If AR is a world of GPTFS, then BHB is a bare knuckles world of blogging, but the middle ground is where your local blogs will fall, and in that they are perfect place to engage in the same type of healthy disagreement, or an expanded agreement, that I enjoy at my big family table- a loving but passionate debate- the result being that we have learned more about each other through a lively conversation than if we had all agreed from the beginning.
Eileen Pettengill says:
I am from a large Irish family where Uncle Jameson was another frequent visitor! I am neither a fence-sitter nor a devil’s advocate, but more of an observer of the bloodhound family and happy to be so until I feel more comfortable(worthy?) to be at the table. At the risk of offending you…great post!
July 19, 2008 — 10:41 am
Jeff Brown says:
Oh those family dinners! Try mailing in an argument with Dad, and you got your head handed you. ‘Course it took 500 words, and the death of a thousand cuts. You learned quickly to back your play, bring some game.
It taught me to ensure I understood why I believed what I believed. Once your foundation is solid, you may still be mistaken, but proving it will take a soundly reasoned argument.
Given that foundation, a single house agent from Dayton, Ohio can easily play with the big dogs — any time, anywhere.
July 19, 2008 — 12:19 pm
David G says:
GPTFS will look like spam to most people – particularly when accompanied by “ISellCastlesInSoCal (ePro, GRI, NAR).” And how many people want a spammer for a Realtor? The better AR’s SEO gets the more RE pro’s will need to watch what they say there. Prospective clients are googling you. I don’t think it’s all point-whoring – as far as I know, leaving a comment’s still the only way to subscrib to AR comments – which also leads to a bunch of comments with little more than “Parked here.”
On a more positive note, few bloggers realize that comments can give you far greater reach than the average blog can. So get out there and contribute to the conversation. If you have something useful to say it can be a very effective branding and link-building strategy.
July 19, 2008 — 1:17 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Hi Eileen-
>I am neither a fence-sitter nor a devil’s advocate, but more of an observer of the bloodhound family and happy to be so until I feel more comfortable(worthy?) to be at the table.
It’s a big table here, and no one is unworthy, but I understand what you mean. I often write then delete comments that simply don’t express my thoughts completely, or don’t seem to do justice to the post.
>At the risk of offending you…great post!
I’m not so easily offended. Thanks! 🙂
July 19, 2008 — 1:58 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Jeff-
Yep. There is no mailing it in with my family.
>It taught me to ensure I understood why I believed what I believed.
That’s exactly right. When we included aunts, uncles, cousins, it was a controlled free-for-all where the the ability to express and stand by your opinion was valued as much as whether it was right or not.
Things would really get fun as the evening wore on and we came up with outrageous ideas, or went to extremes to defend a position, just to stretch our abilities. No hard feelings around the table- we understood the rules. But when the euchre game is dealt- that’s when we go for the jugular. 😉
July 19, 2008 — 2:14 pm
Jim Rake says:
Yes, Teri, exactly right…”just like family” – that’s the beauty of it.
Say what’s on your mind, and once it’s been sliced, diced and thrown back at you more than a couple of times, it’s kind of cathartic.
When it’s time to leave the table and everyone’s said there piece, there aren’t hurt feelings, just good food for thought.
July 19, 2008 — 2:16 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Howdy David-
>leaving a comment’s still the only way to subscrib to AR comments
You are right- that never occurred to me. Although no one ever brought that up in any of the lengthy conversations over there, so I doubt that’s what going on most of the time w/ gptfs.
>comments can give you far greater reach than the average blog can.
It can’t be said often enough. I’m building a brand in Dayton, and right now I’m the only one (I hope no one else in my market reads BHB).
July 19, 2008 — 2:22 pm
Jeff Brown says:
There’s that game again. In Ohio, I swear euchre is almost a religion. There is not kiddin’ around when playin’ that game in Ohio. Serious, serious stuff.
July 19, 2008 — 2:22 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Jim
We were typing the same thought at the same time.
Debate is very healthy, and good for everyone. I can’t imagine life where passionate conversation is not welcomed.
July 19, 2008 — 2:26 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Jeff-
I’m told that one cannot be an Ohioan of German descent and not play euchre, but I don’t play- I claim my Irish during euchre games.
I’ve seen euchre games end in squabbles that last years. We still sit down and talk, but sworn euchre enemies have been created.
July 19, 2008 — 2:33 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Jim-
Just visited your blog- how beautiful! I wish you all the best with it.
July 19, 2008 — 2:41 pm
Geno Petro says:
Teri…very well said (and written). AR is definitely the epitome of the RE social network–with the whole spectrum of personalities represented. I drop in there every few weeks to read, ironically, the comments.
As far as my own extended family is concerned; We always either let it fly or ate in silence while maneuvering around the pink elephant that has been an invisible house guest in the Petro home for as long back as I can remember. (To this day we usually do our laughing, commenting etc, when the other person isn’t present.) Having said all that for no points….GPTFS.
July 19, 2008 — 3:58 pm
Jim Rake says:
Teri – Appreciate the words – just learning to crawl. Have touched down in Dayton in my previous life – Wright Patterson to be specific.
One of the many jewels in life is the education (the growin’ up part), and appreciate the BHB for its passion, substance, and assorted trouble makers….I mean, contributors.
July 19, 2008 — 4:47 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Geno-
Pink elephants occasionally thunder into our family, but I suppose through hard lessons we’ve learned to pull together when that happens.
Silence, you will never find. Multiple conversations with people jumping in and out to defend an opinion is the norm. It’s quite chaotic and fun.
July 19, 2008 — 6:13 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Jim-
WPAFB is the cement holding this town together right now. Our house is about 6 miles from the base and when our son was tiny he was fascinated by aircraft, we’d take him to the base flight line and watch the F-16s practice touch and go’s. By the time he was in 2nd grade he could tell what plane was flying over our house by the sound of the engine. 🙂
July 19, 2008 — 6:19 pm
Heather Rankin says:
Teri – I am getting close to the point of not being able to claim “newness” or “lack of knowledge” regarding RE or the blog. That said, from the start, I did not “get” the GPTFS comments. Maybe because I’ve run other websites and have seen the “what gets written stays forever” nature of the net. Ten years from now, it’s probably still going to be there, and do I want a million dollar customer, or better yet, my “family” thinking the best I could do was “GPTFS”
I rather think not.
Family: It is huge, it is artistic, and musical, and involves people waiting for turns at guitars, standing in line for the piano, finding room to sit amongst the painting supplies that have appeared where the food should rightly be. It is LOUD. It is the best when it is all of us put together. There is a lesson in there somewhere……
July 20, 2008 — 3:05 am
Teri Lussier says:
Hi there Heather-
Once in a great while I do a vanity Google search- what if someone googles my name? What would they find? They’d find a lot of comments among my generated presence.
Comments are such an incredible tool for us- free, ubiquitous, easier than maintaining a weblog- it’s like leaving a biz card all over the place. Jeff discussed this at BHBU, but DavidG@Zillow discussed reputation management through commenting. I’ve boldly gone where no RE agent has gone before to discuss why or how something is done in Dayton. That speaks volumes for and about me as a Realtor in my market with the wired crowd, and that’s who I want to work with. It ain’t rocket science.
A few years ago I had the privilege of witnessing a small unconventional wedding in Boston. The two grooms were Harvard grads and their family and friends came from all across the country to wish them the best. The reception was held at their condo. Their friends brought their guitars and fiddles and we spent hours and hours singing songs- without music mostly. They would trade instruments and trade leading voices. It was an extraordinary outpouring of love and joy and happiness, and truly one of my fondest memories.
Which is my long-winded way of saying that you are very fortunate to have such creativity in your life. 🙂
July 20, 2008 — 6:03 am
Heather Rankin says:
>I’ve boldly gone where no RE agent has gone before to discuss why or how something is done in Dayton.
I need to get better at doing that. While other local brokerages have large, expensive, static websites, I am the only agent blogging in 130 miles. It presents a unique opportunity for success.
>you are very fortunate to have such creativity in your life.
I frequently pause to think just that …..
On the more serious side, we quit a good music gig about a month ago at a place we’ve played for some time. When the music becomes a job, and the joyous passion exits, it is time for me to exit as well. It was a sad, difficult, decision but at the same time we need to record and write more. After this breather, we’ll go find another gig 🙂
July 20, 2008 — 10:10 am
Sean Purcell says:
Teri,
Silence, you will never find. Multiple conversations with people jumping in and out to defend an opinion is the norm. It’s quite chaotic and fun.
Now that I can relate to… it is our Irish heritage: silence is most definitely not golden among those with the gift of blarney.
It was the retorts that I remember most. My dad was a Master (and he says he couldn’t hold a stick to his old man). Two favorites: “You couldn’t be more full of crap if your ass was screwed on backwards.” And of course there was this gem: “You are wrong… but no more than usual.”
Thanks for the walk down family lane…
July 20, 2008 — 11:31 am
Maureen McCabe says:
Thanks for the mention.
No slight meant to your thoughtful ActiveRain post with a great idea of how to make the comment points and conversations more meaningful. The snarky post was just so short and to the point. LaShawn asked the question there so innocently about would you prefer nothing at all to a “GPTFS” comment. You answered “Yes”
July 20, 2008 — 1:04 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Sean-
It breeds character. 😉
July 20, 2008 — 1:34 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Maureen-
I didn’t take it as a slight at all. Anytime a post causes enough reflection to create another post, that is a compliment.
Your post had a very interesting comment thread. I was surprised by how many people would prefer any comment at all, regardless of how inane, to no comment.
July 20, 2008 — 1:39 pm
Sean Purcell says:
It breeds character.
…and creates characters 🙂
July 20, 2008 — 2:05 pm
Maureen McCabe says:
It is an interesting comment thread. The vote did not surprise me. The comments did. Why try to persuade that those who do not want a GPTFS should appreciate comments that say nothing and mean nothing. Msny seem to truly believe that it is a courtesy to “GPTFS” a post..
July 20, 2008 — 3:53 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Maureen-
>truly believe that it is a courtesy to “GPTFS” a post..
Maybe that’s the nature of a social network as opposed to a free standing blog? My concern is that folks get used to the niceties of GPTFS and take that into the real world and miss an opportunity to create a conversation, or worse, offend a blogger by leaving a meaningless comment with their link or spammy signature. It doesn’t fly everywhere.
OTOH, Perhaps the GPTFS folks never move outside AR, I keep forgetting about that. 😀
July 20, 2008 — 6:13 pm
Maureen McCabe says:
The GPTFS comments may be a social network thing. A GPTFS comment may be the ActiveRain equivalent to a Poke on Facebook or throwing sheep at a someone also on Facebook or all the odd social network ways of catching someone’s attention. None of which makes much sense to me.
You say “GTFS” to be polite….because everyone does it. You toss a sheep at all your friends because everyone is doing it.
I think many are bound and determined to never budge from ActiveRain.
July 20, 2008 — 6:59 pm
Teri Lussier says:
>I think many are bound and determined to never budge from ActiveRain.
That made me laugh! Some folks do have a certain determination to to never leave that cozy home. Perhaps I’ll throw a sheep at them from now on.
July 20, 2008 — 7:22 pm
Brad Coy says:
Teri Lussier throwing sheep. Now that’s funny. 🙂
July 21, 2008 — 12:27 am
Maureen McCabe says:
I wrote about “GPTFS” this Sunday again, with some advice from an expert, ProBlogger. I know just a handful of those who read my post and again wanted to argue that a “GPTFS” is just being polite will venture outside AR to read anything like that. You can’t blame me for trying. If one of the trusted top bananas on AR said the same thing as ProBlogger members would read it and comment..
“Oh _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ you are so wise and wonderful. Great post thanks for sharing!”
“_ _ _ you hit the grand slam with this post. Thanks for making ActiveRain so great! Great post thanks for sharing.”
” _ _ _ _ I agree with _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Great post thanks for sharing!”
Or maybe members would be encouraged to try to write posts a little less mediocre and use comments on other blogs to carry on conversations, rather than just “reciprocation” of GPTFS.
I grew up in a large Irish family… I don’t remember those dinner conversations. I remember “shut up and eat.”
July 21, 2008 — 4:54 am
Teri Lussier says:
>Teri Lussier throwing sheep. Now that’s funny.
hrmf
July 21, 2008 — 5:03 am
Teri Lussier says:
>If one of the trusted top bananas on AR said the same thing as ProBlogger members would read it and comment..
Moo? 😀
>I grew up in a large Irish family… I don’t remember those dinner conversations. I remember “shut up and eat.”
LOL! Ya’ll were from a different part of Ireland? 😉
July 21, 2008 — 5:06 am
Maureen McCabe says:
Moo?
hmmmm… no Mo.
My ancestors must be from the silent sullen part of Ireland.
July 21, 2008 — 5:21 am
Teri Lussier says:
Brooding Irish are very clever. 😀
July 21, 2008 — 5:27 am
James Bridges says:
Teri,
I think the short comments arise from 2 situations.
1. Those New to Blogging – They think it’s polite to say good work and aren’t sure what else to write because they are new to the blogosphere – I think these people are ok as they gotta learn at some point.
2. The Lazy “get quick links” real estate agent – These people aren’t ok. They want those previous links from comments which will be devalued at some point anyway and just don’t want to put real time in to actual comments.
Thanks for sharing Teri.
July 21, 2008 — 8:27 am
David Shafer says:
Hey Teri, see you are in Fairborn. Graduated from Fairborn High, class of 1975! Been back twice since then. Parents moved to Florida right after my senior year. Small world or small blog o sphere anyway.
July 21, 2008 — 1:50 pm
Teri Lussier says:
I think you are right, James. I’m willing to cut someone slack if they are new, unless they leave a big spammy link with their comment.
The spam is must go. Everyone loves a commercial break, right? 😀
July 21, 2008 — 2:02 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Howdy David-
Foy’s is still selling bulk candy, you’ll be glad to hear. 🙂
July 21, 2008 — 2:03 pm
Vance Shutes says:
Teri,
You nailed it with this one. In my early days of exploring the world of blogging, I stumbled onto AR. I watched and learned and saw tons of those GPTFS comments, and wondered why anyone would bother. I understood as I saw the political games the point-gatherers were playing. Puhhhhllleeeezze……..
It wasn’t until Unchained that I really understood the importance of a comment adding to the discussion. I came away from Unchained with the determination to only offer a comment if the article so moved me. That said I’d rather be a day late in my blog reading (and commenting) and be totally “there”, so that I can offer something to the discussion.
Maureen’s comment also struck me:
>”A GPTFS comment may be the ActiveRain equivalent to a Poke on Facebook or throwing sheep at a someone also on Facebook or all the odd social network ways of catching someone’s attention. None of which makes much sense to me.”
A blog is so much more than a way to catch someone’s attention (although bloggers certainly do like the attention – especially if it results in a new client). I’d rather have fun with a lengthy thread of conversation with one, or a few, readers, as opposed to a dozen GPTFS comments. An intelligent comment thread means that the article has actually engaged the reader – capturing a small space in the reader’s head. That is the ultimate real estate that a blogger is after.
GPTFS. 😉
July 21, 2008 — 6:07 pm
Teri Lussier says:
Hi Vance!
Good to actually see your comment didn’t get held up in spam.
This was a very thoughtful comment, but I love this:
>An intelligent comment thread means that the article has actually engaged the reader – capturing a small space in the reader’s head. That is the ultimate real estate that a blogger is after.
So very well put.
July 21, 2008 — 7:29 pm