This is verging on downright bizarre.
I’ve been spammed twice now by BlogWorldExpo or people saying they are representing BlogWorldExpo.
I was told the first email was sent by an over-zealous PR company, which I accept. The company was authorized by the BlogWorldExpo folks to send the emails, so although they may not have sent them directly they still bare some responsibility. To date I’ve received apologies and I’ve accepted them, but now this Rick Calvert fellow is denying the spam. Bizarre, he would have been far better off just saying sorry, the PR company shouldn’t have done that etc, instead of attacking me.
Even more bizarre is that the post he refers to isn’t on TechCrunch. It was deemed uninteresting and taken down less than 5 minutes after it went up. Calvert links to a spam blog that scrapped the TC post and deems me in the wrong because I didn’t correct the post. WTF? How I’m suppose to correct a spam blog is beyond me, but hey, why let facts get in the way of a good ol’ fashioned lynching.
I’ve received another spam email, claiming to be from BlogWorld Staff. I’ve never mentioned that before today because I really didn’t care. Again for Rick’s sake: I corresponded with a couple of people involved with BlogWorldExpo, received apologies and had a good yarn, zero hard feelings at all until today.
As for the rumor on Twitter it was just that: I rumor on my Twitter stream I heard. If I thought it was important or serious I would have posted it on a blog, not just put it on Twitter. I received a number of emails from people telling me that it wasn’t true, which I did and still accept at face value: again, some perspective, it was so minor a thing that I’m still struggling with the fact that I’ve come under attack over it. I heard it, I was told that it wasn’t true, and I’ve never so much as said boo about it again until today, so you’d think that was the end of story.
The personal attacks in the comment stream are perhaps even more bizarre, given they deal with a post that is NOT live and was deemed to be uninteresting in the bigger scheme of news that day, or over subsequent days. As someone who writes on topical news I was simply trying to present a fact, and that was that I had received a spam email from someone claiming to represent BlogWorldExpo. As noted above I’ve since been told that this was a PR company (although Calvert claims it’s an exhibitor now, which is different to what I was told…unless the two are the same) and I thought was the end of the story. People make mistakes, and this email was sent in error: I’m totally cool with that, which makes Rick’s attack more bizarre. People suggesting that I’m posting for notoriety or attention shows more about their insular, sad lives than it does about me. I’d rather write a post on censorship in China that is extensively quoted in the MSM, including TV, than a convention I’m not involved in. Or about a great new startup with a promising product, or the latest in Second Life and virtual worlds, or break the latest VC deal. BlogWorldExpo may sound great, but it’s not the center of the universe to me, as many in that community aren’t to me full stop. I’m not slighting the many good people in blogging (there are heaps of them) but some in the blogging community become very self obsessed and self important when at the end of the day there is much more in the world. Over the last 12 months I’ve opened myself to new people and ideas, and I still believe I’m a far better person for that.
I’d also note that the comment I left on his blog has either been deleted or is stuck in a moderation queue. Unlike Rick I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that it’s in moderation and hasn’t been deleted, so I look forward to seeing my response published.
Post note: The irony of saying I don’t care then writing a long post about it isn’t lost on me. This post is only written as I was asked in an email titled “media enquiry” to comment on it. I do respond to emails but if others are blowing this up as well I want to be on the record. Indeed, if it wasn’t for the email I would never have known about the post from Calvert.
