It's Official: SREP blog is for booster club members only

[perfectfire]

[SandyK]

Good grief. You leave town for a couple of weeks and look what happens.

Is it all the comment areas or just SREP? It may not be a policy from the SREP people, because if it is they didn't discuss it with me and I would not support it. If it's the entire PI then I don't think it is anything personal. Have you tried making a comment anywhere else on the PI site other than our section?

I am okay with individual writers closing comments but banning posters because you don't like what they have to say is a no-no in my book and if they are doing that I'm going to complain about it. In fact I'll probably do more than complain about it. I'm not sure it will matter though. I am also less than happy with the rah-rah tone over there and the general lack of respect for differing opinions.

[SandyK]

Oh, and for the record, the anonymity issue is just stupid. I don't care who you are or where you're from, I can judge the validity of your opinions and the depth of your thought process based on your writing. I don't need to see a resume.

[Alan]

I'm going to make a guess that they saw a bunch of comments coming from a single IP address and were not sophisticated enough to realize that it might be many people from a single private network instead of a single person spamming their comments.

[biliruben]

Good for you, Sandy. Let us know what you find out.

I think I'm finally over that blog anyway. I try and formulate thoughtful posts that I think agents would be respectfully interested in, given my perspective as buyer and seller, and I get little love. It ain't worth the head-banging when it's clear that a good portion just want to chat with other, like-minded agents, and view the client riff-raff as children who's opinion is tolerated on the surface, but not respected.

There are some good contributors over there, but they are increasingly drowned out by the insecure agents with monstrous chips on their shoulders.

It's a shame, because it's occasionally been a good resource in the past. For both the client and the agent, I like to think.

[SandyK]

It's too bad because I had really hoped for that blog to be a good resource. I think it still could be but I don't know what to do about the general tone of the discussions over there.

[deejayoh]

[Greg Perry]

FWIW, I was out of town as well (not with Sandy!!! I don't want any rumors here!)

I'm a contributing poster at SREP, as well and won't participate in posts there that deliberately try to pick fights and demean another's thoughts.

I welcome debate and will discuss any topic that's specific and has reasonable conversation, however, I don't have the time or patience for circle arguments that revolve around generalities.

We don't have to always agree to have meaningful conversation.

Also, FWIW, I enjoy The Tim's (and others here) passion for trying to figure out the market. Frankly, he's better at it than many agents. I don't really enjoy the childish behavior....on either side.

[SandyK]

Checked in with Marlow and she doesn't think she, or any of us who contribute there, has/have the ability to ban IP addresses. If the IP address of Microsoft is being banned, it's probably either a glitch (that seems most likely to me) or something that the PI has decided to do probably unrelated to the SREP blog.

I was wondering earlier whether Microsoft themselves could have requested that the PI ban their IP address in a misguided effort to get their workers to work harder, but then I figured why would they need to do that when undoubtedly they've got Net Nanny or some such.

[redmondjp]

Thanks for posting Greg and I do appreciate you sharing your market insights and analysis, both over there and here. You represent your profession very well.

I also have largely given up on the SREP blog as well, as it seems like it's only purpose lately is for fellow agent back-slapping and general demeaning of anonymous non-professionals. I think that if only a few of the regular posters (three names come to mind immediately, I bet most of us can guess who they are) at SREP were to find better blogging opportunities elsewhere, so to speak, then the signal-to-noise ratio of the content and comments there would rise considerably.

Having a reasoned, data-supported vigorous exchange of ideas and viewpoints free from straw-man arguments, ridiculous sidetracks (trademark violations, sheesh! ) and personal attacks makes for an excellent blog, regardless of what 'side' of the argument one is on.

[The Tim]

[deejayoh]

[Fripp]

[redmondjp]

I guess Eleua and Synthetik haven't paid their club dues lately (and they ruined the party for everybody else too, SO third grade)!

[Fripp]

Now I'm really curious what Synthetik and Eleua had to say. Anyone catch the comments before they got nuked?