Mike Grehan

[sitetutor]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

I would love to do that, but my blog tends to be more for my v7n friends. I think I might try doing "mixed blogging", when I blog about personal and V7N stuff.

It's hard to do, you don't always want to open up too much to those who you're doing business with or "to" and you don't want to come off like a geeky stiff in front of your non-internet buddies. Sure there are those who are friends and business associates, but it's scarry to have someone be able to read personal things (honest personal stuff) right next to a post where you come down on someone else's tactics, Google's new update and such.

[John Scott]

http://www.jimboykin.com/jumping-in-...seo-cat-fight/

Jim, I never attacked Mike Grehan. Check your facts - he attacked me and I responded.

He dumped on my contest - I answered his criticism.

He accused me of creating a Jill Whalen hate site - I responded.

He accused me on not contacting him - I contacted him and he whines about it.

I also found this on the same blog, oddly enough.

http://www.jimboykin.com/when-seos-attack/

Originally Posted by Jim Boykin

Advice: before you attack, or before you attack back, call up that person and have a chat. Getting involved in a public bitch fest isn’t good for anyone involved, and most of the time, it all comes from a misunderstanding.

Cheers

[John Scott]

Originally Posted by Jim Boykin

Non stop flaming is not the answer. So you called at a really bad time, I can understand your frustration….but ripping into someone (as and and your forum is doing right now) is not cool….not cool at all.

Huh.

Originally Posted by Jim Boykin

ripping into someone is not cool….not cool at all.

Ripping into somebody like Mike Grehan is doing? Ripping into me with false accusation? Unsolicited false accusations?

Why, Jim, is that statement directed at me? Can we say "hypocrisy"?

Originally Posted by Mike Grehan

Scaring women and children

Originally Posted by Mike Grehan

nothing more than the equivalent of an intimidating schoolyard bully.

Originally Posted by Mike Grehan

he had actually put up a Jill Whalen hate site some while ago. Maan! Is that a small and pitiful deed for a grown man to be renowned for?

Yes, Jim, you are 100% correct in saying:

Originally Posted by Jim Boykin

ripping into someone is not cool….not cool at all.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by John Scott

I answered his criticism. ... I responded.

That's the problem - it's the manner of your doing it.

When I first came to your webmaster forums, I still had a lot to learn: your evangelising of anchor text (when few others cared for anything but PageRank) was illuminating; your talk of SEO as a part of marketing, not apart from it, was refreshing.

You taught me a lot, and I respect you for all you've achieved, even where others may think otherwise.

But the personal level you keep attacking people with is uncalled for. Look at the content of this thread - this is neither criticism nor a response that has any degree of professionalism.

When you told me about coming back to v7n to make it a great webmaster forums, I didn't have any reason to doubt you - but since then you've made every effort to elevate yourself by denigrating others. You're creating traffic traffic not through excellence, but controversy seemingly for controversy's sake.

If you can seriously look at this thread at see nothing but adequate criticism and response, then that's a genuine shame and IMO your loss.

NFFC once said that friends are the ones who walk in when the world walks out. To me, friends are the ones who'll tell you when you have lettuce in their teeth, when no one else dare.

I said that before when I was a moderator and closed the Jill thread for getting too personal, and this is another of those instances.

You've done great things before, John, but this isn't something to be proud of.

You asked me to come back to v7n, and it's normally a great community to be a part of. It isn't at the moment, though.

Until v7n can elevate itself above the frankly disgusting commentaries as we've seen here already, then there's no place for me here at all.

Best wishes for the future, John.

[John Scott]

Brian, again, I ask what you think of Mike Grehan's ugly attack on me? I am not supposed to respond?

Oh, but you did respond. You posted a link on TW to Mike Grehan's post, saying things were getting ugly, while omitting any reference to my response to his false accusations.

His attack on me is the ugliest I've ever experienced, and your silence on the subject is oddly suspicious.

[sitetutor]

The problem is not what the "other side" has to say (because they don't have anything to say), but how much of an influence on people in the seo world they have. It's not so much about who is right and who is wrong, but rather who is with who.

It's been made clear to me by Dave calling on Aaron to "take a side".

[Ferre]

Brian, you know as well as I do that Greham, and his friends, for that matter, started with false accusations to discredit John's reputation, If someone would do that to you I would be incensed as well, it's simply not done where I come from.

Sure, John isn't very diplomatic and quite direct with his reactions but I fail to see why he should keep polite towards people who deliberately seek the media to smear on him.

One of the reasons why I have been a member here since the old webmaster forums is because John is one of the few no nonsense people in the industry who do know what they are talking about and as you say, many times in a very refreshing manner.

Me thinks that he deserves a little more creditibility than he is getting, specially from self-proclaime-seo-superheros like greham and his friends, who, for all I know, have not been able to be that refreshing themselves.

Envy can be pretty ugly, we are witnessing this at present times.

[sitetutor]

Here is my take: Matt Cutts likes the contest, I'm sure Google enjoys it too. So do all of the participants. This is the biggest seo contest, and v7n has done something that all of those non-creative followers like Dave, Mike and others would never be able to do, no matter how much influence and networking abilities they may have.

SEOs are leaches by nature and it shows. SEO is based on taking advantage of weaknesses within algorithms, it's not an honorable profession and there is not much creativity involved. I've always had a problem labelling myself, but seo is definitely not the way I ever want to be remembered.

NOW: The people with limited intelligence and capabilities will always be threatened by somehing new and great. I hate to see Brian leave, but you know what: if seo is his business, and he depends on his connection, then I do understand that there is a reason for him to take a break. I'm in this for the long run. There are few people I have respected in the seo world, and the names John Scott and Shawn Hogan come up right away, other than that I do need to think first which is sad. Anyways, Dave is a rat and Mike needs to buy himself some integrity or shut up and think before he repeats stuff he's heard elsewhere.

This contest has exposed some very small minded people and 1,000s of sheep who have no mind on their own and can be bought anytime with almost anything to bend over for whoever is holding a checkbook and is ready to use a pen.

[John Scott]

Mike

The simple fact is that Mike Grehan doesn't matter to anyone. I don't matter to anyone. People are in SEO to learn SEO, get rankings, get traffic and get sales.

They could care less who likes who. People will dump on me if they think it it will further their career. We've seen some of that.

But none of that matters. The one thing that I get out of this thread, this whole shit mess started by Mike Grehan, is that I get a peek inside people's character. I don't care about anything else. Mike Grehan can make up stories about me till he's blue in the face and it has no impact on my life. I just appreciate the chance to see what people are really made of.

[sitetutor]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

Mike

The simple fact is that Mike Grehan doesn't matter to anyone. I don't matter to anyone.

I respectfully disagree with that John. Not many people have inspired me, but you are one of them. And it has nothing to do with seo. Creativity and innovation inspire me, not link building suckups. My projects I'm working on I don't speak about, I'm heading to Palm Springs to meet with some celebs next week and build them 5 sites. That inspires me.

seo is and has been a joke for me, but it makes me money and has helped me thru tough times. The fact is that people are so weak and so low on integrity, they will follow whoever they think can provide them with something. They don't like Mike or Dave, but want a piece of the action.

The seo world is very nasty and narrow minded, the best thing to do is do whatever you're best with, and then laugh about the idiots who spend their life bowing down and picking up the crumbs from those that they "admire".

[John Scott]

Mike, sincerely, I appreciate the kind words.

It's not just the SEO world that is like that - it's people in general. But we are fortunate enough to have some good friends, and when stuff like this happens we learn to appreciate those friends even more.

[awall19s brother]

Originally Posted by Ferre

btw, calling him a homo would be an insult to homosexuals.

cough

[sitetutor]

Originally Posted by JohnScott

It's not just the SEO world that is like that

very true, I guess I've been overly exposed to the seo world. Maybe I see it worse than it is, but I see what I see. And it's not pretty, nor getting any prettier.

[Bjorn Solstad]

You know guys. It is incredibly refreshing sitting here in Poland knowing that I will never EVER be a part of the so-called seo-world. I run my stuff in my own pace and I love thinking about the fact that I will never need to bend over for anyone. That's the beauty of running our own projects, and make money from them. The seo clients we have does not even know who the seo-hotshots are, since they are in Norway minding their own business

Besides that, I support your point of view John, and I am truly sorry for the pain this whole incident has brought on you.

I have as well had a few interesting moments when it comes to peoples personalities regarding this whole unfortunate matter.

[sitetutor]

Disagree, John is even further away from us than you