IABC welcomes comments on social networking
As you can tell from comments to Tom Keefe’s recent post, there is a lot of buzz these days about social networking. Since both IABC and social networking tools help to build communities, IABC is in the process of exploring which, if any, additional social netoworking tools would be useful to our members.
So, last Thursday we sent out a survey to members to find out what they thought about social networking. Because we plan to have an initial conversation at our Executive Board meeting in New Orleans next week, we wanted to get some quick input as a first step and did not solicit specific comments from members in the survey.
Rest assured that your comments are encouraged. We will be actively seeking additional input and asking for those comments, which we’ve already begun to hear–and that’s great!
We welcome any other thoughts you have about what IABC could or should be doing in the social networking arena, and will incorporate any comments we get into our Executive Board discussion.
So, if you have an opinion about whether IABC should be building more ways for you to connect online or how we should do it, please speak up.
June 12th, 2007 at 6:33 am
There is one issue that no one has really debated in detail about IABC creating a new social networking site–the immense cost of doing this.
It took us the better part of six months and a huge financial investment in software and people to launch http://www.myragan.com, and I am certain that it cost Melcrum a similar hefty amount.
But that is only the beginning. We have three dedicated employees providing content to this site. We have an additional two employees whose job is partly dedicated to answering member questions about issues facing internal communicators and PR people. We launched an expensive video production studio because a good social networking site includes video news dispatches, video blogs and podcasts.
In addition to THAT, there are the upgrades. If you are committed to social networking, that means you have to keep up with the Jonses. And that means constant upgrades as technology offers new and better solutions.
To give you an example, http://www.myragan.com is only six weeks old and we’re already working on five upgrades to the site. This all costs money. And there is no option NOT to make these improvements because failing to do so means you will quickly lose members.
This is the reality. A good social media site is not like throwing up a new blog. It’s THAT multiplied five-fold. Is IABC prepared to take on those costs?
Mark Ragan
CEO
http://www.myragan.com
June 12th, 2007 at 6:43 am
Glenda,
I love the passion being expressed in comments covering many sides and angles of this discussion. The Executive Board should be able to have a good discussion by using this feedback and the survey results.
The decision regarding how IABC will, or will not, revise its online presence should be based on the typical criteria: opportunities, costs, benefits, resources, alternatives–and intangibles. To riff off of Steve Crescenzo’s comment on my post, “birthing” a new online presence (or consolidating existing tools with new functionality) will be a long, and painful process.
(Now, I am really going out on a limb, being a man) I’ve talked with my wife and other close friends about the pains of childbirth. They say that the actual pain is terrible (even with drugs), but it is put out of mind when the baby is in hand. If, prior to conceiving, every woman watched a video of someone in labor, they might scrap the whole idea, and we would soon be extinct.
If IABC looks ahead and only sees the pain that will be involved in moving to a new online presence, the idea won’t go full-term. As the “potential parents” of a new online presence, all IABC members should consider whether we are ready for the upset stomachs early-on, the late-term wishes that this misery would end, and then the late-night feedings and diaper changes as the new product requires our care.
June 12th, 2007 at 7:05 am
Great analogy Tom. I can’t argue with it, since I personally have been leading the diaper changes at http://www.myragan.com
It is not an exaggeration to say that I was putting in 17 hour days answering members as they came pouring in from Australia, Denmark, Poland, the UK and elsewhere. And that frenetic pace has continued.
I’m not complaining. It’s probably the most exciting development at our company in years–and the two sister sites we’re launching over the next two months will make it even more exhilarating.
So I guess we should amend your analogy for http://www.myragan.com and say that we’re birthing triplets.
Mark Ragan
CEO
http://www.myragan.com
June 12th, 2007 at 8:39 am
This is truly a labour of love for Mark and his team, and it’s clear a big investment has been made in the myragan site. But at the same time, our local chapter here in Vancouver quickly and easily started up an IABC group in Facebook and it’s great — easy to send out notices of upcoming events and post updates on local chapter activities. The cost is zero and the time to maintain is next to nothing.
Perhaps the model IABC should be looking at is to use Facebook as the foundation and develop a way to encourage local chapters to start up subgroups that are then connected somehow ,so there can be an international information feed. My point is that we don’t need to replicate what Ragan and Melcrum are trying to do, but still can do something to connect our members using an existing free platform.
June 12th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Shoulda read your comment first, Ron. I just said pretty much the same thing on the previous discussion topic. (That chronological order thing never did work for me.)
June 13th, 2007 at 6:29 am
I tend to agree with Ron also.. However i think trying to get everyone to use the same platform will be like hearding cats.. Also once people get used to working with one system, change is not easy.
June 13th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Ron your idea is workable….if the only thing you want to do is send out meeting notices and chpter information updates. Frankly, chapter web sites (for those that have them) have been able to do that for years. And isn’t there several online forums for members to connect and share information already (ie, MemberSpeak) plus this forum and Commons?
What needs to be done, IMHO, is for IABC to have a clear vision of who it is, the value it can offer membership (ideally, better than anyone else), how/if social media could be used to deliver that value, and a clear understanding of the cost and effort required - plus committment to spend the $$$/add staff if necessary - BEFORE a decision is made as to what tools should be used.
Doesn’t anyone remember Talking Business Now? From where I sit it seems that there is a stampede forming to repeat many of the same mistakes that doomed TBN. Your approach may be the right one. OTOH, maybe it would be worth the similar investment Mark alludes to in the long run for IABC to create their own version of MyRagan, .et .al.
But, as the saying goes, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Without a firm strategic vision and plan on how to get there, there is a danger that whatever is adopted will either fall short or be overkill. Of course, there is always the chance that IABC will guess right….
June 13th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Craig’s comment allows us to circle back to the point that the IABC survey results (and now these comments in addition) were meant to provide initial fodder for the upcoming IABC Executive Board discussion.
I doubt that IABC leadership will rush into anything, but they certainly have been stung enough for past indecisions.
The optimist in me (which often overrides reason) hopes for the best.
June 13th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Dear Craig,
I am glad you raised this issue because I don’t think a lot of members realize how expensive a proposition this is.
There was a comment by another IABC member that MyRagan’s platform cost only $200 a month to put up. OH how I wish it were so.
Yes, you can get a $200 platform, but guess what: you have to make a tradeoff.
In exchange for the company selling you the $200 software, you must allow your community to be linked to all of the other communities they serve. This link comes from a drop down window on your site. Guess what the other communities are–everything you can imagine, from racy soft porn to social networks for rap lovers.
In order to have streaming instant messaging and chat rooms, two very important functions, you must allow streaming ads. Guess what those ads are for—yep, sex sites like adultfriendfinder.com
So yes, go ahead and buy the $200 version, then watch members storm your building with torches and pitchforks.
Now, in order to shut off the advertising and segregate your community from the sex sites and the irrelevant content, what do you have to do? Pay, and pay again. Now the monthly fee begins to go up. Last I checked our bill was well over $2,000 a month.
Wait, I’m not finished. In order to make sure your site is protected from overloads caused by the other communities running the same platform, you have to invest in a dedicated server (big money) and pay for the installation and set up fees (big money again).
Then…because the site is not JUST right, you need upgrades to fit your membership…guess what, big money again.
OK, now you’re up and running and thousands of members come pouring in. Among those members are spammers, snake oil salesmen and stumblers-by who just like to post irrelevant or offensive comments.
Because social platforms know no boundaries, You can be asleep in San Francisco while someone on the other side of the world is busy amassing friends to their profile with the intention of spamming them with a crude message. So what do you do? You begin hiring staff to monitor the site around the clock.
Meanwhile, who in your organization is going to be posting the content daily, working with the programers at the parent company to rid the site of bugs and monitor the competitive sites to ensure that you’re keeping up with the Joneses. Will that be the current web master. I don’t think so….the social media site is in and of itself a job for one to three people.
This is just the beginning. So please, don’t believe anyone who says, “what, social networking, yeah just grab that program off the shelf and throw it uo there.” It’s only $200 bucks.
Boy do I wish….
Mark Ragan
CEO
http://www.myragan.com
June 14th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
IABC is just wasting its members time asking questions about web sites. There’s no-one at IABC capable of even judging some piece of electronic communications, let alone running it.
Don’t believe me?
Go to iabc.com and look at how well photography has been used. Look for topicality on the site. Look for any effort at all for the site to deal with media relations.
Think you’ve found good work in the IABC Cafe? Look more carefully., Except for thread and others directly realted to it, no one particpates except the same old same old.
Think the “Branding” site is any good? Then you have no ability to judge.
I have not looked in memberspeak for months — can anyone reply here and say it is packed with good content? I’m not expecting an answer.
In the “Media” site, Eric’s provided excellent content, but it was like dropping diamnds down into a deep, deep well. You coulnd’t even hear the splash at the bottom.
How about IABC’s job site? Compare it to Ned Lundquist’s Job of the Week.
What about the Podcasts, you say… I’ve b een insulted when I called them amateur radio because no one bothers to edit them. Insult away — last time I listened they were still not edited, but maybe that’s changed.
But I couldn’t check as I write this note, because they seem to have disappeared.
Can any chapter president or VP from any chapter, anywhere in the world, respond here and say with a straight face that his or her members, at least to the extgent of fifty percent plus one, think IABC’s track record in electonic written internet based communications is any good at all?
BAK
June 15th, 2007 at 12:24 am
I have a question (this will show what a neophyte I am) to Mark: you keep talking about having staff members adding content, but all of the enthusiasts I’ve ever heard rave about the fact that all content is user-generated. Can you enlighten me?
June 15th, 2007 at 4:35 am
Kristen, I can help here. I was managing editor of MyRagan during the launch phase. Most of the editorial work is on the MyRagan home page, where we:
• Highlight the most widely intersting goings-on in MyRagan forums, blogs, groups. This is to help a busy MyRagan-checker go straight to what’s really cool.
• Post funny/instructive videos and stories from our publications or elsewhere, in order to draw people into forum discussions on important topics.
• Give away free downloadable products–downloadable reports, etc.
Ragan editors refresh this home page once a week completely, but elements of it are refreshed all week. The work is three times more complicated than it looks, and it does take a lot of time, and constant attentiveness.
The other work involves participation in the MyRagan conversations–which is nothing but fun, but it does take time–and following up on various questions, and comments from our 6,000 members.
You don’t build it and walk away. A site like this is like a giant keg party going on in your front yard. You’re glad everybody’s having fun, and you are too, but you’ve got to keep an eye on things–and tap a new keg every once in a while.
David
June 15th, 2007 at 5:54 am
Kristen,
Every week we display key stories, video interviews and webinars produced by editors at Ragan. We give away one valuable audio conference every week, and we put a Featured Story of the week on the homepage.
So our MyRagan content editors must select, edit and post these features every week, sometime making content changes daily.
But the real time commitment at MyRagan is the diligent effort that goes into monitoring the wealth of user generated content and calling it to the attention of all users. There are hundreds of posts now on the Forum, and dozens of individual threads.
We cannot assume that everyone is aware of the riches buried in these pages. Yesterday, for example, a communicator from Australia sent us an incredible powerpoint presentation on how to correctly use e-mail in your company. We are now preparing that presentation for posting on our site.
Much editorial time is devoted to answering questions from MyRagan members, or directing them to others who can help with a specific need.
I hope that answers your questions.
Mark
June 15th, 2007 at 6:14 am
David, I love the keg party analogy. I guess that would have made me, Shell, Pete, and the rest of the SYSOP crew running PRSIG forums back in the mid-90’s ‘Kegmeisters,” right?
June 15th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
Between Brian’s inimitable talk-radio style and Mark’s explanation, you have it. If this is to work, you have to throw money into it - not so much capital to develop it, but operating bucks and resources. IABC has spent the big bucks to build stuff on occasion, but they have not - as far as I can tell - been able to get someone with a deep understanding of the Web to be kegmeister for an extended period, WITH good staff to put in the hours and hours behind the scenes so it all looks easy AND the imagination to figure out what makes people keep coming back.
And IABC is far from the only organization that hasn’t. The Web is finally getting away from Sturgeon’s Law (90% of EVERYthing is crud) but that has only happened recently.
June 15th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
As a member, observer and former finance director and board member of IABC, and as someone who spends a lot of professional time urging some companies forward into the social space, and urging others to rein it in a bit, I pray IABC just leaves the space alone another year or two.
Why?
1) When it comes to new communication technology, IABC has been a consistent follower for going on 15 years. When online communication started taking off in the early 90s, and IABC members started embracing it — informally — at CompuServe’s PRSIG, did IABC support this? No. I started attending IABC conferences because of PRSIG, but it was 4-5 years before IABC leadership took online comms seriously.
Social media? The same. Some IABC members are doing splendid, groundbreaking work in social media, but IABC is doing none of it. This blog is a fine example.
2) When IABC did twig on to online communication, it tried to lurch ahead, tried to go commercial. TalkingBusinessNow, a fiasco that nearly brought the association to bankruptcy, was the result. TBM was born of a hope to catch up; it was doomed because of poor knowledge of and indifference to the medium at the senior level.
In the same way, an attempt by IABC to “get into the space” MyRagan has cleverly captured is pretty much doomed to failure. IABC’s top leadership doesn’t understand social media particularly well — and if you can disabuse me of this notion, please feel free — and is, at best, indifferent to it. If you don’t understand the business you are getting into, and are largely indifferent to it, you will fail (throw away member money).
IABC missed this boat — it left the dock long ago. Long before today’s IABC leaders had ever heard the word “blog” and long before they had one.
So maybe IABC should resign itself to saying “We won’t be at the forefront of new media communication, but we will be the thought leaders. No, you won’t see us there when a new media space opens, but over the next three or four years, we will build a solid body of knowledge about how social media is used in business. ”
Let MyRagan have the communication social media space. Why not? They are having the keg party, and we aren’t going to steal that one.
Instead, IABC can put its strengths into making a deeper understanding of social media’s applications to corporate communication, advertising, PR. There’s plenty of knowledge out there — IABC members are making it every day — and IABC is in a fine position to pull it together into a book, doctrine, whatever.
Imitating MyRagan is a fool’s game. They are the frat with party keg out front. Maybe we should be the nerd house with the biggest exam library.
June 16th, 2007 at 4:30 am
Right now there is a terrific example of how MyRagan.com can help IABC –without the association ever having to drop a dime on its own social network.
If you go to our site at http://www.myragan.com, you will read a very poignant letter from a woman who approached the Ottawa chapter and asked for information on volunteering. She never received a reply. She goes on to complain bitterly about the state of Ottawa’s web site and its indifference to her interest in the association.
Within a few hours, Barbara Gibson of the UK chapter responded with an eloquent letter explaining why the Ottawa chapter may not have responded, but more importantly, she offered to intervene on the woman’s behalf.
It was an amazing example of how a social networking site like http://www.myragan.com can actually act as a release valve, airing problems with the association and providing solutions (within minutes). And I see no reason why San Francisco should not WANT this exchange and others like it to happen.
The only recommendation I would make is that Julie Freeman and the IABC staff jump on board. They might learn a lot about what is on the minds of their members (and maybe more importantly) non-members who are thinking about joining. And, as I have said before, they could also gain the experience of social networking and apply those insights into the construction of their own site.
Dare I say: Julie, feel free to use MyRagan.com as a recruitment tool.
Mark Ragan
CEO
http://www.myragan.com
June 17th, 2007 at 5:35 am
Well finally figured it out.. silly me.. I thought the idea of these forums was to have active discussion and share ideas.. But it is very evident from quite a lot of comments it is just a platform for certain individuals to find opportunity to advertise (quiet blatantly too)! Brian Kilgore has no positive comment to say about IABC, but of course when you check to see how this negamite is you find out he has his own consultancy in PR, Marketing and communication.. of course everyone else is getting it wrong.
Mark Regan and David Murray have come back with some really good comments, but let’s see how many time you can make an invitation to MyRagan or list the website address or your specific role..
Come on people lets give share ideas and thoughts rather than grinding an axe or seeing how many references and invitations you can make to your business.
Very easy to see IABC’s role.. Helping professional communicators navigate this mindfield of self proclaimed experts and put them in touch with quality and expert comment. This is said from my role as an IABC President. But you can also visit my website for further information
June 17th, 2007 at 10:01 am
(I inadvertently posted in the wrong thread.)
Wow! Great thread. This is what I’ve been missing from IABC. (Geezers will remember that we used to have talks like this all the time in IABC Hyperspace.)
If communicators want online social networking through IABC, let’s start by making MemberSpeak more interesting than it is today. Frankly, it’s a yawn most of the time. We could post real thoughts about the profession in there. There is no rule that says our posts have to be about finding a photographer in Punkydoodles Corners or how WebEx compares to RainDance.
I love IABC. Speaking from long experience as a member, observer, chapter and regional leader, I would say IABC and its leaders should get right what they/we already do before launching anything more.
IABC already has on its plate: rebrand, promote accreditation, expand into new geographic regions, heighten awareness of the profession and grow membership. (Issues Jane Greer mentioned.) It must do this with a small staff and overwhelmed volunteers. It has also recently (and happily) recovered from a severe financial crisis. And, for some, there’s an unhappy memory of a foray into a web-based program that was ahead of its time and beyond the capacity of the organization to support - or whatever the problem was.
Unless it can be done with minimal expense and no effort, why on Earth would IABC want to add a feature that mimics two commercial sites that already exist and that are so new we don’t know if they’re sustainable? Ragan and Melcrum are for-profit organizations run by smart business people who, presumably, know the risks and can afford the investment of both money and energy. The latter is important. As sponsors, Ragan and Melcrum employees and writers are very active in creating threads and responding actively in their communities. Can IABC staff and volunteers invest the same time and energy?
I would urge IABC leaders and members to take advantage of the fact that Ragan and Melcrum have gathered and are supporting communities of communicators. Partner with them. Be active in the forums. Share ideas. Start, as Barbara Gibson has, IABC groups.
In this day and age, we market through relationships and by modelling attractive behaviours. Ragan and Melcrum may be about making money, but we cannot forget that they are also about communication. I say they have provided IABC with a lovely platform to exploit to expand its membership base and enrich the perception of its brand value. And it doesn’t cost us a penny. How cool is that?
Cheers - Sue
Sue Johnston
Head Coach
It’s Understood Communication
Waterloo, Ontario
and on the web at http://www.itsunderstood.com
____
Real conversation - the most powerful tool you will ever use
June 17th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
I’ve posted my comment over on my own blog (due mainly to the length of the comment):
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/an_iabc_social_network/
June 18th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Fab post, Shel! Thanks so much for the incredibly constructive and instructive discussion. Exactly what we need as we examine the issue.
Barb
June 19th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
I too posted in the old discussion thread, so at the risk of repeating myself(apologies), here goes again:
Good to see the conversation has returned to the original questions: ‘Should IABC launch its own social network for members?’ and if it did: ‘How would it be different?’.
I agree that having IABC groups set up on different platforms makes for a fragmented and dissatisfying overall experience for members. There is no substitute for IABC having its own, branded social networking site, integrated with other member services. No question. Camping out on other platforms is a good starting point and will allow you to choose features you like, but is unlikely to meet the association’s needs in the long term.
Providing IABC can choose an inexpensive platform, of which there are many, and bring together volunteer members with experience of setting up and running such networks, then the risk is relatively low.
I believe there is a difference between blogs and social networks. IABC relies on the contributions of its volunteers, rather than dedicated staff writers to maintain the conversation on its blogs. But social networks rely almost entirely on user-generated content. And the evidence suggests that IABC members are very active and supportive in this context, so you would have to say that chances of success are high.
I also agree that competition and choice in the marketplace are necessary and welcome. Social networks are likely to proliferate over the coming months and years from other associations and service providers to this industry. And each successive launch will look to differentiate and refine the offering and service further. Anyone remember Friendster?
It’s human nature to follow the crowd. And we’re a fickle bunch. As we’ve seen with this conversation about IABC’s value proposition started on Shel Holtz’s blog, it simply moved here and gathered pace. But that’s the nature of blogs, social networks and other social media, there’s free movement of ideas across borders, digital or geographical.
So I believe IABC would do well to create a natural home for these conversations and connections between members on its own site, but at the same time encourage and participate in conversations that occur elsewhere.
And please note my extreme restraint in writing a whole post without mentioning my own online community. I think there have been enough plugs all round for one discussion. It’s rather like a weird social network equivalent of Tourettes!
June 20th, 2007 at 1:56 am
It’s great to see two vibrant conversations on this blog! I’m weighing in a bit late on the conversations. However, here is my tuppence worth:
I’m the outgoing President of IABC Belgium, one of the biggest non-North American chapters. I believe I was the 2nd IABC President to create a blog
and possibly the first to have podcast and video blog.
blog.iabc.be
and I have been actively encouraging my local members to learn more about these tools.
So, despite being an IABC pioneer in the Social Media space, I believe that IABC should not create its own MyRagan equivalent. At least, not for now. Both Allan Jenkins and Shel Holtz have argued the case quite eloquently and I think those sentiments have been echoed in the majority of other comments on these two posts.
IABC efforts on Social Media would be better spent educating members in this area and producing ground-breaking research. My experience is that most IABC members are not active in this zone, they are not yet taking part in Social Media in a pro-active way. Most of this stuff goes way over their heads. Testament: those taking part in this conversation represent a small minority of the membership and we are the ones living somewhere on that edge that Shel Holtz refers to.
So, we need IABC (particularly those at HQ) to participate in these spaces and get to know them better. They provide an opportunity for IABC to raise its profile. Walk the talk as they say. When there is a critical mass of IABC members taking part in these network forums then do a cost-benefit analysis of the situation. By that time, there will most likely be something new out there.
The IABC group (thanks Barb!) has 50 members on MyRagan. However, put into context that represents only 1% of that community. Is that a good non-profit commercial reason for investing the members’ money?!
And, bear in mind that it is the members’ money that you are spending. Our members in Belgium are shocked when we tell them how little of their membership is transferred back to the chapter. IABC has always been good at face time. It not only provides professional development but is a great source of networking and ultimately recruitment for the Association. Volunteers invest hours and hours of their time and I think, if there is some extra cash floating about, you should give it back to the chapters. We’ll make sure that it gets used in the members’ interests.
On the question of whether it is a good thing that for-profits have created the first two social networking sites please don’t forget that MySpace, Face Book, etc are all owned by for-profit organisations.
In the words of Stephen Covey IABC should adopt an abundance mentality in looking at this, not a scarcity mentality. There is no need to compete. There is enough out there to go round. IABC does not own the communications space and never will! It would be foolish to think otherwise.
My parting analogy: You don’t need to own the airplane to fly! Encourage our members to fly. Provide tips on flying. Focus on interesting destinations. And, for the time being negotiate some deals for the members with the existing carriers!
June 20th, 2007 at 2:43 am
[...] has been a raging debate taking place on the main IABC blog on whether IABC should set up a Social Networking site such as the one that MyRagan.com has [...]
June 20th, 2007 at 4:13 am
Gerry -
I seem to be alone in disagreeing with the multitude of voices campaigning against IABC launching its own social network.
IABC is in the fortunate position of commanding huge loyalty from a volunteer army of long-term members. The desire is clearly there for members to come together to interact. Some of this interaction is already made possible via IABC.com and enhancing this functionality would not require a huge investment, either by building the social networking tools or knitting in third party ASP services as used by the CommsNetwork or MyRagan.
As far as providing members with research and guidance on integrating social media with their comms strategy, this is already widely available. Melcrum have a free chapter from their latest research project on ‘How to use social media to engage employees’ which you can download at:
http://www.melcrum.com/offer/socialmedia/pdf/Social_Media_Chapter_1.pdf
Can we hear from other members who think that an IABC social network would work. We have heard lots of reasons why it wouldn’t work. So a balanced discussion needed I think.
Robin.
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:12 am
So which is it Mr Raygun - was it very time consuming to get the site online and not worth the time of IABC, or as you said in the recent press release, was it really very easy for you “to capture the interest of our customers by quickly building a community”
With all of the people on the Ragan payroll who have chimed in that IABC should not have its own community, this whole thing is starting to smell very fishy. How many people in the leadership of IABC make some or all of their living from the Raygun payroll? Can anyone honestly answer that question?
June 22nd, 2007 at 6:23 am
I wasn’t going to jump into this, but I can’t contain myself - Mark Raygun is actually doing the same thing here he did with me, only to later change his mind. Is he the ultimate flip-flopper? Or is he just navigating this discussion to avoid real competition from a large association.
To see him invite IABC in for member recruitment flies in the face of what he has said everywhere else and what he has done specifically in the recent past - this guy can’t keep his story straight. Further, the things he references as having happened on the raygun site, like members griping, can clearly happen anywhere and they should be happening on the IABC site. All that takes is a simple forum, which is really what the raygun site is - a threaded discussion forum with some added bells and whistles around an individual’s identity and the ability to signal relationships between individuals. This is not ground breaking stuff, yet he thinks he invented the wheel.
It is also very interesting that some people are publicly defending the lunacy and privately griping about how difficult and silly he is - stuck forever on the raygun leash, afraid of the repercussions of speaking out for what is right and instead standing on their soap boxes proclaiming what is best for raygun is best for all. Bollocks! You can’t bully your way around like this anymore, this is the power of social networking and social media - you can’t control it, but you keep playing the game as if you do.