For the Record: The Man Behind the Curtain
Author: Jay T. - The EditorPosted on October 17, 2007
Filed Under NAR - General
Earlier today a commenter mentioned (politely I might add) this:
However, I am happy to stand by what I say to any audience, and please note that MY NAME is attached to EVERYTHING I say online. My father taught me many years ago, “If something is worth writing, it is worth signing your name to it.”
And I think her father provided sage advice.
About an hour ago I got a rather nasty email from someone accusing me of “trying to build mystique” around the blog by remaining anonymous. They then implied in no uncertain terms that I was unethical for “damaging our highly respected trade union” and they were certain the the NAR “technical detectives” would find out who I was and “swiftly shut it down”.
Ironically, the email was not signed and was obviously just created, I assume for the sole purpose of sending this one email. I won’t disclose the email address publicly, but it was basically NARWisdom@SomeFreeEmailService.com.
Whatever. I do have to say I got a nice chuckle at the “NAR technical detectives” comment. I can just visualize a bunch of nerds hunched over keyboards muttering, “Who IS this guy??”
The problem with that visual is anyone with a modicum of technical skills can quickly determine who I am. I have made no secret of who set this blog up. If I had wanted to remain anonymous, would I have done these things??:
1) Registered the domain name publicly instead of using a private registration?
A whois search that takes all of 10 seconds clearly has my name on it (and was “uncovered” in the Inman post about this blog.)
2) Included NARWisdom.com in my own existing MyBlogLog account?
Just click under any of the MBL avatars in the footer and you’ll go to the NARWisdom MBL profile that clearly identifies the author.
3) Used my wife’s somewhat unique and relatively known name in our community as part of the Sitemeter stats setup?
Hover over the Sitemeter chicklet in the bottom left corner and note the URL displayed in your browser status bar — the name “FrancyT” that is part of the SM account name. (but not part of the password. I’m not stupid, so don’t even try…)
4) Told anyone who asked (and several that didn’t) that yes, I was the one that set up this blog?
For the less technically adept (and more so to shut up dolts who send anonymous emails rambling about how evil anonymous things on the Internet are) let’s just put this on the record:
I am Jay Thompson, a Realtor in Phoenix, AZ known to some as The Phoenix Real Estate Guy.
Why didn’t I “disclose” this sooner?
Well heck, the blog has only been online for about 74 hours. To be honest, I thought the only people who would even know it existed would be those I linked to. The Inman article sent a lot of traffic this way, some folks posted about it on Active Rain, and several “Stumbled It” which sent a couple hundred over. That activity was apparently enough to attract the loonies. Now it’s getting linked to in blogrolls and other posts — the whole “viral effect” is taking off. It’s actually quite interesting to watch. But I digress…
I intentionally chose not to splash my name across this blog because this blog isn’t about or for me.
It is about the NAR — the good, the bad, and the ugly (and yep, there is some good)
It is for you — those members of the NAR who want to educate themselves, and discuss amongst their peers their “highly respected trade union” (ack!). Non-members, wanna-be members and anyone else that has an interest in the NAR are more than welcome to participate, lurk and even send nasty emails. If you don’t like what is said here, the solution is simple — don’t read it.
As this blog develops, I suspect I’ll supply very little content. There is plenty of NAR related content generated almost every day across the RE.net. I just want to “collate” it so to speak - to assemble it in one place to hopefully facilitate discussion. I will of course, inject my opinion where I see fit — because that’s just what I do, I like freely expressing my opinion.
So yeah, I “run” this blog. But really, I just pay for the hosting and manage it. It’s your blog…
Jay Thompson
REALTOR®
Hereafter known on this blog as “JT - The Editor”.
Man I wish we could lose the ALL CAPS thing and the “circle R”. ESPECIALLY THE ALL CAPS THING! It’s just…. so….. stoopid? 1950’s?
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5 Responses to “For the Record: The Man Behind the Curtain”
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I agree that the real estate industry is stuck in the mud and lacks high-tech state of the art tools for realtors. At a recent meeting a realtor told me about a brand new site that has helped him and other realtors sell homes quickly. Its kinda like ebay - 321gone.com It has a countdown counter and is comprised of motivated seller listings. It’s a fresh idea that is well overdue in the real estate industry.
HA! I love it and I love the fact that the site isn’t about YOU as so many are….but really, thanks for having the guts to take on NAR issues.
About signing your name…..when I started commenting online about title insurance and then blogging, I was bound and determined NOT to be anonymous. I was defending title insurance and wanted anyone who cared to know how and where to reach me. For the better part of a year I signed everything:
Diane Cipa, General Manager, The Closing Specialists®
I figured if you’re putting it OUT there, you have better be prepared to defend yourself.
Good luck ad I’ll be linking in, too.
[…] Jay “The Hulk” Thompson explains how to hide in plain website. For the Record: The Man Behind the Curtain […]
I am shocked. SHOCKED!
By the way, does it count as comment spam if there is no link? Can’t seem to figure out the point of that first comment otherwise.
Good for you Jay!
It’s all about the message delivered - it’s not about the “box” that delivers it.
BTW: I was sent over here by Mike’s Minute (blog) but I don’t know who owns that one either.