The title for this article comes from a little nugget posted on Active Rain by Terry Haugen, it in no way reflects my thoughts or opinion.
In fact, as one who spent 28 years living in Texas, is a product (in part) of a Texas public education, who graduated from a Texas university, and considers Texas his adopted home state, I find a statement like “No wonder people from Texas sound so ill-informed!” patently offensive.
Hell, as a human being, Texan or not, I find stereotyping and asinine statements patently offensive.
But this isn’t the first time some “writer” has offended me, nor will it be the last. That’s not what has compelled me to write this post.
In case it gets deleted later, here is the post in its entirety:
The Texas school baord [sic] which is comprised of a 15 member board, incuding [sic] 10 republicans, has decided to included MORE references to christianity [sic], and fewer mentions of civil rights leaders like Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
On a 7-6 vote, the board added "causes and key organizations and individuals, " including Phyllis Schafly, the contract ON America, the ever present and always wingnut Heritage Foundation, the NRA, and the Moral Majority, to the students curriculum.
They also voted against requiring teachers to cover Ted Kennedy, Supreme Court Justice Sotomaor [sic], leading Hispanic civil rights groupls [sic] LULAC and MALDF. Fortunately Thurgood Marshall, the country’s first Afriacan [sic]-American Supreme Court justice, will be taught. Whew! Thats [sic] a relief!
In addition, Sen. Joseph McCarthy will of course be reverred [sic], because of his communist witch hunts in the 50’s.
Oh and here is the best one, students will be required in U.S. History classes to distinguish between legal and illegal immigration. (considering, a good number of students attending schools in TX were born of illegally immigrated parents, this should be an outstanding history lesson.)
Way to go Texas! If you can’t rewrite history, well then just present the issues you want to present to your students. No wonder people from Texas sound so ill-informed!
While the irony of a post ostensibly about the Texas School Board being riddled with spelling and grammatical errors does not escape me, that’s not why I’m writing this post either.
And Terry Haugen is certainly entitled to her opinion. But as a student of blogging and social media, there are certain things beyond the obvious that disturb me about Ms. Haugen’s post. . .
Active Rain is a “Real Estate Network, a free social network and marketing platform for real estate professionals. This network helps agents to create business relationships both within the industry and with the consumer.” This straight from their about page.
What, pray tell, does Terry Haugen’s post have to do with real estate, real estate marketing, or creating business relationships within the industry and with the consumer?
This isn’t Ms. Haugen’s first foray into political discourse on Active Rain. Far from it. Here are just a few sample titles from her recent posts on AR. All from January of this year:
- Military Weapons Maker Inscribes Bible Passages On Weapons!
- Yet Another Wingnut Pastor Blames Haitian’s For The Earthquake!
- Peta Video Reveals Ringling Brothers Circus Animal Cruelty
- Prop 8 Court Case. In Defense of Same Sex Marriage
- Its Really NONE Of Their Business! 39 Congressmen Work To Block Same Sex Marriage in D.C.
- Legal Abortion Is A Fundamental Right!
It goes on and on. You get the point.
While I clearly don’t share political views with Ms. Haugen, what I really don’t understand is her use of the ActiveRain network blogging platform to delve into her politics. It’s a social network for real estate professionals. It is designed to help people “create business relationships both within the industry and with the consumer”.
Clearly, at least inside my head, the types of articles Ms. Haugen writes do not belong on the platform she has chosen. It’s hard to imagine that these posts help create business relationships. Given her often caustic responses to people that challenge her in comments to her posts, one has to wonder what any consumer would think, regardless of their political leaning.
Hey, this is the United States. I’m a HUGE fan of the First Amendment. If you want to express your political opinions, knock yourself out. But why not take it to your own blog? Go to wordpress.com and get yourself online in 3 minutes at zero cost. Blogger is free and open too. Rant away on those platforms.
But to corrupt a real estate network with these rants seems senseless. If Terry Haugen wants to drive away consumers that might utilize her staging services, that’s her prerogative. But she shares Active Rain with 171,000 other real estate professionals and what she writes there can affect the public perception of all members.
Terry claims that she doesn’t care what people think, that she’s not posting to “win friends” but she is “here to inform” (source).
Yet when I asked her to cite her sources, she didn’t. I was told to Google it. When I asked if parts of her post were fact or opinion, she didn’t answer (in fact, less than 30 minutes after I posed those questions, she elected to close comments on the post, saying she felt “the discourse is getting out of hand”.)
I would challenge that she isn’t informing anyone of any thing. She’s tossing in her opinion of news stories she refuses to cite, and when challenged, she either deletes the comment or closes the thread to further discussion.
Fine, do that to your heart’s content on your own platform, not one you share with 171,000 of your fellow professionals. Lord knows John Q. Public has a lousy enough opinion of real estate professionals, we don’t need Terry Haugen’s help reinforcing those opinions.
Jay Thompson is a real estate broker, father, husband, wannabe geek and has a blogging problem.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Well said Jay. I too read the blog on AR and found it to be a bit off topic, not to even get into the ridiculous banter known as her comments section. Thanks for doing what you do, it’s great for John Q. Public’s opinions.
Hey Jay, I read the original post and its comments. Like you, I don’t understand the reasoning behind choosing to post political opinions on AR that don’t have a basis in the r/e industry. From reading the comments, Haugen doesn’t seem to debate the topic but rather put people down for the sake of feeling superior .
Jay- I read her post earlier today and was really struck by the irony of an attack on a board of education reflecting the authors lack of respect for and use of education. (pet peeve). I’m not going to argue her points but just don’t understand why, if you are going to take the time to write the post, at least be accurate, correct, and credible. Thanks!
I came into the discussion today after she had turned off comments.
Wow was all I could say! (or wanted to say)
Jay, thanks for writing this.
She’s not worthy of the attention she’s getting.
Hi Jay,
I discovered the original post either through your or Mike’s tweets. Interestingly enough, I follow you both because I think you do “IT” very well. (What is “IT”? you might ask)
You can call “IT” whatever you want to call it, but I don’t like calling it Social Media or Marketing. I think “developing your presence on the internet, and doing a damn good job of it” is a more accurate way of describing it.
Overall, I think it’s okay to go a little off topic on AR – if it helps create business relationships within the industry and with the consumer.
That said, anyone that makes the statement “No wonder people from Texas sound so ill-informed,” sounds ignorant. Or stupid.
And I think when you decide to shoot yourself in the foot, you must be one or the other
Jay: I just got through reading the post and, like Tony, I’m not going to get into any sort of debate on her views. I just cannot get over how people can make such sweeping generalizations about a group of people or the population of a given place. This reminds me more than a little bit about that post written about West Virginia — you might remember it — just before The Holidays. And you are absolutely right that this post has NO place on Active Rain. I’m sure that Ms. Haugen posted her thoughts there because it’s a place in which she has an audience. It’s certainly not the right forum for it.
And don’t even get me STARTED on the grammar and punctuation. OY!
Jay,
I too read the article, but didn’t get a chance to comment. I did notice that the comment stream had replies to people who didn’t have comments (I believe Greg Nino was one – he had sent me the original link), so I assumed there was some deletion going on.
ActiveRain has become a political hotbed of hurled insults in the recent past and although I avoid most of it, I do come across it from time to time. Politics relating to real estate, I can understand. Politics for politics sake, I’m not so good at understanding. Private blogs (of your own making) are the place for these things in my opinion. I guess when you give anyone a platform, they’re going to use it the way they see fit.
I have been a big fan of ActiveRain as it helped me really dive into blogging and make my own blog better. I’ve made some great relationships there and had some business thanks to it, but I do think they’ve reached a stage where things may be running off course (in my opinion). I guess only the future will tell.
As a non-native Texan, I took offense to it as well. I love my city and as much of the state as I’ve seen. People in Texas are warm and friendly. I’m pretty sure we have our fair share of “ill-informed” people here, but I saw those same people in Pennsylvania, California, and Delaware (all states I have lived in) as well as the rest of the states (except Alaska, I’ve never been) and the 40 countries I have been to in my life. Guess what? There were also well informed people out there too! (Shock, gasp, horror!)
The political scene in our country has never disturbed me more. The use of propaganda (on both sides of the fence), posturing, and calculation of the political fall out of any move (will my party win next year if we do this or that?) has become more important than the task before everyone – governance. That’s about the most political thing you’ll probably see me write for a long time.
One of the problems with anything is that as more people join or participate the higher the chance there will be that someone will say something that others don’t like. First Amendment rights and all, but it seems to grow exponentially with the growth of a platform. AOL was once a mild mannered place where chat rooms were all the rage, but as their numbers grew so did the insulting, profanity laden, flame wars that didn’t exist before. It’s up to the developers of any platform to grow in the right direction, but still be careful not to step on anyone’s toes and acquire a bad reputation. Hard to balance, but I certainly hope AcitveRain can figure it out.
All – thanks for stopping by and providing your thoughts. I’ve got no problem with rants, or opposing political opinions. But a real estate network isn’t the proper place for that.
As for “reporting” “news”, rambling on about something and not even citing the source is simply irresponsible. You want to write an opinion piece, fine, then call it that; but don’t make some claim you are there to “inform”. And if you’re going to voice your opinion, don’t demean anyone that disagrees. Closing comments? Pure cowardice. If you can’t take the heat, don’t start the fire.
The whole exchange was ridiculous. Mike, you’re right, she’s not worthy of the attention she’s getting.
Jay – I was pleased to see that she deleted my comment, since that showed me that I was on the right track.
I guess the irony for me was that she was censoring comments while complaining about someone censoring history textbooks. Mike Mueller hit the nail on the head with his last sentence above.
Incidentally, her AR blog and profile are now disabled. I’m not sure if this is temporary or not.
Matt is on target with the political vitriol that occupies a relatively small, but inarguably loud, subset of the AR platform. It’s nothing new. You should have seen the run-up to the presidential election. Nothing short of shameful from both sides of the aisle. That said, I have no problem with it being on the platform. State your opinions, vile as they may be, Real Estate related or otherwise, and let the audience decide whether you are worth reading. More to the point, let the audience decide whether they would choose to do business with you. If transparency is a trite holdover buzzword from 2007, it still resonates in cases such as this. Why let an unwitting consumer discover zealotry in their chosen service provider only after a contract is inked? A public service is done every time an idiot outs him or herself.
Terry Haugen owner of http://www.stageitrightinbrevard.com/ may be a great stager, but it seems to me that she has dubious credibility complaining about any educational system given her stunning display of illiteracy.
As a truly native Texan, it was easy to take offense, and it doesn’t stop at the sweeping generalization about Texans. I might have a post of my own on this next week.
“They say that you’re from down South,
Cause when you open your mouth,
You always seem to put your foot there.”
(From London Homesick Blues by Gary P. Nunn)
OK, so much for my own blog post. I was going to use her blog as an excellent example of so many things NOT to do, and leverage it as a teaching moment for new bloggers. It epitomized one of my greatest fears when I started blogging: saying something stupid and pissing off a bunch of well-connected people in the industry.
Of course, my idea is useless without her blog being online as a reference. So it goes…
Hi Jay,
I go off topic myself from time to time on AR, because it feeds my outside blog too. And I feel strongly about politics on a local, state and federal level. I sometimes share my views even in that real estate forum. My problem with Terry’s posts were her total lack of respect for any other opinion. If someone disagrees with me, I try to also see their side if they present it. She was having none of that. That being said… she’s now on my prayer list. I think she needs it.
Rich – I think you can still use it as a lesson. In fact, it might have even more weight if you mention that the blog was taken down as a result of her behavior. Just an idea -
Maybe one day people will stop thinking that since it is a blog anything and everything goes. I expect kids to post stupid/incriminating pictures/posts online but a person who seems want to act like a professional, the behavior is lack of good common sense.
Jay, I can only say one thing on this topic. Skool Baord.
Wow….
That’s really all that can be said. Using the wrong platform to destroy business relationships is really all she accomplished. And most likely, (and hopefully we might add), her business will suffer for it. AR is no place for completely off-topic rants and stereotypes of people.
Thanks for capturing the entire post before it came down.
I sent a copy of her blog to every Texas blogger I could find, including a few AR staff members. I was not only offended, but highly annoyed at her arrogance. Crouch tomahawked her pretty damn good. It’s a shame she didn’t have the guts to leave it up. Don’t mess with Texas!
WOW Thanks folks for making me famous on the internet. If any of you had any idea about AR you’d know there are hundreds of non real estate related groups, and people post all kinds of things from news, to personal opinions, to stories about their dogs and cats. Apparently all of you found factual news “offensive.” I’m not surprised. I’m quite sure you all subscribe to FOX news!
Wow! I’m laughing right now because it is obvious none of you know Terry or what was going on around this post. As for Active Rain political posts, they have always been there and there have always been some that were hateful, and many comments that were hateful. It’s not new. Also, if not for off topic blogs Active Rain (blogging in general) would be completely boring. That is why there are many blogs off topic. Not just political.
What’s amazing to me is that none of you are discussing the actual post… the Texas School Board altering history books. Public school books are already (as admitted even by those who write them) very vague and incomplete, and to make them even more so is a horrible thing. Thoughts on the actual point of the post? Or just comments on the one sentence? Personally I would have been much more direct with that line and said, “No wonder some vile bigots in Texas are so ignorant.” I may have even named them, as they repeatedly did to her in their blogs.
I am baffled that one sentence would bring on such a response. I am from California, I love California. I don’t get offended when someone says something about California. I certainly wouldn’t tweet and reblog them. I guess I just don’t get it.
Terry – I don’t think one post here, written almost three months ago, on a blog that’s hardly read counts as “famous on the internet”.
“If any of you had any idea about AR…”
Well, there we go again. Actually, I do know quite a bit about AR. I was one of the first members of AR and, not that it matters one iota, wrote the first blog post of substance on AR.
Just because there are other off-topic posts there doesn’t make what you wrote appropriate.
And you have no idea what news sources I subscribe to.
Chris – I agree with you that off-topic posts help keep a blog from being boring. Ironically I gave a presentation today at the Denver RE WordCamp and off-topic posts were a main component of that presentation.
But caustic, offensive posts don’t have any place on a network that thousands of people belong to (in my opinion). If Terry wants to rant, more power to her. I just happen to think she should do it on her own blog, not what is effectively a community platform. You and Terry obviously disagree. And there is nothing wrong with that.
I no longer live in Texas, so I can’t argue to the “Facts” in what Terry wrote. I did notice when it was published that Terry had absolutely no links to any of these ‘”facts” and when I asked here about that in a comment, was attacked.
If a blogger is going to post “facts”, they should cite the source of said facts. Otherwise there is zero credibility and while it could indeed be factual, it comes off sounding like a rant. Making further attacks on commenters just for aksing for links to the sources also tends to make people feel it’s an unfounded rant.
Well Jay I’m just wondering why you picked my blog to pick on, given there was one written right before mine that referred to Moslem’s as towel heads. If you’re going for the sensational on your site, maybe you should read other postings on AR. You chastize me for blogging non real estate information, whilst you apparently condone others doing the same. Actually in reality by posting my blog, out of context. with your “opinion” for others to comment on, I feel you are besmearching my reputation. I dont think thats allowed in the blogosphere now is it?
Are we seriously back into this again? I guess someone must have Googled her name or something.
Terry-Here are some main points you are missing:
1. Jay was making the point that you were on a network that has a main goal of real estate related content. When he looked back through, there wasn’t really anything related to what the goals of the network has in your posts. So the stuff you were contributing was actually hurting the overall effectiveness of the network & the 170,000+ members. When you write your political rants it dilutes down the density of RE related stuff and makes the Google juice less potent.
2. The second point he is making is that if someone makes blanket statements that includes an entire state & wants to try to portray the article as facts, then it is really important to have the content to cite. This is the only credibility you have when making generalized statements about an entire state. If there was some post, some newspaper article, or something else that backed up your point, then not as many would have been offended.
Here are some more thoughts of my own:
1. Going for shock & awe is sometimes an effective tool for marketing. However insulting others normally doesn’t gain many new friends or business dealings. I am sure the reason you blogged on AR was because you were hoping for more biz. If not, then I guess you just had a lot of time on your hands & liked arguing with others. But if the first assumption is true, then softer approaches will normally bring better results. You can say the same things, but as I was constantly told once by a boss: “A grain of sugar goes a whole lot farther than a grain of salt.”
2. I agree 100% with Jay’s points about being on another network. One of the main principles of AR & rules is that you should not personally attack others. While you didn’t call out one person in specific, you called out an entire state which IMO is just as bad if not worse.
3. I also agree with another statement that was made in the beginning post. If you want to have a place to control & say your rants & things, I would strongly suggest investing in your own blogging platform like wordpress or blogger. Because if you go to other networks, they will probably give you the same result as AR, a banishment. Unless of course you find a political platform to use.
One other thing for both Terry & Chris, one thing that both of you misunderstand is that Jay didn’t just single out Terry. And he wasn’t bashing AR or the other content on there. As he stated, he was one of the original members of AR. Probably knows as much about the network as I do or anyone else that has or currently works there. Also, he is probably one of the most well respected bloggers in the Real Estate industry. If I would dare to say it, I would call him an authority on it.
This all came about because he harnessed the focus when he began blogging and because of that, it has made him a rather successful agent, broker, owner in Phoenix, AZ.
Lastly, I want to pose this question: The time that was spent writing all these political posts that had nothing to do with home staging, real estate, or anything related to the industry, do you honestly feel that they brought you the maximum return on investment? OR do you feel that if the posts were focused on these type of topics instead they might bring greater results. My guess is that it would have brought much more income to your pocket as well as a whole lot less nights of stressful commenting & arguments with others online.
So in closing, please realize, this isn’t a personal attack, it is more a learning experience that Jay has tried to share with others in the industry that look up to him. Unfortunately, you were just the person that gave him the material to use.
Well, I was going to craft a response to Terry’s latest comment, but Jeremy pretty much covered it.
Terry, sorry you feel I besmirched your reputation. Perhaps you might want to consider the probability of that happening when you first besmirch the reputation of an entire state….
Hehe Jay, sorry for stealing your thunder.
I was mostly responding to the comments, Jeremy. Also, blogging about political topics is not done to create business but to raise awareness. In this case it spiraled out of control and a lot of people were talking trash about each other. Isolating this post is taking it out of context. Most of the people on AR who were trashing other members (by name) were not kicked off. Not to mention one extremely racist blogger that was kicked off and now I see is reinstated (racism is much worse than Texas bashing, IMO). I don’t participate in the political blogs (I quit!), and I don’t associate with any of the vile people who were going after Terry even in other groups or on other subjects. However, I do think it is inappropriate to take a blog from a political group and use it out of context. This was a piece in a much larger puzzle.