It's Hard to Have a Dialogue When You're Not Listening

News Flash!  Pierce Mattie's blog is now accepting comments.

Faithful Mutually Inclusive PR readers may remember me taking Mr. Mattie to task in April 2005 for having a blog that appeared to accept comments, but that rejected every single comment for having "objectionable content."

Six weeks later, I got a response from Mr. M., criticizing me for being stupid and a lousy blogger. Then he got mean, and wanted to know if I was a fattie.  And no, he didn't respond to my complaint that his blog has a comment function that only works in theory.

Now that the company is under attack for employees posting comments under pseudonyms on others' blogs, Pierce Mattie PR has had a blinding revelation, and has decided to accept comments on its blog.

It gets better. Agency president Steve Hultgren complains bitterly that blogger Jackie Danicki closed off comments on her blog post that accused Pierce Mattie PR of spamming blogs. Says Steve:

"In fact, we thought that one of the most fundamental rules of blog etiquette existed primarily because the other rules were so ambiguous. I’m referring to the general rule that bloggers should use their blogs to facilitate dialog, particularly about the blog medium itself. That is why we find it particularly disappointing that Jackie made her post and e-mailed countless bloggers before contacting us at Pierce Mattie PR to get the full story, and that she has closed comments to the post, leaving us unable to defend ourselves or explain the situation."

If the agency was so concerned about facilitating dialogue, they could have opened comments on their blog 16 months ago, when I pointed out their non-functional comment tool. Or, to be more honest to their readers, they could have just removed the comment and trackback functions from the blog, since they were obviously disabled.

I have no issue with whether or not they accept comments or trackbacks.  My main complaint then and now is that they are pretending to be part of a conversation, but they weren't allowing anyone else to talk.

Don't get me wrong.  I think the Pierce Mattie blog is entertaining and well managed.  But they shouldn't act as if they're big supporters of dialogue with other bloggers, when for years they have shut a very common door to blogging dialogue.

Link via Micropersuasion.

Tags: pierce+mattie, astroturfing, spam, blogging, dialogue

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Comments

[Andrea Weckerle]

For what it's worth, you're definitely not a "stupid and a lousy blogger." But the last time I stood up for you, we started a Nobodies revolution :-)

[Eric Eggertson]

Heh heh. I'm mostly annoyed, because my innocuous harranguing of Pierce M. used to be the third item on a Google search of his name. All this attention has pushed me way down in the rankings.

[Steve Hultgren]

Eric, we've posted the first set of videos (three in all) of our roundtable event on our updated blog. We also have a transcript posted for convenience. The second set of more in-dept videos will go up in the next week. BTW, Pierce Mattie PR went with the update of Movable Type not WordPress. How’s your update coming?

[Eric Eggertson]

Thanks for the info, Steve.

I'm tinkering with WordPress while I wort out what the blog wants to be when it grows up. I think the key for me will be to get things up and running without adding too many bells and whistles. Then, once it's stable, I can look at adding widgets and other functions to add some spice for visitors.