Great post. I have never attended one of these SEO events, but I can just imagine the attitudes of some of these people. They are already very cliquey on their blogs and web post, so it wouldn’t surprise me. Superstars get professional training for dealing with the public, I doubt any of these SEO Rockstars received similar training.

It sure would be nice if I ever got SEO rockstar status, but I wouldn’t treat people with disrespect …I would change the game.

Anyway, I recently had a similar experience at SMX Advanced in Seattle — sitting at a lunch table with about 8 other people, and 5 of them just talked among themselves and wouldn’t let anyone else break into their conversation. I’ve been out of high school a long time, but it sure felt like I was back in the cafeteria, trying to talk with the quarterback and his pals.

I’m like you: I wonder why everyone isn’t open to meeting new people. But I’ve lived long enough to know that most people aren’t. Plus, by the second day of these conferences, most people are wiped out from jet lag and too little sleep (I was). So, I’ve cut the SMX clique some slack in my mind.

Suggestion: you might try making your posts a bit shorter, as when we read blogs we tend to lost interest after about 3 paragraphs. I’ve been guilty of writing too-long posts, myself; something like this comment!

Webwork, you are one of the stupidest morons at WMW and you are definitely the laziest moderator at any search forum.

En väldigt rolig post om hur det är att vara en loser bland alla rockstars på en stor SEO konferens.
På SEO Buzz Box finns en intervju med Mr SEO Loser himself, med mer information om vem han är.
……

I also listen to webmasterradio and I feel it is better than watching any tv show I have ever seen. But at the end of the day I cant stand cliques and although I will still listen to webmaster radio and read their blogs, you can be sure I will never go to SES and pay homage to those dicks.

The nice guys I’ve known just don’t dress down people in public.

Isn’t it ironic that you dress down Rae Hoffman publicly?

“Oh, but it’s justified, because Rae . . and Dixon . those PubCon elitists . .. and . . . “

Furthermore, who amongst us knows REAL nice guys or gals who are they – themselves - concerned about their status as a nice guy or gal? I can’t remember the last time I head (or read) a nice guy’s or nice gal’s public airing or argument for the case that “I’m a nice guy”. The closest I’ve come is when others, familiar with the nice guy or gal, raise the issue in their presence.

In such cases what does the real nice guy or gal do? They tend to dismiss the proposition. Their last hang up in life is that they are nice or that someone else isn’t nice.

You get that?

Real nice guys have nothing invested in being nice – it’s just their way – and they don’t assign any any measure of victimhood to being nice. No pity poor me, I’m nice . . and abused . . and . . .

I am not equating being nice with being someone’s doormat. Real nice people have no problem being firm with disrespectful folk. However, real nice people aren’t about having bad experiences due to someone else’s behavior. That’s just life. The pseudo-nice go about decrying or lamenting ‘those difficult, elite, clique-ish’ others.

Real nice folks aren’t know for hosting pity parties, except maybe when they fall down. All folk are subject to falling down. The life machine grinds rather finely.

Depressed folk? Now that’s different. You looking for a pep-talk, reassurance, hope? Sure, that’s possible, but I’m not sure depressed folk start off their petition for lifesavers by speaking low of others.

You get that? I distinguish ‘doormat nice’ with ‘real nice’. Doormat nice is often a low self-esteem thing, pseudo-niceness wrapping up a growing bundle of resentment that often leaks out in petit rages and rants, “me versus them” presentations made by the nice-victim. People who ‘have a thing about being nice’ are often people who embrace a form of elitisim by victimhood. Such people also have a propensity to attack and find fault with others – for alleged (assigned) violations of the nice person’s rules.

Of the nice, kind or decent people I know arguing their case – that they are, in fact nice or kind or decent or whatever - just isn’t something they do, especially of their own initiative AND publicly.

Nice people don’t have a thing – or a lament – about their status. The real nice people I know – for them – nice is invisible, transparent, ‘not an issue’. They’re seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are nice. They ARE just nice.

Indeed, I’ve never heard a real nice guy or gal talking about ‘elitism’ - in any form or fashion – whatsoever. The nicest people I know see the world for what it is: A growing population of fallen angels. Who amongst us isn’t one?

The truth, as I know it, that the vast majority of human beings work every day to be decent and treat others with whatever measure of respect they can manage. Nice – or as I prefer to say ‘decency’ - is the most transparent quality I know of in people. It goes on all the time. It was all over the place at PubCon, including in how Rae expresses nice or caring or concern, Rae style.

Forget nice or not nice. I say there’s no one here but us fallen angels trying to find our way home. You. Me. Everyone. All of us.

Next time your mind pumps out the thought that the other person is an elitist stop, put the knife down, and look for the angel trying to find his or her way home. They’re - them, us, we - are all over the place. You too. All the elistists showed up here, sounding an awful lot like who they really are.

You too.

Welcome to the elitist club of fallen angels.

Now, get to work, as there’s a lot to be done if we’re going to ever be about the real business we’re here.