Well . . . I’ve done it. I’ve caved. I’ve given in.
No, I haven’t stopped drinking. Don’t be ridiculous. And no, I haven’t stopped being a Cubs fan, as ridiculous as it is to be one.
No . . . I’ve caved on something far more important. I’ve actually gone ahead and joined an online “social network” site.
I’ve lived in fear of these sites—such as MySpace or FaceBook—for years. Not for myself . . . but for my son.
I don’t want Zach to be one of these computer jockey kids who spends his “social life” on the computer, interacting with other kids and with 47-year-old naked, greased-up perverts pretending to be kids.
I want my kid to be like Huckleberry Finn! I want him out climbing trees and skinning his knee and playing baseball and building forts and kicking a can down the alley and rolling around in the alley with the local bully!
I don’t want him counting how many virtual friends he has in MySpace, and learning his communication skills from a bunch of bedwetters who don’t know how to use proper grammar. I want him learning communication skills while he sits in an alley and drinks warm beer and smokes ragweed reefer . . . like I did!
Most Dads probably live in fear of the day their sons come to them and ask, “Daddy, what’s a vagina?” Or, “Dad, can you be pregnant if you’re a boy?”
I live in constant fear of the day when my son comes to me and asks: “Daddy, what’s a MySpace page, and can I have one?”
But . . . all that may be changing. Because I have joined a social network, and I kind of like it!
No . . . I haven’t joined MySpace or FaceBook or one of those other bastions of sad, lonely people who live through their computers.
I have joined a professional social network . . . a place where communicators can hang out, swap ideas, meet like-minded people, learn about communications, and talk shop.
It’s called MyRagan . . . and it’s at www.myragan.com. It’s the brainchild of Mark Ragan, publisher of all the newsletters I write for, and sponsor of all the seminars I teach. Mark has been building this site for almost a year . . . and it’s live. And it’s cool. Really cool.
This morning when I checked in, more than 300 communicators had already signed up . . . even though it’s only a week old, and they’re still beta testing it and ironing out the kinks.
There is a whole slew of people from the UK out there, as well as communicators from Greece, Ireland, Australia, Canada, and Lithuania (is Lithuania still a country? I think it might be. My instincts tell me that it used to be a country, then it was the USSR, now it's a country again. If I'm wrong about that, I apologize to all the Lithuanians, or whatever you are called now).
This thing has all the tools that an online world should have—chat functions, group discussions, forums, bulletin boards . . . it’s got everything. I’m going out there now to form a group called “Uncle Fester’s Peeps,” which is going to be for all the people who come to my seminars.
After we’re done drinking in the hotel bars at the seminars, we’ll be able to continue the discussions in my own special group on MyRagan. I’ve always wanted something like this, and now it’s here.
And the site has already gotten some rave reviews from people who have already forgotten more about these kinds of things than I will ever know—people like Neville Hobson and Allan Jenkins.
So it must be good. I thought it was good . . . but since I’ve never been on a social networking site before, I couldn’t be sure.
So come on out and network! Join the online party. One problem: you have to bring your own warm beer and ragweed reefer.
By the way: Check out my cool new voice mail thingy at the top of this page where you can leave voice mails! My podcast, “Corporate Punishment” will be up and running any day now, and this will be a way for people to leave feedback on the podcast right here!
I’m told that it doesn’t work on all computers, but it does work on most. So let me have it!
Comments (17)
This sounds awesome - I'm joining as soon as I post this! Glad you're part of the revolution, Steve. Now I've got a place to enrich my career AND vent about the guy in the hotel room above me in Vancouver peeing at 5 a.m.!
Posted by Don Lariviere | May 4, 2007 9:53 AM
Posted on May 4, 2007 09:53
"Corporate Punishment," love that.
Posted by 2chey | May 4, 2007 10:36 AM
Posted on May 4, 2007 10:36
Don!
This thing will be perfect for us. In Vancouver, you and I were both in the hotel bar both nights, right?
But . . . since we had a lot of people, I couldn't talk to you too much, and couldn't talk to everybody else, either.
Now, we can just continue the conversation out there.
I told everybody I know about your "wake up call" in Vancouver. For those I haven't told, poor Don stayed in a hotel room where the walls and ceilings were so thin, his wake up call every morning was the sound of a man upstairs urinating heavily into the toilet.
And after that, he had to come and listen to me speak all day.
Talk about a bad day.
2chey: glad you like the name. It should be ups soon. We're going to have regular features like "Bitch of the Month" and "Happy Hour."
It's going to be fun.
Steve C.
Posted by Steve C. | May 4, 2007 11:13 AM
Posted on May 4, 2007 11:13
MyRagan.com is indeed everything a social networking site for communicators should be.
Only problem is I got an IM from somebody using what I believe to be a fake screen name asking me what I was wearing and if I like chocolate syrup.
Was that you, Steve???
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 4, 2007 1:30 PM
Posted on May 4, 2007 13:30
Steve, Steve, Steve
Pervs are everywhere and always have been. MySpace didn't start the trend. Come back with me 25 years or so....
When I was a kid everyone was getting their names put on shirts.
Cool puffy letters spelling out Robby on one sleeve and Patey on the other on my Knight Rider T-shirt was all I needed to make my 8 years on earth worth living.
Then Donahue, yes Phil Bitchass Destroyer of Children's Dreams Donahue sent my dreams into a tailspin when he did his special on childhood attackers.
Apparently names on a t-shirt were the molestor equivelant of tying a steak around my neck and throwing me into the lion's cage at the Bronx Zoo.
I never got my name on the T-shirt, but my parents didn't "just say no" either. They explained to me why I couldn't have the monogram.
Parents need to do the same thing with MySpace. Unlike my T-shirt your kids don't need you to fund a MySpace account. Even if you block your computer at home, there are plenty of places for kids to get Internet access.
Talk to them, don't just say no.
Love the MyRagan site, it's very much like Ning.
Please be my friend. www.myragan.com/robpatey
Steve, also the link is busted in your blog. You built a relative instead of an absolute link.
Posted by Rob Patey | May 7, 2007 8:49 AM
Posted on May 7, 2007 08:49
Probably makes sense to post "handles" (am I showing my age by using a C.B. term?) here for ease of sharing and yada yada yada.
As you might guess, mine is..../neruda
-Neruda
Posted by Neruda | May 7, 2007 11:07 AM
Posted on May 7, 2007 11:07
Loved the podcase, Steve-O...but as you can probably guess, you ruffled my feathers with the slamming of the geeks. Where is the love? Where is the peace love and understanding.
Maybe you need to have a whole conference on geeks in the workplace: can't live without 'em so you better learn to talk to 'em.
Posted by Rebecca (token IT Goddess) | May 8, 2007 1:40 PM
Posted on May 8, 2007 13:40
Rebecca, I have lobbied at Ragan for nigh 10 years for an IT/Communications Summit.
For the one price, a communicator can bring his or her favorite IT person to the conference to hash out differences. Shel Holtz would moderate this giant group therapy session.
They always say, "That's a great idea, Dave."
They say the same thing when I suggest we ought to get Steve a hairpiece.
It never happens.
Posted by David Murray | May 8, 2007 7:09 PM
Posted on May 8, 2007 19:09
Steve! You popped my podcast cherry, mister! This was my first-ever podcast, and it was great. Among the many things I learned was how to pronounce your last name - I've always said it like "Creshenzo."
Anyhoo, I had a potential idea for you. What if every month you gave out a sample story idea - something really boring, say - and asked people to re-work it into something good, then read the best entries during the next month's podcast? It could be hard (do we manufacture our own quotes or what?), but it could also be a great way to see the creative approaches other people apply to the same subject. A controlled experiment, if you will.
Also, myragan.com is a great tool. You asked Mark Ragan what he gets out of doing the site. To me, it's very clear. Myragan is helping me find answers to my problems and hear what other people are doing - which makes myragan a constantly new and updated source of information. That means I am directly or indirectly associating Ragan Communications with my resource for all my professional issues (hey, maybe my personal ones, too - we'll see how it goes). Also, because you and so many other Ragan staffers are active on the site, it gives me more of a personal or emotional investment in the company. It's a brilliant business move that seems to be a win-win for all involved. And it's fun, too.
Posted by Valarie | May 8, 2007 10:16 PM
Posted on May 8, 2007 22:16
Hey Steve,
Why don't you "live blog" your own CCC sessions?? Beat those SOBs at their own game.
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 10, 2007 7:57 AM
Posted on May 10, 2007 07:57
Valarie--
Mark Ragan still pronounces it, "Creshenzo."
Thanks for your encouragement re. MyRagan. We're insanely excited about it for all the same reasons.
David
Posted by David Murray | May 10, 2007 10:42 AM
Posted on May 10, 2007 10:42
Now that you've joined the digital revolution, you might as well check out Chowhound.com. There you'll get to blog about food, wine, and all things culinary. It's heaven for a foodie.
Posted by Elaine | May 10, 2007 1:31 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 13:31
Nice going, Elaine. Now Steve'll NEVER blog here any more! :-)
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 10, 2007 1:46 PM
Posted on May 10, 2007 13:46
Steve,
I was at the Communicators Conference and heard you talk about MyRagan. So I got back to my office here at "Blank" Power in Pensacola, Fla., and promptly signed up. With teen-age children, I too, looked on suspiciously at this "social media" that Shel Holtz loves to talk about.
But, I thought, time for me to catch up with technology, so I went out there and joined. I posted my profile and even invited some of my colleagues to join. But I didn't want to overdo, throw a Web muscle or something like that. So I signed off Friday, filled with confidence and proud of myself for venturing into this online universe.
Well, I write this to say, I came crashing back to reality this morning. I logged in at work and thought I would check out what was going on in the Ragan Web-iverse. And then it happened, "The Man" smacked me down. Our IT department blocked MyRagan.
Typical of the utility company I work for, that shall remain nameless ... althought we're a subsidiary of Southern Company and like I mentioned above, located in Florida. I'll let everyone else figure that out.
I'm fighting the power, but I just thought I would share that with you.
Posted by Steve | May 14, 2007 1:12 PM
Posted on May 14, 2007 13:12
Fighting the power. Love that!
Posted by Robert J Holland, ABC | May 14, 2007 4:51 PM
Posted on May 14, 2007 16:51
Try adding an "s" after the "http" in the URL, that sometimes can get you past the SS de..I mean the IT department
Posted by Rob Patey | May 16, 2007 6:59 AM
Posted on May 16, 2007 06:59
Rob - be nice. And the s in https actually stands for something, it's not just a way to get around a proxy. (Though many companies who do use proxy servers do not block https content, they ignore it altogether.)
The "s" stands for "secure" (well, sort of) - it means that the site is using SSL or some other method to secure their web content. Not all sites do this, I know I don't and myragan doesn't. They have no reason (unless they want people to have a way around proxy servers.)
We are not the gestapo...well, I'M not the gestapo. Be nice.
Posted by Rebecca (token IT Goddess) | May 16, 2007 8:32 AM
Posted on May 16, 2007 08:32