Know-How Exchange : Just for Fun

Hi Juliet,

I hope you're having a great day and a wonderful life.

Well I think we are wise to celebrate Randall's Tremendous accomplishment. It's like seeing the next person in the Marathon line cross the Finish line.

***Hooray Randall, Hooray Randall***

First let me say that I'm not only impressed with Randall's acomplishment but equally impressed by all of the top quality answers that he has given. I crack up thinking when Randall first came into this thing he had a very interesting way of dealing with online customers that really made me laugh at times of which I was the victim of one of his earlier commentaries and Randall might remember it.

RANDALL IS AN EXCELLENT KHE EXPERT...
Well Randall has proven that his wisdom and understanding is not only full of ---Amazing Depth--- but it is also ---very broad---. I'm very proud of you Randall Keep up the GREAT WORK!!! You're a real team player and a wonderful *Customer Passion Evangelist.

Now back to the poem and your question...I think the poem may or may not apply but another thing to think about is "WHAT IF"...

WHAT IF the third person to cross the line is a Woman...I would hope there are no hairs...Any way as Avis used to say when they were #2 "WE TRY HARDER" and that's what every KHE expert should do...continue to try harder.

Now I think 2nd is not second best neither is it second best...I just think 2nd place is really a First place winner in disguise that did the best he could and in his own world he's FIRST PLACE.

If I were talking about successful companies I would give the same answer as I believe it's hard to compare an original to another original when both are unique and in this case both Michael and Randall are very talented human beings who have given very valuable time to helping Marketingprofs Build their BRAND. And because they are unique in every way they can not be compared as it's like comparing apples to oranges and I think they're both just that unique.

Now for the very talented gentleman that's catapalted his way into the TOP 25 without asking anyone permission let me say that Jay Hamilton Roth is a very talented and gifted marketer in his own right and I've been looking for an opportunity to offer him a "FREE LUNCH" when he get's to Chicago but I just haven't been able to catch up with him. Yeah I know that there's no such thing as a "FREE LUNCH" but I like going against the grain and believing of things that go against conventional wisdom so please don't wake me up...just let me keep dreaming and Jay I've still got your FREE LUNCH but you'll have to pay for your own plane ticket. So what would I add to the poem at 25 would be the following...

"25 he stayed alive, Jay Hamilton Roth he took no JIVE!"

Well Keep it up Jay I'm very proud you too have the determination of a BULL...keep being bullish and Juliet you keep tossing around your six cents like it's worth nothing and you're bound to make two things happen...1.) You're going to be pulling up into the Top 25 or 2.) You're going to make somebody rich because pennies make dollars and dollars make sense REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need further guidance, direction or you'd just like to talk more about it. You see I love it when my customers are happy. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant,

Lovingly Deremiah *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

Everybody just keep up the good work.

I am happy to come on to this website and help out others and at the same time see all the creative ideas that we all come up with.

This site is great for a young marketer like myself to learn from all the experienced veterans.

Congrats on your accomplishments.

Echo on the Congrats to all of the top six and for that matter to the top six hundred. I now have a goal and no it isn't to be number one, it is to be the ghost of Halloween since that season is nearly upon us.

To all of you fellow marketeers with and without hairy chests I say, "May the force of marketing profs be with you"

Phil

Dear Juliet

Sorry about the delay in pitching in – as I explained separately, I was unravelling the virus born chaos unleashed by my 15 year old son, discovering nude-teens sites!

If you hadn’t alerted me, I’d have missed out on congratulating Randall for axing, burning and slashing his way to the 100K mark. Well done, biker boy – I’ve learned a lot from you, even if I can’t really take up your offer of “Therapy” to stop smoking! (It’s probably illegal in the UK)

The order in which we should judge people and indeed the numbers we should celebrate are actually rather arbitrary (see detailed arguments in section 6.2.3 below). However, regardless of what I say about arbitrariness, I know that Michael and Randall have both earned all those points; I think that a dual celebration is in order.

So much, though, for my brilliant idea of teaming up with some other expert to endlessly swap 10,000 points for trivial questions with facile answers so that we could rapidly pass the 1,000,000 mark and depose the top two. (In the manner of two jokers who recently tried this but who were exposed by WMMA and me). I don’t think that my manor would ever recover from a visit from Randall’s pals in black leather or an online visit from the MP Tech-Squad.

I used to describe this site as, “The most pleasant place on earth on which to be told that your ideas are crap” We are getting a little too polite these days and it’s reassuring to see some of the experts making a concerted fight-back. No one benefits from having everyone being terribly nice about silly views or incorrect facts.

The questions people answer tend to be in the areas where they actually have something to contribute. This adds to the volume versus quality debate. It also means that some contributors can expect to earn fewer points because they astue questions about which they know nothing. The ratio of closed, accepted answers to unaccepted answers is also skewed by the brave who are prepared to tell a questioner that there entire proposition is a pile of rubbish. Their answer isn’t the one which the questioner wishes to see, despite the fact that it is factually correct, hence, no points. It is however a salutary lesson when half a dozen pile in and say, “Don’t do that” because I feel that we’ve probably saved someone from months of struggling with trying to push water up-hill or herd cats.

As to the rhyme – Juliet, where did you get it from? First the worst might be true in sport and in elections, but it ain’t true here. Mgoodman got there after a concerted dash about a year ago. Maybe he needed to sharpen himself up a bit by answering lots of questions, but the decision to award him points came from the answers. No one had to do it. Maybe he needed it for a new CV. If so, why not? He obviously got the job as we can now benefit from him telling the world that they look at the wrong things in his MP newsletter contributions. More than once, I’ve looked at a question, formulated a knee-jerk reaction, thought, “Hang on a moment, that’s an easy answer and it lacks something, but what the hell do I really feel about it” only for Michael to come in with a new angle which demolishes the cosy arguments put forward and hits a new theme which is so obvious – if only someone – anyone – had the intelligence to think of it first.

“Why do we bother?” is a question often put to me. Well here’s one reason. Wake up in a bad mood. Answer a couple of questions from someone who needs help and you’ll feel better. Do it regularly and you’ll feel good about the day. You’ll also be better equipped to give answers when clients lob ideas at you and better equipped to duck when they lob hand grenades.

Then there are the funnies, such as the “marketing plan for electrolytic, healing, spiritual water” Well I know that the desire here is to help, but should we really be “Helping” people to peddle black magic and con the innocent. Randall wrote to me after that one to say that “I was F’kin insane” with my Dr Demento reply, where I suggested it should be marketed via the UN to cure all the worlds ills, but so many, so, so many wrote in with well meaning contributions to assist these snake oil sales people. I only discovered the other day that Dr Demento was the stage name of Tom Lehrer, one of my heroes, so I realise, belatedly that this was a complement.

My only concern at the moment is that there are too many 25 point questions which demand decent answers. I’m not too bothered about my points, but for the new members, it does make it rather difficult to climb the rankings and that might be off-putting for new talent. Does this matter – rankings and all that stuff? Is it just another means of letting us massage our fragile egos?

Well, I think that it does matter. Most people appreciate recognition, whether it’s given in the form of money, a title, a job-title or a ranking on a respected site. Witness the pre-eminent IT Tech sites where expert points are celebrated in every monthly member’s newsletter. “So and so has achieved 8,000,000 expert points in Microsoft Networking or 5,000,000 points in SQL server applications. Well done.” OK, it’s a useful thing to stick on your CV, but I bet that it makes them feel good that another 1,000,000 readers know that they have been celebrated and I bet that it improves their performance for that month in their job.

In conclusion, there are two things we as a community we don’t do very well (Marketing rather than MP): These are to recognise achievement for what it is and the second is to tell idiots that they are being idiotic. Doing both in front of 250,000 readers is a useful fillip to the industry and if you are afraid of praise or criticism, don’t use the web and get a job in, get a job in, well, what the hell can you get a job in if you want to avoid the consequences of what you do?

Best wishes


Steve Alker
SalesVision