Wait a sec.

Bruner says, 'I'm trying to log in'. Huh? How does he reckon that? Did you chaps send him a username and password?

No, Andy.

Well then I don't get it. How does he think he was 'trying to log in' if he didn't have a username and password? This chap is an internet marketer with 10 years experience on the web? And he thinks he can log in to an internal blog without a username and password? And he's bragging about it on his blog and taking you chaps to task for his failure to understand that he can't log in to an internal blog that he doesn't have access to? I don't know if the phrase 'bare faced cheek' is familiar to Americans, but Rick E is showing some.

What did he think when he saw the URL? 'Hmm ... bigblogcompany.net/internalblog ... Is this possibly the Big Blog Company's internal blog? Naaaaah. These guys are just using names and words. They don't make any sense, just another blog consulting company, after all!'

As for the screenshots ('exhibit A' and 'exhibit B' as Rick E called them - wait, did your attorneys approve the jury yet?), I'm just pissing myself laughing at the image of this guy clicking through his whole ill-fated adventure over and over again, just to get screendumps of the experience. So that he could rubbish your company and tell everyone how unprofessional you chaps are. Because he is oddly unashamed of having tried to access an internal site he knew he could not and was not supposed to in the first place.

And he just discovered 2 days ago that trackbacks are good. Although without Jackie's help, we'd still be reading him say on his Business Blog Consulting blog that it's a MT/Typepad feature only, that it's 'underutilized' and that anyway, '(he) better start seeing some trackback links now soon, or (he)'ll be turning it off again eventually'. Trackbackers be warned: you'd better trackback Rick now, or Trackback will never work again in this town.

Not bad for a guy with 10 years experience in internet marketing.

Andy, that's pretty harsh. Rick seems like a nice guy. He doesn't need me to fight his battles, obviously, but it sounds like he was just having a bad day, maybe.

And, to be fair, I was not the only one who set him straight on TrackBacks. It's incorrect to say that he would not now know better "if not for Jackie's help".

Well I consider my wrist slapped then. Apols. But I still think it's amusing that someone would brag about their own incompetence. On their consulting blog.

Adriana,

This is your version of not picking a fight? I know you don't think we Yanks are capable of sarcasm, but I was in my feable way attempting to 'take the piss' in my post, as you Brits put it. Pardon me for looking at the web page's explicit navigation before examining the URL directory structure; I clicked on the prominent link that said 'Big Blog Company' in the top left expecting it to take me to the homepage instead of a page that told me to 'fuck' myself.

The only way someone could get to that page was by clicking referral links in their logs? Wrong; a lot of people have now clicked through to the page because I linked to it. It's likely that Google with now pick up that link and more people will stumble their way to it that way. It is a nuanced world we live in.

A way to make it even more obvious that it is an internal blog not meant for public eyes might be to label it "Internal blog, not meant for public eyes." By the time I posted, of course I realized it was a private blog, I just thought it was funny that you hadn't considered that folks might find their way into it and be surprised (if not Puritanically offended) by you inviting themselves to fuck themselves.

Whatever. All the best. (Wankers.)

The only way someone could get to that page was by clicking referral links in their logs? Wrong; a lot of people have now clicked through to the page because I linked to it. It's likely that Google with now pick up that link and more people will stumble their way to it that way.

And of course Big Blog should have banked on people linking to the Big Blog internal blog from their sites, even though its access is restricted. Right?

I've said this in the comments at Rick's post, but I'll repeat it here for others: I didn't get a "Ha ha, isn't this funny?" vibe from Rick's post, which obviously he took some time and care to prepare. I got more of a "Who the hell are these a-holes?" vibe. Maybe I misread the tone, but people can read it for themselves and judge for themselves.

HE started it, mom! No HE started it!

Is this a kindergarten or is this supposed to be a professional consultancy? Hard to tell, really.

Actually, Andrew, it's a blog consultancy using a real life situation to make important points about blogging, and that we value truth and authenticity above approval and falsity. To be brutally honest, it's also a blog consultancy pointing out that another blog consultant has a gap in his knowledge, specifically with regard to TrackBacks.

So, put even more bluntly, this is business.

And I'm curious who you think sounds like a kindergartner, because I don't think you could point to anything in Adriana's post or in my comments that fits the bill. What our commenters say may be a different matter, but our commenters are not employed by our blog consultancy.

Short answer: It's a blog consultancy.

And the 'duh' is implied, right? (Hope I didn't ruin the subtlety by pointing that out. You're far too polite, JD.)

Oh, I see. Another expert on what 'professional' is supposed to be. Rejoice. And let's get back to work, shall we?

I've been racking my brain trying to figure out why I should restart a blog in support of my business. This sequence of comments by purported professional blog consultants trying to make important points (what were they again?) is a lamentable confirmation that I will have to continue racking. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.
...edN

Er... why? It's fun!

Well, good luck with racking your brain. If you need someone to convince you that you need a blog, maybe you don't need one really.

Not every company needs a blog. Yet.