Dear Friends, Readers, Social Agers and Stoppers-by

It is with great humility that I write to you today. You may (or may not) have noticed that I have not written on my blog in 10 months. Kind of crazy, right? Especially in these fracturing, social-emotional times. So why haven’t I been writing, and why am I starting again?

In August of 2007 I posted a story called The $700 Apartment Scam & Thank God for Google. The story caught fire as apartment scams were rampant. In fact, if you Google “Apartment Scam” today, you will see that this site is the top result. Response to my post was equally frenetic. As the “Apartment Scammer(s)” shape-shifted across the Internet, changing cities, names and stories, my readers used this forum as a way of protecting others against getting scammed. It was a GREAT example of The Social Age in action. They ID’s the name of scammers, tracked their movement from city to city and gave each other hints on things to avoid. This is exactly what I had hoped for. People connecting with People in ways to make the world better, more social — more Social Age.

And then the fun stopped.

Around February 2008. one or many of the “scammers” got ticked off being exposed. Clearly the scam-alerts were working — against them. And it probably cost them quite a few easy bucks. So what did they decide to do? They tried to get even. How?

1. They sent me threatening “f you” emails, quoting lines from my personal and professional sites
2. They signed me up (fake email addresses forward to me) for over 2000 newsletter lists trying to blow up my email boxes
3. They hacked into this site and started putting garbage code everywhere
4. They deluged this site with nasty, awful comments (thank goodness for approvalqueues)
5. They did everything they could to shut me down

For a while I resisted and kept writing, though I have to admit that I was more tentative. Finally the deluge of emails, comments, code breeches and newsletters got to me. Managing the “bad” was taking WAY too much of my time. So I stopped. Until now.

The fabulous Kirstin Myers of Globond has been pestering me to write again. After some resistence, I realize that she is right. I should write. With the massive changes taking place in our society, there is no better time than now to dedicate to The Social Age. So here I am.

For those of you who are new to this blog, I encourage you to visit the Post Index and see if what I am writing resonates with you. I’d love to rebuild this community. Here’s the start.