I am tired of REW

[c21atb]

I am tired of REW, and because of that this will be my last forum post. I will not post any more blog postings either.

Much of my frustrations with REW stem from the fact that there is a predisposed position here that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and nothing in between. As a result nearly EVERY thing that I have done here at REW has been confronted with negative close minded criticism that hides behind a front of silly rules and regulations. Mostly I have been confronted with this idea in the releam of SEO. The administrators of REW appear to have a firm belief in white hat SEO versus black hat SEO, and nothing in between.

However, most successful SEO consultants understand that the most successful SEO is more like a shade of gray, or in fact can not be defined at all. Of course I will admit that spam does exist and that some SEO folks are actually just spammers. But at the same time, here it seems that one person's spam can be another's new idea. This dialectical exchange is what normally furthers progress and innovation, but at REW it is squelched and labeled as a violation of their TOS. For everyone out there that blindly follows REW with out doing your own reading and investigation, will only get so far.

I will admit that REW does have an amazing presence on the web and from what I have seen of their development work they appear to handle their clients very professionally. I only wish they did the same when they handle their "social network".

[Malok]

I'm sure you will have no problem finding lots of "gray hat" places as alternatives.

Personally, I like the "design for people, not solely for SEO" attitude that is here. It creates a defensible, and long term structure for ranking.


And I'm willing to bet that 3 or 5 years from now, REW will still be ranking well. Whereas you will probably have gone through many "gray hat" places during that same time frame.

[SEO Nick]

What I don't really understand is why you can't keep it White hat here and save the Black or Gray hat talk for somewhere else. There is plenty of great information to be taken in here.

I wish you luck, though! Sorry it didn't work out better for you.

[BrandonSternfield]

For everyone out there that blindly follows REW with out doing your own reading and investigation, will only get so far.

If you only learn SEO from any one source, it's the same. Like it was said before me, why not just talk white hat things here? Sorry if we are trying to be the boy scouts, and follows all the rules and guidelines, and still perform well. We don't see a reason to do anything gray hat, or if we do, we don't mention it.

Considering you only have a few threads you started, I read through them. You started out bright and happy. Apologizing for linking a url in your post. You were told you could put it in your signature, but never even made that attempt. Once you found out about the nofollow, you wanted to know how many posts you had to make.

You are a creative person, but not patient. So on that note, I wish you farewell and good luck.

[metaylor9]

Joe -

Best of luck, I for one am sticking with REW. I think its members have shown that you can do things white hat and still rank very well. I still have tons to learn and will continue use REW as my primary source.

[Goknights]

you have 14 posts. this is a forum with discussions and lots of opinions.

[jasoncrouch]

Joe - Best of luck to you. I think the reason that I enjoy this forum is that I have not seen another forum where everyone was so respectful of each other. Maybe it's because many of us have our real names (or websites where you can find them). I have been doing SEO for my site since 1998, and this is overall the best forum I have found.

[NealRM]

I must be fortunate, all the differences in option I have had with the forum members have been polite and professional. In most cases they were posted as "here's another way" or "try this way" and not "your way is wrong"

I like that REW stays on the white hat side of SEO. As far as where the line is between white and grey, that may be hard to determine. However it appears that REW uses a light touch when it comes to the light gray topics.

Now, does anyone know where I can get a KC Chief's Red SEO hat?

[Markz]

I have only been a member a few months knowing little or nothing about SEO before I joined here, I was patient sat back and took as much in what I could. I am starting to see great results from members on here who have took the time to help me and I thank you all....

Long live REW!

[Lydia]

Much of my frustrations with REW stem from the fact that there is a predisposed position here that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and nothing in between.

A forum is a place where we all share opinions, and I think that as such there really aren't any 'predisposed' ways of doing things here. However, please understand that the staff here have a duty to keep the discourse from veering too far in certain directions. I think they've done a good job doing so. It may be that you've just come up against those restrictions. If that frustrates you, you can always visit other areas of the net to learn more.

Every forum brings something to the table, this one more than most IMHO. So please accept that REW is just doing a job protecting themselves and posters on the website, and they weren't attacking you personally.

I'm disappointed that you see the forums in such a light and hopefully you will rejoin us again soon...