Inman proud owner of new Weenie!

The roller grill of blogging keeps on turning - Free Speech Crusader and Realtor Teresa Boardman announced Sunday-sometime between my second cup of coffee and lunch-that she has accepted an offer from Inman News for the Real Estate Weenie - with condiments.

Not surprisingly,the list of those who got off their buns to make an offer were top or wanna-be-near-top dogs in the bloggosphere: Larry Cragun, Rudy Bachraty of Sellsius, Pat Kitano at www.transparentre.com and an unnamed real estate marketing consultant from Obeo - me. The Weenie is priceless, but my Mastercard is played out.

April Fool or not: after the last ten or twelve days in the bloggosphere, let's not forget death threats and thugblogging silenced two voices, one maybe for good - Kathy Sierra -
and one when the blogthugs ganged up on her- Boardman.

Make no mistake - both of these situations, while each different in outcome, put a face on free speech. Being a 1st Amendment absolutist myself, note that free speech is a human endeavor judged by the content and the decorum of the debate. Those elements are essential and there is not much give in either of these conversations, and way too much taking. Blogging can and should be humorous, informative and not harmful to living things.

(As of the posting of this blog, no news on plans for the Weenie at Inman or how much they will charge for a Weenie.)
Inman News, another very human endeavor, is now the proud owner of a legacy, whether it notices this or not. Inman's position on the roller grill is between megacontent and metablogging: it definitely is news to blog about and Inman is a definitive resource for bloggers.
The opportunity: for Inman to use its Weenie for good - and point it proudly at all that is bad in the real estate blogging universe.

Someone has to do it - right?

I'm outta here.
steven.stearns@obeo.com