Morgan Carey - REW PREN Hacking - Timely Apology

Posted on November 2, 2007
Filed Under Real Estate News |

Well articulated apology given by Morgan Carey

Morgan Carey, the owner and co founder of Real Estate Webmasters provided a rather lengthy and well articulated apology today regarding the disparaging events that victimized the PREN forums earlier this week.

Informative, clear, and certainly well presented, Morgan Carey stated that upon careful examination of the evidence being presented by PREN administrators and technical staff, he was able to successfully ascertain that the hacking could very well have been a rogue employee. After Morgan Carey conducted his own exhaustive internal investigation, Carey appears confident in his findings as he expressed his apology directly to PREN by stating;

“… PREN although I will never agree with your practices of allowing anonymous users to post defamatory statements regarding REW, I do think this staff member crossed the line.”

Mr. Carey continues on with the apology by stating his concerns regarding the apparent rivalry between his forums at Real Estate Webmasters and the forums for the Pro Real Estate Network. The 1,000+ word post went into lengthy detail regarding what Morgan believes to be the true nature of the unfortunate disruption regarding the PREN forums and states that similar although unrelated attacks on his own forums have taken place over the span of Real Estate Webmasters lofty presence on the internet. Webmasters and forum administrators would certainly agree that sites that are on the top in stature and presence do in fact become targets of malicious attacks and defamation which is simply a painful reality we all face.

Morgan Carey, more apologetic than sympathetic in his post made several references to the rivalry between his forum and forum(s) in a less than direct way which could leave some to conclude that the motive was entirely predatory. Predatory attacks do take place as we see headlines of such behavior between rivals all the time. Morgan Carey was careful to disclaim such motives outwardly but the voice of his message leaves an impression that such a motive may have been the case. When one considers that no fewer than 7 (seven) forums did surface as a result of rivalry or differences in authority and opinion by former long standing members and co-founders of REW; rivalry seems to be an appropriate conclusion in the hidden suggestion of such.

Rogue REW Employee Hacks PREN forums?

As it appears, the most informative and important facet of this event is the revealing of Morgan Carey’s internal investigation. The investigation apparently netted REW staff the conclusion that it may likely be the fact that REW’s own employee perpetrated the malice against the PREN forums. Interestingly enough, each of the forums, REW and PREN, do in fact use the popular vBulletin forum software to power their growing communities. An employee with knowledge and familiarity of vBulletin could in fact compromise passwords.

However, a question sits on the tongues of the curious; Was this event by direct command or was it fully without express knowledge of Morgan Carey that the compromised password and act of violating the PREN’s forums was ensue (ensue not always clear). Either way, from a legal stand point we discover that REW could very well be fully liable for the acts of its employees rendering express knowledge moot in the eyes of the law.

Since Morgan Carey is not known for his technical ability but rather his SEO prowess, does lend a level of credibility regarding his denial of involvement. The mining of vBulletin passwords is a lofty task for the non technical as the software does not divvy up such information easily. Compromised passwords take the kind of knowledge only the very skilled would possess.

Alternatively, a plugin could have been installed allowing vBulletin administrators (or assigned powers to be) to see and or edit passwords on a whim. Morgan states that such an ability is not in their means and not part of their administrative practices. It is known however that vBulletin third party developers have made available many expanding additions to the software that give more control and power over their forums. Some are less than ethical in my biased opinion. Some of these plugins provides forum owners casual access to information perceived to be private as in private messaging between members as well as monitoring of other member interactions. Interestingly, such features would not likely be installed without the express knowledge of a forums owner.

Bench warmers on the sidelines still express opinion regarding these events as clearly drawn lines of bias or should I say indifference riddle the forums and blogs around the web. One thing is for certain, should the investigation conducted by the US Justice Department net contradicting evidence to this latest explanation, many may conclude the outer most extremes of webmaster ethics in ways that could harm the entire industry. Webmasters have been coming under increasing fire in recent months as an apparent trend in forum moderation seems to also include censorship, deception and outright policing of member interaction in what is perceived to be a community or publicly accessible forums. Fallout and swift changes in pledge of allegiance may surface.

PREN administrators oppose the notion in Morgan’s apology that they participate in the practices of allowing anonymous or guest users to make posts. PREN policy is “policy” not “police” and albeit more open to the freedoms not afforded elsewhere with opinions, guests and the anonymous are not permitted persons to make posts.

Morgan Carey’s apology, although clearly sided and albeit carefully written with disclaimer verbiage, does seem genuine rather than damage control motivated on the surface. Conclusions I’m sure will meet with disagreement, Morgan’s timely apology presents some logical answers that will be the subject of many forums and blogs today I’m sure. The rogue employee findings does answer some very interesting questions which will be discussed abroad. Such a finding would not be impossible or even out of the question as you may very well agree.

Regardless of differences between those pro or contra, Morgan Carey’s apology was timely and appropriate as was foreseen just 24hours prior. We eagerly await the feedback we are sure to see across the web. As an active member of Real Estate Webmasters forums myself I’ve been hesitant to visit and make posts because of perceived rivalry between the forums even though I’ve found interaction with REW members rewarding in the past. As the Administrator or Moderator of many forums across the web, situations like this leave me in a state of empathy and concern for those determined to undermine one another. Lets hope this isn’t the case!

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6 Comments so far
  1. Mike M November 2, 2007 11:46 am

    Jared, well written and interesting. Its clear you are cautious in reporting on these events but I think your caution is not needed because if you have visited the Morgan Carey blog since your post you may notice that he has already downplayed his apology and is right back to being typical Morgan Carey. Realtors are complete idiots to believe a word out of that liars mouth.

  2. Jared Ritchey November 2, 2007 12:06 pm

    Actually I did notice that and I made a response in Morgans blog regarding the change in attitude. It does seem strange that a guy would apologize and then follow up with comments like those. Very strange, but I’m relatively sure my comment will go unpublished however.

    ~ Jared

  3. Jared Ritchey November 2, 2007 12:49 pm

    Well I stand corrected.

    Morgan did post my comment which I certainly respect.

    Its hard not to read into a person what we expect them to be instead of seeing a person for who they are.

    I’m going to move on to more productive things at this point.

  4. Orside.Com » Morgan Carey - REW PREN Hacking - Timely Apology November 3, 2007 6:16 pm

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  5. James Boyer November 27, 2007 3:08 pm

    I read the REW Blog post by Carey as well as a little of the PREN postings at that site, and have to say I was more than a little disappointed with what I have seen at PREN. Reminded me of a agent who left the REW forum and then threatened me for commenting on a certain other famous SEO.

  6. Jared Ritchey November 28, 2007 12:58 am

    James that entire issue set people off and I can clearly see and agree with you on your perspective.

    I know that when people are offended or baffled at why certain things happen, especially things that consistently annoy them, the usual outcome is rooted in anger.

    I’m glad that other things more fitting to Real Estate Professionals are now being discussed in the forums regardless of who’s forum.

    Thanks sincerely for your comments.


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