By Peter @Newton Bell, October 4, 2016
Sometimes I joke that “I am not a nice guy, but I play one online.” Why? Because the internet is forever.
I am an active and long-term user of CEO.CA. I love the fast pace of conversation, high-quality of participants, and allure of the junior mining industry. When I post on CEO.CA, I expect that no-one will read anything I write on the site but act as if everyone who matters in my future will know everything I write. I grew up in the digital age and figure it’s prudent to act as if everything is being recorded at all times.
Approaching CEO.CA in this careful way allows me to be more comfortable in using my legal name online. I have some idea of the risks, but I take it as an exercise in personal branding in the digital age. I believe that my activity online will help build an identity that will be important in my lifetime.
A critical aspect of branding on CEO.CA is what kind of ‘footprints’ you leave on the site. I use a lot of tags: # for ideas, @ for people, $ for stocks, and others. Every post that I make has at least one tag. Without these tags, the posts just sit on a single channel, unconnected to the site. You may get an immediate response from someone who actually read your post, but you risk being lost in the long run.
The reason I use so many tags on the site is that I want to be a connector, talking about and creating relationships between ideas like #gold and #nirp, for example. Not only do I work as a connector on the site, I do so off the site too. I am active on twitter and try to share the fruits of our community with others there. I also bring stuff back to CEO.CA from the big, bad internet.
I even go so far as to advocate for CEO.CA in person. I believe there is something of value on the site for most people that I interact with. Students, retirees, professionals, and others can use the site to get a glimpse into the strange world of junior mining. Better still, they can get involved.
We’ve all heard the statistics about future shortfalls of skilled workers and I think our site can help attract talented new people to the industry. I believe there are jobs to be created around here.
Allow me to conclude by pointing out that CEO.CA was of critical value to me in preparation for my recent research on Aton Resources. I started by digging through all the posts on the $AAN channel since the site started. It had all of the news releases, like other sites, but it also had humanity.
I got a better sense of the story by reading all of the chats on $AAN than anything else. The channel brought the company to life in a way that no other site has done for me; it helped put the past news releases into a frame that I could understand intellectually and emotionally.
Like anything, the site can be dangerous. I use it in moderation (even though it doesn’t seem like it from all my activity) but, when I am there, I am ready to work. I appreciate when others take it seriously, too. I appreciate the ongoing debate around whether someone or something is ‘ruining the site’. I appreciate when people correct my errors or challenge my claims. I also appreciate when they support my success and I try to do the same for them.
I know it’s lame, but I try to approach everyone on CEO.CA with the “Golden Rule” in mind. I may not be a nice guy, but I play one online.
