I believe Recruiting.com has fulfilled its purpose for me and is about to give up the ghost. The so-called recruiting community portal serves no strategic purpose and drives all but no traffic. There is no interesting content that I couldn’t get somewhere else. There are no pictures of Filipino hot babes after all and, quite frankly, the site has turned into a useless waste of blogroll, more irritation than anything else.
Kick it…The intrinsic value of Recruiting.com beyond it’s earlier googliciouness and rambunctiousness has been reworked by the Recruitosphere’s alchemist Jason Davis. The transfiguration of Recruiting.com in RecruitingBlogs.com has been more than a reinvention. With less emphasis on the blogging bit and dollops of slobber about “community,” Jason Davis has enhanced his reputation for being the guy in the right place at the right time. If nothing else, the passing of Recruiting.com and ascension of RecruitingBlogs.com, — Jason’s hand in both — reminds me that there is indeed a time and place for everything.
…see if moves! No doubt for some, Recruiting.com will continue to serve a purpose. One imagines that when Steven Rothberg, Andy Headworth, Jason Buss and other longstanding posters stop submitting their articles we might observe the stillness of the corpse, and the decomposition can begin. While revolting to thinkabout blueflies and maggots doing their thing, without their feasting we could never get beyond the off-topic stink. Who knows, I might continue to post my occasional musings on Recruiting.com too, just to appease the SEO gods. On the other hand, continuing to share the love with a stiff Recruiting.com, well, that would be sick — wouldn’t it? Yeah, probably — sacrilegious too.
Nah, its a goner. Oh well, in blogging as in life I guess, all things must come to an end. Otherwise we would never know that it is time to begin again, would we?
this is y the best players in the biz switched to “private social networks” (aka pw protected, invite only, etc) well over 12 mos ago. JD needs to catch up….
<3
Jer
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Jeremy Langhans
Senior Executive Sourcer / Recruiter
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Jeremy, I agree with your rationale for creating password protected communities although there are unresolved issues with that.
The real issue on Recruiting.com is the complete lack of editorial filters, moderation or apparent concern for the intended audience. Perhaps I am a hopelessly nostalgic romantic and others do see Recruiting.com as having become “corrupt” as I do.
I resent the arrogance behind Jobster’s having a premium space in the Recruitosphere used to basically communicate to the reader they are worthless to the publisher, valued only it appears by Delhi prostitutes and the SEO depraved. Anyone else feel that way?
To the bloggers who continue to self-promote [itself far removed from the site original intent] I wonder if they have any concern for their personal or corporate brands being compromised. I’m sure most wouldn’t chose to cross post on an escort agency site, or would they?
Wow, Ami - I thought this was rather Edgar-Allen-Poe’ish in its macabre!
I must be missing something - why all the hate toward Recruiting.com? If you know me, you know that this isn’t a rhetorical question - I really don’t understand the history behind why there would be such animosity toward a site. Sure, I admit I am obviously naive here - what happened back in the day to cause such a stir that lingers today?
Ami, you sound like your disdain for Recruiting.com (which you referenced to me in a response on RBC that you remember, at one point, “remember being as enamored with Recruiting.com as I am” with RBC) is greater than my disdain of ERE. What happened at Recruiting.com that was so bad? Was there blackballing, chilling of free speech, unjust bannings, etc.?
Fill me in on the history here - anyone who reads this without knowledge of the personal situations or history involved knows there is more involved than meets the eye. I’m guessing you expected this question from an unsuspecting reader . . . instead of only those who may be “in the know” about your disgust for Recruiting.com. So fill us in - I like the fact that you do answer your comments (as you did with Jeremy above), so I’m looking forward to learning more.
Josh, thanks for your questions. I’m sorry to have taken for granted that:
a) Anyone would actually read this.
b) Those who did would have some context for my bile.
One point of clarification first.
On my comment to you posted on John Sumser’s Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v1.9 I was making the point that the exuberance you feel for RecruitingBlogs.com is the same sentiment many felt about Recruiting.com in its heyday. I was cautioning you that the bloom will invariably fade, based on my own experience at least.
To frame this for you:
Prior to Jobster’s acquisition and retooling, Recruiting.com not only bore the hallmarks of Jason Davis’s touch but had the indelible mark of other seminal recruiting bloggers like the Recruiting Animal, Jim Durbin, Anthony Meaney and others. For sure, we had our share of “village idiots” and noisy neighbors” and maybe that it is what is lacking on RecruitingBlogs.com — see below/linked.
If you search Recruiting.com on Recruitomatic you’ll get my personal chronicling of events. It’s as good a history as I can skewer.
Let me refer you to John’s comments on Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v1.10 and his spot-on observation:
Get it?
In closing, to the tone of my post, I reserve the right to rant and moan and cuss and be artsy-farty here because its the one piece of the Internet where my poop don’t stink.
Josh, there are so many lessons to be learned in observing the cycle being completed on Recruiting.com and picking up again “incarnate” on RecruitingBlogs.com. [Oh, yeah, I reserve the right to be obtuse here too.]
There was much of value to be had from Recruiting.com. What was most valuable I still have and will continue to develop. Friendships, partnerships, collaboration and opportunity have to eventually transcend the synthetic space of online community and become real, meaningful, quantifiable, reciprocated and nurtured. That embodiment of Recruiting.com in the relationships that survive doesn’t change the fact that watching something you valued for itself — and contributed to daily — decay without so much as a by-your-leave from Jobster, causes me wonder whether it was all worth it. Well, of course it was! Just not any more.
Macabre, maybe. I think not.
Thanks for stopping by and adding to the conversation.
Hi, Ami - thanks for the history. Hey, I meant macabre as a compliment - it takes skill to strikes pictures and images in the mind of the reader. You have a true gift, sincerely.
I remember many of the ’seminal’ bloggers (and I admit I read quite a bit so you better come with the goods if you are going to maintain my interest), but to be honest . . . I was waiting for substance. A “goings-on post” is nice, but at some point, you need to bring quality. What is quality to me? Original thought. Value. This is what I saw lacking on Recruiting.com. I remember posts about card games and worthless banter about situations maybe only 4 or 5 people knew about . . . at least that was the brand perception at large. I also remember a latent power struggle that appeared to sit under the surface.
From our conversations, I can tell you that you have a fresh and unique approach and paradigm in the sense of how you view talent acquisition. I’d love to see more from you. There are a few others that have a true gift at inciting thought - John Sumser is one, for example. Howard Adamsky is another. What is also interesting is that the above 2 gentlemen don’t have a name for “playing it safe.” They don’t kiss asses for transparent reasons - they come with quality each and every post & article. Sometimes it stings . . . but they’re not afraid to put their necks out.
In my estimation, if RBC gives people a voice based on merit and the value they bring to the table . . . then the sky is the limit. The gap in the marketplace today is one in which the voices are not only those of the “insiders”. When that happens, membership resembles that of a bell curve (flat membership, to steep membership increases, to inflection, and back down again). To say this is analogous to the prototypical PLC (product lifecycle) is quite the understatement.
The interesting thing about social networks however is that the ‘bell curve line’ should be measured in terms of quality engagement/dialogue . . . not quantity of members. Which leads me to ask you a favor
I think we’ve had our fill of bloggers that do nothing but repost syndicated articles . . . so help me end this monstrosity of a practice! Let’s use our brains and stop reading the same old crap, day in and day out 
Thanks for the thoughtful reply and the compliments too. I appreciate both.
Making comparisons between Recruiting.com and RecruitingBlogs.com runs the danger of confusing issues and things.
For a start, the original Recruiting.com was built on a TypePad platform and then Jobster migrated the dig-this version to Drupel [I think its Drupel]. Notwithstanding its limitations [data portability for example] the Ning platform which RecruitingBlogs.com sits on is designed for social networking, community building, content mashup and all that whiz-bangery that drives a very different type of content generation, participation and social interaction.
The technical limitations aside, Recruiting.com at its height was the center of gravity for many recruiting blogs. By no means all. To the extent that initiatives like the BlogSwap brought collaboration to the growing clique it was not part of the everyday experience as it is on RecruitingBlogs.com now, or any other of our current recruiting communities de jour. That said, nothing has changed in terms of the relatively small percentage of people who actually drive the bus. Most are passengers staring out of the window, going to market.
As to originality of content and thinking on Recruiting.com that is a matter of opinion and recall. Generally, I agree that there was more content regurgitation than generation in the Recruitosphere but that’s true of blogging, period. Micro blogging [Twitter etc.] is arguably even worse unless you know that that is what you’re buying into.
That said, if you can show me three consecutive posts by the Recruiting Animal that were unimaginative, unfunny, not provocative, unoriginal, un-anything he’ll buy you dinner.
Anthony Meaney was as good a filter blogger as you’ll ever find. Every group site needs its hack. Knowing how to digest content without regurgitating it is a rare quality. Getting it right 80% is good enough. Anthony scored a near perfect 10, at least as I remember. Go look for yourself.
Jim Durbin expressed an opinion, maintained a standard, and blogged intelligently on a diverse set of topics that never left you wondering if he was taking his Focus Factor.
Jason Davis, um, what did he post…? Well, that’s not important. He was the brand ambassador for shindigs, splits, Starbucks, domain names and rock n’ roll. What more could you want?
And as for card games, your problem is…? Surely you cannot be of the same opinion as Grumpy who thinks charity poker playing perpetuates a negative view of recruiters, lumping them in with sharks, hustlers, cheats and self-promoting vendors? Puh-leeeze!
As to provocative and original voices, I can think of…um, well, a few. The truth is, most bloggers will continue to generate bland and boring content because that’s what they like to read.
As to “playing it safe” and “kiss asses for transparent reasons” I don’t know who or what your talking about. Can you be specific please — names and examples?
Any way, the point is this: Recruiting.com was not a social network, it was a network of social bloggers. In closing, Recruiting.com is going down the toilet and RecruitingBlogs.com is coming up roses, perhaps for that very reason. In the overall scheme of things it might hardly matter.
Ami, I definitely wasn’t comparing Recruiting.com to RecruitingBlogs.com - I’m just saying that the brand perception of Recruiting.com was a poor one at large. In terms of Drupel versus Ning, it’s good to see that we’ve had significant progress on the platform side of things.
The funny thing to me is that I can make a comment that Recruiting.com is still a joke today, but if I say the brand perception wasn’t so hot back then, either . . . I come across as the bad guy. My statement isn’t against any person - rather, it’s a general statement about my perception (and the brand perception in the overall market) of Recruiting.com. Am I the bad guy for saying yesteryear’s recruiting blogroll wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?
As far as card games, I didn’t say poker was a bad thing. Who is Grumpy? If it’s Jason Goldberg, I don’t know him or have any clue. I just remember him being the guy that everybody was bowing to because he was a direct conduit to the money stream. As soon as the guy raised some capital, he achieved stardom in the recruiting world. Anyway, about poker, all I can say is that I don’t care who one a card game last night. I only care about the card games I win and lose, unless I’m wating the WSOP or WPT on the boob-toob (yeah, I admit I’m a huge Jennifer Tilly fan, however!) What I’m suggesting is that the target market gets real, real small when card games dominate the conversation. In fact, maybe that’s a niche that can be exploited (it sounds funny, but it very well may be). We can raise money for charity and have events around NLHE . . . on top of just having a good time losing our money
Let me be direct in answering your question about my comment regarding “kissing asses” and “playing it safe.” My comment was that this is a skill that my two examples (John Sumser and Howard Adamsky) bring to the table. As such, readers (such as myself) are not left asking what behind-the-scenes relationships exist and or the reason for a lack of objectivity. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I’m looking for thought-provoking content from a questioning and investigative mind . . . not content from someone running for Mayor. I honestly can’t think of specific examples with specific people - plus, that wouldn’t be cool for me to call anyone out. In all honesty, I don’t remember the names of the politicians - I only remember the thinkers. Anyway, my comment was more a compliment toward my 2 examples for being “real”.
P.S. You need to get better at taking a compliment
>> Am I the bad guy for saying yesteryear’s recruiting blogroll wasn’t all it was cracked up to be?
No.
>> Who is Grumpy? If it’s Jason Goldberg, I don’t know him or have any clue.
John Sumser. Interestingly enough John was commenting on the loya jirga for recruiting bloggers organized by Jeff Hunter. Jeff Hunter also happened to author Recruiting.com’s Blog of the Year 2005. If you haven’t done so, take a look. Without an update in over a year, Talentism remains among the best thinking blogs from one of the industry’s brightest minds.
>> You need to get better at taking a compliment
If I did you wouldn’t do it repeatedly.
I’m not sure when Recruiting.com’s brand was ever that of a joke - there were HR types and recruiters who didn’t get it, but you have to remember that when we started, very few people understood blogs or their impact.
We were driving 2000 unique readers a day, dominated the search engines for recruiting terms, and were one of the highest rated sites in online employment, and we were completely unfunded.
Four main authors turned Recruiting.com from a small blog to a powerhouse in the industry that completely changed the way we communicate with each other.
Recruiting.com helped bring Recruiting 2.0 to recruiters, and then Jason sold it.
I’d say that’s one hell of an accomplishment, even if some people who never had the nerve to write their thoughts may of thought of it as a joke.
We nurtured and built a community that today is much larger. Cheezman, Dennis Smith, Paul DeBettignies, Dave Mendoza, and of course, Jim Durbin, all were launched into new careers using the Recruiting community and Recruiting.com as a launching pad.
Some joke. It’s had me laughing for three years.
It’s sad to see it gone. Jobster has replaced the old site, and the archives, with a new face.
Recruiting.com is Jobster’s. Sadly. -Willian