Global Grind's Navarrow Wright & Failures in Web 2.0 Communication

[Correction & Update: I originally mentioned Testbot when it was Testbet that was being difficult.  See the update below for further evidence suggesting that both Testbet and Joyous are Global Grind operatives.]

I finally had the time to listen to the Black Web 2.0 interview with Navarrow Wright, CEO of Global Grind.

Wright makes a convincing case that the Global Grind crew is committed to proceeding based on the actual feedback and actions of Global Grind users and I think that's evident from the development of the site.

While listening I started taking another look at Global Grind and found that they had launched the Global Grind buttons and badges that Wright said were coming back when he was interviewed and that's an important move.

I went ahead and dropped a suggestion on their Feedback page that they pursue getting their buttons included in both Add This and in Feedburner's FeedFlare service since I use those in my feeds and would like people to be able to add my posts to the flow of news at Global Grind, just as would any web publisher in the hip hop space.

Along the way Wright dropped a comment that renewed my concerns regarding Global Grind's approach to marketing and communication.  He reveals that he was reading the comments at Black Web 2.0, probably at this post, and found that they seemed to be discussing usability quite a bit which he claims as a great interest as well.

Yet Navarrow Wright declined to participate in these conversations or to assign an official Global Grind rep to the task.

This lack of involvement is particularly puzzling given that the above post at Black Web 2.0, my own critiques and those of a man named Clarence, all had a thoughtful approach and all were hijacked in some form by an entity known as Testbet, though Testbet saved his or her attacks on Clarence for the Black Web 2.0 comment space.

I should note that Testbet enacted attacks at ProHipHop on other posts under both Testbet and other pseudonyms but that they all seemed to ensue from my critique of Global Grind.

The only other defender of Global Grind at Black Web 2.0 was someone else basically unidentified, going by "Joyous", who wrote like a corporate press flak.

[Update: Testbet and "Joy" also showed up at Liz Burr's site.]

At ProHipHop, such patterns are assumed to indicate the likelihood that the commenter or commenters are connected with either Global Grind or Russell Simmons in some form and that goes for both the underhanded attacks as well as the uptight corporate attitude.  By the way, I didn't come into this game making such assumptions, rather I developed them as working tools through the observation of hip hop marketing in general and of Russell Simmons' various enterprises in particular.

However, putting that aside for the moment, why would Global Grind pass on the opportunity to join in conversations on demographically relevant blogs and allow a truly negative communication debacle to ensue?

Obviously I don't believe that there's only one way to participate in Web 2.0 dialogues, though I'm not satisfied with my current solution, but when a serious conversation that's relevant kicks off in public, anybody claiming Web 2.0 status is not only making an old timey mistake in not participating but is displaying a bit of cluelessness in the space.

Since I loosely tie all such communication into the realm of marketing, I feel compelled to mention that the only official communication I received that stated that Global Grind was launching was a postcard!

I swear, it was such an odd thing to receive, like something my Aunt Beattie would come up with that "flabbergasted" actually does a nice job of summing up my response.  But it was such a polite move, again in an old timey way, that I couldn't bring myself to criticize it publicly at the time.

However it seems to fit a pattern of oddball marketing and communication approaches that have marked Global Grind from the beginning.

I hate to close on a catty note but it's a good thing they've got serious funding if they're going to have to learn everything for themselves rather than benefitting from the lessons of others who are successfully navigating the world of Web 2.0 communication.

Nevertheless, if they get those buttons on FeedFlare, you'll be seeing them in ProHipHop's feed and on the individual posts.

Update regarding Testbet and Joyous:

Why didn't I think of checking Global Grind itself for clues to the identity of testbet and Joyous?

None of the profiles at the page describing the Global Grind crew match these names but check this out:

Stryker is one of the top GG contributors for the last 7 days [Top Contributors are listed in the sidebar].

Testbet posted his/her email as stryker@yahoo.com and then came at me under another pseudonym that I identified by the style of attack and the idiot's use of stryker1@yahoo.com as the email.

Coincidence?  Sure, could be.  NOT!

Joyous aka Joy is another of the top contributors.

Neither Joyous nor Stryker are identified beyond these profiles.

[Update: Here's Testbet.  He's a top Commenter but they were having problems with their Commenters code yesterday.]

Navarrow Wright says in the interview that Global Grind employees have been seeding these systems yet none of the employee identified profiles show up in the Top Contributors list.

The exceptionally active GG Content appears to be the only official profile for the "GG Curation Posse" in the Top Contibutors which I assume is intended to represent all GG employees who "curate".

So what are the odds that Global Grind operatives are posting under pseudonymous profiles to make it appear like there are more active participants than exist?

Very, very high given that such tactics were widespread before GG came on the scene.  Not such a big deal, when all is said and done, except for the poor behavior of Testbet and Joyous on other people's sites.

To be honest, I can't really blame them.  They have VC's to which they must answer and that means there's a timeclock tick, tick, ticking away.

Comments to: clyde(at)prohiphop(dot)com

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
Rumor: Global Grind's Heading for the Dead Pool?
Global Grind Reboots, Abandons Opening Position
Looking Back at 360HipHop, Considering Global Grind