I‘m not going to boost this particular unscrupulous business operator’s search engine traffic by mentioning him or his site by name (or giving a link). Instead, I will refer you to this post (found via this post).

Apparently, this fellow has pissed off every blogger in St. Louis.

This might be funny in a way if said unscrupulous business operator wasn’t hoodwinking media companies into believing he is somehow out for the greater good, and profiting in the process. Like the Knoxville News-Sentinel, for example.

I think KNS entered into an agreement with said operator with the purest of intentions, based on what I’ve read. I’m generally a fan of what Jack Lail and other folks have been doing to bring KNS into the 21st century. He has a well-written blog, and the KNS often links to blogs (including Rocky Top Talk, where I contribute occasionally) in a way that’s mutually-beneficial to bloggers, KNS and KNS readers. They have blogs, podcasts, RSS feeds and — more importantly — appear to be training their people to understand how to use these tools effectively. It recently won an award for best site design and architecture for a reason.

However, I believe KNS associating with this particular operator is a mistake. The guy running it has gone out of his way to be an asshole to the people who provide all the content for his site, and doesn’t respect people’s wishes to be removed from the site. My site is still listed there despite me asking to have it removed at least four times.