What a strange world we live in… we were sitting around on Thanksgiving Day, stuffing our faces, and we retired to the couch to watch some NFL … and me … well, of course… I have to check my fantasy team… so my dad was saying… “whatever happened to Kelly Holcomb? Tim Couch?, etc.”… and, of course, that led to some time on Wikipedia… naturally, that leads to a discussion of prominent Goodpasture folks like Patrick Turner.

Anyway, as I was typing in “Goodpasture Christian School“, I came across a site ranked in the Top 10, www.goodpastureconfidential.com. And, I thought… wow, how times have changed. It is a complete gripe site, with people discussing all matters about the administration, the board, the teachers, students. Apparently, this site was started by a Nashville lawyer and Goodpasture parent who feels that he was “wronged” by the school. And, I did notice that Goodpasture attorneys have made efforts to shut the site down. As always with these situations, I have to laugh. When will people learn that the Internet community cannot just be told to “shut up”? Clearly, First Amendment laws protect the gripers. Intimidation will not work, and the public will not be intimidated, easily. So, when you try to shut them up, it just makes it worse for you. It is clear that so many businesses and institutions today just do not know how to deal with the “Wild West” of the Internet. As I always say, when someone talks ill of you online, the worst thing that you can possibly do is to “confront them”. Always a bad idea. For institutions, online reputation management is a task that you must constantly be aware of. And, when someone can start a gripe site and rank in the Top 10 for your name within 5 months of being started, well, your ORM can be improved, drastically.

But, as I started this point out… how times have changed. When I was at Goodpasture, it was clear to me that many people were disgruntled… but, they had no outlet for voicing their frustrations. That day is clearly over. And, even one little disgruntled lawyer can have an impact on how people see an institution that has been around for many years.