The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

So.

Google the term "Ray L. Watts" - first pages include his UAB bio (the one about his visionary leadership), wikipedia, an al-dot-com puff piece, some assorted neurologist-search pages.

This term has been scrubbed. It appears Ray did indeed pay someone (or someone who contracted) for this service.

Now google "Ray Watts" - this one still has the official bio but is also full of talk of multiple no confidence votes, FireRayWatts.com, various forms of incompetence etc. Which is all missing from the more restrictive "Ray L. Watts."

This term has not been scrubbed. Whoever Ray paid (or paid to have paid) is an idiot or pack of idiots. And if it suddenly becomes scrubbed, well, you all know what that means.

So.

I know it's possible to correct this bland-ification via twitter storm; I do not have the expertise on how to accomplish this. I know a number of you do. How is the googleverse best set back to rights? 'cause we wouldn't want Ray to be getting any value for our money - he should feel like a Marshall swimmer just wet his bed and made off with his rent money:

Is Watts still absent from all public events on campus, like the MBB games, etc.?

I don't think he's getting any value out of the PR efforts at all. The moment Dr. Watts stood at that podium and announced that the teams were going away, he became the dissolution the same way UAB merely became the school that lost football. The day he permanently damaged his reputation, and, honestly, there's nothing he can do to rectify that.

PR wise, I don't think the folks he hired are idiots. It's just that there efforts are a waste of time and money. Limited his participation in events is just common sense at this point. They realized like we did, that Dr. Watts himself was the best advocate for our cause.

Fixing some PageRank results for a particular search string doesn't accomplish or change much of anything.

(02-21-2015 02:04 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  Is Watts still absent from all public events on campus, like the MBB games, etc.?

Yes. The only events he is showing up at are events where he comes unexpected or ones where he has authority over others in attendance.

He didn't go to games before, right?

(02-21-2015 02:10 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  Fixing some PageRank results for a particular search string doesn't accomplish or change much of anything.

And there is no evidence that has been done. Most people google "Ray Watts" not "Ray L. Watts", so none of the negative stuff will be ranked high under "Ray L. Watts"

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

I've never seen him at any games.

Edit:

(02-21-2015 02:25 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:10 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  Fixing some PageRank results for a particular search string doesn't accomplish or change much of anything.

And there is no evidence that has been done. Most people google "Ray Watts" not "Ray L. Watts", so none of the negative stuff will be ranked high under "Ray L. Watts"

True. I forgot to mention that. It's much more likely that it's a direct result of being a slightly different string, but, even if they did do something, it'd be in vain.

(02-21-2015 02:25 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:10 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  Fixing some PageRank results for a particular search string doesn't accomplish or change much of anything.

And there is no evidence that has been done. Most people google "Ray Watts" not "Ray L. Watts", so none of the negative stuff will be ranked high under "Ray L. Watts"

Party Pooper.

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

Yes, he did. He attended basketball games last season and could be seen standing and chanting de-fense. He still has a reserved seat, one often decked out in a Fire Ray Watts sticker this season. It's not far from where this year you could see 122-year-old Scotty McCallum standing and chanting Fire Ray Watts. He also attended football games this fall, accompanied by his armed guards.

(02-21-2015 02:10 PM)Hopeful Wrote:  PR wise, I don't think the folks he hired are idiots. It's just that there efforts are a waste of time and money.

They're pretty idiotic, at least PR-wise. But they weren't really hired for PR. They were hired to lobby the legislature, which is Mr. Heartsill's actual specialty. Unraveling their PR efforts interferes with that.

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

the last game I saw Watts at was just before the 12/2 bombshell. DMBlazer cornered him in the Green & Gold Room and let him have it! Watts called the UAB Police and claimed he was being harassed.

Welp, let us change the chant to Fire Ray L. Watts tonight.

(02-21-2015 03:05 PM)58-56 Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

Yes, he did. He attended basketball games last season and could be seen standing and chanting de-fense. He still has a reserved seat, one often decked out in a Fire Ray Watts sticker this season. It's not far from where this year you could see 122-year-old Scotty McCallum standing and chanting Fire Ray Watts. He also attended football games this fall, accompanied by his armed guards.

I missed a lot of games last year as I was working out of state, but he wasn't at any of the games I attended lastyear or this year. Someone sat in his seats a couple of games ago and I would bet it was one of his kids and their spouse/date.

(02-21-2015 02:11 PM)the_blazerman Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:04 PM)Native Georgian Wrote:  Is Watts still absent from all public events on campus, like the MBB games, etc.?

Yes. The only events he is showing up at are events where he comes unexpected or ones where he has authority over others in attendance.

He's still attending UAB events, just not the ones everyone is invited to: http://www.uab.edu/news/student-experien...oorfeature

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

The two of you have a lot in common.

I saw him at the game where he was introduced as president.

(02-21-2015 05:31 PM)DMBLAZER Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

The two of you have a lot in common.

I'll be sure to personally let you know when I attend the next game. You seem to be obsessed with me. I'm sure it will make your day, ******

(02-21-2015 01:35 PM)58-56 Wrote:  So.

Google the term "Ray L. Watts" - first pages include his UAB bio (the one about his visionary leadership), wikipedia, an al-dot-com puff piece, some assorted neurologist-search pages.

This term has been scrubbed. It appears Ray did indeed pay someone (or someone who contracted) for this service.

Now google "Ray Watts" - this one still has the official bio but is also full of talk of multiple no confidence votes, FireRayWatts.com, various forms of incompetence etc. Which is all missing from the more restrictive "Ray L. Watts."

This term has not been scrubbed. Whoever Ray paid (or paid to have paid) is an idiot or pack of idiots. And if it suddenly becomes scrubbed, well, you all know what that means.

So.

I know it's possible to correct this bland-ification via twitter storm; I do not have the expertise on how to accomplish this. I know a number of you do. How is the googleverse best set back to rights? 'cause we wouldn't want Ray to be getting any value for our money - he should feel like a Marshall swimmer just wet his bed and made off with his rent money:

I doubt this is an effect of some PR firm doing "google scrubbing" of any search terms. If someone had the ability to manipulate Google searches to that extent, they'd be billionaires. It is likely due to the fact that most stories, especially on blogs and Twitter and less "professional" media outlets just use "Ray Watts" in the text of a story, meaning those things do not show up when you make a more specific search of "Ray L. Watts" (or, show up lower in that search when there are "better" matches that do contain the middle initial)

(02-21-2015 06:11 PM)mixduptransistor Wrote:  I doubt this is an effect of some PR firm doing "google scrubbing" of any search terms. If someone had the ability to manipulate Google searches to that extent, they'd be billionaires.

The services already exist. Here's a story about one chick getting her online rep fixed after posting a stupid photo:

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/20...jon-ronson

You don't make the bad go away: you bury it under mountains of bland. This is exactly the type of service that the purported fee sked from Direct Communications described.

Regardless of whether you want to believe in coincidence or purpose: "Ray L. Watts" returns far too many positive or neutral results. To have ZERO results pointing to the no confidence vote or any other negative action on his part stretches coincidence, but it really doesn't matter.

We need to be making sure that stories telling the truth about Watts and his actions (the Andy Schwartz pieces, the Chronicle of Higher Ed piece etc.) are showing up on page 1, not that bland al-dot-com Who Is Ray Watts profile, or his make-Mussolini-blush official bio, or his neurology-search results.

If the puffery and the bland are all that show up, we're going to see more crap out there like the post from the BC equipment-management intern, with no knowledge of what has really happened here.

This is information warfare. And we are losing. The truth needs to be at the top of every google search.

(02-21-2015 05:31 PM)DMBLAZER Wrote:  

(02-21-2015 02:23 PM)Memphis Blazer Wrote:  He didn't go to games before, right?

The two of you have a lot in common.

High five on that one.