I usually love meeting bloggers in person. For me, certainly, its a chance to talk about things that I rarely get a chance to talk about with friends in my own social circle — and I think my wife has heard my crackpot theories about Digg about once too many times. But as I bask in the warm togetherness of happy memories, there is one funny downside to meeting bloggers in person.

And that’s when you actually do … its hard to write about them critically thereafter.

Take Dell’s most recent gaffe, for example.

I was going to write about it one way — but, well, some recent experiences made me almost change my mind.  For example, I’ve found that when you meet bloggers in person they’re all reasonably normal in their sense of humour, outlook on life, and how they like to keep their sense of personal space. Happily, everyone I’ve met seems normal in that regard.

And that’s the problem.

Sort of.

Before, you were happily analyzing what they might say or do with a coldly critical eye, without a care in the world about throw out a jovial remark or three in a blog post, sometimes personal, sometimes not.

Now — you kind of second guess yourself. Wait — they aren’t really thinking that, were they? Hold on, perhaps *this* is what they meant. I was going to write “hackneyed, tired and pedestrian”, but perhaps I should rather substitute “… this was not, actually, their best effort?”

At Mesh, for example, I met Lionel Menchaca, the guy who blogs for Dell at Direct2Dell. A brilliantly humble fellow. To be honest, you can’t help but like the guy. Now, recently there was a dust up around how a former manager at Dell released some thoughts about the purchasing experience at one of those Dell kiosks you might see at a Mall. It was published at the Consumerist, Dell got upset, asked it to be taken down — and voila. Streisand Effect.

[where trying to remove a piece of information causes more backlash and publicity than the initial offending piece of information]

Good ol’ Lionel has a post apologizing for their goof up, titled “23 Confessions”.

Now, I think that there is a lot to learn from Dell, in the way that they’ve engaged their consumer base to try and turn things around. Furthermore, Lionel’s Mea Culpa on behalf of Dell is the right way to do things. Do it quickly, do it honestly, and keep the conversation open on all frequencies.

That’s good.

The post, “23 Confessions”?

The pre-Mesh Tony [who, let's say was in a deliciously foul mood] might have said “this piece is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at damage control, and in the context of their prior efforts, is seriously lacking; moreover, several of these confessions are not “confessions” at all, but unabashedly contrived attempts at selling more of Dell’s stuff.”

The post-Mesh Tony, on the other hand, might say something like “Dell’s making a good attempt at customer relations, and while some of these confessions aren’t quite confessions — its clear that they’re meant to be taken tongue in cheek. Good for Lionel.”

And I suppose what this all *really* means is that its been an epiphany for me as a blogger. Journalists, for example, have had to deal with interpersonal conflicts between what needs to be put down on paper and the relationships they have made with people in industry to get the story — relationships that need to continue to allow a certain degree of access that is critical for their continued success.

Bloggers, on the other hand, particularly ones that blog about topic events, may never get close to the participants or newsmakers in their field of interest. They write “at a distance”, and I think, in some respects, that its a good thing. It keeps the ideas and opinions impartial — or certainly more impartial than if you’re in the thick of things.

Now that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting a few interesting individuals in the area that I write about, will that change what I’m going to write? Will it water down my opinions, or cause me to pause as I prepare a particularly acerbic post?

Well, I really, really hope not.

Rather, I’m hoping that as I mature as a blogger, that I’ll be able to divorce my opinions of the people that I meet from their actions, their words and their deeds. You know how it is — hate the sin, love the sinner and all of that. After all, at the end of the day, they are all real people who are trying to make a go of things in their own way. Yes, even Ted Murphy, CEO of PayPerPost, who is vilified in the blogosphere is actually quite affable, honest and transparent about exactly what he intends to do. And Loren Feldman, who can appear brash and abrasive, is actually a really nice guy. Heck, even though he was prepared to hate Mike Arrington, it seems like even he was taken aback by how easy going (and real) Mike Arrington was.

So, will it be a little harder to write some posts about some people? Probably.

But will it stop me from telling it like I see it?

Not a chance. ;)