For those of use who do not spend all day in the Social Media scene, there has been an interesting spat playing out over YouTube, the blogosphere and Twitter ... and frankly the blogosphere stepped in and took sides. Community 1, Shel Israel 0.

Michael Arrington and the team at TechCrunch have covered the whole affair very well ... A Case Study in Personal Brand Destruction.

An otherwise inside joke and 'jab' at Shel Isreal (of Naked Conversations fame - personal blog now renamed Global Neighborhoods - Social Media's Impact on Business and Culture) turned out to be a well publicized digital event.

Refer one of the Shel Isreal sock puppet videos below on YouTube:

Not earth-shattering stuff. You may ask, why is this interesting?

In short, it points to the power of community ... and ability to take sides in real time. You could even conclude that the community will prevail in such situations with a strong sense of right and wrong. The bigger issue is that if you choose to participate in this venue, the participants will have their own sense of acceptable behaviors / social norms. Understand the community. Engage on their terms, not yours.

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