Separating Facts vs. Speculation
Hello Members,
Now that SFARMLS is back online, I would like to respond to misinformation and concerns that have been voiced online, in print, and on social media.
Many agents have expressed dismay over my comments in the SF Chronicle article from August 15, 2023 downplaying the disruption in Rapattoni’s service to SFARMLS. I was equally upset about the misrepresentation of my words and would like to explain how the remarks were taken out of context. I have not clarified my statements sooner because it was more important for me and the leadership team to stay focused on solutions for our member community.
The conversation with the Chronicle happened at roughly 3:00 p.m. on August 15th after I had toured all morning, thanking agents for continuing to do business as close to normal as possible. The tour had approximately 160 entries for that day. I heard nothing but positive feedback from the listing agents with whom I visited.
The quote printed in the SF Chronicle article was specifically in response to a question about workarounds for the Brokers Tour on August 15th. The reporter, Sam Whiting, asked the question, “How has the outage affected the Brokers Tour this week?” To which I responded, “This is literally the slowest two weeks of the year for us, at this point it was just an inconvenience because of the work around we created.” This answer was a direct response to the manual input of data for the August 15th Brokers Tour, not a comment about Rapattoni’s system being down for 6 days at that point. Mr. Whiting then asked the question, “Is Rapattoni going to pay a ransom to fix the problem?” To which I responded, “I’m not going to speculate on financial repercussions for anyone.”
A Note About Social Media
I would also like to take a moment to address comments on social media.
SFAR supports engaging in direct and meaningful discourse on social media channels, but when inflammatory statements or false information is shared in an obvious attempt to fan the flames of negative discourse, SFAR has an unwavering stance of not engaging.
The reason? Social media algorithms are now designed to prioritize content that elicits strong emotional responses, as these tend to increase user engagement and interaction. Engaging with inflammatory language often contributes to a cycle of negativity and can perpetuate online conflicts. Responding to such posts inadvertently amplifies their visibility and promotes further misinformation and discord.
The Facts
Now for some facts as they relate to the Rapattoni service outage:
- Members were able to gain access to SFARMLS on August 23 at 9:00 a.m, exactly two weeks (14 days) after service was interrupted, not 19 days or more as reported in The Real Deal article.
- Agents were provided with a window to make changes before data distribution (IDX, VOW, Syndication) was enabled on the same afternoon that service was restored.
- SFAR is in the first group of Rapattoni MLSs affected to have service restored.
- No personal information (i.e. credit card, Social Security numbers) were stolen during the attack.
- Any information about ransoms or hackers that does not come directly from Rapattoni should be considered hearsay.
- The employees at SFAR, and many of your volunteers, started focusing on ways to keep members working within 48 hours of the first observable downtime. SFAR staff and volunteers continue to remain focused on doing so until all known issues are resolved.
- At no point did SFAR declare a specific “go-live” date and later retracted it. Promptly after we learned the system could be safely restored, we restored it and notified our members.
I want to thank you for your patience, understanding and support during the past two weeks. I am proud of how we have come together as a community to problem solve and minimize disruption to members’ businesses as much as possible.
Please feel free to reach out to me directly with comments, clarifications or questions.
Your President,
Damon Knox
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