ActiveRain: Fun, friends, knowledge, problems, and, of course, points

When my marketing guru/favorite home inspector/husband suggested that I join ActiveRain, blog, read, and comment, my first reaction was, "Huh?"

Since I joined, I've become somewhat addicted to the system. It's fun, has provided me with lots of new friendships (even if many of them are still virtual), has taught me a lot, and has allowed me to contribute to my profession.

Does it have problems? Sure. Some of them have recently been talked about in a Featured Post by Glenn Roberts titled Good Points from ActiveRain.

I'm not one to get involved in controversies about anything. I just think controversies bring too much stress into my life. However, I did comment on Glenn's post. It was by far my longest comment ever, and I thought my comment would make a good post itself. If you haven't read Glenn's post, read it first.

Here are my comments about the ActiveRain system:

1. As you get more points, you find out that it becomes much easier to get more points. For example, early in January I think it was, everyone who was #1 in their profession here at ActiveRain got 5,000 points. That didn't seem fair, so I did a post about the people who were second and third in their professions here at ActiveRain and suggested that at a minimum, they award 2,500 and 1,000 points to the Silver and Bronze medalists, respectively, which they did.
2. If you participate regularly, the points will come, even if you have a thousand blog posts but only four featured, like me. I have noticed that the 80/20 rule seems to work here as far as featured posts go, with 80% of the featured posts by the same people. I've also noticed that the more controversial or doom-and-gloom your posts are, the more likely they are to be featured. Maybe there's a reason why the media constantly features doom-and-gloom news. The general public seems to want it.
3. It also seems to me that the East Coast members get featured more often than the West Coast members, perhaps because there are Staff members on the East Coast, where the ActiveRain servers are also located, and when they wake up they check their favorite East Coast bloggers. If they find something good, they feature it. Well, there can only be so many featured posts, so once the quota is achieved using the East Coast posts, no more are allowed, regardless of how good they are.
4. Has anyone besides me noticed that featured posts come in groups? We can go a day or more with no new featured posts, and then all of a sudden, we'll have ten or so featured posts show up in a couple of hours or so. I wonder if it has anything to do with all the Raincamps that are occurring and the fact that lots of Staff members are at the Raincamps rather than reading blog posts.
5. I've also noticed that if you can get Lenn Harley to comment on your blog post, you have a high probability of it being featured.
6. If you don't think points are important, ask someone who has several hundreds of thousands of points to give you, say, 50,000 or so. Ain't gonna happen.
7. I remember when Todd Clark was having a contest to award 50,000 of his points to the person who came closest to guessing when he would achieve that one millionth point. Not 50,000 points, but 50,000 of HIS points. I haven't seen his total go down by 50,000, but it sure went up rapidly when he had 20 or so of his posts featured on the day he got to one million.
8. Sure it takes a lot of persistent and consistent work to get hundreds of thousands of points, but it also has something to do with longevity. Just because someone found ActiveRain before someone else did, they get rewarded with thousands of points? Well, life isn't fair, and neither is ActiveRain. Accept it, deal with it, make the most of it, and move on. 
9. Instead of just recognizing those with hundreds of thousands of points, maybe they should recognize those who get the most points on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. I might be in the running then. LOL

Happy Memorial Day weekend to everyone! 

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If you're looking for a great San Diego Realtor, well,
let me Google one for you.

I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

Jim Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award Mission Valley
California DRE License #01458572
619-729-5701
jimfrimmer@century21award.com
Mission Valley Condos Information

♪♫♫♫♪

Try RusselRayPhotos.com for inexpensive, royalty-free photos.

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Recent blog posts:

1. Calling all cats. Calling all cats. - Please put a picture of your cats in this post. We're trying to get as many cat pictures as possible by the end of 2010.
2. Calling all ActiveRain authors and co-authors - If you've authored or co-authored a book of any kind, put its title and web site link (if any) in this post.
3. The joys of having a cat
4. Just a small reminder: Like politics, real estate is local! Make it so! - Featured
5. San Diego maintains its ranks as one of the nation's safest large cities
6. Which weighs more, feathers or gold?
7. It's nice to just chill in the 22nd craziest city in America
8. Will they bring some Wisconsin cheese?
9. San Diego County affordability index continues to slide
10. San Diego Architecture: Treo at Kettner, downtown San Diego
11. Did you know? A few facts about San Diego and the Navy
12. Open House update: Sometimes you just have to go with the flow
13. I'm glad you're holding it and not me, and, no, I don't want to pet it.
14. San Diego County farmers' markets are in full swing!
15. Out & About San Diego with Jim Frimmer, your Mission Valley Realtor: The Epiphyllum House at the San Diego Wild Animal Park
16. SeaWorld cares!

My favorite ActiveRain Groups:

ActiveRain Convention Station
ActiveRain Guerrilla Marketing Station
ActiveRain History Station
ActiveRain Library Station
ActiveRain Nature Station
ActiveRain Symphony Station
ActiveRain Travel Station