Recently a user at our Real Estate Forums posted a thread titled "I am tired of REW" I think he or she is a member here at Active Rain as well. This is one of my favorite posts of late, and really makes me proud of our community and our moderators. 

The user writes: 

"I am tired of REW, and because of that this will be my last forum post. I will not post any more blog postings either.

Much of my frustrations with REW stem from the fact that there is a predisposed position here that there is a right way and a wrong way of doing things, and nothing in between. As a result nearly EVERY thing that I have done here at REW has been confronted with negative close minded criticism that hides behind a front of silly rules and regulations. Mostly I have been confronted with this idea in the releam of SEO. The administrators of REW appear to have a firm belief in white hat SEO versus black hat SEO, and nothing in between.

I will admit that REW does have an amazing presence on the web and from what I have seen of their development work they appear to handle their clients very professionally. I only wish they did the same when they handle their "social network"."

My friend you couldn't be more wrong. There is no pre-disposed position that there is a right way or wrong way to do things, and we are open to discussing ANY SEO technique openly and freely. However what you have run into is a clear cut case of not following the rules. 

At Real Estate Webmasters (Much more so than Active Rain which we know the good folks are working on) we have very clear guidelines and rules regarding spamming our forums and blogs. When a user signs up at the forum, they are sent an automatic PM inviting them to introduce themselves and pointing out these rules. 

Now for new members, we (Staff and moderators) always point out politely the first time, that perhaps they have not read the rules, and what they are doing is unacceptable. This guy or gal chose to ignore them and kept breaking our rules, and because of our great team, kept getting busted. I am sorry that you are tired of REW, but we are tired of spam, and will not tolerate it just because you think for some reason you have the god given right to do so. 

I mean how hard is it to understand? Here are the rules, please be mindful of them when posting. Most of them aren't even around spam here are our rules, anyone think we are overly stifling? 

We encourage the sharing of ideas and all questions about real estate web development but we ask that you observe these few rules

#1. Be respectful of other members regardless of difference of opinion. (No profanity or name calling)

#2. No self promotion of services in public forums - feel free to PM individual members if they specifically ask for a service that you offer, but do not clog up the public discussion forums with posts concerning your own services, these forums are for learning and sharing, not selling yourself.

#3. No more than 3 links per signature.

#4. Do not post off topic in a thread, if your comment is not relevant to a thread, please start a new thread within the most relevant forum for the topic.

#5. REW will not tolerate any other member stealing (Borrowing) intellectual property or website content without expressed written permission of the owner of said property. You will be given the opportunity to provide such documentation of permission however failure to provide such proof is subject to lifetime ban.

#6. Member poaching - There is to be no diverting members of this forum to other competing real estate forums to answer questions or have discussions that can easily be facilitated herehere. Recruiting our members to other forums is strictly forbidden. If you are simply here to promote your own forum, then please leave as you will be banned for doing so.

#7 - Linking policy - Real Estate Webmasters (REW) will not link to any websites that violate any search engines terms of service. If you are posting about a website that is violating the SE's terms of service for discussion purposes do not make it a live link. If you are linking to your own sites that violate these terms of service, in posts or in your signature, your linking privelleges will be revoked

#8. No link exchange posting out side of the approved members link exchange forum, you will be warned once (And the post will be deleted) if you do it again, your account will be banned.

#9 - Do not create multiple accounts, only one account is permitted per person

#10 - Have Fun!

We ARE MONSTERS AND DICTATORS I TELL YOU!  :)

Some select member responses from the thread (I love our community and how we support each other)

Jason Crouch - AustinTexasHomes.com

Joe - Best of luck to you. I think the reason that I enjoy this forum is that I have not seen another forum where everyone was so respectful of each other. Maybe it's because many of us have our real names (or websites where you can find them). I have been doing SEO for my site since 1998, and this is overall the best forum I have found.

Neal M - houseviewsonline.com

I must be fortunate, all the differences in option I have had with the forum members have been polite and professional. In most cases they were posted as "here's another way" or "try this way" and not "your way is wrong"

I like that REW stays on the white hat side of SEO. As far as where the line is between white and grey, that may be hard to determine. However it appears that REW uses a light touch when it comes to the light gray topics.

Now, does anyone know where I can get a KC Chief's Red SEO hat? 

And perhaps the best response and testament to our great members comes from:

Lydia Taylor - northofsavannah.com

A forum is a place where we all share opinions, and I think that as such there really aren't any 'predisposed' ways of doing things here. However, please understand that the staff here have a duty to keep the discourse from veering too far in certain directions. I think they've done a good job doing so. It may be that you've just come up against those restrictions. If that frustrates you, you can always visit other areas of the net to learn more.

Every forum brings something to the table, this one more than most IMHO. So please accept that REW is just doing a job protecting themselves and posters on the website, and they weren't attacking you personally.

I'm disappointed that you see the forums in such a light and hopefully you will rejoin us again soon...

I mean what a great bunch of members and great community. Even though this person is complaining about "the rules" which are in place to ensure continued benefit and high quality discussion, members are still urging him to stick around because there is so much he can benefit (And I would imagine over time this person like everyone would have helped many others as well) 

Sure this post is a bit self indulgent, but seriously our members and community just kick ass and I am extremely proud of every single on of them. 

One final quote from Markz

Long live REW!