Do We Expect Too Much of Active Rain?

Do We Expect Too Much of Active Rain?

This one has been building up for a bit and isn't in the theme of our typical posts, so here goes....

We've been what we would deem hardcore Active Rain disciples since about mid-2010.  Buyers and sellers aren't going to fall into our laps just because we're here.  We've learned that results come with hard work and focus, and paying attention to what others in the Rain are teaching. And we've learned that there are tremendous friendships to be made.  And we've learned that there are some truly amazing people here who do amazing things for each other! We've said it before, Active Rain is MUCH more than just a collection of bloggers, it's a community IF you choose to let it be. 

But what we don't expect?  Perfection.  It's not always going to be peaches and cream in the Rain.  Active Rain is fueled by people and machines, and we've never met either without some risk of failure.

Active Rain has had some technology bumps and hiccups.  The server outages were REALLY frustrating to everyone....but have you noticed?  How often are you getting the pear shaped error message?  The 500 series errors?  Almost never!  And if it does happen, chances are they're communicating the issue via the front page, Facebook and Twitter!

And when you consider how many technology platforms are out there, and all the possible combinations?  Macs, Windows, desktops, smartphones, iPads, laptops.  And ALL the browser choices?   And they're ALL changing, ALL the time. 

So yes, there may be hiccups with compatibility, but you know the Active Rain team is working on it.  And it might not always get resolved as quickly as we'd like.....and face it, we're MOSTLY Type A people and YESTERDAY isn't soon enough when something isn't right!

And nothing seems to get the torches and pitchforks out faster than the topic of Featured posts.  Welcome to Dante's TENTH Circle of hell (yeah, he left that out of the book).  We truly feel its a catch-22 situation for Active Rain. 

Publish the same people too often and you hear the grumbles that only the pets are featured (did you stop to consider that those bloggers write well and often?)  Flip the coin and lower the standards to get more inclusive, and another crowd will rumble about poor quality.

And don't even get started on what happens if a mistake is made by featuring a reblog or a copied post, because as we all know, they're the AR Gods and they're not allowed to make mistakes!

To quote Alexander Pope (1688-1744), "To err is human; to forgive, divine".  When it comes to Active Rain (or life in general for that matter), we could all use a lot more of that divine part.

Do you really think it's easy for them to pick through about 2000 posts a day and find the best 20 without someone thinking they could do better?  Let's be honest with that answer now!

It's been our experience time and again that if we let Kerrie, Bob, or anyone on the Active Rain staff know of a problem, especially an erroneous Feature, it gets taken care of, and quickly!  Trust them!  Let them know!  

So calibrate yourself.  Are you paying attention to how Active Rain works today?  Providing the benefit of the doubt? Are you giving props where they're due?  Are you participating in the spirit of Active Rain as intended?  Or is it like some bad -ex, and all you focus on is what's wrong?  Are you expecting too much from the Rain?

Okay, climbing down off the soap box now....it's rarely used by us, had to go find it!

Let it Rain!

BLiz