Memorable Posts of 2006: Carnival of ActiveRain (Go VOTE!)

When I had this idea, I was hoping we would come up with the memorable posts of 2006.  For each of us, that will be something different.  By memorable, I did not necessarily mean best or most popular or anything like that.  I meant posts that touched you or impacted this community in a meaningful way.  Maybe that distinction is difficult.  And maybe I did not articulate it clearly in my original post.  But I do think that we came up with a fantastic selection of memorable posts, and I know that we left off even more than we have here.

So when you vote, I would ask that you try to keep MEMORABLE in mind. 

I also know that some people will take the results seriously or personally.  They put a lot of effort in to their posts.  All of these posts are great in there own right, but in the end, we are going to get this list down to 10 posts through our votes.

I was asked by a couple of people in email's what measures would be taken to ensure that the voting does not get manipulated.  I have never done anything like this before, and I can tell you it took me a long time to set up this post and to find and set up a poll with some level of security. I settled on something that required people to leave their name and email address when they vote.  It records IP addresses. That is the best I can do to insure "one man - one vote."   Well, you will actually be allowed to vote for 6 posts during your voting session.  But you can only vote once.  If you try to manipulate the votes, I will know. For control purposes, I will give the link to the voting page to Caleb.  Enough said.  On the flip side, there is a privacy issue that I am disclosing.I assure you that your vote is entirely confidential.

These posts are listed in the order in which they were submitted to the Carnival.  If a post was nominated more than once it is only listed once and only with the original nominator.  

Marc Blasi just let me know that the 49 links that I thought I had carefully copied over here from the original post are not working!  I am going to have to refer you back to the comments section of the first post to click through the nominees.  Sorry folks, but just this part took like 4 hours and I still have to do the poll.  The links should all work in the nominations...
 

1. Jay Thompson's ActiveRainaholics Anonymous as one of the funniest posts I read this year.  Maybe because I could relate to it a bit too closely.  Nominated by Maureen Francis
2. Jeff Belonger's The City of Brotherly Love: Part 6 of 6 - The Surrounding Areas of Philadelphia, Travel, & Transportation ...... A series of blogs. I nominate this because it was well written, with lots of details for many different categories for Philly.  Nominated by Jeff Belonger
3. Paul Sullin's post, How I Spammed ActiveRain. Paul was a very early member of AR and was one of the instrumental ones in getting the network growing.It's funny, shows Paul's innovation, and more importantly how he shared his thoughts and ideas with everyone. And that's what this network is about. Nominated by Jay Thompson
4.  "So what do you do to justify your high commission?" by Broker Bryant enhanced by the AR community. Nomintated by Broker Bryant
5. Jeff Corbett's The Mortgage Industry's Internal Civil War. A fine example of attention getting advertising,  Nominated by Broker Bryant
6.  If They Don't...They Won't Get Paid...Meow...ROAR by TLW an example of taking a very negative event and turning it into an entertaining blog post. Nominated by Broker Bryant
7. Kristal Kraft's An Example of Plagiarism Right Here on ActiveRain A great use of graphics to show an example of one of the serious problems we face on the internet. Nominated by Lenn Harley
8. George Souto's blog 1st time Homebuyers - What you need to do first  Nominated by Linda Davis
   
9. Craig Schiller's Trix Fix 12 Pix   Nominated by Linda Davis
10. Carole Cohen's - Being Part of the Solution.  Besides being a great post, I love how everyone has contributed to it.  Nominated by Linda Davis
11. Maureen Francis' What Do Your Clients Love About You This article shows the enthusiasm and excitement that drives good real estate practitioners. Nominated by Lenn Harley
12. Mitchell Hall's  Manhattan Neighborhood Market Report: Chelsea. It builds the excitement of the area, has a terrific  well thought out historical perspective, and is beautifully written -  the photos really highlight the description.  Nominated by Carole Cohen
13. Brian Brady's The Six Stages of the Long Term Real Estate Play.  That is my choice. It delved into the potential steps for choosing a place for investment property, divided into categories of 'investment oopportunities.' And it was well written, and very allegorical. It would appeal to consumers and realtors from a financial/investment perspective explained in layman's terms. Nominated by Carole Cohen
    
14. Mary McKnight's Real Estate Blogging Rookie Mistakes for one of the most informative and educational. Nominated by William Collins
15. Craig Schiller's The Gift Of Tears, for bonding amongst Active Rain members. Nominated by William Collins
16. William Collins Somewhere Over The Rainbow for local content, with national ramifications. Nominated by William Collins
17. Sara Lipnitz's The urban real estate myth  I think it was one of her first blogs. I have been using that term ever since I read the post. Nominated by Mitchell Hall
    
18. Angus Woodbury's Angus on Branding. Now he is a genius about it, but this post was really well written, VERY funny, it's an older post, and it screams Angus all over. Plus it did get a lot of comments so I'm hoping others will enjoy revisiting it. Nominated by Carole Cohen
19. Jeff Turner's Your Values Are Your Brand: Part 1 His insights are profound and his integrity a breath of fresh air that is so often lacking in this industry (or any other for that matter) today.  I feel that his most poignant and far reaching blog was about values Nominated by Jessica Hughes
20. Kristal Kraft's Circling the Drain Nominated by Jessica Hughes
21. Jeff Belonger's How those years fly by. What did you look like 20 years ago…???  Nominated by Neil Burke
22. Nima Rezvan's 3 Secret Tips on appearing in your local newspaper for FREE Nominated by Nima Rezvan
23. Nima Rezvan's Six small steps: MAKING A NETWORKING EVENT WORK FOR YOU Nominated by Nima Rezvan
24. Jeff Turner's  "I Promise" :: Those Are Some Strong Words Nominated by Margaret Rome
    
25. Margaret Rome's BULLETIN! Psychiatrists Take To Their Couches in Despair over Self-Shrinking Active Rain Community Nominated by Margaret Rome
26. Rich Jacobson's Adventures in 1st Time Home Buying: "Do I Need Money to Buy a House?" Nominated by Rick & Ines
27. Craig Schiller's  Someone needs to tell the truth... PHOTOS LIE! Nominated by Rick & Ines
    
28. Bryant Tutas Desperation creates depreciation! Nominated by Rick & Ines
29. Mary McKnight's  Humanizing a blog: how blogging is like bodybuilding I think it starts with some of the basics of blogging... easy to read and to the point  Nominated by Jeff Belonger
30. Carol Williams "Blogging For Bucks" 
    
31. Carol Williams "Lease-to-Own: A Better Way"
32. Tony Marriott Role Playing Partners in Sheeps Clothing
33. Tony Marriott To play well together you both must know the rules! Part 10 of 10 (The 10 part series)
34. Suzanne Marriott Buyer Inspection DOE S NOT EQUAL Negotiations Round 2
35. Colleen Kulikowki's Active Rain from the Consumer, because it was the first time that Matt & Co shared with us their plans for Localism... Nominated by Colleen Kulikowski
    
36. John Novak's Blog "Shifting the Focus" relates to a lot of what of us are feeling that we share with each other, but that it is the local content that will get us business...  Nominated by Colleen Kulikowski
37. Maureen & Dimtry's "How About A Blog Tour" they started something different, inspired us to look at each other and connect in a new way. Nominated by Colleen Kulikowski
38. Colleen Kulikowki's"Real Estate Blogging 101" - a terrific resource to get new bloggers up and running. Nominated by John Novak
    
39. John Novak's "Add 'Giving' to your 2007 business plan". There's a lot of additional content in the links. It ties into three other Rainer's posts as well as three of my own. And I really believe that a business plan built around Giving will always be successful. Nominated by John Novak
40. Jessica Hughes'  Rich Came to Denver! this one had me in tears....as very funny. Nominated by Jeff Belonger
    
41. Jim Lee expresses this spirit in his post "After the Fact Referral Fees, You Can Fight Them and Win". Nominated by Kristal Kraft
    
42. Roberta Murphy's blog about "What the !@$%& Do We Know? is both thought provoking and inspirational. Nominated by Kristal Kraft
43. Roberta Lee's blog about "The Golden Hour." Roberta's thoughts on how we need to treat each new person we meet, giving them both the time and the chance to communicate with them, before we set off to include them or not in our business and life. Nominated by Kristal Kraft
44. Colleen Kulikowski's ActiveRain Benefits Confidence Nominated by Rich Jacobson
45. Maureen Francis' Thank You Delete Button Nominated by Rich Jacobson
46. Chris Elizabeth Griffith The Good News Plague to organize a project which ads to the local content on Active Rain. Nominated by Maureen McCabe
    
47. Leanne Paynter's ActiveRain The Early Days,  Leanne catching those of us who weren't around up on how it all began.  Leanne wasn't here.  This takes a lot of reading! Nominated by Maureen McCabe
48. Roberta Murphy's The Blogger's Bible  reference volume. Nominated by Maureen McCabe
49. Lenn Harley's We Need to Charge for What we Know, Not What We Do.  When Lenn speaks, I listen. For any agent who has had trouble justifying their fee, this is a must read. Lenn reminds us of what we are really selling. Nominated by Maureen Francis
    

OK Folks, here is the poll.  I CANNOT see who you voted for.  But there is an anti-ballot box stuffing protection thing. If you have trouble voting, let me know.  You may vote for 6 posts.  Voting will be closed in 48 hours.

On an unrelated note, yesterday at some point, I accidentally crossed the 100,000 point mark. I say accidentally, because I thought it would happen with this post.  But my score morphed on its own, perhaps because someone I invited posted.  I'm not always sure where I am going, but I am having a great time with you along the way.