"Just What Part of 'Referral' Do You Not Understand?"

I'm a little unclear as to what you are trying to say with this post...

;) 

Hi Rich - Amen to this post!!!  Your rant deserves to be read and featured, and it's long overdue, in my opinion.  I used to go there to check out things for my area, but quickly became totally disillusioned with the junk that kept being posted there.

Those who need to pay heed will not see this post, unfortunately.  So, those of you at AR are going to have to really stomp down on those abusing things like the referral exchange.  Please do stomp down, and do it hard, too!

Ann

I had a good referral for Westchester NY yesterday.  I did NOT go to the referral exhcnage.  I went directly to a top ranked agent in Westchester NY, Miriam Bernstein.

I did not get 20 e-mails from folks in Brooklyn, Long Island, Manhattan, etc.  Nor did I get 10 phone calls from lenders seeking to finance the buyer.  Nor did I get 15 e-mails from agents in Ill., CA, TX, looking for future referrals. 

Rich, thanks for trying!  The type of people who treat online communities the way dogs treat fire hydrants aren't likely to read your post.  They just stopped by to staple their flyer to your pole.  How about a 4,000 point threshold to post to that forum?  I bet that would be relatively easy for ActiveRain's programmers to implement and it would reduce the likelihood of "click by" spamming.  The average spammer isn't going to go to that much trouble.

Thanks for this, Rich. The referral resource has been far from that since it was set up. I stopped looking at it soon after for this very reason (as have others I talked to). Seems that most of the "referrals" are, as you say, simply self-promos and solicitations for buyers and sellers. Too much to monitor I would think.  One has to wonder about the value in the overall scheme of things given how it is being used. Not sure that simply telling folks the guidelines will really work in this case. Let people pay for their ads and support AR like some are alrady doing.

Jeff 

Hi Rich...It is great that the Rain has a benefit like this and thank you for the reminder on how we should use it properly in order to make it a worthwhile source of referrals.

Hoping I have some soon that I will be able to share with others.

Cheers,

Kathleen

I am SO glad to find this post! I check that page regularly and was disappointed more than once with what I found there! Glad to see this is being taken care of!

WOW.  There are so many ANGRY people on this site! 

I'd like to build a network of PRESCREENED agents (not the kind that are easily angered) nationwide.  I hand out a lot of referrals, probably 2-4 a month of quality referrals.  Every time I get a request, I have to go searching for an agent.  It would be so nice if I already had someone pre-screened.  In our "down time" that is what my assistants and I work on...building that database.  Is that really so wrong?

I've used this "referral" posting only once... and you wouldn't believe the silly people that called me back - they lived on the other side of the country, they don't even know how to SPELL commercial, let alone handle a commercial transaction... isn't it the same thing?  I didn't get angry, I just didn't send them the referral.  The good news?  I found a fabulous agent to refer the commercial deal to, and it made me look good to my client.  The system works!  Plus, I put the silly people into my database and on a drip campaign - even though I'd never send them a referral, I'd still be happy to pay them for one they want to send to me.

There are REAL things to be frustrated with in this world, let's not sweat the small stuff. If you see an inappropriate posting, I think you can explain to that agent that the site is really only meant for posting needs for quality-I-need-this-now referrals...without getting angry.

Here's to having a little patience with each other.....

Alleluhiah!  I hope they get it this time.  I have been frustrated with that section for some time and I'm glad you addressed this.