Active Rain Present and Future -One Member's Perspective
I learned blogging from Active Rain and try to give back what I know. If someone can learn what I did through trial and error, 
it could save then a lot of time. Looking at some of these issues is the purpose of this post. I am not as active on Active Rain as I was before my "outside" blog was born. I try to stay connected to the community and the many friends here, by reading the blogs I subscribe to here and outside blogs discussing AR.
The other day Jay Thompson's post initiated an interesting discussion on Agentgenius about quality of content on AR and if and how it's connected to the point reward system. Make sure you read it, if you didn't have a chance. Today I read an excellent Rich Jacobson's post about what the the content could or should be, which as always, generated many opinions.
A lot of confusion about what AR could and should be may be could be resolved if members clearly understood several points, which took me some time to realize. I claim no "insider" knowledge, only my personal experience and what I learned on the "outside". If I am mistaken, all clarifications and corrections are welcomed.
Importance of Points
There seems to be misunderstanding about the importance of points for AR members. IMO AR points have nothing to do with Google, who does not know or care about them. In other words, if your goal is to be found through Google, your points would not matter. The ability to be found has to do with key-word rich content which does not depend on points and and back links, which may or may not depend on points (see below).
I am not sure if consumers come to Active Rain main page to look for real estate information. My guess, it's not the case. If it was the case, having your picture prominently displayed (because of on the number of points), perhaps would be a benefit.
Some people say looking at the number of points helps them decide who to consider for referral. To me more important would be the quality of the members' writing, not the number of points they have, which is not one and the same. Quantity could indicate a members' level of participation, which is important for some things, but again is not an indication of the quality of their writing or their expertise.
Understanding your Audience
Understanding who you are writing for is tied to the purpose of your blog. As a member, your readers could be other members, consumers or both. There are many on AR for whom other members are their consumers, i.e coaching, blogging, staging, etc.
As a member you may have a business goal for your blog or you may not. If you use this platform purely in a social way, any content that brings such social interaction seems a fair game (provided it's within the community guidelines).
Having a "social part only" for such bloggers (not just groups) could solve the issue of diminishing value to consumers, since it won't be for consumers.
My guess (only a guess) most people are here for business, so the rest is related to business blogging.
Non real estate content
If you are an RE agent (the majority here) your business goals will influence your content. There are people who write personal or non-RE content as a way to built relationships with other members. They seek referrals and thus business.
This content could be useful for consumers as well, if they found the blogger based on his/her real estate posts and would like to know more about him/her.
Such content could also bring like-minded people/readers to the blog, not necessarily people looking for real estate. If a personal relationship is developed with such readers, it may eventually lead to business, but it would not be something in the short term. For example my post about best pizza in Princeton brings constant traffic to the blog, but not of people looking to buy/sell homes. It's important for new bloggers to understand this.
When consumers find this content on blogs through organic search, I can't see why it would diminish the value of the AR platform. If the consumers came to AR and saw lots of groups for recipes, etc., that may have an undesirable effect. The question becomes how to separate what individuals write on their blog, from the structure of the AR as seen by the consumer.
Real Estate Content
This content is what brings people to real estate related sites. By having this content both bloggers and AR benefit. The issue becomes interaction with other members, which so many on AR are looking for. If you write super local content do not count on many comments. It's not surprising, because mostly it's not an engaging story about your DOM being up or down.
If you are a new blogger with supper local RE content you may not be noticed on AR by other AR members. If your goal is to be noticed by consumers then it shouldn't matter. This though does not apply to "famous" bloggers on this platform who get comments no matter what they write, because of who they are.
The Importance of Comments
It could be hard seeing 100's of comments on some blogs and few or none on yours, but the number of comments do not measure the success of your blog, unless you are marketing your services to AR members or are looking for referrals. Commenting and getting comments then becomes very important as away to engage with others on AR. This bring you back to deciding what is your blog goal and therefore what your content should be.
It could be also disappointing when you invest a lot of time to write something that could be of value to other members and your post doesn't get seen or commented on. If the focus of your blog is local RE, and you don't get recognized for contributing your knowledge, don't view this a failure of your blog. There are many other factors that determine what's read and commented on.
Page Rank and Back Links
When I started on AR I did not understand the importance of back links. Back links are important to Google as a measure of your site's credibility. The more people link to you, the more important your site becomes in Google eyes. Commenting on other people blogs is one way to get back links, unless they are "no-follow" which many blogs now are. I am not sure if AR has no-follow, but the idea of commenting for links may not be all you think it is. Also linking to lesser ranking sites would not be a benefit. If you are commenting because of these reasons and to accumulate points, you may want to double check your strategy.
Things Change
Blogging evolves and so does Active Rain. I recently had two posts deleted (never happened before) from the newbie group, which I thought had information which could have been helpful to me as a newbie. I won't post to this group again( unless I have a how to tutorial), although this post could also be useful for newbies).
When I started blogging on AR I used to get quite a few features, but it hasn't happened in a long while. Did I change my content? Perhaps, it became a bit more super RE local. My writing didn't change, the AR has changed.
Second guessing these changes is counterproductive. This platform is offered to all of us for free, and everyone is free to chose if and how to participate. It would be harder, if not mpossible, to learn anywhere else what you can learn here.
Importance of Features
If your post is featured you get noticed by many, you could get many more comments and potentially important back links. Not counting the ego, these are all reasons why Features are important. I don't think they are important for your content being found by the consumers, as I said before, Google doesn't know about features or points. The exception is the visibility that Features brings and potentially a higher page rank for the post. For example, one of my posts has page rank 5, where my blog has page rank 3. The post was titled in jest " how to buy without a realtor", and I am getting a constant stream of traffic of people looking for how to avoid using a realtor. It was was not my intent.
Bloggosphere is Rife With "Passion"
When people object to some heated discussions on AR, they should realize that it's an incredible mild version of the rest of the RE.Net. I am not speaking of sites that engage in "reator lynching" -I just don't go there. These are just samples here and here of the "passionate" discussions taking place on respected sites in the last several days.
If and when consumers come to Active Rain, and when it's becomes recognized by other bloggers as a community with top quality content, the passion and sometimes ugliness would be more present here then now. AR owners and members have to think whether they want and welcome such changes.
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