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Question to the ActiveRain crowd... defining thought leaders?

I wrote an article on my main blog yestery about how influential business thinkers are rated and created. The "gist" of the article was the fact that the Wall Street Journal had compiled a list of influential business thinkers and relied on Google to do it, but didn't really take into account how search engines work (or why people search on an engine)

In comparison to ActiveRain, I've been here since fairly early on and have watched some gurus "rise and fall" along the way.

On ActiveRain- how does everyone feel the ranking system is working? Do you know of the ways people have abused and manipulated it? Do you care?

Are there better ways for defining thought leaders on ActiveRain beyond points?
Should community members be able to vote other members up or down?
Are there thought leaders here that don't receive honorable mention?

Posted by Barry Hurd on 05/20/2008 09:30 PM

Comments (12)

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12 Comments on Question to the ActiveRain crowd... defining thought leaders?

MAY

2008

"Should community members be able to vote other members up or down?"

Didn't we have that? At least two versions. It got gamed. When the last one failed AR promised a digglike system to rate posts. AR needs a digglike system that is ungameable, but it has to be content not members that is graded (voted) IMHO.

I've never liked the points but I think they were ingenious.

I am giving Maureen 250 imaginary points for that answer, 100 points because she's from Ohio, 25 points because it's Wednesday and 100 points because I rolled the captcha graphic "moosewood".

Barry, Maureen stole my answer.. I have to say that I even think a content based systen would be gamed. It is obvious, by looking at the featured system we have now, that it is not consumer/localism posts are not seen as the best content yet those are the ones who are more directed to consumers who I thought our audience was supposed to be. Either way... You do make some very good points. I do think activerain has exposed some cutting edge industry leaders who may have otherwise not been found and I am thankful for that since I have learned so much here.

Barry - Although there are some folks who abuse the system by writing about things that aren't necessarily thought provoking and only posting for "the points" I do think there is a good group of folks who have really contributed quite a bit to the rain. Regarding the point system, some folks who are at the top (have the most points) I also feel are respectable leaders in the rain - Jason Crouch, Brad Andersohn, Lenn Harley, Katerina and Nestor Gasset, Laurie Manny just to name a few. They've all written many posts that have been great resources for other Realtors in our community.

Stephen - in regards to writing about local content. What I have observed is that you may not get many comments and it may not be thought provoking content, but you are speaking to your potential clientele and these folks are reading the localalism blogs. Look at all the success posts about how their new client found them online because of a local post they wrote on Active Rain.

MAY

2008

Jessica, actually I do agree with you totally. I decided some time ago that I would write a LARGE majority of my posts strictly for my local audience / potential clients. My goal is to be a resource for potential buyers and sellers so that we can assist them in making an educated decision.

MAY

2008

Stephen - That's great to hear! I'm focusing on local content as well. I'm a PR girl at heart, I love my area and I think it's a fabulous place to live and want everybody to know about it.

Maureen- Unfortunately the Digg system is also very open to manipulation... which is why I brought up the topic. I know AR went through at least one time frame where authors had some ratings (didn't work so well)

Stephen- I agree with AR having exposed some amazed new talent. One of the joyfull parts of my job is watching the spectacular rise of talent and insight.... it is like being in a club and knowing the new member walking in the door brings respect, wisdom, talent, and energy. If every organization could have a nurturing community to grow members into "the best of the best", I think we would have a lot better business leaders today.

Jessica- I agree that many of the top point earners have become leaders. I also scratch my head and look at the ones abusing the point system. You could probably find a resource or fairly well written "how to" guide on almost any topic you need as a real estate pro here on AR (However - some of those gems of information are hard to find if you haven't been here a while)

I personally could care less about the ranking. You will get business if you do the correct things - and I find some moderators are not always ethical.

MAY

2008

Adam- so do you really think the "right things" are to figure out how to get on top of the ranking to get exposure for a good message? I have pretty consistently seen some very bright-minded people leave AR (and many other communities) because they had the right things to say, were thought-leaders, and just couldn't figure out how to get a message across properly to the audience due to ranking issues.

MAY

2008

I think the best guage for content is the comment history. We get points for leaving a comment, but I do not think they are awarded for receiving comments. Even the lame- "good post" - for points only comments are a vote.

My recommendation is that a comment should add to the blog thread - the best way to measure that might to put a minimum word count or some other valuation method.

But the best way to guage thought leaders is in blog subscriptions and blog comments received.

My thoughts as a active newby.

Richard

MAY

2008

Another question about posting has bothered me. There are mortgage people regularly posting rates. Real estate agents regularly posting copies of market data, without commentary. And there other posts that seem to me to be less than in the spirit of the AR community.

I guess posting listings is helpful to the agents and to the AR community. This is part the purpose of AR.

But other merely systematic posting of data that is easily available to any who are interested, does bother me. It would be good to have a control. Or maybe I am wrong in thinking and judging in that way.

Richard

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