MLS Screenshots Posted to Active Rain - Copywrite Problem?

Personally I have never posted like that, and usually don't bother to read them.  It's nice to mix it up a little and do some real estate listings, some local information and photos, some member's only stuff, some humor.  Otherwise it's gets too tedious.

there are several members who apparantly have nothing else to contribute other then cut and pastes to get their 10 blogs a week done.  It is sad, and it is unfortunate that those who obviously don't care about being here continue to do so.

Hey Heather:  Active Rain is such a great place.  There is room for all of us.  There is a growing number of comsumer interest here on Active Rain.  This is a great resource for a comsumer to come to find listings.  Localism is the best place for this, and the information migrates from the Active Rain Blogs.

I disagree with Robert's comments above.  It is not a shame.  This is what this place is about.  We are to be homest, and write from the heart.  We are to promote ourselves in shameless promotions.  We are to also make friends here on line, and learn from one another.

I for one do all of this.  When I am moved about a hero landing a plane in the Hudson River, I write about it here on Active Rain.  When I want to represent my seller through dozens of on line web sites, you can be sure I am blogging about their house for sale, here on Active Rain.

And when you promote your self, and also your listings, you know what?  Not only do you rise to the top in your community on line, but the google juice flows freely.  Then?  Your phone rings.  Then?  You are closing more homes than before.  I hope I answered your question.  This is a great network that is better than free.

http://www.servingbucksandlehighcounties.com/

Don Bradbury  

You can check your own MLS rules but my MLS has a rule about sharing its data via screen shot. YOU CANT DO IT! They pitched a fit with some market stats I had posted here on AR.

Active Rain is an open forum.  Many here communicate thru statistics and many through personal stories.  I find it easy to skip those stats based blogs if thats all they offer.  Many do some stats, monthly or quarterly and in between write great blog posts.  Its like the folks that post jokes, I usually don't read them but they are entitled to get their 10 posts a week in however they see fit.  I do object if its adult nature.. this is a family rated forum. (or I think it is)

Heather -

This is a hot button for me!

Regular posters here in the Rain, a group in which I include myself, work feverishly to write creative, useful content to share.  Personally, I source local and national news, statistics, and information useful to those considering living to or moving within Chicago and the Suburbs.  It takes no small investment in time to do this.

The fellow above me in ranking in IL - if you look at his blog, every Friday, he copies and pastes MLS screen shots of market data in selected Chicago Suburbs in which he works.  Same clip-and-paste, same explanatory copy.  Pasted, pasted, pasted every week.

2,000 points!  Every Friday.  Like clockwork. For about 10 minutes of work total.  In fact, he might not even do any work - likely, his admin does!

This member's other posts are short, perhaps 75-100 words, usually fluff.  He comments little, and in "atta boy" fashion, and receives few comments himself.  His posts have never been featured.

I would think he is paying the price in terms of reduced SEO, and I would assume cut and paste MLS copy would not enhance his Google rankings.  Further, I would assume that what he is doing - just copying data verbatim out of the MLS, violates their rules, but the MLS probably has other things to do besides chasing down this fellow.

I used to get angry about this.  But, now, I'm just chillin'!

Thanks for the post, because this IS an issue!

DEAN & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO

Never actually thought of doing that before, but maybe some type of modified post along those lines might not be so bad if you have something new on the market. Guess I would have to see it to make a decision.

I pretty much don't worry about what other people do. I follow the rules of my MLS, which, if I understand correctly, would not allow what you're describing, but I'm not the ActiveRain police, or the MLS police, or even the police police, so I'm not to report them to anyone.

I understand posting listings and such, especially to Localism, I'm trying to use Localism more this year, which means that those posts don't get many comments because they're just information about condo complexes in my farming area.

The 80/20 comes into play for me here at ActiveRain: 80% of my posts are professional and 20% are personal. I think that people would rather interact with another person than an automaton. When I find blogs that are 100% listings, I'll at least go through the first page to see if there is anything personal that I can comment on. If not, I'll try the very last page. If there's nothing there, I'll move on. At least I tried to interact with them, though.