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You've Come a Long Way Baby...

When we pass a milestone here in ActiveRain, we have that deep down feeling of accomplishment where we want to shout it from the rooftops and tell the whole world that "Yeah Buddy, we did it!". As ActiveRain inches ever closer towards the milestone of reaching its 1,000,000 post, (999,000+ as of this morning) didja ever wonder who posted the first post here in ActiveRain? Well curiosity got the best of me and after doing some good old sleuth work, I came up with what I believe to be the answer. By the data that is available to the general public, the first official post after ActiveRain went live was #10 written by Brett Tousley; Tacoma WA real estate titled "Blast the Bubble" written on 06/25/2006 at 2:14. I did find #8, a test blog posted by Ben Wisely titled "Launching Blogs" written on 06/24 at 3:14PM the day before ActiveRain went live on June 25th. Quite a feat and accomplishment to go from 1 (#10) to 1M posts in a little over 2 years and 8 months as I expect to see the 1M mark sometime this week.

ActiveRain certainly has come a long way since its humble beginnings of its first 13 member as recorded in June 2006.

Today, ActiveRain has surpassed 100,000 members with current membership standing at 140K+ and growing steadily every day. To see the daily list of new members type in http://activerain.com/action/agents/new_users. I urge you to take a few minutes to welcome at least one new member daily.

Here's wishing our community continued growth and success as they push past the 1 millionth post and membership steadily grows to reach the 200K members mark. Yup, ActiveRain has come a long way, baby...

Wishing all my fellow drips and tweeps a G-r-r-r-reat day... 8-)

If you or someone you know is purchasing a home in Brentwood, Franklin, Nashville, Spring Hill or Thompson's Station in the Davidson or Williamson county area of Middle Tennessee and would like more information about getting a home inspection, give us a call at 615.661.0297. You can visit us online at www.completehomeinspectionsonline.com - Check out our monthly newletter

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Posted by Michael Thornton - Nashville, TN area Home Inspector - 615.661.0297 on 03/24/2009 06:46 AM

Comments (71)

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71 Comments on You've Come a Long Way Baby...

MAR

2009

With more than 140K members, I'm surprised we haven't long since hit a million posts... that's only 7 posts per member!

PS - I like your Twitter button, you certainly have a great handle on all the top places to go - am hoping to catch up to you soon....

Michael, thanks for the informative posts and Congratulations to Active Rain for the millionth!! We will raise a cup of joe this morning in a toast, Here's to you Active Rain, I don't know how I would spend time in the morning without you! Reading and giggling and sometimes crying in the Rain but how great this journey is! Long live the Rain.

It's a wonderful community to be involved with. I'm glad so many others participate and share. It's a great source of motivation, keeping spirits up, and learning so many new things.

Michael,

Wow! It's hard to believe! Love your title it is so true...ActiveRain has come a long way!! Congrats to this great community that "hasn't seen anything yet!!"

I raise my cup of joe as Gail put it - as well!

A million post is allot of links and relevant information. No wonder google loves AR so much. It must be constantly crawled.

Lots of caring and sharing goes with this as well. i have always felt the love on Rain,

It's interesting to click through on these posts and compare them with the posts of today's ActiveRainers. Ben has disappeared from the Rain altogether, while Brett posted earlier this month. I wonder if either of them could have imaged what a giant this platform would become.

Margaret...I found it interesting to read these first posts as well..

Sharon... You are right - a whole lot of sharing & caring...

Laura... Yup! Dats a lotta Google Juice too...

Janice and Gail...AR has not hit 1M yet but they are so--o-o-o close...

Dorie... You are right, we ain't seen nothing yet. A lot has changed in the year & a half that I have been a member...

Jessica.. You are right it is a great source of information and inspriation...

Penny... Thanks for being the first member to comment today...

Great job Active Rain community because without us there would not be an Active Rain. Great job to the founders of the network and to all the staff who keep it running. And Great job to all the people who read our blogs every day. Thanks Michael for posting this reminder of all we have to be thankful for here in the Rain.

I wish I was on here from the beginning. I did not here of Active Rain until last March and joined right away.

Bully for you....that's incredible!!

Patricia Aulson/ Portsmouth NH Real Estate

Blog on members all...and reap the benefits of being a part of a knowledgable and wonderful community....Yahooooo !

I'm so sorry I wasn't here a lot sooner, only for the last 6months. Looking forward to many years of being here.

Amazing growth!!

I cannot believe it was only last summer when there was the contest guessing when we'd hit 100,000. Now it's 140,000

ToulaRosebrock.com Hi Michael:

Wow...that's amazing!

By the way, congrats on the feature...

Great sleuthing Michael!

Such an interesting post.

No wonder it was a featured blog!

Keep up the good work!

I remember John Novak and I trying to watch when a particular # would cross the line... I think it may have been the 10,000th member?

I have done more than my required 7 posts per member but a number of people I have invited have not done 7 posts or even one.

I miss Ben Wisely. I wondered reading the Inman article about the whole Move fiasco if Ben was the employee that had to leave because AR folks weren't able to make payroll... because of what Move did in that whole negotiation thing when they then walked away to create their own blogs.

Thanks, I love this history stuff, wheather its American History or Activerain history. Thanks.

Michael,

When I found AR (on Inman News) back in July of 2007, I never envisioned what it would do for me personally, and for my business. AR is my first place to search for anything I want to know that has any association with lending or real estate.

Mike in Tucson

Paddy, you are right - we do have a lot to be thankful for...

Chuck, I was a member for about 3 months before I wrote my first post - wasn't sure I wanted to do this blogging stuff - look at me know - LOL...

Patricia, yes it is incredible...

Sally & David, yes we all do reap the benefits of the rain...

Ann, Yes the growth over the past 6 months or so has been incredible...

Erica, I remember that too. AR is growing by leaps and bounds...

Toula, Thanks...

Craig, That is what I do for a living, search for answers - Thanks...

Maureen, I would like to read a post on this as some of us "old timers" have a lot of history here...

Brien, I am somewhat of a history buff myself - thanks...

Mike, me too... Thanks for the comment...

I'm going to go there right now and welcome someone new. I think I'll make it a point to do that every day. I remember how nice it was to receive a welcome from the Active Rain members when I first joined. Thanks for letting us know.

Where did you have to look to find all of this Michael? Go through day by day? of the early days. You have a lot more patience than I do.

Michael, almost one million posts almost seems unbelievable. What else is there to write about? We also thought 100,000 members was quite an achievement. A lot of good information here and a bunch of good people.

Thanks for sharing this. How far it's come...and I'm still relatively new. I can stand here and cheer but I'm still looking around the room amazed at what everyone else has accomplished!

Maureen, It was pretty simple really, I knew that you and Lenn had a lot of history so I started from y'all and worked backward from this url:http://activerain.com/action/agents/new_users/2006/08/01 I just kept changing the 08 to 07 then to 06. I clicked around from there to find my answer...

Heather, You are welcome...

Michael, I gotta say, dems a 'hole lotta posts, but things keep changing and so do the topics. There is a lot of blog fodder out there. We just need to be aware of it...

Micheal, there has been so many changes here on A/R in just the short time I myself have been here, I can just image all the changes from day one. Great Post .

~ Life is Good

You make an excellent suggestion to welcome at least one new member of Active Rain daily. In the spirit of community, such hospitality can do nothing but good. A bit of the old welcome wagon... Thank you for that. I'm off to welcome a new member.

Michael - that is quite an accomplishment in a short period of time. I think there is so much knowledge to gain here, as well as network with some great people. Great post!

Daren wrote: "I'm off to welcome a new member."

just don't turn into one of the spammers who makes it their daily mission to cut and paste in the same comment 10 times on 10 posts with links to their own site. or to their Twitter page or to them-self on Facebook, or their website. It teaches newbies that the way to comment is not about the post, that it is OK for the comment to be all about the commenter not about the post as long as you are saying Welcome.

Michael, thanks for the history. History = context.

I've only been part of the AR community for just over 2 weeks, but I think I've contributed my 7 posts.

Michael, this is such an interesting history lesson! Thanks for digging it out - an anthropological blogger!

Michael I just passed the 50,000 point mark and then read your blog. We have come a long way and we're gaining momentum. Good post. I think I will take your suggestion of welcoming a new member every day. Great idea.

Roy, yes my friend, there have been a lot of changes...

Daren, Cool! Just follow Maureen's advice...

Maureen, thanks, could not have said it better myself...

Patricia, at 400K points you have been around awhile and have seen a lot of stuff change too...

Marian, Congrats on passing the 50K milestone, I know how proud you are... Be looking forward towards seeing you reach 100K...

Awesome information. It is great to see how this website has evolved, even in the recently short time I have been a part of the community. Thank you for the update!

Michael, thanks for all the info, interesting...

Michael, I always love reading the trivia for AR - hey - maybe a game should be made! that would be cool "trivial pursuit" AR style :)

Michael...

The growth is hard to believe, and I think that AR will reach 200K members by the end of this calendar year. WOW!

Michael - I was welcomed so warmly, that I try to reciprocate every day. What great advice. I hope AR reaches a million posts by tonight! I think we can do it, eh? What interesting information you posted here today! Cheers, and I'm following you on Twitter now, thanks to that cute little birdie...

Amy's Sweet Signature

Michael...ANOTHER featured post!! Good one at that. See you in the office!

Manolis, Yup, it has come a long way since I came on board...

Jean, you are welcome...

Jo, Might make an interesting group if not a game show...

Richard, It is amazing the growth AR has achieved. If they have not passed 200K they will be close...

Amy, I try to visit the Newbies as often as I can and welcome at least one a day...

Stephen, Thanks...

Great post...AR has really climbed the chart...and the members are all right there enjoying the fun!

that is really great - I just skiied with a fellow activerainer on Sat. and talked to another one today about doing something together in April. What a great group!

Michael - It's encouraging to see the membership still growing, even with people having to pay now. hopefully the gods at AR wil be able to invest some of the money into tools that make Activerain even more powerful.

Wow - great post, loved reading about the beginnings of AR, since, well...I wasn't here yet!

Michael: You have gone threw the history books for sure.. Very interesting to see the beginnings of AR

I love history and quite often visit the webs archieve site for a trip back in time:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.activerain.com

It seems like Active Rain was conceived in March 2004 as a site for Buyers. It's evolved into a great Community for all things real estate.

Thanks,
Sue of Robin and Sue

I'd say the 2004 reference on the Wayback Machine is to WhyNotOwn Real Estate, a previous company that Jonathan started. In May 2006 a month before ActiveRain the real estate network was launched it was a lead generation company.

WOW Michael! That's quite an accomplishment for AR - for all of us, isn't it? I enjoy statistics, especially when they show where you have been and give a framework for where you are going. It's easy to imagine that 2M won't take as long! Thanks so much!

Ah the good old days... when everythign in the world was simpler and easier. NOT!

Hey Michael... thanks for taking me back. As an early adaptor I can I am and still am impressed to all that Active Rain has given this community from day one.

1,000,000,000 cheers to them for all they have given us.

Frank

Franklin.mclawhorn@ziprealty.com

Michael,

That is an interesting post. I had wondered who the original bloggers might have been.

Kinda wonder where I was, I joined in june of 06 but never posted. I ashamed to admit how silly I thought it was and that it was a passing fad but I guess I just did.

Great post Michael - It's fun to see where AR has come from!!

Thank you for doing the research and sharing this with us. I have never looked back to see the very beginnings. I joined in March of 07 but I truly wish I had joined in 06 and started writing frequently from the starting gate. Congratulations to AR!

Hi Michael -- Thanks for the history lesson. I sure hope they have a RAID5 or better system, as those hard drive systems must be humming.

Michael - Cool post. I think we've been on here since 07 as well and have watched a/r grow immensly. I think it was about 50,000 when we joined. Not my post but the Hammersteam post which was mostly Lisa posting and me jumping in here and there. Very interesting to see how far we've come. Great Sleuthing! Is that a real word? :-)

Well, you are quite the sleuth. What and interesting story you are telling us, I thoroughly enjoyed it. AR is really going places. We all need to get busy and write more blogs.

Michael, This post does bring back some memories. I wrote my first post on July 8 2006!! back then there was really only a handful of us that were posting. In fact for the first 18 months or so I was able to read EVERY post every day. Now I can even keep up with how fast the pages scroll by.

Hi Michael...Thanks for doing the detective work. I wasn't even aware that so many posts had been posted. Hopefully I'll get to see the big one. If for no other reason, it should get a gold star so we don't miss it.

I've heard (read) that we can find out how many memebers there were when we joined but I've forgotten how. Should have tried it when I read it.

Kate

Interesting, the question now is Who wil be number one million!

Evening Michael, Thanks for the interesting stats. Amazing isn't it ?

Thanks for the history lesson, Michael. Did you know I love history.

I love, love, love to celebrate milestones and celebrate the success of other folks here.

Oh and did I say EVERYTHING I have learned in my life I learned here. Well about blogging and SEO.

It's amazing how much knowledge has been provided here on AR in such a short period of time.

Wow, what a difference a couple of years makes.

I think AR is what they call an "overnight success" - only that is has been a very long night for those who built this.

MAR

2009

A million posts... what a feat... thank you for the history lesson!

so according to Brad's post this morning this is the first post on ActiveRain, written by Jay Thompson:

http://activerain.com/blogsview/15/Earnest-Money-what-why-how-much

I guess I had heard somewhere that Jay wrote the first post on ActiveRain. The first 14 did not count. Brad said Brett's is just a link... #8 Ben's was not just a link but full of crazy code... wonder what #2, 3, 4 etc. were?

Yes, I saw this this morning too. I guess I stand corrected. Either way, it was fun to trace back in to the archives...

No you are right.

The number on Brett's post is number one, the number on Jay's is number 15. The number on Brandon's is number 1,000,000.

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Michael Thornton - Nashville, TN area Home Inspector - 615.661.0297

Brentwood, TN

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