On Thursday Dec 15, I set out to break the 24 hour Active Rain comment record. From midnight on 12/14 to midnight on 12/15, I made 428 comments on Active Rain.
The first question most people have is simple. "Why"?
The simple answer is that there is something wrong with me. The whole answer is just slightly more complicated.
I've been a member of Active Rain since June 2006. Back then, there were no blogs, no forums, not much of anything. About all you could do on AR was build a profile, and invite other people to the network. And invite we did. There were no state point rankings, just national. A great guy, Paul Sullins (may he rest in peace) and I traded the #1 and #2 spot, with Paul pulling ahead thanks to his incredibly innovative methods of finding people to join. (His blog, How I Spammed Active Rain is still one of my all-time favorite AR blogs).
Despite my long history with AR, a couple of months ago I pretty much quit posting blogs and comments. That had nothing to do with AR, I was just burnt out. I was trying to get my other blog more active in the mainstream blogosphere. And business was booming. I'd still visit AR on occasion, but I wasn't "engaged".
Then a couple of weeks ago, two things happened. Some of my close AR friends emailed asking me to please come back, and some idiot bubblehead blogger made a post that AR was "filled with wanna be blogger agents writing terrible blogs and shamelessly self-promoting themselves." (sorry, I didn't bookmark this drivel for obvious reasons)
So I decided to re-engage with AR. I missed it. I missed the people, the wealth of knowledge and friendship. The problem was, there were a few thousand new members that I didn't know. I felt like a rookie Rainer. The amount of material posted was simply overwhelming. I didn't know where to start.
Bloggers are known for doing crazy stunts. 101 blog posts in one day, 2215 links in one post. Things like that. So I said to myself, "Self, I wonder if anyone has ever attempted to comment on blogs for 24 straight hours?" I thought doing that would be a great way to re-engage and get to know at least some of the "new" AR members.
And so the blog commentathon was born.
What did I learn? -- I can't answer that question because it would require a post that would rival the length or "War and Peace". But I'll give a summary since so many have asked.
The first thing I learned was the idiot bubblehead comment couldn't be more wrong. What I found were some WORLD CLASS bloggers. Too many to mention and I don't want to leave any out. There was not a bunch of "shameless self-promotion" (Oh, it exists, but it's a very small minority). Of course I already knew this, but reading 428 blogs in a day proved it.
The second thing I learned was that the bulk of the blogs on AR are written by people who want to help others on the network. This placed is FILLED with incredibly helpful material. There is something to be learned from virtually EVERY SINGLE BLOG. Even a blog you THINK may not teach you something does. How do market stats from Ohio help me learn? Easy. It gives me insight into the market as a whole. It gives me the knowledge to pass on to clients that our market conditions are not unique. It gives me new ideas for ways to gather and display my own market info. Trust me on this, there is something to be learned from almost every single post on this network.
The third thing I learned was there were a lot of people here I don't "know". Now that I've done this, I feel like I know many more. I've received off-line comments like "thanks for commenting on my blog, I didn't think anyone read them". I had several "unknowns" add me as associates. Reading what someone writes, and acknowledging that you've read it and appreciate it is a powerful tool and a great way to "meet" someone.
The fourth thing I learned is that no matter how innocent your intentions may be, someone will misinterpret them. In the middle of this quest I received an email that said, "Stop spamming Active Rain. No one cares about your stupid stunt. Where is your integrity?" It went on (and on), but you get the point. I never intended to spam AR. Those that know me know I despise all spammers. I apologize to those that felt I was spamming. If you feel I spammed your post, please feel free to delete my comment.
The fifth thing I learned is that this place is filled with supportive people. The off network email encouragement helped tremendously. The comments people left helped. Some wrote supporting posts during the quest. One even offered a generous prize to me if I made it to 500. (I may be missing some. Comment if I did and I'll add it)
There's more. I learned there is ALWAYS someone logged on to AR, though at 3:30am, not too many (8). I learned that I'm to old to do something like this. I learned that I need to go to the eye doctor. I learned that sitting on the couch typing comments for hours on end will hurt your back, and your head. I learned FireFox's tabbed browsing is the greatest invention since TiVo. I learned that if you stay up for 24 hours (actually it was 41 hours) you feel like crap for the next two days (probably 3, we'll see tomorrow).
Maureen suggested that I list my favorite blogs that I read during this thing. I can't. There's too many. ALL of them had something to offer. She also suggested that I list my favorite comment. That's actually easier than I thought it would be. It made me think about the holiday season. I'm surprised more didn't respond. But I understand as it's SO easy to miss a gem of a post. I highly recommend everyone read and respond to this post.
Thanks SO MUCH to all for the support!
Oh, and the contest winner... I said I'd put up a home page one-way link to the one who came closest to guessing the number of comments I could make in 24 hours. Stefan Scholl guessed 426, one-upping TLW's 425. Jeff Dowler guessed 427, but that was after the cut-off time. He did add this though, "I'm guessing 427 comments. If you surpass that I will REALLY be impressed." Well Jeff, I guess you're REALLY impressed since I demolished the 427 mark! I'll leave it to Chris to make the call on his most generous offer.
In the spirit of the Holidays, one-way links for all three! (and a banner ad for Chris' FloorPlanOnline if he wants it) Just let me know what site/page you want me to link to, and if you want the link on ThompsonsRealty.com or The Phoenix Real Estate Guy.
With warmest regards and wishing all 11,000+ AR members a most joyous holiday season,
Jay
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