You're probably thinking of the 1985 classic by Jefferson Starship aren't you? This post is about AR Cities!
As I was searching for the "missing Blog link" the other day, I discovered an exciting change that you may not have seen yet. It's the 
City pages on ActiveRain. I was so excited, I actually forgot what I was originally looking for (the Web has that effect on me at times...LOL). Click on States, Select your State or Province, Select Your County, and then Your City. It's that Easy!
The changes made to the City Pages on AR look very different now. In the past, the only thing on these pages were Agent Profiles in that city, and they were all sorted based on members with the most points.
feature similar to what Twitter Members are using:Just post what's happening in your City, remember, it's just like a Blog Post and will get SEO & Google juice. According to a conversation I had with Jon and Bob this morning, we are already seeing an increase in hits to the ActiveRain City Pages. I'm anxious to see how and when these will start showing up on Google.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Now you've got to love this, I do. I was the one that had to clean out the Q&A everyday that used to be up on the menu bar. This is a change I have been asking for since July.
Now consumers can contact "Local" experts and get "Local" answers to their questions. I hope members won't use this area to ask silly questions like, "How Do I Make My Font Bold?" (but I guess you could)
This could really change some things with our direct consumer contact provided we use this feature appropriately. I suggest taking 5 minutes a day to see if you can answer any local questions from visitors or readers who find this and use it.
My thought is this; if SEO will come from your short 140 character updates and community announcements, then inevitably, this City Level Q&A will get more exposure and in time, become another value added tool. Come see my City, I left a message there for ALL of you.
BTW - Everyone was so busy looking for the missing Blog link, that no one mentioned the "Referrals Link" or the "Q&A" links that were gone also. Well, just like the Blog link, they were never really missing, just moved. The Referrals and Q&A links are now under the Channels Section in the "More Information" box located on the Main page of ActiveRain.com. Hope you will enjoy and use these 
features. :-)
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It sounds cool, I must go check out the Cities part. Thanks for the tip, I'd missed it.
Richard - it just goes to show ya, since we all knew or assumed what was already there, most of us probably wouldn't have noticed it for quite some time. Sure brings a lot more value to those Old useless City pages.
Wow what a concept.!...now I know you meant to....but you forgot to put "Provinces" next to States..:-)
Liz - CRAP, you're right, I was in such a rush to meet the Midnight deadline, it totally slipped my melted mind. I'll go fix it right now. Thanks for reminding me, that's why I love you guys, you'd never leave me out there to get hit by a bus. MWA! :-)
I've tried this. Looks great... Another growing tool.
Cool stuff, Brad. Already left one comment. Hope the questions don't become what we saw on the old question section. Appreciate the update - only drilled down as far as state list before.
Jeff
Brad, this is fantastic, now we need to focus on this a bit more. How will the person know to e-mail us with their questions? Could you do something like on Linked-in, if you click on the person it automatically will generate the e-mail? (remember you are dealing with someone that knows very little about the internet:)))
Brad, I just wasted too much time trying to figure this out. What in the !@#$% do I do/how in the !@#$% do I do this?? City Twitter for Dummies please. XXOO
Brad, this is an excellent point and the add feature to becoming the local expert.
That Tweet-Like feature is awesome! What a nice quick way to get a short blurb out about something very localized.
You guys & Claire continue to amaze me.
Brad- This is a fantastic upgrade to the already amazing community. You guys don't sleep do you?
That was Jefferson Starship.....???
Will the Tweet-Like 140 charcter feature ever allow links? Or would that be too easily spammed. There is a big difference between what you can say with 140 characters including a link (one that shrinks the link too) and 140 characters.
Brad - I have the same question as Endre. I checked it out and thought when somebody poses a question, where on the city pages are the questions to be answered?
I so didn't know about this and I think its great. Now a question about the so called twitter secton. Will that also be tweeted? Or jujst left there on that section of AR.
Great changes guys, nothing but the best!!
Thanks for the announcement, I had checked it out. It would be great to put a tiny url in to give a quick update for consumers or about a meeting.
More questions... on the Twitterlike thing will there be a way to delete? There is on Twitter. Like if you said something dumb....
A question about questions on a City page. Someone asks a group like lets say home stagers a "question" and there are no home stagers in the city that are answering.
What would you do if Questions in your city are not answered.
A. Ignore it
B. Answer it with a link to local home stagers
C. Other
There is a series of Questions on Columbus.
thanks for sharing this informatio - the graphics help to understand!
I happen to see it as well...but didn't realize it until after I went to something else. Interesting.
Great info. but now I'm going to have that song in my head for the rest of the day!
Tina in Virginia
Brad don't under estimate your tutors I like everyone else greatly appreciate them.
More things to expore. You really keep us on our toes here.
Hi Brad Thanks for the post. I saw that addition before your post and thought it was for any short information that anyone had so I addeds a few words saying " -plenty of houses 660 listed in the Mls and mortgage money available. This iis a good time to buy" What I am hearing is that it is only for comm-enters to comment not the blogger ..right.
Now my problem...( I didn't check) but can my comment be deleted? Thanks Brad
I was shocked when I went to cities...all the blogging sure pays off. as alwaqys a big thanks for your dedication to AR and personally to us
Brad _ I also noticed this a few days ago, and thought about a few cool ways to use it. You guys keep going. I'll write the book myself.
It looks much better Brad. Should be very beneficial to those who blog the most for those cities.
Brad --- when you wrote ... "I actually forgot what I was originally looking for (the Web has that effect on me at times...LOL). - a true lol moment ... I mean, I thought that is what the web was designed for ... starting a task and finding yourself 3 hours later reading gossip and listening to weird music on blip.fm. Great post as always - thanks for being so "Active"
Brad - great info, as usual!
I believe, as a group, that we are not opposed to the changes - we would just like to be told about them prior to actually changing.
I know I get frustrated when I have to spend extra time trying to figure out what has happened and where my navigation tools have gone.
Perhaps a simple "heads up" on the opening page would help us be less frustrated.
Now ... I'm off to check out these new "places" on the AR map.
I'm distracted now ... are you happy? LOL
Brad - That's a pretty cool feature. I'm going to check it out... :)
Hi Brad. I too discovered these changes. At first wary, I am on board.
Great improvements, Active Rain.
Ken
Do you really think that song is a classic? Just because it is old, doesn't make it a classic. :)
Ken
Brad this is freaking awesome! I noticed it the other day..just love it.
BTW - You just got that built this city song stuck in my head...I'm gonna kill you - LOL
Gues the fact that no one noticed the missing Q&A or Referrals Link means it's not a "hot" item for most people on ActiveRain! Thanks for pointing out the new Localism features, Brad.
Brad: So is the anywhere where you show the top agents in the area (the ones with the most points?) or is this feature gone now?
Is all this consumer part of the ActiveRain site fighting with Localism?
I will try it out, and thanks. Looks like a great new feature.
Now, this is a change that actually sounds useful. Thanks for bringing it up as I hadn't played around in the new changes yet.
Hi Brad--This looks interesting and I just spent some time playing with it to see how it works. I have one question...How did you decide which cities weren't relevant? Several cities in each county were just left off the list. Like Wyoming, MN in Chisago County, Columbus, MN in Anoka County and North St. Paul in Ramsey County. These are pretty big communities...in some cases bigger than those listed. It is a nice feature but I think people living in these communities will be frustrated when they visit localism and there town/community is not considered relevant enough to be listed.
Another great improvement. Thank you Active Rain!
Bob
Thanks for this great post and alerting me to this
Great tools and I love the new look.
Hi Brad ... I too stumbled upon it! I do have to check it out further now that I know it's there.
A heads up is a good thing- I ran into this when trying to load pics to my area. What's important for those sponsoring communities to understand (unless I'm missing something- quite likely) is that there will not be a direct link to the area sponsored- consumers will/won't click on the left button in order to get "into" the area. Their first stop is this new format.
So, for those not sponsoring areas, it's a great thing. For those that are, it's worth revisiting- lots of good localism blogs are likely to keep lookers from doing that simple click to the left. Am I missing something?
Brad, This looks good but it's too complicated for me. Can you rewrite for folks over 50? (translated, 'folks who struggle with the new technology.'
Brad: YES! YES! YES! The NEW AR is great, as are all the NEWLY added thingies, like the State-City buttons.
You guys are the bomb!
The ever evolving ActiveRain!
It's akin to when I moved to my little town of Apex, North Carolina...I got to watch it grow up in front of me.
Watching ActiveRain grow up is really quite cool!
Keep up the great work Brad, et al.
I noticed the States link and then you can access the cities, but I didn't notice the changes within the actual pages. I'll check it out. I like the Q & A part.
Good Morning Brad-It's nice to know I'm not the only one that get's lost on the web. Only 140 characters and 5 minutes huh! That's going to be a tough one for me(lol) It takes me longer than 5 minutes to try and keep stuff at 5 minutes.(sigh)A new challenge for me. I had seen the city page the other day and knew it was different but this post made it much clearer. As always you and the team are hard at work to make AR better. Even though right now I might not grasp everything completely. I do enough, to get excited about this new feature so thank you so much for this wonderful community that I'm extremely glad and proud to be associated with. I'm also very happy indeed to get to know you and others that I have thru AR. OK, I know this is more than 140 characters but I tried to keep the comment shorter so it wouldn't take you 5 minutes to read it.(BIG SMILE)You have a wonderful day my friend. :-)))))
Thanks Brad, its good that we have you to stumble across these new features. I mean after all how else would we find them! LOL
Brad - I like the new format a lot, and I have already been using "Whats happening in Newport Beach right now" as well. Thanks for all of your efforts.
Brad, I will definitely have to check this out better to see what it does for Desert Sky Real Estate and Terri and I. This looks very interesting!
i noticed it a couple of days ago, I was wondering what was the best way to use it. Now I know.
Brad, it didn't get by me but like others I got busy as I was clicking around and forgot to go back. Thanks for the reminder.
Actually I did post the question about the missing Q&A link. I guess I am not in the loop of blogs being read by many. I am fairly new and I am just learning my way around.
Happy Wednesday!
Lori Isaacson
Good Morning ARers, I gotta run to the auto-shop, my vehicle is falling apart, I'll be back in a few... :-(
Brad, I had been watching these city changes for a few days. I really do like the new format and I am trying to incorporate them into how I use AR in my market plan. I am just a little concerned about the blog posts moving too quickly off the page if there are tons of 140 and Q&A.
Brad- What a great concept! I can get our buyers agent Lisa to help with this thing. Now I know a good use for Twitter. Never really thought it was much but yacking, now I see some use. Thanks!
Brad - I am sorry to be the first person on this thread with a negative comment. Because of my point total, I have been found and contacted on the "Austin" city page a number of times. In fact, I wrote a post awhile back touting the value of the points system since I had been found there by a New York Times reporter and later by Texas Realtor magazine, both of whom interviewed me for articles they were writing. With the new layout, that type of thing will likely cease to happen, now that my small personal link is pushed down on the right below the map and giant FHA ad.
It seems like yet another minor penalty for those of us who actually did help build this network with valuable content. Much like the "top neighbor" thing on Localism, my points have been devalued yet again. This also happened recently when the switch was made to show only the top two people in each area when logged in rather than the top two for each state. I lost exposure from that change, and I am losing further exposure with this change.
I guess I like the concept and the ability to create small Twitter-like blurbs about the area, but it seems like it has further disincentivized the points system which made AR so successful in the first place. Also, it seems very ripe for spamming or for worthless remarks to end up at the top of each city page.
Again, I apologize for my negative reaction, but it kinda hurts to lose the additional exposure. I understand that it only affects a small handful of us in the scheme of things, and I guess that was weighed in the decision?
Thanks Brad I actually did get a few comments about the referrals and missing Q and A on the post I had written about the changes... Cool - thanks for adding that portion and again I have another bookmark .... sigh
Well, let's see... the referrals link had crossed into pointlessness. And the Q&A was also kind of annoying with people in TX and AK (not picking on anyone in particular there) answering questions about GA and FL.
Hi Brad,
Now that I have had some time to try and navigate the new layout, I must say I liked the old one better. I must agree with Jason that I have lost some very valuable placement by the change. I arrived at that placement by participating and submitting blogs I hope are interesting to the entire community. As far as the Q&A I think we are depriving the people asking questions the opportunity to hear from all kinds of people. Not only the ones in their area with an interest in doing business with these people. While I find Localism interesting, I enjoyed the old layout better. I know about my city. I want to learn about others. Thanks for letting me have a voice.
Happy Wednesday!! Lori Isaacson
I am bummed to see the featured members for the areas missing. I have worked really hard to achieve a featured agent status for my city, county, & state and now it seems that hard work was done in vain with the new changes. Yes, I am still there in the list, but no longer am I receiving credit for all my hard labor. Maybe we could either remove or slide down the map to have the featured agent spots there, kind of like the way localism has the two spots at the top for top neighbors of an area. Only difference is that these spots are gained on your AR points.
Again Great Blog Brad! Thak you for all of the helpful info-Dinah
Jeff Dowler, I have to agree 110% on the Q&A, I spent a good amount of time keeping that other Q&A cleaned out from member questions and junk. It's still there (moved of course), I just haven't had the time to keep up on it's maintanence. I hope members will see the value of this NEW Q&A once it starts getting used more frequently, and sieze the opportunity to provide their "Expert" answers in their perspective local areas. Let's cross our fingers buddy, and at the same time, try to continue educating others on how this could be an effective tool. :-)
Brad, this is fantastic, now we need to focus on this a bit more. How will the person know to e-mail us with their questions? Could you do something like on Linked-in, if you click on the person it automatically will generate the e-mail? (remember you are dealing with someone that knows very little about the internet:)))
Endre - The person will not email any member until there is a need or they like the answer of a particular member. They'll ask the question, then others will click on the "answer" link and post their answers. The consumer will have a link to you and anyone else who decides to post an answer. The email portion is for them to enter their email so they can be notified when answers are provided.
Great features to the Rain Brad. You guys work round the clock it seems. I can't wait to see what else you guys have in store for us. Keep up the good work!
Great features to the Rain Brad. You guys work round the clock it seems. I can't wait to see what else you guys have in store for us. Keep up the good work!
Brad- I was trying to figure out the purpose of the "States" button and stumbled on the new City pages - you know curiosity and Katz. What I haven't figured out is how the "What's Happening" post differs from posting a community event to Localism, for that location?
Also, if someone asks a question, does it appear or is there a link on that city's page or do you have to find it thru the Q&A on the main page?
Brad- I did notice the city difference- because I have been clicking on it a lot--- I love the new change. I either forgot where the blog button was or didn't pay much attention that it had moved, however, only realizing something must have happened since everyone is talking about it. Maybe if you're not too busy sometime- you can post a picture of where it was and where it went- so I can feel connected to everone who misses it.
Hey All - sorry for the delay getting back to this post, someone "Moved My Cheese" and I am stuck in a bologna situation at the moment, I will be back after my trek to the local DMV...Oh Joy!! Sorry.,.. BRB :-)
Susie - you'll figure it out, then you'll be posting all about it. It's your City...Build it I guess. :-))
Will the Tweet-Like 140 charcter feature ever allow links? Or would that be too easily spammed. There is a big difference between what you can say with 140 characters including a link (one that shrinks the link too) and 140 characters.
Maureen - great question. I haven't figured out how to add HTML, or tested it for that yet. Would be kinda cool if we could create tiny.urls like Twhirl allows on Twitter. Still too new and too early to tell. I'll have to test that and you should too. Try to help me break it! The AR guys love it when I do that! LOL~ Thanks.
Petra - just click on the "answer" link under the question, just like how the other Q&A works. Easy Peasy! :-)
HI BRAD!
This place is growing at lightening speed!! It's awesome!! And yes, that song popped into my head as soon as I saw your title!!
Jeannette - your 140 char. updates will not be tweeted on twitter, This is our own built in application and feed. I guess we could have a contest to name it since it's NOT Twitter. Maybe something like Blammer or Dopplr, I don't know. (I digress) :-)
Maureen - I just asked a question on a City page, then I went in and clicked on the answer link and there was the delete link. Not sure if that's an admin right or a member right. Try it and let me know. Thanks.
June - your city updates cannot be deleted, I even went in to see if I could delete them and could not. Guess I haven't earned my AR God Wings yet. Not sure it can be removed at all. Something else we should look at. Or warn members that if you do provide city updates, be sure to check your spelling and be careful what you say! :-)
Okay...this is why we need YOU soooooooooooo much! I have not had a chance to check out the city pages yet. What am I waiting for? I'm no my way right NOW! GBU!
Steve - glad I'm not the only one who has those "What did I come here for" moments! LOL~ I do that at home quite often, come up the stairs to get something, then when I get there, forget what I came up to get! DOH!!! :-) Funny thing is, when I go back downstairs and to the same spot I started, suddenly I remember. I wonder what they call that? haha Sometimers?
Carol - we try our best, sometimes changes take place and we don't even know. I will always try to do my best and post any changes or updates that I'm aware of. There is always going to be some things that we just can't get out fast enough for some members. Even a featured post left for 2-3 days making these announcements gets missed and the change catches folks off guard. Welcome to ACTIVErain. :-))
I am just coming back after being gone for several months getting a new office up and running--I am very impressed with the growth and innovative ideas implemented in the recent past-- all of you behind the scene deserve a standing ovation.
I am trying to get familiar with the new way to navigtate around and appreciate the great post.
Brad - I stumbled across this a few days ago and think it is great. Now I'll be humming We Built This City all night long. :-)
Brad...great, now I have that song going over and over AND over in my brain:) I used to just love that song. I am laughing, because I never even missed the referral button or the Q and A button. Still loving my badge, BTW. I am really liking all of the new changes here! Hard to keep up with, but I'm a bit on the slow side, as you well know:) Thanks for working so hard for ALL of us!
Hi Brad!
Just got done playing with the cities thing, questions, etc....very cool! I have to go now...I have more playing to do!
Paula
I need to check out the cities part. Thanks for bringing it to my attentnion!
Nice job of explaining the change it looks fine thanks for the improvement.
So far, looks good - will we have a spam flag feature to well, you know, flag spam in our fair city pages?
Thank you so much for the tips...still trying to find my way around here!
Brad,
Thanks for the post. The new nuances are coming quickly and these blogposts help to make the new features and look more manageable.
Brad... I'm amazed at all the positive changes that have come along the way here in the rain over the past 9+ months I have been active here. Keep up the great job !
Brad - Thanks again for reminding those of us who sometimes don't venture out ot our own areas of the rain for several days to open our eyes and look around. I'm off now to see what the buzz is about.
Brad, Now I understand, thanks for the clarification. Total winner, we hope:)))
Hate to be a downer here, but the new city pages look like Localism. Now we have two Localisms?
I've always looked at the city pages to find agents in that city. But, that's just me...
Thanks for the info and now WHAT am I supposed to do?!? A detailed tutorial please. (Don't know if it is that I'm over 50 or if it is that it is too early in the morning :-~)
Brad: So is the anywhere where you show the top agents in the area (the ones with the most points?) or is this feature gone now? Is all this consumer part of the ActiveRain site fighting with Localism? I will try it out, and thanks. Looks like a great new feature.
Janet - all the top agents (by points) are still there, they are now on the right hand column just under the Map and Ad. We may be looking at moving them to a different spot on the page in the future. Nothing was taken away, we only added to bring more value to those City pages. Most members didn't even notice it, consumers who find it can still use it the same way as before, but now we have more to offer than just our top members, there's actually posts there, and a map, and the new "tweet" option, and a local Q&A.
Teri - thanks for the comment, these City pages are AR pages, not Localism. Content from Localism is fed and posted here, but the cities are not picked or selected by us. I'll have to look into the areas you mention and see what you're referring to. We certainly don't want to miss any areas or Cities that belong on those County pages. Thanks. :-)
Options Realty - Though AR and Localism are closely tied together, the City pages I am referring to here on AR are not the same as City pages on Localism. This change only affects the ActiveRain.com side of the network. Just wanted to clarify that. Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way. :-)
Brad, This looks good but it's too complicated for me. Can you rewrite for folks over 50? (translated, 'folks who struggle with the new technology.'
Marian - once you check out the City page in your area here on AR, it will become less technology and much easier to understand. The page itself is pretty self explanatory. If you need help after that, let me know, and I'll walk you through how to use these new tools and options effectively. It's always better to understand what you're doing and I can certainly appreciate feeling that "technology phobia" but is has nothing to do with age, I assure you! (Big Smile) :-)
Pat - indeed we will have to work with you on creating 140 character posts for your City! LOL~ But I do love your comments, and you can take as much space on my posts to say whatever you want and as long as you want.
It's obvious that you are not here to be a point gamer, or after a status of being number 1, but to build relationships that will live and prosper beyond the Internet and WEB 2.0 world. That's what Social Networking is all about.
It's refreshing to see someone like yourself using our network and the Social Networking concept the way I think it was meant to be used. Thanks, as always for your wonderful comment and always kind words. You come across as a really neat and sincere person, and I look forward to getting to know you more.
My door is always open if you ever need anything at all. Thanks. :-)
BTW - if you'd like some help to create a banner for your AR Blog (not that I don't like the photo of you and your friend) I'd love to show you how easy it is, and you can change it often with any photo you've taken. Let me know.
Brad, I had been watching these city changes for a few days. I really do like the new format and I am trying to incorporate them into how I use AR in my market plan. I am just a little concerned about the blog posts moving too quickly off the page if there are tons of 140 and Q&A.
Jo - I had the same thoughts and concerns, we'll have to just see how that plays out. Time will tell us, along with member input and feedback, on which direction will be the best for those pages, our members, and the community. We even discussed possible tabs. One thing for sure, those City pages have so much more value now, we are seeing the increase of traffic to them daily. Before, when they were just member profiles, they were great and all, but we didn't have nearly the hits we're getting now.
Brad - I am sorry to be the first person on this thread with a negative comment. Because of my point total, I have been found and contacted on the "Austin" city page a number of times. In fact, I wrote a post awhile back touting the value of the points system since I had been found there by a New York Times reporter and later by Texas Realtor magazine, both of whom interviewed me for articles they were writing.
Jason - this is not a negative comment at all and I really appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns. You of all people know we listen to our members and want to know how you feel.I know that members have been found on those pages, and you will still be found there.
With the new layout, that type of thing will likely cease to happen, now that my small personal link is pushed down on the right below the map and giant FHA ad. It seems like yet another minor penalty for those of us who actually did help build this network with valuable content. Much like the "top neighbor" thing on Localism, my points have been devalued yet again.
I totally understand your concern, maybe we need to move the map and ad below the members list for those particular City pages. You know how flexible we are Jason. :-) This was never intended to be any kind of penalty to ANY member at the top or the bottom of the list. As Jon said, it's to bring more value and exposure to those City pages, which in the past were not getting much (even though you personally may have had some successes from them)
This also happened recently when the switch was made to show only the top two people in each area when logged in rather than the top two for each state. I lost exposure from that change, and I am losing further exposure with this change.
I see this as an opportunity to get more exposure, not less. Before, sure, you had your picture there. Now, you can put updates, answer questions, have your posts show up, in addition to still having your picture there. I hope I'm not missing something Jason, we really want this to work for helping members GROW business, not shrink it.
I guess I like the concept and the ability to create small Twitter-like blurbs about the area, but it seems like it has further disincentivized the points system which made AR so successful in the first place.
How so? Not sure I understand how this will deincentivize the point system, are you suggesting we should give points for the twitter type updates?
Also, it seems very ripe for spamming or for worthless remarks to end up at the top of each city page. Again, I apologize for my negative reaction, but it kinda hurts to lose the additional exposure. I understand that it only affects a small handful of us in the scheme of things, and I guess that was weighed in the decision?
Jason - this section is only for members to post, I don't see spammers being an issue. Like all changes we make, time will tell, but having your comments, ideas and suggestions is also how AR has been built. I don't think your reaction is negative at all, in fact very positive as it helps us see things from a different perspective, but just like ghost hunters, we are also here to help de-bunk any concerns that this new change is in any way haunted. (Can you tell I watched their show last night .. lol)
I do appreciate you taking the time Jason to share your concerns, and you can trust that they will never fall on deaf ears. Thanks Buddy. :-)
Hi Lori - thanks for sharing your voice here. This is not Localism, this is an AR change and has no effect on the Localism city pages that I'm aware of. The problem with the old Q&A which many members have complained about on an ongoing basis is that, well let me quote Lane Bailey from above in these comments, "Well, let's see... the referrals link had crossed into pointlessness. And the Q&A was also kind of annoying with people in TX and AK (not picking on anyone in particular there) answering questions about GA and FL." I hope you're not confusing this with our Localism site. Thanks. :-)
Jeremy - they are not missing? Remember the Blog Button Link? LOL~ Dude, you of all people, I was shocked you didn't get this post out befre I did. haha! :-) Seriously though, we may be looking at rearranging some things at some point, I do understand the placement might be better served elsewhere on the page. Thanks J. :-)
Victor - there's always more in store, that's why the network is called "Active"rain and not "SameOl"rain. LOL~
Brad- I was trying to figure out the purpose of the "States" button and stumbled on the new City pages - you know curiosity and Katz. What I haven't figured out is how the "What's Happening" post differs from posting a community event to Localism, for that location? Also, if someone asks a question, does it appear or is there a link on that city's page or do you have to find it thru the Q&A on the main page?
Marilyn - great question. There is no difference, your what's happening update will post to that page just like your Localism post will to that page. No points for updates would be the difference. Posts will obviously carry more weight and be of greater value, but I think the "whats happening updates" will bring plenty of value too. (if used properly)
The Q&A in each city will be posted on that page as well and will be answered in that same place. The old Q&A is more global, not sure what we're going to do with that yet. Thanks. :-)
Michele - that'll teach you to disappear for any length of time from AR!! LOL~ Thanks for stopping by. :-)
So far, looks good - will we have a spam flag feature to well, you know, flag spam in our fair city pages?
Virginia - love the way you think, but who will be spamming? Our members? The Q&A? What would we flag?
The Q&A is the only area I see that some stuff could get out of hand, but it is for consumers, so what a great opportunity to connect with them instead of flag them, and help them out. Just a thought. :-)
Hate to be a downer here, but the new city pages look like Localism. Now we have two Localisms? I've always looked at the city pages to find agents in that city. But, that's just me...
Don - How so? I see no comparison at all: Here's Carlsbad, CA on AR City Pages and Localism. You can still look at city pages to find agents in that city...you kinda lost me here...sorry.
Eva - has nothing to do with being over 50! lol~ It is just too early in the morning would be my guess. haha Check out Your City, and if you have any questions, you just give me a ring....anytime. :-)
Yes Brad I do think I am confused. I had a hard enough time trying to understand AR and when there are changes I am always behind. Oh well I am just happy I am keeping up with the changes the best I can. I joke when I say just a few months ago I did not even know what a blog was. In reality, I still am not sure what the true definition is. I was always making sure I wrote business related blogs. After seeing all of the controversial posts lately I am sure I know even less. Oh well I am having fun. Thanks for the response.....
Now that song is gonna be in my head all day lol! Thanks for the info brad! I hadnt noticed yet.... but i'll go check it out now...
Brad.
A. I've had this darn song stuck on my head for 2 days now and, yes, I blame you.
B. The city pages look like Localism because that's all they are - Localism posts. Or, at least the headers of the Localism posts. (OK...it looks kind of like the OLD Localism!)
I doubt it matters much.
Just that I did use the City pages just to find other agents when needed. Now, the agents look like an afterthought - they're very tiny!
Brad is your: "Don - How so? I see no comparison at all: Here's Carlsbad, CA on AR City Pages and Localism. You can still look at city pages to find agents in that city...you kinda lost me here...sorry." in response to Don Fabrizio - Garcia's Question? I've been waiting for the answer to that question....
Isn't the content on the cities pages just the Localism content? There is a Localism street sign on the left column? Not all content for all members from that market shows up... not the talking amongst ourselves? Except of course the stuff that is posted to a city that is members only (confusing to me...)
Is the City page now consumer focused rather than something that is peer to peer? I don't think Don is talking about the design or layout of the page, but about using that page to find out exactly who works in Carlsbad CA by RE Agents, Stagers, Lenders etc.... for us.
The page is about content now, it changes, so better for Google than the stagnant page... which was just faces and nothing really for Google????
Hey Don - sorry bout the song thing, seems I've got it stuck in a whole bunch of peoples minds! LOL~ I'll take the blame! :-)
It makes more sense now what you're saying about the similarities. Yes, the posts are pulled and placed from Localism and that's what is currently being shown on AR City pages, as will the Q&A and new "What's Happening Updates". My understanding is that we are looking to combine this information along with member's AR Blog posts from that City. (Not "members only" posts) Bob just checked on it yesterday, and it was currently only pulling those Localism posts. That may very well change here soon.
To find any agent, you can still click on City pages, they are still there on the right hand side (we may move them again) or you can still find them on the County page or State Page.
Thanks for clarifying your comment, Now I got this song stuck in my head again too... :-))
Maureen - see response to Don, and your observation in this comment is an intelligent one, "The page is about content now, it changes, so better for Google than the stagnant page... which was just faces and nothing really for Google????"
The difference now is not that the faces are gone, because they're not, it's that there will be fresh new content and Google food to feed the SEO monsters out there. :-) The "What's Happening" updates will also carry some of that food to the Bots and other crawlers who index our pages. Content or Content?
Thanks for sharing. I was not aware of the views change. Its great to see progress on the site.
Brad, As usual your information is very helpful. Thank you!
Brad - If I now have nightmares about bad 80's music and hair bands attacking me, I'm calling you and waking you up!
:)
I get that the posts are needed on the city pages for Google juice. But, perhaps the members should be more apparent, and the posts take a secondary status, at least in the design of the page?
Again, no big deal.
Don - we are definitely looking at that and making considerations for sure. Your input and suggestions are not just welcomed here, they are needed and appreciated. Thanks my friend. :-)
Wake me up anytime, rumor has it I don't sleep anyway. LOL~
BTW - I'm listening to Hall & Oates right now. ROFL...
Brad,
Changes are coming by the dozen and we are scrambling here trying to keep up with them. This one, though, looks pretty exciting and beneficial. Let's see how it turns out.
I like the new Twitter style feature. I'm going to go add something right now. Thanks!
Thanks for the blog, but it is still written on a level most people do not understand. I will send out a blog this weekend talking about this as AR has been getting way out of hand with people talking way over the heads of the average human. We have to go back to sales 101 to sell to a tenth grader....or my favorite, sell to your grandmother. It is an easy pitch to get into that we all do and need to be careful. Remember that people are coming on AR everyday for the first time. If you got on AR for the first time, would you have a clue what you wrote? This was not to be mean, but an eye opener.
Brad - First, I want to thank you for taking so much time to respond to each of my points in the above comment. If you don't mind, I would like to expand a bit on what I was trying to say. I know that you guys have always been open to suggestions and I appreciate the culture that AR has created.
I do understand the goal with the re-design, and the effort to drive additional traffic to those pages.
When the "top neighbor" feature was added to Localism, those of us with a lot of points who had been getting additional exposure for that lost that benefit on the main city pages, unless we heavily focused on Localism-type articles. I understand that, but (as you know) I write stuff which is not exclusively for consumers. I didn't have as much issue with that change, but it did remove one of the perks that came with having the most points in Texas.
When the recent switch was made on the AR home page for each city, when members are logged in, they no longer see the top two featured members for each state. Instead, it displays the top two for each area/city. I understand that this is a benefit for those who were doing well in their local area, but not statewide, but (again) it removed exposure for those with the top points for each state. Since we tend to get a lot of referrals from other parts of Texas, this was frustrating to me. Frankly, this bothered me more than the city pages thing, but I guess the cumulative effect of the changes got to me, hence my first mention of it here.
From your response, I think you already understood my point about the city page change and how that affects things, based on the suggestion you made with regard to the layout. I think this would probably work well (putting them above the map), as long the links under the Q&A portion are "above the fold" (i.e. consumers don't have to scroll down the page to see them).
With the Twitter-like application, this seems ripe for spamming from members, not outsiders. Maybe "spamming" isn't the right word exactly. I was just thinking of how easy it would be for someone to continually post garbage there in an effort to remain at the top and middle of the page. This is just my opinion - maybe it will play out differently. I just know that members are not immune to this kind of thing.
Again, thanks for listening! I look forward to meeting you in a few days!
Tim - that sounds great, you should go for it. I would also consider joining the newbie group here on ActiveRain if I were you. It's a simple, easy to understand group meant for members just like you who get lost easily.
There is even a "Practice Here" group where other members will review and teach you how to write a better Blog post and understand the information that you don't.
Here's a link to the newbie group to make it simple and easy for you to get there. Enjoy. :-)
Jason - thanks for the short reply! lol~
Seriously though, I chatted with Bob for a bit today and we discussed a couple things you mentioned here. I totally understand where you are coming from and in no way want you to think I am making this any less important than it is. It's having members in place like yourself that help guide our vehicle down the right path. Your comment, thoughts and concerns have been heard and are clear, you know we listen and care, so the rest WILL work out as we continue to try and grow this powerhouse of a network in the proper direction.
See you in Texas in a few days my friend, we can brainstorm and discuss this further while having some coffee at your favorite Java hut, or over dinner, my treat! :-)
Brad, Changes are coming by the dozen and we are scrambling here trying to keep up with them. This one, though, looks pretty exciting and beneficial. Let's see how it turns out.
Esko - some of them come faster than I and others can keep up with them. LOL~
Brad - I did see this a few days ago but can't figure out how to get to the questions being asked with out asking a question.
Kathy - you can just click on it, you can answer by clicking the "answer" link.
Brad- Like Kathy I do not know how to find out if any questions are being asked in my area. Where is the "Answer"link???I looked in my area Plantation, Florida, I see the ask a question box but do not see an "answer" box.....
Lori - there are no questions currently in Broward County Florida in the city of Plantation. If there were any questions, they will show up at the top "center" of your City Page. I'll go create a sample, be right back...
Lori and Kathy - here you go:
Brad-probably the reason I didn't get to posting was because I was busy helping build our church and pack to go away for the weekend. I do think the map needs to move down to under the members...while having a map is nice, most people will already know where the city is. Also, can we bring the featured member thing back to the city page? Maybe just a smaller version at the top of the list for the 2 featured.
Brad-Thanks for you patience. I guess the reason I did not see it is because there are no Questions in my area!!!!!
Jeremy - hope the build goes well. We have received quite a few comments here requesting that the map be moved below the featured members list. Not sure we want to limit it to just the top two, I think we should list all the featured members in that City as we are now, just relocate it to a different position on the page. Still looking at all the options. Thanks for the feedback, good luck on your trip this weekend.
Lori - that's exactly it. Once people discover it's there, you'll start seeing some I'm sure. It just goes to show that these pages weren't visited as frequently as we'd all like them to be. I think that is all going to change here shortly. It will take some time, but when the Google searches start driving visitors there, we should see more activity as a result.
haha yeah im lost!
Ian - I'll send over one of our guide dogs right away! LOL~
Not to worry my friend, in time, much of this will make more sense. :-)
WOW - I don't read for a day or two and the AR world seems to explode even more. I had to have two screens open just to get a sense of the new feature. I like it and have a couple of questions. I still go to localism.com to check things out but it seems nothing local is happening there - all the channels, city pages etc. show up only here - is that going to change? Also, when you put something in the what's happening in Royal Oak Real Estate (for example) - should that be events about the local community or "real estate" related? Thanks for all the hard work you do (and everyong at AR)LOL
Hello Brad-That was such a nice compliment. I really appreciate that because I wonder sometimes about my long winded comments but I love doing it. I worked backwards cause I commented on the newer one first.(The one with the 3 doors) Funny you should mention that banner. Something took me over there the other day and I put that in with Bubby and me. I didn't know that's where it would end up so I haven't gone back to take that out. I love my fur baby, but I don't want it there. You are very right. I'm not here just for the points. Funny thing about that because when I started out. It was for the points for a few reasons. I was told I was a competitive WILDCAT by a good friend, but a funny and wonderful thing happened the longer I was here. I've never been a part of anyone thing like this before and never thought in a million years I ever would. So the longer I was here the more I learned this place called AR was so much more than points. Is is the people and everything that you can learn and people are willing to help and that is so awesome because other than the folks I work with who blog, I haven't never met any of the folks that I regularly comment on but I hope to one day. I learn so much from reading a lot of blogs. A lot of different types of blogs appeal to me and I comment on a lot of them. Some people are good about commenting back others aren't so I may keep a subscription to those who don't comment back and will bookmark something that catches my eye. I just don't always make the effort to comment on theirs. I have some regulars that as soon as I do blog something they are right there to comment on them and encourage me and that means a lot. One person told me that my comments were my blogs. I have learned so much here but know there is so much more than I need and want to learn. In the beginning I bookmarked a lot of posts from anything that caught my eye. I think that is probably how I came across yours for the first time. It's from something I read on one of those posts that taught me how to bookmark. Of course I think you need to have a lesson on how to go back and read what you've bookmarked (lol) I haven't read any of them and I know that is not smart. All this stuff is still so new to me and I'm just having a hard time keeping up with everything. My plate was full before, but now with AR. I'm all over the place. It seems so easy for so many here but I'm still very much finding my way and only hope that I'm doing some things right. OK, I know this is long but you made the mistake of giving me the green light so I took off and forgot how to put my foot on the brake~lol~So as to the reason I started this comment. The "BANNER" I know how to take it off but where do I go to put a different one on. I very much appreciate your input on that as I have seen some I like. But if you haven't figured it out by now. I definitely march to a different beat of a different drum. I'm a deep thinker and I do whatever I do with passion but I do need to focus more and am very willing to listen and learn and I don't think I could learn from anyone better qualified than you and I mean that very sincerely. I love your sense of humor but I also know you are a caring and very smart and knowledgeable fellow. Thank you for caring so much about AR and the people that are a part of it. Talk to you again, Aren't you lucky ;-))))
This is so cool - AR tweets! I'm so glad I think I know what I'm doing... haha.
Brad - Very Cool... I need more time to spend on AR - more coffee, less sleep.... I love twitter - now I'm going to be hooked on City Tweets!
Cool new feature Brad - how can I get a city moved from an incorrect county to the correct one?
Michael, you can out in a ticket with your request and someone can take a look at it for you. Just click on the Contact ActiveRain at the bottom right corner of any ActiveRain page. Thanks.
I accidently stubled upon the ask a question the other day and I posted an answer about the Southern New Hampshire Real estate market -- I did see it indexed on google -- now how cool is that!
Okay, Brad... It's getting late and I do live in Missouri so bare with me. . . When I go to Missouri - Laclede County - Lebanon the page looks the same as it always has. The only way I found the "new improved" page was to follow your link above, change "CA" to "MO" and insert my town. From there the new page popped up and I added my 140 character "Rainer" message.
Why am I still seeing the old page?
Joan - that's awesome! You Rock! :-)
Debbie - either you're not logged in, or you are not getting down to the City Level. Click on your state, your county, your city and it should be there, if not, please report it to the techs by clicking on the "Contact ActiveRain" link at the bottom corner of any AR page. I just checked your city and it looked fine. You only have 2 cities listed in your County and they both looked ok.
Laclede County Info:
Laclede County, Missouri Information
By City:
Lebanon (19)
Nebo (1)
Hi Brad, Thanks for explaining. I have been out recovering from surgery the past 3 weeks. I purchased 5 communities for my city. How does that all tie in?
Brad - I love the new features! I just sponsored the Lenoir, NC site on Localism and see that those changes were just made to the Lenoir pages in AR. I like that anyone can ask a question and that you can post a quick post on what is happening in your city for anyone to view. Great enhancements!!
Hi Brad- Totally missed this, must of have been too busy politicizing, last week was that kind of week. This looks good, reminiscent of the old Localism. Look forward to seeing what you're up to tomorrow with the teaser you did on another post :-)
I like the change in the Q&A which will make it more targeted for the client.
Tina - glad you're back. These are city pages on AR not the Localism site. Hopefully you'll get a chance to play with them a bit in your city. Been kinda quiet about these the past few days, time will tell, it always does.
Kevin - it is very cool, when folks figure that out, it could get really popular and a lot of traffic.
Gail - hard to catch every post that flys by here on AR, shoot, I have trouble catching everyone and I'm on here all day. LOL~ The jig is up, no teaser anymore. I'm sure you've seen the new listing router by now. :-)
Christine - exactly! :-)