I don’t know what caused it, but RealCentralVA.com was mostly inaccessible today from about 0500-1400. It was either an attack on this site or my host or a mistake by by host, but either way…
Browsing Category Blogging
Returning to Local Real Estate Blogging – Writing about Charlottesville and Albemarle real estate
Maybe I have gotten a bit astray, maybe I haven’t but re-focusing can’t be a bad thing. (transcript after the break) That being said … I have been writing and sharing at Posterous a fair…
Realtors versus the MLS and the Real Estate Board
“Disclosure” in the context of online advertising means (i) advertising that contains the firm’s licensed name, the city and state in which the firm’s main office is located and the jurisdiction in which the firm holds a license or (ii) advertising that contains the licensee name, the name of the firm with which the licensee is active, the city and state in which the licensee’s office is located and the jurisdiction in which the licensee holds a license.
…In the age of the long-tail and the insatiable urge and demand for more information, we’re limiting the description of the properties we are marketing to 500 characters of text – no links, just text. (text is boring and so 1999 ) For now, the best we can do is try to educate the public to do their due diligence … tell them to Google the address … and do our very best to ensure that one of our pages comes up … in this case, the number one result is Trulia (get that, MLS committees?
Bloggers and Their Rights
Bloggers deserve protected free speech too, and it looks like Waldo Jaquith , with the help of the VA ACLU , Thomas Jefferson Center for Protection of Free Expression , and Public Citizen , is set to prove that fact (again). The time will come I suspect when a real estate blogger is going to be placed in a similar situation, whether it’s a freedom of speech issue or a journalism -vs- advertising suit.
A Thought on Anonymous Comments
I can see the IP addresses of visitors and can track who’s saying what, but the readers can’t. (but there’s a plugin for that ) 🙂 ( see Waldo’s history with anonymous comments – particularly the cited cartoon , which gratefully, I’ve never had a problem with). So … rather than say “no anonymous comments,” here is my compromise request – Please pick a handle and stick with it – I don’t care what it is, just please be consistent.
Waldo got Subpoenaed
Waldo Jaquith of Cvillenews has been subpoenaed for names, email addresses, IP addresses, etc . … I debated putting this on the sideblog , but feel that this sort of thing deserves front page coverage, if only to express empathetic irritation on Waldo’s behalf as well as the fact that he has to spend valuable time and money on this.
It’s All Confidential
Every email, instant message, phone call, text … basically any conversation that comes about because of this blog is considered by me – the owner and operator – to be confidential. The range of questions that I receive is broad and varied, ranging from home inspection process questions to questions about specific neighborhoods to “how much should I offer …” to questions about agency – and dual agency.