The dust-up caused by the revelation that Active Rain management was in discussions with Move about a possible purchase is reminiscent of the Washington Post’s investment in tribe.net, another social networking site, a few years back.

So far, most of the 43,000 Active Rain members appear supportive of the aborted purchase, even as their personal information and content was about to be sold to the highest bidder, yet there are a few comments of indignation, though most of the writers appear naive to the sell-out.

Tribe.net was founded by a group of Burning Man attendees in 2003, the same year MySpace was started. Like Active Rain, its site features user-generated content and social networking, and like other social networking sites, has inspired rabid loyalty and feelings of belonging and community.

Anyone could register as a new tribe user, and could join a network of friends, usually bonded together by alt interests or activities. As more and more people and their friends joined tribe, it resulted in an elaborate social network with many thousands of members. Tribe users leveraged the small world phenomenon as a way to enhance their own immediate social network and it has about 500,000 members v.s. Active Rain’s membership of 43,000.

In a surprise move, in 2005, the owners of tribe.net accepted an unspecified amount of VC (though the number speculated was about $6M) from Knight Ridder and the Washington Post, giving them about a 20% ownership of tribe.net.

Members were indignant that their personal information and content was sold out. Unlike the MySpace sale to FOX, this was personal. The tribe’s members, being made up of mostly alt culture, techno geeks and BM attendees, had very left, liberal leanings. They hated being sold out. Tempers were exacerbated when new tribe management announced it would remove all “mature” content from the site. How could they sell advertising on the site to major advertisers if the corporate ad appeared next to a topless hippie or nude Burning Man attendee?

Angry and upset tribe.net members left the site in droves and started their own new site, Free-Association.net, their MO “What sets us apart is that no company owns us. We’re open-source, volunteer-developed and -run, and donation-funded.”

The look and feel of tribe was changed and then, in a coup by the original creator, was supposedly “reclaimed” and returned back to its original look/feel, but it’s never been the same since.

I doubt that even if/when Active Rain were to be sold to Move or any other corporate entity, the agents & lenders online would ever revolt. According to reports, there are only about 500 active members anyway, and it’s doubtful that membership is very radical or subversive enough to give a R.A. who owns it, as long as they get their points and show up as the #1 agent in their market.

One thing to note, last year when there was talk of NBC Universal purchasing tribe.net, the price bandied about was $5M, and this was for 500K users. Based on those numbers, the $33M price offered to Active Rain by Move for 43K registered members is, uh…. optimistic, at best.

I’m not exactly sure what happened but what I can piece together is that tribe’s original investors gave up on the company last year. Talks with NBC failed and they sold their stakes to tribe.net founder Marc Pincus. The original investors didn’t recoup their $6.3 million investment. Then, with still about 500,000 subscribers, Pincus sold tribe.net to Cisco Systems. And the price was rumored to be less than $3M.

Social networkings next phase (NY Times)

NBC rumored to buy tribe.net from TechCrunch

Activerain.com v. Move.com: The Duplicity at Activerain.com

What Active Rain should do now

The voices of bitter experience: ActiveRain’s petition against Move, Inc., is a heart-breaking sob story with no legal merit

Social networks aren’t products

As expected, bankrupt “alternative business model” real estate firm Foxtons blames the poor economy for their failure rather than lack of planning, incompetent management or faulty business model.

A Darling of Discount Real Estate Rides Into the Sunset

Foxtons: Ex-Cons and Strippers turned Listing Agents

www.We Hate Foxtons.com

Foxton agents’ dirty tricks. (Foxtons in Britain)

Foxtons NJ: “Mean, Useless Morons”

Foxtons complaints (Blagger.com)

Foxton’s? (City Data)

Misrepresentation, unprofessional, poor marketing

Foxtons fails in Houston (Times Herald Record)

Foxton’s is the Anti-Christ

Rip-Off Report

For those suffering from the malaise of Yahoo non-existance, maybe this will help. Yahoo’s just released some fresh updates to their crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms.

In June 2006, Florida real estate broker Michael Morgan unveiled a Web site targeting alleged costly construction mistakes by Lennar Homes. In it, Morgan alluded to allegations of “shoddy workmanship, slipshod carpentry and faulty wiring” and invited consumers to submit their complaints.

Morgan bought PPC ads and whenever someone was searching for Lennar Homes, they would get directed to his site instead.

Last year, Lennar filed a lawsuit against Morgan over the website, seeking to suppress the “false and defamatory” criticism and use of “keyword advertising” which violates Florida’s trademark law.

“The defendant deliberately selected and promoted these domain names to misdirect those Internet users intending to view Lennar’s official Web site into viewing the defendant’s Web site, instead,” Lennar alleged.

Lennar won and has since taken over the website www.Defective-Homes.net and changed all the verbiage to make it appear that it is now a site to dedicated to offering an opportunity for Lennar Homeowners to voice their complaints relative to issues with their Lennar Home.

Though the old site is no longer online, I found www.Defective-Homes.net using the Wayback Machine.

So, Lennar won that one.

However, on Sept. 5, a new lawsuit was filed against Lennar Homes, alleging that it built several houses on top of an old Army bombing range dating back to World War II.

The suit was filed in Florida’s Orange County Court on behalf of a homeowner who believes her property may contain bombs, bomb fragments or contamination, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The homeowner is concerned that the discovery of bombs could hurt the resale value of her property.

This appears to be just the first lawsuit in a series expected against Lennar Homes.

Lennar Homes: Certified “Bomb-Free”?

Free Speech Vs. Trademarked URLs & Keywords (SearchEngineLand)

Broker Posts Lennar Complaints on Website (Homeowners for Better Building)

Yeah, yeah, the Feds cut the interest rate and Bush says he doesn’t want to raise FHA limits, but let’s get to the important news of the day: One of Seattle’s favorite sons, Sanjaya Malakar, is moving to Hollywood, Baby. His house (actually, his step-dad’s home) has been put on the market, as Sanjaya’s off to seek his fortune in LA and on the American Idol tour.

The listing agent is Dennis Fletcher, an agent with Windermere Real Estate, who formerly worked with Sanjaya’s step-dad writing radio and TV jingles when they were in the music business together.

Another American Idol contestant with a Seattle real estate connection was Leah LaBelle from Season 3. Her mother was Anastasia Vladowski, a musician and immigrant to the United States, who defected from communist Bulgaria during a tour of Western Europe in 1979 at the height of success with the Bulgarian Pop music groups Srebyrnite grivni and Tonika. She was also a Realtor and sales agent with Coldwell Banker Bain in Seattle.

Now that’s news you can use!

Leah Labelle Fan Club

So Long, Sanjaya

I think that Inman may still has some work to do as far as branding and name recognition go…….

Inman News

Turn Here Video

University of Washington researchers recently found wide disparities in obesity rates among King County ZIP codes. The rates range from less than 10 percent in parts of central Seattle and Bellevue to more than 25 percent in some south county neighborhoods.

(From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

The strongest predictor of obesity rates wasn’t income or education but property values, the study found. Each additional $100,000 in median home value for a ZIP code corresponded with a drop in obesity of 2 percentage points.

It’s further evidence, experts say, that weight isn’t solely about individual behavior and that the environment you live in matters.

As the Seattle P-I notes in “Overweight? Blame your zipcode”:

“If you have this mind-set that obesity has to do with the individual alone, then ZIP codes or areas really should not come into this. But they do, big-time,” said Adam Drewnowski, director of the UW Center for Obesity Research.

It’s common sense that a lack of access to fresh produce and nutritious groceries, plus an excess of fast-food restaurants, might contribute to packing on the pounds. Add that to being in a neighborhood that might be unsafe to walk or exercise, and the result is the residents tend to be overweight.