I was cruising through some posts over at REliberation, a blogging platform from Point2, and ran across a post that asked, “Why do you blog on REliberation?” Looking through the many comments, the one that stood out for me was this one:
I enjoy the social interaction with like-minded professionals with whom I do not compete.
The emphasis added is mine, because I think it goes to the heart of the matter. Blogging networks like ActiveRain, etc., most often seem to involve non-competitors, whereas the MLS is a platform for allowing competitors to cooperate.
For certain, the MLS is a social network, but it is one with a limited purpose (exchanging listing information) and what should be a narrow set of rules to enable that on a broad scale to capture all the information in the relevant market. Do you think the MLS is the place for social networking beyond this limited purpose? Or, like the commenter above, would you prefer to network with non-competitors outside the MLS?