Citizen Rain Gives You Something to Talk About
ARDELL on 05 22, 2007
I just visited Citizen Rain, a King 5 Blog with “The latest posts from Seattle real estate blogs…”
I’ve tested it, and it won’t replace keeping your favorites in the RSS feed reader, as they seem to be skipping over many of the posts on the blogs they have targeted. Not sure how the selection process works, but if you go to Real Estate, you will see that the latest post from RCG is mine about the Radio Show. Clearly not the most interesting RCG post over the last 48 to 72 hours.
I like the name, Citizen Rain, the most 
I like the ability to view blogs on different Seattle topics all in one place. You can now use the links in that one sentence to go to all seven of the Citizen Rain blog categories.
What I didn’t like was that it had no conversation and no comments yet. So I thought plugging it here might make it more interesting for me at some point in the future. Just fully disclosing my hidden agenda.
I like local links, so as a blog aggregator of only Seattle specific blogs, it might be a good place to find blogs of interest to add to your RSS feeds.
It’s definitely going into my sidebar. There’s bound to be some gem blogs in there. Question is…is it a Splog because it pulls articles from other blogs, and has no original content? I don’t care if it is a Splog…I LIKE IT!!
**UPDATE** Based on Josh’s comment below I am adding this link to the HOME button making that eight links, as HOME seems to have original content.
About the Author: Ardell DellaLoggia
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18 Responses to “Citizen Rain Gives You Something to Talk About”
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I’ve gone back and it looks like all our RCG posts are in there. Either I was blinded or it changed. Either way, it looks like this site COULD be like an RSS feed reader for all things Seattle.
Sorry for the error, I’ll go do a strike out edit.
I am not surprised that they used the word “rain” in their blog name. Why don’t we interview the person who decided to set up that blog and find out more.?
I’m not sure Greg would be too happy if a local TV station used the word “bloodhound” in their city blog.
C’mon Jillayne,
No one in Seattle can take the credit for coming up with a “rain theme”.
On a side note, I already learned something via Citizen Rain. Greg Perry joined the PI RE Blogwriters.
I really like this Citizen Rain.
I think Citizen Rain is pretty cool. I am getting visitors from it and it’s nice to see recent topics from several Seattle blogs.
I thought that it was just a ‘blog aggregator, but the main page (http://blogs.king5.com/citizenrain/) seems to have original (as far a weblogs go) content.
Thanks Josh! I did an update to the post including the link to the Home Page.
I just learned that I missed out on seeing Robin Williams. I LOVE Robin Williams. But I have tickets to Norah Jones so…looks like Citizen Rain is like my version of the Home Shopping Network (which I DO NOT watch). Citizen Rain could be an expensive habit
Maybe it’sTMI.
Just in terms of the “splog” idea… They are doing it right in my book. They are aggregating blog content and then only using a small portion of it to send traffic to the original source where the conversations are meant to occur. If they *did* add the feature to comment on articles on their site, I would definitely not be as big of a fan. (Of course, on comments on “original” content makes complete sense!).
It also looks like they never grab the graphics from the site which is a good for smaller sites who (depending on how King5 organized the backend) could have to pay for the extra bandwidth. Overall, I think it is a great effort but somewhat misplaced. Aggregation is way overrated and not particularly interesting (but easy to do!). Some type of moderation or editorial is definitely needed before they would really be adding any value to the local real estate dialog.
-Dustin
Hi Ardell,
Okay, good point. Raincityguide, activerain, citizenrain. What could be next? realestaterain? raincity? searain? seattlerain? Oh, those are taken. rainydayrealestate is still available.
Yes, I missed Robin Williams, too. However, I did catch My Chemical Romance at the WaMu Theater next to Qwest field along with a group of 14 year olds dressed in black.
Here is a link to the bio of C-rain’s editor:
http://www.lostremote.com/?page_id=390
And here is the blog post where he talks about his new project:
http://www.lostremote.com/2007/05/20/my-recent-projects-at-king5com/
It’s interesting, (yet I suppose not surprising) that KING 5 news decided to launch the blog under a different name.
They are promoting Citizen Rain on the king5.com site, too. I’m “digging” it. It’s fun to browes the other blogs current posts. I didn’t ask to be one of their blogs (mortgage porter)…I found out I was when I started getting hits from them. No complaints here!
It could end up being a huge ticker tape of everything you ever wanted to know about Seattle.
I agree with Dustin, that it won’t top RCG as to “the convrsation of real estate”, but it’s a great place for staying on top of “all things Seattle”.
It brings up something I struggle with, the “integrity” of my sidebar. I am frequesntly pressured to add sites to my sidebar, or to show “link love” etc… I’m such a die hard about the integrity of blogging vs. the SEO function of it, that Dustin often has to tag my posts
I will tag if the tags seem appropriate, but not to gain search engine placement primarily. Nor will I write to that purpose.
I want sites in my sidebar that people buying and selling real estate in Seattle should read, or people relocating here should read, or that I want to read and so keep handy over there to my own purpose.
But loading up the sidebar for…whatever reason people do that (why do they do that?) just doesn’t feel right to me. But when someone selling sneakers online wanted to trade links with me, I still felt bad to say, sorry, selling sneakers just doesn’t seem to fit. Oops, just realized the pun in “the shoe deosn’t fit” LOL.
Woohoo CondoRain.com is available.
I like the concept of Citizen Rain, especially that its coming from a large broadcasting company (Belo). And, as Cory (Dir of Digital Media at King5) pointed out, King5 News is now starting to review Citizen Rain for potential story leads.
Though, my King5.com condo exclusive (http://king5.com/marketplace/condos) is not so exclusive anymore ; )
I too have enjoyed browsing CR. And, thank you Ardell and Rhonda for the nice welcome to the Seattle real estate professonal blog. I submitted 425realty.com today . CR may become an important area destination site with immense content and King5’s promotion.
Why didn’t they just leave it as a KING5 blog?
For example, I have sent many people to read the comments on this page as part of an in-class assignment.
http://blogs.king5.com/archives/2006/11/affinity_fraud.html
Right now, a person has to go to
news
investigators
more investigators
and then scroll all the way down until the blog/story comes up.
It just seems like if KING 5 wants to get in on the action, they could link their stories with a blog, and then add a blog search function on their page.
So I’m still left wondering why citizenrain? Why? Why not blog.king5.com
king5citizen
Jillayne – I can’t speak for King5 but my guess is that it differentiates King5’s own blog (Blogger King) written by its news staff from local blogs. I see it as two distinct platforms; CR aggregated blogs are not part of King5 or its news stories.
Citizen Rain’s actual location is http://blogs.king5.com/citizenrain and my guess on the CR name is that it features citizen bloggers. Plus, it’s catchy.
Ya shoulda grabbed it, Ben
I would’ve but I’m already sitting on too many domains.
I’ll sit on it for you.