Friendster Quickly Gathering Foes
"Tribe.net shows all the polish of a team taking a good long look at Friendster, noting both its limitations and also what people on Friendster were trying to do"
Social Nets Find Friends in VCs
"Meanwhile, a third networking site, Tribe.net, is also in talks with venture-funding sources, after receiving initial backing from two media firms, Washington Post Co. and Knight Ridder Digital."
BBC Offers Power to the People
"The BBC, Great Britain's state-backed broadcaster, put up a beta version of iCan on Oct. 22. The website incorporates social networking, content publishing and campaign-organization tools to foment civic involvement. Call it Tribe.net meets MoveOn.org meets MeetUp.com."
Will You Buy a Car From This Man?
"A new online service, Tribe.net, hopes to address the problems of scammers and scoundrels..."
Jon's StudioZ.tv Blog
"Screw friendster...tribe.net is much better...and implemented using techology that I helped create (Turbine and Velocity)"
Ant's Eye View: The journal of anthill communities
"I'm not going to harangue my friends to sign up for something just so I can start to get some value out of it." (fax paradox)
connected selves
"People invest time in building their social network. Paying to use it for non-commercial uses is horrifying to most."
A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC
"One thing is for sure, the newspapers are going to be the losers in this battle unless they get busy and start buying up these services."
Marc's Voice
"Maybe if these networks worked out how to federate membership (and still make money)"
"Michael J. Radwin's blog
No, it's not a dating service. This site has got a much bigger emphasis on professional networking"
pealco.net
"With the sex removed, I’m not sure what the point of the whole thing is."
Where There's Smoke
"think of Tribe.net as a fusion of Craigslist and Friendster...Friendster is a fun toy to play with, but I can imagine how Tribe.net might actually be useful to me, both personally and professionally."
Abstract Dynamics
"The look and feel however is just plane awful. Well mostly just plane corporate looking. Friendster manages to feel pretty intimate and personal. So far Tribe feels more like the lobby to a suburban corporation."
the model of meetup.com suggests pure virtual communities don't exist, isn't that interesting.
friendster puts strong emphasis on "is this person really your friend?" where's the virtual in that?
who wants to join linkedin with this old guy on the homepage? (and what are they staring at?)
the word at strongs: myspace
craigslist: san francisco and classifieds. which is good if you live in san francisco and dig classifieds
obligatory social network diagram/logo
pseudo-purpose says use tribe for whatever (implicit dig directed at friendster)
testimonals on the front page, occupy 40% of page
| function | % screen real estate |
|---|---|
| testimonial | 40% |
| brand | 17% |
| entrance | 17% |
| purpose | 15% |
| footer | 11% |
Privacy Policy
"We will not sell, lease or exchange your personal data to third parties without first obtaining your express consent"
Terms of Use/Service uber-legalese
only required info: zipcode (for classified features), gender (can select "I'd prefer not to say"), birthday (hmm?), but can chose not to show location, gender, age
whereas joining friendster emphasizes solitary focus on dating: Interested in Meeting People for: Dating, Friends, Serious Relationship, Activity Partners (nod to tribe?), Men, Women, Men and Women
what's in a name? "Your first and last name will only be visible to your 1 degree Friends -- people who are DIRECTLY CONNECTED to you. Anyone who is 2 degrees removed will see your FIRST NAME and the FIRST INITIAL of your last name. People who are 3 degrees removed or more will only see your FIRST name."
| function | % screen real estate |
|---|---|
| listings | 54% |
| my tribes | 14% |
| friends | 12% |
| top nav | 11% |
| me | 6% |
| footer | 3% |
tribe page: sils bloggers
profile: me
other features
20 friends/acquaintances invited; 7 friends accepted so far: 1 prof, 5 sils friends/bloggers, 1 high school friend; all except prof signed up for the first time
circle of friends is currently insular/incestuous, no combinatorial explosion, no one yet is friends with a mob
nice feature: not closed off from the web. you can link to people, tribes without being a member.
day 2: i'm already bored. classifieds are not a constant use function. social networks are. awkward mix? is this too dumbed down in comparison to the flexibility/technical threshold of my homepage/blog circle?
last class: revisit, see my impressions after a week and a half.
