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Best Alternatives To the Big Name Social Media?
rueger writes "Over a couple of years I have actually found Facebook pretty useful and/or entertaining. It has certainly allowed me to stay connected with a lot of people with whom I otherwise would have lost track, and for all its weaknesses it was handy for sharing links and such. This week, though, the privacy escapades have pushed me (and a lot of other people) over the edge. If Twitter's 140 characters aren't enough, LinkedIn is too business-oriented, MySpace too ugly, and Buzz — does anyone even use Buzz? What social media options are out there for all of those non-uber-techy folks?"
Ob PA: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/4/23/
It's all I ever think about every time twitter is covered by the popular media or NPR or whatever. And it unnerves me tremendously that I can't twack the anchor with a wet trout wrapped in a printout of that comic.
LinkedIn is useful for business purposes. LinkedIn offers a big hammer that discourages spammers. If someone tries to "friend" you, and you don't know them, you click "I don't know this person". After a few rejections, the annoying user loses the ability to "friend" people. The same goes for "questions"; if someone puts up a question that looks like spam, and it's flagged, they soon lose the ability to post "questions". As a result, there are people on LinkedIn worth talking to. However, a big fraction of the users are "consultants" trolling for work. Lots of lawyers, but, after all, lawyers are consultants trolling for work.
I used to enjoy Tribe, which was fun and useful if you're near SF, because many of the people doing interesting art things in SF were on Tribe. But they have near zero traffic now. A few years back, they went "Web 2.0", and they broke their system so badly that "Tribe bug reports" became the most active group. Then they decided to crack down on "adult" topics to please their advertisers, and a big chunk of their user base left. Then they annoyed their main developer, and he left. After those mistakes, I think they're down to about three employees.
IRC is a vacuum through which sanity slowly escapes the brain. It is proliferated by sociopathic assholes and the occasional psychopath off his medication. If you want a really good example of what happens when you let the lunatics run the asylum, IRC is it. And the worst part is, even well-meaning people who come there get sucked into its cyber-bullying, cynical norm and either succumb to it or get the hell out... leaving only the most warped idiots to argue amongst themselves.
Super super super early stage, but very interesting is Diaspora. This open source project aims to create a completely decentralized social network. It's inspired by Eben Moglen's call for us to break out of the walled gardens.
While walled gardens aren't going away, I really hope this project is at least partially successful giving people back control of their own data.
Check out the free and open source software, Caucus and build your own social network. I belong to such a Caucus-based community, where invited members can speak openly, and I strongly agree that Facebook is seriously limited by privacy concerns.
You could also look up "The Well" and see what communities of a similar nature are out there. Seems you're looking for something like that.
Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
~ Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales, xvi (1657)
[I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter.]
To me telling strangers or vague people everything all the time is giving up my privacy.
I lived in a small "population center" of 1200 people once, for about 8 months. It was living hell. Nothing you did - NOTHING - was private, and half of what you did do was misconstrued into something else entirely different. If the wrong person didn't like you, the most vicious rumors would spill out. It didn't matter if it was true; I know quite a few people were forced out of town on threat of fraudulent criminal charges, and heard suggestive rumor that the same thing was "in the works" to happen to me.
Since that time, I've been very, very protective of my privacy. Rumors in a small community can ruin a person, and your reputation is paramount in the business world to success (regardless of actual merit). As such, I'm careful about what it is I actually broadcast as "me".
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
You have never lived in a small town, have you? As the new person, if you are friendly then you must be hiding something. If you are quiet, you are hiding something. If you talk to people, you are trying to blend in and are hiding something. 1200 people, you might meet 100 in the first week, but the other 1100 will have heard about you from their friends and family. I grew up in a town only a bit larger, under 5000 people, and when someone new moved to town people would know their favorite ice cream flavor before they ever met them. New people being those not already kin to one of the three or four families, or marrying into one of those families.
Okay, so my perspective is from a small southern town. Maybe them yankees do it differently.