Slashdot Mirror
Netropolitan Is a Facebook For the Affluent, and It's Only $9000 To Join
MojoKid writes Facebook has become too crowded and too mundane. With around 1.3 billion Facebook users, it's understandable to be overwhelmed by everything and want to get away from it all. However, unlike Facebook which is looking to connect everyone to the internet, there is a new site called Netropolitan that focuses more on exclusivity and privacy. The site was founded by composer and former conductor of the Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra James Touchi-Peters who wanted to provide a social media site for affluent and accomplished individuals. People wishing to join need only pay a mere $9,000 to join. Of that amount, $6,000 is the initiation fee and the remaining $3,000 is for the annual membership fee which users will continue to pay. So what does the initiation and annual fee get you? For starters, Netropolitan will offer an ad-free experience and will not promote any kind of paid promotions to its members. However, it will allow the creation of groups by businesses in which members can advertise to each other under certain guidelines.
Thanks for the free advertising!
Because being a member has its priviledges.
and you only need to pay me $100k to join! Hurry, offer is limited!
Seriously guys, what..?
$6,000 to join $3,000 pa and they only have a .info domain? Nothing says "exclusive" and "accomplished" like a .info domain...
why this is on front page?
According to their terms of use, they can terminate your account at any time, for any reason, and you aren't entitled to a refund.
Nope. But you can start your own version of Slashdot, and ask $9000 to join.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
Like that will work for more than a few months.
Seems like submissions from certain accounts (MojoKid is one of them) get approved, regardless of the value to the community. I'd speculate that sites like hothardware do advertorials which they then promote through various "social networks".
That is an awesome scam. You get them to give you obscene amounts of money and they'll even feel good about it.
It's rich people. Let's just put that down in here in black and white. A nine-thousand-dollar entry fee doesn't test for your contributions to medicine or the arts, or whether you've taken your hard-earned wealth and invested it in a nice brownstone filled to the brim with the best contemporary art has to offer. That $9000 bouncer will be just as happy to let in every reality TV star, pop artist, flash-in-the-pan record producer, and fleetingly-wealthy action movie screenwriter.
And if you think that a $9000 fee is going to stop somebody from registering just so they can grab all your "private" communications and put them up on the public web, you have seriously underestimated human puckishness.
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
pipedot.org
http://www.pipedot.org
Make it, in the sense of being able to make money. First, you take money from the poor, when you get rich enough, you start taking from the rich, then you get wealthy.
$6,000 to join $3,000 pa and they only have a .info domain? Nothing says "exclusive" and "accomplished" like a .info domain...
they have a .club: https://netropolitan.club/
(and it runs on wordpress...)
I don't like that. I find the chocolate distracts me from the strawberries and vanilla.
Based on your /. #, you've seen this shit for several years. Why are you still here?
The online country club for people with more money than time.
Pathetic anyone stupid enough to pay $9000 for that deserves to go bankrupt. Also It wouldn't surprise me if we see a Funimation lawsuit in the near future because that's what rich people do sue other rich people.
did this shit end up in facebook? I have a nice site to sell you 100k and you will have a nice site in http://127.0.0.1./
I see Wordpress with Buddypress and a premium membership plugin with what appears to be a virtually unmodified $62 Themeforest template. It couldn't have taken more than a weekend to put together.
If that doesn't scream exclusivity...
It's rich people. Let's just put that down in here in black and white. A nine-thousand-dollar entry fee doesn't test for your contributions to medicine or the arts, or whether you've taken your hard-earned wealth and invested it in a nice brownstone filled to the brim with the best contemporary art has to offer. That $9000 bouncer will be just as happy to let in every reality TV star, pop artist, flash-in-the-pan record producer, and fleetingly-wealthy action movie screenwriter.
And if you think that a $9000 fee is going to stop somebody from registering just so they can grab all your "private" communications and put them up on the public web, you have seriously underestimated human puckishness.
A $3000 annual fee isn't even a cutoff for rich people when all the "poor" kids are running around financing their new iPhones today...
I'm gonna go build my own slashdot, with blackjack and hookers!
"Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet." - Mark Twain
Came here just to ask if there was a discount, or if the membership would offer/reinstate a free I Am Rich app. for the first x users!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
This might fail but the idea should work, it's not much different in principle than the old style private clubs for the rich. They would need a couple of celebrity businessmen to join at the start and it would take off as a status symbol, I'm sure.
Is this the online equivalent to getting tickets to the symphony? If so, it's no wonder they're all going under.
or maybe
If a symphony director thinks having all his buddies sign up for $9000 websites is a good idea, maybe we're paying symphony players too much.
or, perhaps better
Symphony conductor wants to keep all of the instrumentalists off his new site, so he sets the entry fee to be more than what they make in a year.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Yeah, that's what affluent means. Had to look it up myself.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
bitch please
Most middle class people are able to cough up the entry fee and yearly dues, but my guess is that very few of them would be willing to drop that much of their disposable income on something that probably has zero value to them. Except for royalty watchers who enjoy a more intimate peek at what goes on between movie stars and other rich folk, this fee will do a good job of keeping out the little people. It might also keep out the rich though; the well-to-do will pay extra to be shielded from the common folk, but they do expect value for money other than just privacy. The site had better be good, and offer a sterling experience and nice perks.
If I were rich and considering joining this site, I'd be less concerned about ads and more about the site selling off my data to others. It'll be a goldmine for certairn businesses, and I can already see how that plays out: site becomes popular, site gets sold to investors at an overinflated price, new owners change the rules and start milking more and more data to recoup their investment.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
+1 like. Definitely need competition to keep business owners honest.
That $9000 bouncer will be just as happy to let in every reality TV star, pop artist, flash-in-the-pan record producer, a
Those TV and music starlets will stay on FB because they want and need to stay in touch with their fans.
The wealthy have always segregated themselves. That $10k membership fee in the golf club is not because keeping the grass short is so expensive, either. It is to make sure everyone you meet there is in your class.
Frankly speaking, I'm mostly surprised that this doesn't already exist.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
or do they mean Affluent OR Accomplished?
I mean Gandhi was accomplished but not affluent. Would Gandhi even care to hobnob with the rich?
I've done work for country clubs and "keeping the grass short" is very expensive. The equipment and grounds crews for a 18 hole golf course are both extensive.
Most operate at least one full-service restaurant and bar area, sometimes more than one in certain seasons (ie, fine dining room and a more low-key grill type food service) and they staff them like they were going to be 3/4 full despite being empty or only 1/3 full much of the time. Food waste is huge, plus they usually feed their employees a separate meal.
A lot of clubs have big, old clubhouses that are maintenance nightmares. They don't get replaced because its a multi-million dollar expense that has to be paid for through assessments on members and there's a romantic attachment to the clubhouse because someone famous played there 100 years ago.
And your $10k initiation fee? That's a joke, $10k is for some low-rent club with a bowling-alley class snack bar. Try $100k, which usually buys stock which is refunded to members when they resign the club. It's usually $2k/month with dues, food and beverage and golf fees. And this is for a better Midwestern club, I'd double those figures on the coast, or more in certain places.
The fees aren't to keep people out, either, even if they have that effect, they're just to keep the place running. The members openly practice discrimination on who gets to join, you don't just apply for membership, you have to be asked and sponsored by a current member. But despite the veil of exclusivity, most really make ends meet by renting the place via their banquets office and low-cost "social" memberships that enable use of the foodservice areas. They need them to keep the place running.
You're #72931. There's no way that you haven't seen slashvertizement before. Also there's no way you're leaving, as you're obviously hooked.
..dunno... soccer, baseball, jogging, learn a musical instrument, farming, politics, write a book...
But good alternatives?
Or did you just want another site that will advertize to you?
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
"Most middle class people are able to cough up the entry fee and yearly dues, but my guess is that very few of them would be willing to drop that much of their disposable income on something that probably has zero value to them. "
I'm curious about what your definition of "middle class" is...
Frankly speaking, I'm mostly surprised that this doesn't already exist.
It does exist, but it's in a real-world setup. You know, if you want to have a discussion with your buddy that lives 1,500 miles away, you can email/chat/facebook/twitter them. And there you are, holding your $device in your hand looking silly to anyone that's not doing the same. But you don't see really wealthy people standing around with their eyes glued to some $device. That's because they can just get in their private jet and go talk to their friends, or vice versa. They can afford the time to do so because they have people that do their lawn, people that clean their houses, and people that make them money. Rich people would have the poorer people believe that time=money, but they know that time is waaay more valuable than money. If you spend your time making money, then they can spend their time living life.
So what we have is not so much the need for a private club that keeps the 99% out, as it is a need for a free place for the 99% to go to stay out of the way of those in the 1%.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
What's to stop you and 8,999 of your closest 4channers from pitching in a buck each, sharing the login creds, and wreaking havoc on the place?
It has certain connotations, though; I don't think I've ever heard someone describe, say, the Kardasians as affluent. Rich, yes. Affluent? No. People like this company's founder, people who work in classical music, those are the people you reserve hundred-dollar words like "affluent for".
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
There was a lovely country club where I lived for a while. Out of curiosity I stopped by. It was only something like $5k/yr. I could have afforded it, but I didn't see any good reason to get a membership. They had a pool. I had a pool. They had a golf course. I don't play golf. They had tennis courts. I don't play tennis. They had their bar and sitting room. I have booze and a TV at home. They offered free wifi to members. I had Internet service at home. The buildings and grounds looked very nice. That only goes so far. "Ok, I'm sitting in a nice building."
I can't see wasting money just to say I have money to waste.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I think Mr. Touchi-Peters will discover that those willing to join such a site are much too dull to "talk about the finer things in life". "...an environment where people could share similar likes and experiences.Ã This dumbed-down language does not bode well. Thanks for the laugh!
If this does amount to anything, tabloids and paparazzi will find the fees to be a trivial investment. Just one lead will easily pay for itself.
A big part of exclusivity is secrecy. The most exclusive establishments do not advertise. Their names are passed around hand to hand. The simple fact that we the unwashed masses know about this service means its ill suited for its purpose.
Perhaps it might serve as an effective trap for the new rich... but the whole thing strikes me as more then a little absurd. Especially when you can find the royal families of a few countries on Facebook.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Is just another type of scam. Seems like the Nigerian prince finally became too obvious.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
Nope. But you can start your own version of Slashdot, and ask $9000 to join.
He did that already, the only member so far is Larry Ellison.
I can't see wasting money just to say I have money to waste.
Exactly. You're the kind of people they want to keep out. People who think that $5k is a waste. For their target audience, $5k is either not worth even thinking about, or a fair price to pay for making sure you spend your time only with people who fall into either of these categories.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
No peons allowed...
Even get to take it off taxes as a "business expense".
People.
The reason is people.
They put their bar and siting room and tennis court in their leaflets, but you buy your membership because of who is sitting, drinking and playing there. And the information they have.
bickerdyke
Too old to work. Too proud to beg. Too good to believe. The appeal to vanity of the middle class is it's success. Rich and poor alike claim to be something they are not. It's really a highly evolutionized coping mechanism.
To answer your question directly, If you have both excess money, and the willingness to piss it away, You are middle class.
It is a social gathering place/forum for men and their wives who have no familial responsibilities/chores.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Disposable after paying rent, bills and food perhaps. They could afford to do it, but in doing so would be unable to go out or save for a deposit on a house. I'd go further and say none of them would be willing to do that. Some might if there were 1 less zero, but there'd have to be a very good reason to join it. There isn't.
Sounds like Facebook for rich people. Bitchbook?
Political correctness is really just herd psychology pushed by insecure people who desperately seek social conformity.
So what we have is not so much the need for a private club that keeps the 99% out, as it is a need for a free place for the 99% to go to stay out of the way of those in the 1%.
You mean their own sofa watching TV?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...
The range shown is $50-600k annual household income. I'd have to agree that most of them could afford it, not that they'd want to.
Just another day in Paradise
I can't wait to sign up. Finally a facebook for our sort of people. Do you think $9000 will be enough to keep the common riff raff out?
My driver said the funniest thing yesterday....
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
It would be better than the Beta version I bet.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
Just my $02, but I'd have to disagree. I've heard the term used many times for people who basically have cash to burn.
Just another day in Paradise
In my ever so humble opinion, dog vomit is more appealing than Beta. I think the bar should be much higher..
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
Any club that want me as a member (or my 9k) isn't a club I want to be part of.
Keep to the general rule, if a club doesn't think highly enough of me to waive fees, screw them. Plenty of other places to swing a club with a power broker.
What's this "beta" I keep hearing about?
It must be a mail-order bulletin board. The annual fee could pay for manual labor to do data entry.
Mod parent up.
It's about rubbing elbows with people of influence. One good contact can easily be worth the cost of membership.
That said, I've never been a member of one, and am too close to retirement to give a crap.
Just another day in Paradise
If to you affluent is a hundred-dollar word then you obviously aren't part of the bourgeoisie and are probably just part of the proletariat.
Now that I am done with word fun I seem to frequently hear people describe others as affluent solely based off of their perceived net worth.
Time to offend someone
There's a prominent and well-known orchestra in Minnesota: the Minnesota Orchestra, renamed quite a few years back from the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. The Minnesota Philharmonic Orchestra, which the Netropolitan founder was affiliated with, is something entirely different, being founded recently as a specifically GLBT-friendly orchestra. Just trying to avoid confusion.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Netropolitan would appear to be the same thing, only without the pool, golf course, tennis courts, bar, sitting room, free wifi, buildings, or grounds. Or, for that matter, the booze and TV.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
Anybody capable of $6K down and $3K/year, I guess. At $250/month, it's less than paying off a new car. Lots of middle-class people spend more than this on hobbies. If this was attractive to me, I'd have no problem scraping the money up.
Of course, what this would buy me is access to a social network populated by people dumb enough to pay $9K plus further annual fees to join a social network whose only attraction is being populated by such people, so no thanks.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
We all may need to sign up for this. Once net neutrality goes away, it might be the only social network that has good service.
This site should save you huge amounts of time weeding out the low net worth targets
Check out the right-hand "Recent Announcements" section: http://netropolitan.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/James-Touchi-Peters-Activity-Streams-Netropolitan.png
"Staff memebers, take note: People other than us are now here"
"What Should Go on the Front Page"
Classy.
1) use spy powers to get a member list with home addresses
2) feed this info to a fleet of drones
3) exterminate all members to cull the retarded
4) everyone wins
I had to look at the date... It's not April 1st, why is this even here? /. news and I doubt most of us would be their target audience.
This is really not
Frankly speaking, I'm mostly surprised that this doesn't already exist.
It does. There's a Craiglist-type feature on Bloomberg trading info terminals. Yachts, rentals in the Hamptons, that sort of thing. You can message other people via the Bloomberg system if you see something you like.
There's a paid social network for rich conservatives. This is independent, not a Bloomberg thing. It's only $5/month, which is apparently enough to keep the noise level down.
There's a persistent rumor that there are special news sources for rich people. There are, but they're very narrow. There are lots of newsletters you can buy for $50 to $1000 a month that provide detailed coverage of obscure business subjects. If you really need to know what's going on with bulk carrier leasing, oil drilling equipment activity, or wafer fab capacity shortages, there's a newsletter for that. Offshore Alert, which covers offshore scams, is one of the more readable ones, and you can see the first few lines of each story for free. There are expensive newsletters devoted to security and terrorism, which give the illusion of inside information, but they tend to be marketing tools aimed at rich paranoids.
If you want to know what's going on in the world, read The Economist. After you've been reading it for a year, you'll have a good understanding of how the world works.
How can you NOT trust him with your privacy :3
My first thought...this is stupid and will never work.
My second thought...You know, if they gave away, say 1000 or so accounts to various high-profile richies (actors/athletes/politicians) and actually pay some of them to engage in "casual" social networking conversations with less famous richies, it might actually kickstart the thing and get a few idiots to join.
It's a fairly brilliant get-rich-quick scheme.
I'd just pay a hacker 200 to hack them and give me a permeant login.
...that there is a sucker born every minute. Never underestimate how much money you can make off dumbshits and their egos.
I'm gonna go build my own slashdot, with blackjack and hookers!
... I think the bar should be much higher..
Wait... old slashdot, blackjack, hookers, AND a bar designed for tall people? Shut up and take my money.
Okay.
On a more serious note, I'm one of many that would be willing to a pay a small amount for an ad-free Facebook experience. Remove the ads and the buzzfeeds, the link-spam, and remove everything with more than 10 'shares' or reposts. Show me only my actual friend updates and comments and photos. In fact, that was in the news last year. Social Fixer is good for a workaround, but the company could make people the customer instead of the product if they wanted.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I bet you also wonder why people always call you a troll when you're clearly a human.
I guess the Netropolitan folks didn't actually know any rich people, so the image of rich folks on their site is a stock photo called:
"Businessman showing project on digital tablet with colleagues in private jet"
http://www.shutterstock.com/pi...
I'm going out on a limb here BUT I'm guessing he's looking for a web forum with fewer douches like you. It's just a guess. I could be wrong (I'm not).
Better still, read Chomsky. Fact upon unavoidable fact.
Ok. I'll charge $900,000 to join my exclusive site for affluent
Casteism
I use classic-- beta's kerning is horrible. But, honestly, beta's easy to turn off-- rather close to permanently,
http://www.madinah.com/
Casteism
In fact this sounds a lot like the Harvard grads only dating site the Winklevoss twins claimed that Mark Zuckerberg stole from them and and turned into Facebook. I wouldn't be surprised if this website also fails and turns into a footnote in some other tech billionaire's life story.
Does this
1) Netropolitan is a pathetically bad name for this service. 2) The website is amateur hour. A few will sign up and then membership will stall out. This will be a flop. Gold digger's rejoice, half the price of your last boob job will get you access to a population guaranteed to be lonely social climber's that have more money than sense.