Community Overkill
Are on-line community sites becoming too widespread? In someways you can say that the idea of an on-line community (ignoring BBSs, DARPA, Newsgroups etc) really started sneaking into the world with AOL dial-up and the idea of neighborhoods.
Instead of following the track of how they have progressed lets just look at the recent well known iterations. MySpace, Blogger, Live Journal, Facebook, and even our good old VOX. Most of these started out with rather innocent purposes. A place to vent, rant, talk, or meet other like minded individuals. Most are free services, that make money from the flashy little ads that you see popping up in various locations about the page. They all have a small big brother principle since they track what you have been writing about, what websites you came from to get there, and what websites you went to when you left. Marketing is marketing. For the most part the sites are harmless as long as they take security precautions to protect their users, but security is only as good as your dumbest site user.
So where am I going with this? Recently I was sent an invite to join another on-line community site that was raved about by CBS news. Something along the lines of "If you are not here you are not anywhere." It is a business professional linking site called "LinkedIn." It is touted as being a way for companies and professionals to network and make contacts.. to build a professional community as it were. How does this site differ from the other sites I listed? Well, they are not a cute little start up website that ballooned out of curiosity. The are a corporation trying to emulate a site like Facebook, but they want to charge you to use their service right out of the box. It is kind of like they are saying we are Facebook for grown ups. Except they are not. And the site operates like a poor attempt to get you to fill out information so you will be added to directed marketing campaigns. I have created a "Honey Pot" e-mail address to see how much SPAM I get to that account just to see if it was I expect it really is. BUT, the big question is, how many new "community" sites out there are nothing more than market research, and data collection, data mining groups, just building a false community site to help them do their jobs, and give them a source of a data stream they can sell to others?
In fact, a little probing of the company and you will find it is owned by "Network Solutions." A domain registration company.
I guess I am saying "Beware of the shiny new community toys" out there.
Comments
You know, it would even be different if they admitted they were data mining, but but a spin on it....like, we save statistics and information to benefit our members... They could even make their database searchable so business owners really could benefit from the information...at least that would be an informed play-at-your-own risk enterprise.
Thanks for the heads up about LinkedIn. I hadn't yet heard of the website before your post, so it was interesting to read your take on it. And I'll proudly say that I will not be signing up for an account there. Even if I had come across the site through another means, I just don't think I would have been attracted to its ideas.
This was a really interesting post, Kenn. I think we really do have to ask ourselves what a website's goals and intents are for its users. When you get down to the core, a website's main goal is to spread a certain message, and many times, to gain income. Subconciously, I think about these things before signing up for a new account somewhere. And now that I think about it, most of the sites I've signed up with in the past few months have all been free and have guaranteed that they will not spam my email account.
I try to take their word for that last promise. ^__~ Anyway, I'll definitely be a little more aware of what I sign up for. I cherish my online identity and I wouldn't want to give into a site that doesn't meet my own standards.