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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Radiating Gnome" data-source="post: 3754516" data-attributes="member: 150">This is, frankly, the thing that makes me most pessimistic about the online offerings -- the invocation of the "Social Network" term.  I don't have anything against social networks.  I use them, I run them, I live in them much of the day.  I have some strong opinions about the "my space" or "ning" variety that puts user profile ahead of content, rather than the older, BB style networks like  . .. . wait a minute, I was trying to remember the name of that old style BB . . . Eric Noah's Attic?  Was that it? The newer profile-first networks put the cart before the horse, IMO.  They are attractive because a user doesn't have to have an opinion.  They can create their page, and they show up right there on the home page, front and center.  You see who else has an account and ask to be their friends . . . and make connections from one profile to the other . . . and you're still not actually talking about anything.  You're just holding hands and waiting for something cool to come along.  Whoopee.BB style networks put the ideas out front, and once you discover that you like someone's ideas, then maybe you follow links to their profiles.  I mean, we all know who Piratecat is on these boards . . . and it's not something we learned from reading his profile page.  We know it because his ideas and posts are insightful, memorable, and always worth reading.  But the biggest problem, and the one that bugs me about the WOTC invocation of "social network" is that it sounds to me like every client who walks in the door and wants to harness the social network idea for their own business.  These clients know the term, know it can work wonders, and they walk in the door asking for it without having a clear idea of what the network will be or how it will work -- only the expectation that it will turn their business into an overnight success, thanks to the mystical black box of powers that is the social network.  I have yet to hear anything or see anything on Gleemax that suggests that they have any more detailed or complex idea of what goes on with a social network, except that they expect it to turn on a firehose of money for the brand, because that's what social networks do. BUT . . . the ideas they have for the game itself DO have me very excited.  And what I'm reading in posts and hearing about in other places makes it clear that they're using it -- playing the new version of the game, trying stuff out, kicking the tires, really getting their hands dirty trying to see what truly works and what isn't worth the effort.  I only wish I had the feeling that they had the same sort of hands-on expertise and focus on these online offerings that they're touting so highly, but not really talking about with any specificity. -j</blockquote>

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