online community
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- Salarrue
Do you think there is a value to start another social network website, not to compete against facebook or myspace, but to reach a smaller group of interest, sport aficionado or rare cult?
There is value using the current social networks but some industries insist to get their own version, and in the industry were I'm working had some attempts... and all failed.
this is the biggest paintball related website: www.pbnation.com and besides the fact that is a ugly forum is suppose to be the best place to go if you belong to the paintball community.
and this is an attempt of a paintball social network: www.doyoupaintball.com
what do you think?
- neferiu0
in my opinion there are far too many SN sites. even if something 'new' came out, I'd have to know for sure that there are already a bunch of people on there i want to talk to otherwise it's a waste of time to login, etc... Im already part of specialty music sites etc that ive logged into, created profiles then forgot all about it. Not worth it, in my opinion. Id rather devote the same time to an existing service (ie facebook, etc) to make sure my content on one site is updates/relationships are maintained, etc, instead of having 10 sites i devote no time to.
- johnnnnyh0
I think neferiu makes a fair point. In theory it would be nice to have a variety of specialist SN sites but in reality I barely bother with facebook and I consider that to be the main one in which I participate.
I like the idea of likeminded individuals rather than groups of friends with diverse interests being connected but in reality it's unlikely I would bother with many different environments.
- kalkal0
Most people that go to sites that are based on a specific topic talk about utter shit 90% of the time anyway
- jamble0
I don't really think there is much value in doing it unless you can reach a relatively large membership count quickly.
Anyway, can't you set up some sort of group on existing sites?
- cannonball0
I think this is a good idea. it curates a focused discussion.
- mg330
There's one for Trojan's Lambskin line somewhere, you should google it. Those people are nuts.
- skt0
i think you might be on to a winner. paintballers have been crying out for their own community site like facebook, but with only painballers as members.
by the way, you should post that site here more. i know i'm not bored of it yet.
- mg330
Speaking of paintball, one of my friends from high school lives in Kuwait and works in technology there, and I saw a picture of kids playing paintball in abandoned, destroyed buildings, probably from the first Gulf War. It looked absolutely awesome, like a level out of COD4.
- all fun and games until somebody steps on a land mine.skt
- Jaline0
You could always just have a nice forum. There is a social networking site out there for nearly everything, but make one if you want to.
- Pupsipu0
I'd say it's a waste of time if you're not integrating it with existing social networks. Tangler was this attempt at making a shitload of forums about everything and it's a fucking joke.
When you make a forum where you can't import your facebook friends, can't import your digg friends, can't message people and have it show up in your email as well, and just want to make a forum about a specific subject then you're wasting time.
If you're not into building magic databases that integrate with Open Social, Open ID, Facebook Connect, Digg etc.. then you should wait for open social standards makers to get that shit together. I'm sure it will be much easier to put together forums or chatrooms through Facebook networking than it does now through website linking.
I'd say anyone who is trying to make money from building online communities instead of building a codebase for a new type of forum sucks. Even if you succeed and make money you won't be contributing anything useful to humanity.
- ukit0
Makes more sense to piggyback off the existing sites than to attempt the really hard task of starting something new.
- Salarrue0
Wow thanks guys, I believe in the success of small communities like you say has to be USEFUL and let the user make stronger relationships or discussions. This site is a perfect example.
- Salarrue0
We want to start something new, I admit that the first post is a bit negative. That's why I asked you to join the discussion
- sherman0
Seems like you could offer a website that is more mature. Both of those feel very amateur and video game like. Both are hard on the eyes and feel very cluttered.
- dMullins0
It depends what KIND of social networking community, I guess.
Currently, I'm working on a website for a "talent drafting" SN site, which is actually really surprising to see, because the idea is pretty unique, and will be highly visible and trafficked if marketed right. The premise is essentially to get all of that great unsigned talent out there to sign up and become a part of this network. Every month, they pick the most popular talent in each category (acting, producers, DIY marketers, et al) and give them a small contract to fund their success. A really great idea, and I'm happy to be a part of it from the design-side, but it's all a matter of them marketing it right and not drowning it down with too much advertising.
It's all about having the right platform, IMO, and being able to fill an obvious gap where there's a need for SN in that niche.
- Salarrue0
Good point.
Right now I'm digging in the subculture.
- GetRefresh0
I've been running The People's Lounge at http://thepeopleslounge.ning.com…... and although it generates very little income, I must say that it has been allot of fun.