Continuing the theme of strangely-named social networks beginning with O, omidyar.net is my latest discovery. I find the layout very Wikipedia-esque, but quite usable and interesting. They have a Slashdot-like point rating system. I started out with 10 points, with which I can rate both people and posts; I don’t yet know how you get more points to rate with.
The clientele seems to be social networking intellectuals, which is both good and bad: bad, because the discussions are glowingly affirmative at every stroke, most posts beginning with “I like your ideas Svetlana!” or “Pietro, it’s good that you put it that way”, which I find unsettling, as well as no invitation to actually speak your mind, because it’s so damn affirming; but good, because in order for social networks to function, there needs to be some degree of commonality, as well as a large helping of goodwill on all sides.
But I see at least two disadvantages of a too-small group with a certain amount of homogeneity: it’s fragile, vulnerable to trolls, one bad apple, etc.; and it could easily consider itself proof of a successful social network (all the more so since the common thread is social network though itself) without solving (or having to solve) some of the bigger problems of bigger, more heterogeneous SNs that it just avoids.
But let’s see how it develops.
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