Social Networking Without the Fluff
Monday, June 12th, 2006
Now here’s an idea: a social networking site that doesn’t thrust you into popularity games with all the excluding of “unpopular” people, and the idolization of a few lucky profiles. This is exactly what the recently launched social site, The Impersonals, is trying to do. They plainly state on their front page that the inspiration behind The Impersonals is that
We couldn’t find a personals site we weren’t embarrassed to join, so we made our own.
The site takes the social web to a new level of minimalism. Users can create a profile, which consists answering a few questions (we’re talking about 5 or 6), and send up to three messages a day to other users. You can also bookmark users you find interesting, and, you’ll be notified if they bookmark you. In terms of functionality, that’s about it for The Impersonals. But in this case, their strength is derived from the ease of entry–there are no long questionaires that make you rack your brain for the best answers, there are no complicated popularity ranking schemes that would make anyone’s head spin, and there is no exclusive referral system that restricts joining the network. The Impersonals is a site that simply allows you to post your profile with a few witty comments, and see what responses you get.
I’m a sucker for simplicity, and, The Impersonals is doing the right thing at the right time. Hopefully, we’ll see their network grow.
Right now, it looks as though they’ve been dugg, and, as it turns out, their male to female ratio is severely skewed to males (goes to show who the typical digger is). They’re trying to get as many women to join as possible now, so invite your girlfriends, or they’re going to have a social network imbalanced meltdown.
Now here’s an idea: a social networking site that doesn’t thrust you into popularity games with all the excluding of “unpopular” people, and the idolization of a few lucky profiles. This is exactly what the recently launched social site, The Impersonals, is trying to do. They plainly state on their front page that the inspiration behind The Impersonals is that
We couldn’t find a personals site we weren’t embarrassed to join, so we made our own.
The site takes the social web to a new level of minimalism. Users can create a profile, which consists answering a few questions (we’re talking about 5 or 6), and send up to three messages a day to other users. You can also bookmark users you find interesting, and, you’ll be notified if they bookmark you. In terms of functionality, that’s about it for The Impersonals. But in this case, their strength is derived from the ease of entry–there are no long questionaires that make you rack your brain for the best answers, there are no complicated popularity ranking schemes that would make anyone’s head spin, and there is no exclusive referral system that restricts joining the network. The Impersonals is a site that simply allows you to post your profile with a few witty comments, and see what responses you get.
I’m a sucker for simplicity, and, The Impersonals is doing the right thing at the right time. Hopefully, we’ll see their network grow.
Right now, it looks as though they’ve been dugg, and, as it turns out, their male to female ratio is severely skewed to males (goes to show who the typical digger is). They’re trying to get as many women to join as possible now, so invite your girlfriends, or they’re going to have a social network imbalanced meltdown.
