jill walker [28 April 2003] – a great academic discussion about Friendster
Friendster’s “killer ap” is “The swelling joy that fills my heart every time I look at the pictures of these, my good friends. (Awwwwwww…)”. – Adam Greenfield
“Ah, Friendster testimonials are clearly an artform in themselves. I misunderstood the genre at first, and wrote sensible ones – there’s obviously no need for this, as you’ll see if you find one of those pages with dozens of one-liners from various friends.”
Dave Weinberger [15 April 2003]
“First, to jump into Friendster, I have to make explicit a social network that at its heart and at its best is implicit. There’s an online social network lying unearthed in my inbox and outbox. Why do I have to reassemble it, person by person, for Friendster? And if Friendster doesn’t work out, do I do it again for the next attempt? That would be a pain in the ass.”
“Then Friendster asks me to describe myself. Gender, age, occupation all are no problem. But then there are my interests, my favorite music, favorite TV shows and “about me.” I don’t actually have an internal list of favorite music so I can’t simply make explicit what was implicit all along. I’d have to fabricate a list and do so pretty much without context.”
“”Making explicit” rarely means simply unearthing what’s lying there unearthed. It means creating something new. That’s why the best service technicians aren’t necessarily the best teachers: there’s no such thing as humans doing a “data dump.””
“Lets not confuse one’s public face – from your own internal representational systems and thoughts. No one ever bent your arm to join, but when you did you inherently accept the rules of that “world”. They’re into flirting there and they’re just trying to coax you into playing along.” – Marc Canter
Michael Connor O’Clarke [12 April 2003] – “How to Lose Friendsters and Influence People”
“The whole thing was starting to genuinely creep me out. Positioned as “a social and business networking service”, I think Friendster is quickly revealing itself as less a viable business networking thing; more of a meeting ground for desperate horndogs, hose beasts, and wannabe swingers too clueless to realise there are already thousands of real swinger sites online.”
“Point is: I think I’m getting all the Friend mojo I want through just being online, thanks very much – don’t need no aspartame-flavoured Friendster sweetness to help me along here. Friendster aims to solve a problem I just don’t have.”
