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January 30, 2004
boyd on Orkut; Meskill on the YASNS numbers
Posted by Clay Shirky
apophenia goes
apoplectic on the subject of orkut
#3) Explain to me why one must be a friend to be a fan of someone? The role of fan is inherently a power differential, not an equalizer. (Don't get me wrong: on Orkut, there's definitely pressure to reciprocate.) The people that i'm a fan of are not my friends; they're idols; they're people that i read on the interweb but do not know.
It is sooo weird to read which of my friends are a fan of me. Does that mean that the rest are only following social custom in linking to me? Does that mean that they don't really respect me? [Or does it mean, like it means to me, that it's too bloody weird to consider checking off that fan bit?]
And worse... i can see who is a fan of others. This means that i can check on my friends and figure out that they're using the fan feature... just not on me. Hello, socially awkward.
danah's on a tear -- read the whole thing (and if you are designing an application that relies on social networks, read the whole thing, then print it and tape it up right next to your monitor.)
Also, Judith Meskill has compiled
a list of 100+ (!) YASNS services (_via McGee's Musings_), and although the number includes things out of the usual Orkut/Friendster orbit (dating sites, social bookmark managers), it makes a convincing case that this is the madness of the age. She also points to a number of people working out the blogs-as-social networks meme (including the
Mehta/Efimova exchange we linked to earlier.)
Comments (2)
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1. daniel stoddart on January 30, 2004 10:39 AM writes...
I noticed that del.icio.us isn't on Meskill's list. Why not? She has other "social bookmarks managers" listed, so it can't be that she doesn't consider it a form of YASNS.
Permalink to Comment2. Lucas on January 30, 2004 1:33 PM writes...
Maybe a friend should be defined as a two-way fan relationship? Then users set about creating people who they are fans of, some of which turn into friends if they reciprocate. I like this idea, it solves alot of the social awkwardness and is more in the vein of what I think makes a virtuous relationship: admiration without explicit expectation of reciprocity.
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