PeopleAggregator - MySpace For the Other You?
I got a preview of the latest thing in ’social network’ sites today, PeopleAggregator (here by ‘PA’). I’m not impressed. Though, as Steve Borsch points out - it is awe-inspiring. Everything and the kitchen sink is in there - blogs, people, groups, audio, video, photos, links, search engines, everything!
Like MySpace, and Friendster before it, I don’t know what to use it for. I already have a blog (several in fact - you’re reading one now). I’m already comfortable with the weblog tools I use.
Why would someone with an existing blog start another one at PeopleAggregator?
They don’t want people to know who they actually are. That’s why someone would set up multiple accounts on multiple weblog, er ’social networking’ sites with multiple ‘collections’ of ‘friends’. So they can maintain separate identities. Defeating the need to easily migrate between sites that Mike Arrington cites and a benefit to PA.
It’s true because, I couldn’t point any of my existing blogs at PA, or point it to existing URLs of photos of me - it wanted me to upload the photo (though ‘enter a url’ exists for Images). I had to got through the entire, annoying sign-up process, describing who I “am”…again. Why can’t I just point it to a URL that describes me (like I talk about on another blog). This is actually an incentive to to lie about your identity - it’s sure a lot more fun than re-entered that same damn info.
Once inside, the interface as a whole is as clumbsy and heavy-handed as MySpace. People that grok that will probably have no problem with PA. Me, I’m baffled. Why can’t it look like WordPress?
In fact - the current PA interface looks like a made-for-TV version of Slashdot.org or MyYahoo circa 1997. Lots of collapsable sections all with very strong header bars and very techie-looking color scheme. Every single form field has a border around it - and there are piles of them on every screen. A setting for this, for that - and nothing with a smart default. Argh.
Oh, look - place holders for Google AdSense and other ad banners and no RSS feeds. Hasn’t anyone at PeopleAggregator gotten the memo that the pageview model is dead?
Perhaps it could be useful as a download-able rather than hosted ’social network’?
That’s one of the great things about weblog tools, there’s one that’ll work on almost any server environment - PHP, Perl, Ruby, ASP, Java. If you’d rather not muck around with your own install - there’s hosted systems like Blogger, TypePad, and WordPress.com. If PA was written in something other than PHP - say with Marc Canter’s Macromedia history - ColdFusion. Then I could see a market for a downloadable PA. But, there’s Drupal - so um.
After poking around for a while, I found 2 big things PeopleAggregator left out:
- A reason to use it.
- A ‘Delete Account’ button.
3 Comments
It is going to be available as a downloadable product.
The only reason you would use the blog tool is is you had a Network or group you wanted to create or be part of - like maybe a family group that you wanted to share photos with. Then the blogging tool is supposed to allow you to publish to your existing blog if you wanted to. We are not trying to compete with existing blog tools - we are just trying to help people aggregate and share their information. It also allows you to publish to multiple groups within the system. It is alpha and so we would be happy to look at why it didn’t push to your blog as it should.
I can understand your concerns about social network systems - not everyone will want to use these types of tools. Personally I think it is best used as a tool for an existing group. But others like the virtual communities.
Thanks for looking -
Lisa Canter
Broadbandmechanics.com
ph: 925-746-0549
fax: 509-691-0616
http://lisa.blogs.it
Hi Garrick,
I can’t wait to try PeopleAggregator: since 2002, I have been quite active in online networking, and since then I have been waiting for open standards and interoperability!
Chris
http://www.Visible-Networking.com
We all need to beware the recent trend of these social networking sites to not allow you to delete or cancel your account. Facebook backing up your files even after you delete them, or MySpace not sending you a confirmation email to close your account, or other sites with a “delete account” button missing.
We must be aware of this, before divulging our names and personal information, because we may be locked out of our profile.
Good thing to do.. read the TOS and Privacy Policies at all these sites before you sign up. You may be surprised to read what’s in the fine print.