:: netwoman's blog ::

More on Orkut

Yes, the flurry continues, as does the backlash....strange men adding me as friends and then disappearing, strange men emailing me about my pictures, the spam messages in the Inbox (someone has figured out how to send bulk messages to about 2000 members), people disappearing from Orkut and so forth.

Alex thinks it's a fad, Jeremy also agrees. I am wondering the same. I spent considerable time on Orkut this weekend, it was fun. But what will I get out of it? Yes, I can connect with others - note the huge increase in the Blogger Community - but can I do this without Orkut?

Maybe I will find my "soulmate". Me and Ophelia blogged about Blogosphere Romance here noting how Red and Accordian guy connected through their blogs. They are now a couple. But really, you need to have a big audience to meet people through blogs. So is Orkut so bad?

Not sure what Orkut will offer that will distinguish it from other social network programs (like Friendster)...but it is an entertaining way to pass the time....

I suspect that there will be some 'communities of exclusion'. A friend in my social network sent me a problematic description in one of her communities. It is a Lesbian community - organized by a self identified "straight" Pizza man - Jeremy.

"A safe and welcoming hate-free zone for women, young and old, to discuss lesbian-related issues and other thingies or whatever it is lesbians talk about. BISEXUALS STAY OUT!"

It sounds to me that this may be a voyeuristic place where men can get their "jollies" by observing conversations that Lesbians have (there is another straight man in the community) - with a presumption that Lesbians don't talk about 'man-loving' in any form, or that sexuality isn't on any kind of continuum at all. The description is offensive (to say the least) and exclusionary. Of course, I had to join the group and voice my disatisfaction about the group's description, and encouraged my friend to unjoin the UNSAFE space.

So it seems that Orkut faces many of the same problems as any other chat room or social network community. Where do we go from here?


Update: Jill has something to say as well.

Second Update:
We've taken orkut.com offline for a few days as we implement some improvements and upgrades suggested by users. Since orkut is in the very early stages of development, it's likely to be up and down quite a bit during the coming months. None of the data you've entered will be deleted, and none of the connections you've made will be lost. And, if all goes well, you should see some significant improvements when we come back online.
We'll send an email once everything is ready and running again. Thanks for your feedback and for bearing with us as we work our way up the learning curve.
The orkut team

posted by Netwoman @ 11:17 AM