Updated Social Networking Site

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Today I have updated my social network website that has been in development for over 5 years.

I'm happy to see some of the ideas I had only on paper for months finally in action. It's not much, but it's the way I envisioned it working. That's important.

Someone complained that the header was too dark. I think I can't argue with that, and as part of my plan I always had the idea of adding a way to choose the color theme that would follow users.

The philosophy of the website has also seen an update and can be read on the homepage. . . as they converge toward my ultimate goals I had on paper for a very long time:

Interest-Based Social Networking - Authentic Society

[Metaphysician]

Hey I just signed up on your site! Interesting concept, I hope it does well for you!

[Marger]

I'm not into social networks that much, but most of them share one thing your site doesn't: a very clean, simple homepage. Perhaps you target people who don't mind reading all the info on your current homepage; in that case the contents are probably fine.

However, I believe for most users of traditional social networks the clean homepage will work better. Check out the big players: usually there's one strong tagline and a link to a page that explains the concept in more detail. For me, and probably others, the large amount of text is too overwhelming. I suggest you divide that text up into 4 or 5 separate pages.

[wstein]

First let me say I belong to no social networking sites (never have).

You mention all these ‘channels’ but fail to say what any of them are. Am I supposed to sign up (by giving away me email address) on the off chance there might be something of interest?

‘When you earn enough authority over a period of time’ really puts me off. It sounds like an ego-fest. I really don’t care who others think are worth listening to. The point of social networking is to hang out with who you want to (i.e. think they are worth listening to). There are many people with huge number of posts on this site whom I pay no attention to.

And lastly, what makes it ‘Authentic’?

[GrigoriySidelnikov]

Originally Posted by wstein

First let me say I belong to no social networking sites (never have).

You mention all these ‘channels’ but fail to say what any of them are. Am I supposed to sign up (by giving away me email address) on the off chance there might be something of interest?

‘When you earn enough authority over a period of time’ really puts me off. It sounds like an ego-fest. I really don’t care who others think are worth listening to. The point of social networking is to hang out with who you want to (i.e. think they are worth listening to). There are many people with huge number of posts on this site whom I pay no attention to.

And lastly, what makes it ‘Authentic’?

Well, you say you have never belonged to any social networking websites, but a forum just like this one is an interest-based social network. You are interested in the subject of personal development, and so you come here to share your ideas about things like astral projection, for example. People naturally flock to other like-minded people because they want to relate to others and share their experience within the realm of a particular idea.

Let me just say that the idea behind this website didn't come to me overnight. Social networks that you mention are based on your personal relationships with people. In that setting, it would make no sense to rank people's opinions unless you are looking to build a questionable opinion ranking system. But remember that this is an interest-based social network. It cultivates discussion on specific subjects and attracts people who understand the subject really well. Authentic Society is about bringing people (strangers) together by common interests, not by their relationship to each other.

It's very similar to how forums work, except it is designed to give you instant access to discussion on your favorite subjects without having to go to different forums.

I'm not going to tell you what makes the experience on my website authentic. It's like asking Google to give you the design of their search algorithm.

If you wish to follow people based on your personal evaluation of what you believe an authentic source of information is, there are plenty of options out there like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If you want to meet people who actually know something about your favorite things, and have experience with and an actual understanding of them, then you will use Authentic Society. It's really more about interacting with others who get things that you get, and not about listening to a single source of information. On Authentic Society you follow ideas, not people.