TTC as a social networking site?

[Relent<]

The forum format is slowly but surely becoming obsolete, as is evident by the fact that there are so many social networks popping up, and so little activity on most forums.
But if TTC were to reformat into something more like a social media site, what could we as constituents stand to gain? What could we stand to lose?

Benefits of this might include:
A) Optimized browsing--
No more sifting through endless pages of content that may not personally interest you. Instead, by "watching" or "following" or "friending" certain users, you could narrow your scope of the site to only those persons who post things that do interest you. Producers would still be able to put up new clips and photos, but by subscribing to them, you wouldn't have to go search for producers you like, and sift through the pages upon pages of uninteresting content. Some discreet form of update notification would be sent to you, or blink at the top of your page, and you could just open the page directly.
B) Community building--
Rather than floating in a virtually boundless space, your interactions on the site would be narrowed to those you knew or wanted to know more (or less) personally. It would be more like walking the familiar social circles you establish in day-to-day life rather than searching for familiar faces at a conference. And what's even better: We all know someone on the boards that annoys us. By not subscribing to them, we don't have to talk to them. Ever. We don't even have to hear from them, unless they're able somehow to post on someone's page we happen to frequent, and if that person's as annoying to them as they are to you, those interactions will even become limited. Specified demographic information like "people in this area" or "people with these interest" or "people who are friends/ followers/ watchers of this person" could be used to expand social circles within the site itself, thereby enriching the community experience.

Disadvantages?
Social Networks are Usually RETARDED--
Well...I'll be the first to say that sites like Facebook and Twitter annoy me, but that's only because they're comprised of a bunch of people talking about themselves, who may or may not have anything in common. The benefit of doing this sort of micro-social network is that we come here with a unified interest (more or less, with some personal eccentricities and deviations), and on occasion something to actually contribute. No one's going to friend/watch/follow the guy that only posts "I had a sandwich for lunch. Epi-i-ic" and as someone who doesn't know the individual personally, we're under no obligation to subscribe to them.
Browsibility--
It is sort of nice to have everything organized in such a way that its only a search bar query from our fingertips, and I don't know for certain how specific information could be located in a social media formatted site, because I don't honestly use one. Clarification here would be appreciated. But I don't imagine that a set of key words for individual post would be much different from searching for keywords within individual threads. Secondly, If you're looking for something that specifically video, or jpeg, or a story, I'm not sure how that would be discerned from other posts containing similar keywords in different media.
Change--
Most people don't like to change things. There would inevitably be some group of people who would be upset by the new format. I'm sure they'd have their more specific reasons, but it comes down to it being different, and them not liking it.

So in light of this spiel, what are some of your thoughts? A tickle-centric social network sounds like a good idea in theory, but I'm sure I could be overlooking some things, like cost, administrative controls, etc. I know it doesn't matter one way or the other, but I'd love to hear you guys' feedback on this idea.

 

[sevenduster]

Cost is probably about the same amount as running a forum, it might be harder to develop the gui and webpages, especially for it not to look like something the 90's threw up. Admin controls, well, I wouldn't know too much about that one, but for such a niche group i'm certain we can find a few notable users to run things. Change, well, give it a good tutorial and you'll be fine. These micro social networks are quite common, LGBT-specific ones are the most common, but other fandoms have set up things like facebook and twitter.

 

[Violetta]

Given that the great majority of people who register here do absolutely nothing but look at stuff and never say a word in the years that they remain "active," it seems that a social environment wouldn't get anymore traction than a forum.

And if TT were a social networking site I'd just walk. I'd rather have a slow forum than a worthless Facebook knock-off.

 

[Relent<]

Given that the great majority of people who register here do absolutely nothing but look at stuff and never say a word in the years that they remain "active," it seems that a social environment wouldn't get anymore traction than a forum.

And if TT were a social networking site I'd just walk. I'd rather have a slow forum than a worthless Facebook knock-off.

So while it poses absolutely no difference overall, the fact that it resembles something else would make you so annoyed that you'd quit the community altogether?

@Sevenduster- Yeah, I've seen a few different small social networks that have sprung up for all manner of things instead of forums. Rooster Teeth does one, for example (i.e. The red vs. blue guys).

As for another perk that's occurred to me in light of Violetta's comment, the lurking population would probably be least effected of all by these changes. But then I think of what the site's chat funtion could be. Rather than some buggy chatroom where no one talks most of the time anyway, chats could be refined into something either very open--depending on the number of people you've approved as contacts/friends/whatever--or very clique-y--by which I mean you could essentially mute all of the people you didn't want to talk to. Think of it: no more creepy dudes asking you "a/s/l?"; no more walking into chats where the rooms have 20 people, and no one's saying a word. No more psychopaths commenting on your comments, if you've decided to block them or otherwise remove them from the approved contacts/ friends whatever.

I'm not saying we have to go full Zuckerberg here and have "timelines" or whatever; I'm not saying this is a substitute for Facebook or whatever social media people already use. I just think it could be beneficial to assimilate some of these modern attributes.

 

[Violetta]

So while it poses absolutely no difference overall, the fact that it resembles something else would make you so annoyed that you'd quit the community altogether?

Yes, and no. Yes, it would annoy me into leaving TT, but no, it wouldn't pose absolutely no difference. It would pose a huge difference.

A forum deemphasizes the individual user. Members have the ability to freely create threads that any other member is then able to contribute to, and all of these threads are right there for anyone to find and add to.

But a social network places the user at the center of everything. You wouldn't be able to start a decent conversation unless you're popular enough to have enough people following you to know that it's there.

That's the fundamental flaw with "social" that I see. I guess the forums that worked just fine for years weren't enough of a popularity contest, so they had to be replaced with a frantic race to acquire "friends" who toooootally care what you ate for lunch. I wouldn't be annoyed that it "resembles something else." I'd be frustrated that it would become an honestly inferior system for interacting with people.

 

[Critical Kai]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umDr0mPuyQc

EDIT: I've already seen something like this happen within the community. Spoiler: It didn't work.

Basically, I agree with everything Vi says and I can't really add much more.

Don't try to fix what isn't broken.

 

[Relent<]

It all comes down to what settings you have as a user. If anyone and everyone has access to your page, it doesn't matter how popular you are; With all of the users here, and so few of them actually contributing anything, there could easily be a sort of front page for "new post". There could even be an "up/down-voting" system that would slowly but surely filter out all of the comments that contribute nothing to the conversation at hand--or if a conversational topic comes up so many times that it becomes trite, irrelevant, or otherwise a waste of enough people's time, it could be moved toward the back of the bus same as any unpopular thread in the current format. It would still exist. You could still say anything. You and whoever chooses/ you allow to comment on whatever statement you've made can have a decent back and forth until eventually the conversation dies.
How many threads are comprised of the original post, and then...nothing? I don't see it as being any different.

The thing I can attribute most to the disdain of this system is the assumption that you've used facebook first, and as such have been dismayed by the experience. While an endlessly growing large group of random individuals might be too stupid to put into one place, our numbers would be infinitely more finite and the users would be 18+ (or at least pretending to be) which would hopefully limit the amount of interpersonal "drama."

I have personally never had a facebook, or a twitter, or any of that crap. And no one's saying that the forum format would have to die completely--why not have both? It could be something as simple as a reformatting of individual user pages. Ultimately, it would depend on how you chose to use the site as a whole.

Incidentally, define broken: Not functioning? Wholly dead? I consider broken to be anything that may not be completely decimated, but could be improved or repaired. Like the shopping cart with a funny wheel. Sure, it rolls along with that awful screech, and you can still put as much crap in it as you'd like, but what if someone took the time to just fix the wheel?

 

[Critical Kai]

Why are you over-thinking this?

This forums format - for all intents and purposes of its design, for everything it is used for -'Works'. And there is no reason to change it if it does.

 

[Relent<]

I'm not "over-thinking," I'm just examining more than one dimension of an idea.

 

[Tom Tickle]

Nah.