Start a "Nose Hair" Group at BlogCatalog
September 21st, 2007 Posted by ChanyaBlogCatalog, a popular social networking site, is adding a new feature: Groups. Groups lets you set up free discussion forums, hosted on their site, about different topics of interest. Although it’s still in beta, I thought I’d share with you some of the more “interesting” groups that have already been created. These groups were created by a special group of beta testers, invited exclusively by BlogCatalog. Thus far they’ve created 63 groups.The usual suspects are there of course - this might be a good group to join:
And this guy, Thomas Laupstad, is a kick-butt photographer. I’ve visited his site many times. He takes breathtaking photos. I’m glad to see that he started a group on photography. Check out his work here at Photos From Northern Norway. Here’s the profile information for his BlogCatalog group:
However the next two groups represent quite a bit of overlap. Remember, there are only 63 groups available thus far. The fact that two of them are devoted to the same topic makes me think BlogCatalog doesn’t plan to moderate the creation of groups:
If the product goes live without some sort of screening process they could end up with several inappropriate or “off topic” groups. Consider Exhibits A and B below:
So where’s the group on string cheese? Or lettuce? By the way, don’t take those ideas, they’re mine.
However, having said that, the group below sounds interesting. Maybe they can explain last night’s dream in which I was racing a large Irish Wolfhound down a neighborhood street on foot. When I turned away and looked back, the dog had turned into a horse. With polka-dot skin. Brad Pitt was in the saddle.
But alas, the Mac Daddy of all groups, the one with the most members, is this one:
Yes, that’s right. At a social networking site chock-full of bloggers promoting their websites the most popular group is the one containing the tag line “Group hug anyone?” I love it.
UPDATE: BlogCatalog read this post and wrote a comment. Here’s what they said:
“There’s no such thing as an off-topic group. We don’t plan on moderating the groups too strictly aside from pruning out any old or inactive groups. ”
2nd UPDATE: Since a couple of folks have taken exception to the term “off-topic” I thought I’d provide some clarity. Here’s the original sentence re-written with replacement words:
“If the product goes live without some sort of screening process they could end up with several inappropriate or “off topic” trivial, useless, or pointless groups.”
I simply think some oversight is warranted. That’s all. On the bright side, at least they read my post!
Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 8:18 am and is filed under blog humor, blog tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Theres no such thing as an off-topic group. We don’t plan on moderating the groups too strictly aside from pruning out any old or inactive groups.
A feature they copied from Bumpzee cool. I hope someday that they add features that make them just unique.
Very funny and so true!
This has a different feel than Bumpzee. For starters, the “groups” are much more active than Bumpzee’s ‘communities”. Also, people who create the groups can moderate the forums associated with them.
As far as off-topic groups go, what’s that? The pizza group is a silly thing started by some of the BC members themselves. Why not? You can join the ones you like and ignore the rest. You don’t even have to see their discussions. What is off-topic? Not everyone is there to talk about blogging only.
Correction: I meant to say the pizza group was started by some people in BC admin.
ms:
Didn’t know the BC members created the pizza group but it sort of supports my point: I can create a group called “I Love Pizza.” You can create a group called “Pizza is Great.” My comment simply alluded to the potential devaluing of the feature if left unchecked. I actually think it will be a nice addition to BC; I just think some oversight is warranted.
Thanks for the comment.
I’m torn on this one. On the one hand I understand the need to let BlogCatalog users create any group they want but I also see what you’re saying about groups getting out of hand. One can only hope the subscribers will be responsible.
By the way, I love the title of this post!