I took a look at WebJunction. I was familiar with the name, so I'm sure I've seen their course offerings before. It looks like a broad range of interesting topics, reasonably priced.
NING
Then I went to Ning. I didn't join, I just searched the list of groups.
I typed in harps and found a few small harp networks that looked promising. (Nothing in my area, alas!)
The search term perfume revealed that a lot of folks from outside the U.S. are interested in perfumery. This makes sense, since most of the finest perfumery ingredients originate overseas.
Then I typed in bengal cats. Lots of cat groups popped up--and the very first one was Bengal Cats Place. Their tagline is "Show us your bengals. We'll show you ours."
It's a group that exchanges photos of their bengal cats! I'll have to check this out further. I sat mesmerized by the slideshow for several minutes. I saw a cat that look just like Fudge Swirl!
Cooooooool.
THE LEMMINGS GATHER
Onward to Gather. I have to say, my first impression was not impressive.
Gather bills itself as "the leading social networking and media site for adults, with some of the highest quality user-generated content on the internet." How modest.
Apparently Gather is the place where all the NPR listeners hang out.
So I click on the link and wind up at Gather. I click on the "People" tab so that I can catch a glimpse of these intellectual giants in whose company I've been subtly nudged to feel awed.
Guess who's the first person I see?
Princess Spanky Pants. She wants me to "ping" her.
Wow. Great crowd. This is a party I really want to be at.
CAUTIONARY TALE
I call my son over to to the computer screen to instruct him on the dangers of attending parties, frequenting bars, and joining social networks.
Princess Spanky Pants and her creepy ilk are legion. My son's eyes widen as my message of parental toughlove sinks in: go to these places and this is who you are going to meet.
He gallops screaming from the room.
ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH
Okay. So now my mood is really crashed. I can't believe I'm being made to do this for work.
I return to Gather on the off-chance that my experience there so far has been an unfortunate anomaly. No such luck.
I click on the Groups tab, revealing that Gather has groups on money, pets, food, friends, love, life, republicans [sic], freebies, children, games, and I'm not yet seeing the difference between Gather and any other social network.
It's mass inanity as far as the eye can see.
NOT GETTING THE SPIN
Gather's homepage proclaims "Real people, real lives, and real conversation make Gather special" and "Keep up with the people, conversations, and moments that matter" and "Avoid the noise of other sites."
I confess I do not see this. The subject matter and participants all look terribly mundane, ho-hum, and unexceptional. A lot of slick ads for SAM-e and Neutrogena.
What am I missing here? Could it be that the emperor actually has no clothes?
WHAT OWNING CATS TEACHES US
I'm tempted to dig deeper, thinking Gather can't possibly be what it appears to be: an average, run-of-the-mill social networking site that wants to appeal to average, run-of-the-mill people who would simply prefer to think of themselves as somehow out of the ordinary.
Tempted--but then I think of what always happens when I'm cleaning out the cats' litter box and decide to dig deeper because I have this vague feeling that I haven't found it all.
The horror is, I'm usually right. There's almost always more to it than I originally thought.
I'M OUT OF HERE
I've had enough of Gather. Every hair on my hide is standing on end.
I return to the NEFLIN's 23 Things blog determined to proceed with my phaser set to stun.
I feel like I'm trapped in one of those original Star Trek episodes where a gelatinous blob that smells like honey could ooze from behind an alien rock formation at any moment and suck the electrolytes from an unsuspecting crewmember with its hideous tentacles.
The name of this Star Trek episode is "Thing #19."
Social networks are for extroverts with time on their hands. I swear to the god of unicorns, I have never been that lonely, desperate, and / or bored.
THE HORROR BUILDS
Now I'm supposed to read some articles. Grumpily, I proceed.
Reading the three-year-old Publisher's Weekly article on Gather depresses me even further. So gather isn't a spontaneous creation at all, the serendipitous brainchild of lonely extroverts.
It's a cynical construct of National Public Radio and the U.S. publishing industry, in bed together and looking for "traction." I'm gagging.
I actually listen to NPR fairly regularly, work in a library, read books and have on occasion been known to write them. Call me naive, but I never until this moment quite realized I was actually part of an evil Borg conspiracy to manipulate the hearts and minds of innocent literati.
Thanks for shattering my illusions, Thing #19. Now I've got little round sucker-marks all over my body and feel like I could drink about a case of Pedialyte.
GOING TO MY HAPPY PLACE
The article entitled Building a Social Networking Environment at the Library seemed right on target. I agree. Providing library patrons with multiple social networking opportunities is the way to reach out to patrons who have drifted away, gather new patrons into the fold, and retain our loyal core.
I checked out Pierce County Library's site and found it fully featured, with lots of great content--if a bit rectangular and compartmentalized. Perhaps our eBranch manager could tactfully refer them to Big Media, the outfit that just redesigned ACLD's website? We're curvier.
See? I drank my Pedialyte and I calmed down.
WHAT NEXT?
Wait--now I have to join a social network? It's the next assignment??? Augh! Make it stop!! Noooooooooooooooooooo!!!
Mind spinning. World reeling. . . . Blacking . . . out. . . .
AFTER I DECLINED TRANSPORTATION TO THE HOSPITAL FOR OBSERVATION
I joined GoodReads. Nobody in my Department or on my Facebook friends list belongs, so I haven't added any friends yet, but will keep trying.
I did add to my bookshelf three books I highly recommend: all three volumes in Ursula K. LeGuin's Annals of the Western Shore series. Their titles are Gifts, Voices, and Powers.
I joined several groups: Fantasy Book Group, Folklore & Fairytales, SciFi and Fantasy Book Club, I Love Young Adult Books, Children's Books, and Kid / Teen Literature to Film.
I asked for the group discussions to come to me in a weekly digest. This is similar to the way in which I used to subscribe to a harp discussion group through the now-defunct, text-only Alachua Freenet.
I am calm. I am breathing into a paper bag. It will be okay.
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