A little funny haha....
Trust:
Trust:As an example of building trust, I went to an absolutely fabulous site called
http://www.greatboyfriends.com/ . Yes, you can find great girlfriends there too. I want to be all inclusive in my writing here folks.
What I like about this site is that you have to have a recommendation to participate (Of course looking is free). That's right darling...Name, Social Security Number, and a good reference from someone other than your mother. Hopefully someone other than your mother thinks you are special. There is a greater sense of trust on this dating site compared to others sites like Match.com where anyone can sign themselves up. Someone has to vouch for your fabulousness…and girls value the opinion of other girls, so all the more trustworthy. The level of self disclosure by both the recommended and recommender gives the impression of a more trustworthy profile. There is the assumption that there is more honesty and realism in these profiles because of the recommendation that comes along with it. Sure it’s easy to proclaim yourself as “Great” AND it’s even better if someone else seconds the motion.
I like that the recommender also has a short blip about who they are, so you get a sense of who the friend, cousin, sister is in addition to their recommendation. You also get to a quick peek inside this person’s life by getting a glimpse of who they associate with.
Social Capital:
For some the social capital experience, I went to http://www.linkedin.com/ and created a very pseudo profile. Fancy, eh? Linkedin give folks the ability to connect with people you might not meet in real life.
I have more to say, but my eye balls are dangling and my brain is sputtering…so I will gather the rest of my thoughts and report back.
Trust:As an example of building trust, I went to an absolutely fabulous site called
http://www.greatboyfriends.com/ . Yes, you can find great girlfriends there too. I want to be all inclusive in my writing here folks.
What I like about this site is that you have to have a recommendation to participate (Of course looking is free). That's right darling...Name, Social Security Number, and a good reference from someone other than your mother. Hopefully someone other than your mother thinks you are special. There is a greater sense of trust on this dating site compared to others sites like Match.com where anyone can sign themselves up. Someone has to vouch for your fabulousness…and girls value the opinion of other girls, so all the more trustworthy. The level of self disclosure by both the recommended and recommender gives the impression of a more trustworthy profile. There is the assumption that there is more honesty and realism in these profiles because of the recommendation that comes along with it. Sure it’s easy to proclaim yourself as “Great” AND it’s even better if someone else seconds the motion.
I like that the recommender also has a short blip about who they are, so you get a sense of who the friend, cousin, sister is in addition to their recommendation. You also get to a quick peek inside this person’s life by getting a glimpse of who they associate with.
Social Capital:
For some the social capital experience, I went to http://www.linkedin.com/ and created a very pseudo profile. Fancy, eh? Linkedin give folks the ability to connect with people you might not meet in real life.
I have more to say, but my eye balls are dangling and my brain is sputtering…so I will gather the rest of my thoughts and report back.
As for the final project…I’m still up in the air a bit. I’m contemplating comparing real life social structures and interaction to online group structures and interaction. The question would be: Are group structures and dynamics the same in online communities as they are in real life? I would go about comparing the two by gathering articles and books written on group structures and dynamics and then dissecting online groups to see if the interactions are the same.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteDo you have a particular "real-world" community you will study in order to compare? Do you think you will choose a focus and then find online and "real-world" communities that both have that focus? For example, how about a political party that has "real-world" meetings and an online forum? It should be interesting no matter what you choose.
It does seem that the dating community reflects Massa's trust matrix (54).I guess for this to work, the recommender has to be trusted by the community.How do we know the referral person is trustworthy? Is there a time limit involved regarding how long the recommender has been on site?
I really enjoy reading your posts, they are fun and engaging! I like the recommendation idea for building trust between users. There is a measure of social role and social capital in such a system. I also agree with stacy, that the trust factor is important not only in judging the individual 'boyfriend' or 'girlfriend' but also the recommender. Does the site have any other mechanisms for building trust and social capital between users? The possible roles on the site are intriguing...recommenders, posted persons, and those looking.... I look forward to reading more and totally empathize with the eye-ball/brain state!
ReplyDeleteWow, I've never seen a dating website with a rating system like greatboyfriends.com. How do users get these ratings and what mechanisms are put in place to ensure their accuracy? I would think anyone could get a great recommendation from a friend, so what sets a recommendation from my friend apart from some other guy's recommendation from his friend? What I'd like to see are evaluations from ex-girlfriends and bosses.
ReplyDeleteWhat aspects of group structures are you thinking about for your final project? I think that Stacy and Linnea bring up interesting points about that particular site related to trust. Have you thought about narrowing your topic to something like dating websites and referrals? I've been looking up some dating websites for the project, and I haven't seen many with a referral system and rating system quite like greatboyfriends.com.
I too have never heard of greatboyfriends.com and find the whole idea of recommending boyfriends or girlfriends fascinating. As you say, why just rely on information the person posts, isn’t it more credible to have recommendations from others? As everyone mentioned, we are assuming these are valid and accurate reviews. Oh, I guess that why it’s under the heading “building trust.” I like Mike’s request for recommendations from ex’s and bosses. Your final project topic is very interesting; almost as interesting as your post. I find that often the dynamics of online communities (those in which you know the members in real life) are pretty similar to real life communities. My friends that are most vocal and outgoing in real life are pretty much the same in their online personas. Perhaps you can also use some of your real life experiences in the online communities to supplement your research.
ReplyDeleteSSN??
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard of greatboyfriends.com either, but think it's such a smart idea! I'm thinking of friends I'm thinking of a bunch of friends I'd like to sign up...
As for a different angle to approach your topic, you could compare group structures and dynamics online vs. offline for different countries (ie. US, Japan, Korea). I suppose language could be a problem, though...
You know what greatboyfriends.com reminds me of? That part of the bumper to commercial on The Bachelor (shut up, it was coerced mother/daughter bonding time, ok?) where they tell you they're looking for the next Bachelor or Bachelorette, and if you'd like to nominate someone, head on over to abc.com (actually, isn't abc, like go.com or something. I don't know, you go to the show's website and praise the daylights out of your sister.). Hopefully abc puts in more effort to vet the eventual candidate than taking his friend's word for it. The whole recommend/trust link is what I liked about del.icio.us, although you had to establish your own way to judge people's trustworthiness to find links that you'd enjoy. Determining if you should trust Karl's recommendation on Lee being a great boyfriend seems to be the difficult part of the trust issues there.
ReplyDeleteWhich is actually an issue in real life, too...bringing me right round baby brings me back 'round to your research topic. I think there's something fascinating about group dynamics in general, and to see if people's roles changed at all once online would be interesting to see. How much do people change when they aren't looking anyone in the eye? (there was this...not good Kevin Bacon movie that came out approximately an epoch ago, Hollow Man, I think it was called? Anyway, one of the sound bites they played over and over in the commercials was him, as the psycho, invisible main character saying something along the lines of "it's amazing the things you can do when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror." ) I think keeping the communities comparable is a good idea--if you pick an online bridging comm and a real life bonding community, I think the results would be less definitive.
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ReplyDeleteWow, I like your example of greatboyfriends.com The steps to enter greatboyfriends.com sound really strict. I like the idea of submitting a reference, but I won't join if I am required to provide my personal information especially, SSN. Like Stacy said, I'm wondering how we know that recommendations are reliable.I'm not sure the profiles of the website are really trustworthy because there are so many fake profiles from other similar dating websites and I don't really believe my privacy can be protected online.
ReplyDeleteAs for the final project, I think your topic seems a little bit broad. Do you have more specific types of communities in your mind?