In The Tribe Again: Further Thoughs

I’m pleased with my decision to get back on Tribe.net from an information-gathering perspective: I’ve gotten lots of good Atkins advice, music reccomendations, and other generally provocative info. The interface and performance of the site has improved dramatically since I was last on, and barring omissions like RSS feeds of discussions and expiring old/unused tribes (I’ve suggested both in the Tribe Ideas tribe to much agreement) the system works great.

The people are still broken, though. I have to forcibly stop myself from looking at most people’s profiles, searching for people, following links from one person to another, and so forth. If I see another person with “sex” or “kissing” or “women/girls/men/boys” listed in their Interests I’m going to start breaking virtual heads. The site still does nothing to keep people from being themselves (read: assholes), and I see that as a major flaw. Sarcasm? Uh, sure.

The reality is that these sites are going to attract basically six kinds of people:

1. People who can’t meet people in meatspace because of serious issues.
2. People who don’t want to meet people in meatspace, just catalog virtual friends.
3. People who want to catalog their meatspace friends virtually to remind themselves how many friends they have.
4. People with alternative lifestyles and apparently no other hobbies or interests who want to catalog other people sharing their lifestyle.
5. People out for casual sex.
6. People out to be disruptive jerks in cyberspace because they’ll get the hell beaten out of them in meatspace, and rightly so.

Sure, I’m hamming it up a bit, but online communities definitely attract some jerks, and some communities or types of communities more than others. Social networking sites seem to be industrial strength asshat magnets.

That makes it tough for the rest of us. I feel like I’m being a good Tribe “citizen”:

1. I keep my profile informative and comma-delineated, as requested, for easy searching;
2. I only join tribes for actual things I’m actually into that I can actually contribute to;
3. I don’t start or join bullshit tribes (“*!!!” alt="" />* super nuclear monkey knifefights lol**!!" alt="" />!");
4. I’ve posted a genuine event in the apropos tribe and offered to meet random new Tribes’ers at said event;
5. My discussion posts are in the right thread or sub-thread…

Alright, I’m reaching with that last one. Still, one gets the sense looking around Tribe that it’s like Singapore taken over by anarchists (not cool Sex Pistols ones, either): a rule-bound domain that once worked exceedingly well due to its restrictive nature, now derelict with free-riders, idiots, and prostitutes. I just want to use the system for what it’s intended: meeting new people, doing new things, finding out new information, and maybe selling a couch.

Having long since given up on online dating sites, I’m hoping to use Tribe to make new just-friends and get out. My one ray of hope to this end is the product of a search for my school, UMBC. Amidst the usual slag of bullshit profiles and bullshit people (“Occupation: professional system fucker-upper”, “Here for: yr boyfriend!!! lol rofl!!”) I found one seemingly nice person and wrote him/her for advice on what to do in and around Baltimore, since I intend to spend less time fleeing to DC this coming semester. This personal actually wrote me back with some suggestions and even a casual, passing invitation to hang out. So for all my bitching, the system can work.

Just rarely.