After much debate and much snooping over my partners shoulder, I?ve decided to accept her invitation to Orkut.
Despite my Sneetches rant from the other day, I still feel a bit weird about being in something that is ?invite only.? But after seeing some of the other people in there, I realised that exclusive is not a word I?d use to describe it.
What really got me were the Communities. I thought Orkut was simply going to be a database of people like LinkedIn (which I haven?t really explored either) or Friendster. But I was wrong. In addition to profiles, friends, etc there are forums that are open to discussion. Now that I can get interested it.
Right now, it seems that everybody is leaving their A material for their blogs. Some communities have 65 members and only one topic thread. Hopefully some interesting debate will be created (I know things in the Tron forum are really heating up!)
So, it is with a bit of humility that I step off my soapbox and into the world of Orkut. I?m on the 30-day trial version, so we?ll see where it goes. So far I?m impressed with the topics but not with the calibre of conversation. If it doesn?t pick up, I think I?ll drop out and buy a cat.