Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Keeping out the Social Networking Peasantry

The New York Times' tech article "The Gated Social Network" discusses the trend that new social networking sites are designed to keep the layperson out, and only allow certain applicants access to their network. The article features a modeling social site that accepts you based on appearance and the "Diamond Lounge," that will only accept celebrities and other such A-Listers.

I suppose that everyone likes belonging to an exclusive club, so it makes sense that you should be able to gloat about such a thing online. I guess that's how you know you're "in" with the cool kids, and it's a sign of the times to see such invites being extended to hard-working bloggers.

If anyone has any further examples, I would love to hear about them. We always talk about social media and web 2.0 as an open door for the average joe to start up and make a difference. But what if we're not invited?

9/20: Update:
Sign up on inviteshare.com to get sent invitations to betas and invite-only sites! I received an invitation in a few hours to join the beta invite-only Yahoo! Mash, so look me up if you get an invite too. Fight the Power!

2 comments:

kassie! said...

That modeling social site is interesting. They say they're assisting and catering to fit models needs and lifestyle. My question is - why do they need to do that over the internet? They have managers, publicists, and agencies for that. So dumb. lol

Megan said...

Well, I suppose it's one way for models to stay in touch with each other. From the agency side, I imagine it's a good way for a model's agency to keep track of what the model is saying and doing on the site while also keeping "the public" from flanking a famous model's page, mucking it up with comments saying "omg i luv you ur so hott!!!"