I've been in the "internets" industry for over a year now, so I feel that it's safe enough for me to rant. I won't be ranting on my own employers (I'm not that stupid), but I will rant on other internet companies who are trying to make a fast buck while putting crap on the internet. Here goes:
I've done tons of research into the whole social networking scene and have found some pretty cool niche sites out there. Niche is where the net is going, by the way. You can find a social network for just about anything. In fact, the more general your site is, the less traffic you'll get. Tekkies are projecting a downward turn for MySpace and Facebook this year. I think they'll still be huge, but more people will be turning to smaller niche networks as well.
One of those groups that companies are hitting on are Christians. Marketers and advertisers have realized in the last 10 years that the Christian market is a big money maker. Unfortunately, this has led many non Christians to make inferior products (toys, games, clothes, MUSIC) and peddle them off to the Christian market to make money. All in the name of Christ. The social network market is no different. There are some genuine Christians trying to make genuine faith networks out there, but there are also some shady characters just trying to make money.
Sites like Godkut.com and FaithBase.com are two examples of companies trying to get money out of Christians. The company that makes FaithBase also makes Glee.com, a social network for homosexuals. They also have three other networks for ethnic groups. I'm not coming down on them for doing business with homosexuals, but they are not being upfront and honest with their clientele on their site. They don't tell the Christians about their "other" sites, and I don't think most Christians would support them if they knew.
In short, the internet is full of hucksters and charlatans promoting themselves as the "saviors" of the internet for people of faith. If you go on their sites, look at the fine print at the bottom of the home page and find out who their sponsors are. Find out the other sites and companies they promote and develop. If you're a member of FaithBase, drop them like a bad habit. They're not Christians and they don't care about you or your faith.
OK, that's my Industry Rant for the day. Thanks.
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5 comments:
Hey there. I'm someone that actually works at CCI, the company that runs Faithbase, and I thought you made an interesting comment there.
I'm not sure why we're "not being honest and upfront" about what we're doing - on the footer of every page, it says we (CCI) run the site, and if you click through that link, it says right on the front of our corporate homepage that we run GLEE.
Short of having a disclaimer "Hey, we run a gay/lesbian oriented site!" pop up when you register, I'm not sure how much more upfront we could be. We've never hidden what we do or what our sites are; ironically, at the time I'm posting this our corporate site still hasn't been updated to point to Faithbase yet, so if anything it's actually the reverse that's true.
I can't speak for everyone here, but from my perspective the choice to launch Faithbase was completely in good faith (no pun intended), and I say that as a straight Christian. The point of our sites is inclusion, not exclusion.
my point was that in my study of social networks, its become obvious which sites are designed for that specific market and which are cookie cutter look alikes. yours falls into the latter category. it looks just like the other sites you've developed and communicates (to me) that you've put no thought or originality into faithbase. this leads me to believe that someone at your company conceived the idea not to serve the Christian market but to take advantage of it.
So what you're saying, then, is that the medium is what counts, and not the message? Bibles use the same printing technologies that casual magazines do, too, and that doesn't make the words in them less valid.
There are two sides to our company and our sites. There's the technology aspect - where we build software. Then there's the editorial side, which directs and shapes each site to fit the audience.
If you think the editorial side is weak, hopefully over time we can change your opinion. But judging the site because we reuse software rather than wasting money building custom software for each site just doesn't make sense.
We're a for-profit company, and have never denied it. Having said that, though, we're a for-profit company that tries its best to bring something useful and interesting to its users. Our sites are free, and if users don't think they're providing enough value to offset the ads, then they'll leave to go elsewhere.
Again, I can't vouch for anyone else, but the reason I joined CCI was because it was the first time I had found a company to work for that genuinely cared about its userbase and genuinely wanted to bring them something worthwhile. I know I'm not the only one.
"So what you're saying, then, is that the medium is what counts, and not the message"
that's exactly my point. you have no message on your site, nor have you attempted one. you have copied what you've done on other sites and slapped a christian label on it. does that make it a christian social network? hardly.
Ok, just one last quick note before I leave you alone lest I drive you completely crazy.
Social networks, inherently, are about the people using them and the content they look at there. Our editorial people shape the feel of the site, post news articles, do interviews, etc. and make sure that the site itself is focused on that community. The people itself are what make it a Christian site - and, well, so far people have been pretty happy with it. We've gotten a lot of really positive feedback from users who like what we've given them.
I'm gathering that it doesn't please you, and I'm sorry to hear that, but ultimately, we're doing the best we can, and users can vote with their feet. We're getting good feedback and growing pretty quickly, so I'm going to venture that most people don't agree with you.
Anyways, g'luck with things, I'll stop bugging you now.
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