What attracts you to social networking sites and what features are still missing?

What motivates and attracts you most in social networking sites?


What kind of technological features are still missing?

What attracts you to social networking sites and what features are still missing?
You need to be unique or you are "just another one of those network sites".





Most people are attracted to a social networking site by referral from a friend, or they are looking for someone who hasn't been heard from. Social sites are not new so if someone invites me to a new one I usually just reply with the URL of my old one, without even visiting the site.





There is seldom anything unique or even different. If it requires a long registration then forget it. For security though, I do like the practice of some sites requiring that everyone phone or SMS a message in. Non-verified people should be restricted, but allowed to see how the site works. I also like the old Tribal Voice program where you could absolutely suspend, and ban Spammers and Stalkers.





More features are still missing, than exist today. What has been added in the last 10 years? Honestly, look at what the old Firefly network offered back in the early 1990's. You could use html tags, chat worked in a browser, and all private messages were saved in an archive, so you had an option to save on the web or to your desktop. Even the avatars that Yahoo are using now were already available 10 years ago.





Single people want to see actual, recent, photographs though. In the singles market you only need to market to the females, as the males will follow.





I am sure that you will get a lot of good suggestions here, but if you really don't know how much of a market you are missing here then I am not going to tell you for free.





Just look at the success or failures of such sites as:





myspace.com


classmates.com


friendster.com


tickle.com


belief.net


sherdog.com


ancestry.com


match.com


lonelyplanet.com





--and then get back to us about how your service is going to be any different and why it is even worth taking the time to fill out yet another registration, learn a new system, etc. The desire for social networking online is fast declining due to trolling, stalkers, and misrepresentation. Anyone who is going to operate this type of business better take a serious interest in security.





I am a businessman and an artist who would love to connect with other people who are genuinely looking to work on projects together. We used to do this 15 years ago and because so many qualified people were able to contribute, we could complete a 6 month project in 2-3 days. I would be interested in a site that could just use a solid verification process, and even a live customer support department with a feedback meter like they use on EBay. Security is the main deterrent to the explosion of E-commerce. I would even be interested in paying for such a service after a trial period to see if it was what it promised. We have learned to believe very little of what we read on the Internet.





We use the Internet as a tool for communication but we do not allow anyone who we haven't met into our circles. We did 15 years ago when most people had their name, address, and phone number on their page or profile. That was safe at that time. Now it isn't.
Reply:After reviewing all the answers the consensus seems to be that the most important issues in a Social Networking Site are: functionality, security, and progressive improvements that adjust to the wants and needs of the members. Report It

Reply:The topics are what attracts me. That and if my friends are logged on to that site.
Reply:I wish facebook had real IM'ing to keep connected to my friends in one site rather than having to open messenger and facebook at the same time.
Reply:for me it is away to keep intouch with freinds and family when because i am alwayse so far away from home i am military and life half way around the world plus i have found some new and old freinds i dont make freinds to easily and places like myspace help me alot
Reply:I want to see a place like Yahoo Answers, but one where you can play Avatar Games and chat with each other.
Reply:myspace is good..





BUT SOMETIMES THE PROGRAMERS SUCK!
Reply:I am attracted to the sites because they are an excellent way to keep in touch with friends who live far away. After college, I moved to a different town 2 hours away, and sites like myspace and facebook have helped me keep in touch with the friends I made in college.


I wish myspace could get rid of all the spammers, if they could come up with some kind of feature to automatically detect who was collecting people's passwords and delete their accounts, that would be great!! I get tired of always having to change my password because of spammers!
Reply:um what attracts..pretty much all the things on myspace...a profile that you can express who you are, pictures of yourself, songs, comments, messaging, instant messaging, and all that stuff.





stuff that needs work or i hate...is tops, i hate them because people fight over whos where on your top and I hate bullitens I mean there cool and everything but some of the things people post is wierd...What needs to change is your privacy and safety..youll get freind requests from people you dont even know and safety because alot of people put pics of them naked or in there underwear or something..
Reply:Not me, not into that...just like to yap in here...LOL
Reply:I like Social Networking sites because they give you the ability to stay in touch with anyone in the world on 1 website. I would like to see these sites give their users a blank customizable web page.
Reply:Well they all have something that's keep coming back. I love the way Face Book has security features for a user to use in order to protect their account. My Space is a little too open to viruses and other unwanted attacks. Face Book is now starting to get on the ball with the profile customization game. Something MySpace and BlackPlanet has done pretty much it seems like since the beginning. Overall, I like all three, but I had to get rid of Black Planet due to personal issues, I don't use My Space because all my friends on there use Face Book or Yahoo and it's makes no sense to log into three or four different accounts to talk to the same people. Face Book is getting better, but it's starting to allow too much which in turn will eventually make it into something like MySpace.
Reply:Many of them are missing standards compliant code with good id/class attributes to hook the CSS onto.
Reply:i used to love myspace but for the past 8 months or so i've been HOOKED on facebook.. honestly, im a rat. and i know that everyone else out there is too :p by that, i mean be nosey and see whats going on in my friends lives .. like wall to walls on facebook, or seeing who theyve added etc. ahha i know it sound s stupid but ratting is pretty addictive .. and its not creepy because EVERYONE does it / its not on random people, its your friends haha.


anyway, go to facebook and you'll see the jist of it
Reply:What attracts me initially is that it will be way easier to connect to all my friends. Like on Facebook, it's easy to see what all your friends are doing and get updates. It's easier to plan stuff with them that way too. The more interactive the better. I'm also interested in getting to know people with the same interests as me. Its easy to find them on a social networking group.





The features that are missing are SAFETY features and CHOICES, which is why I'm not on any social networking site. I personally find it creepy that Facebook doesn't let you delete your own account or that Myspace is a sexual predator's dream come true.
Reply:Social Networking SItes are good places to keep in touch with Friends ;especially those whom we don't normally meet for days or even months.These sites also provide a forum to discuss or ask a number of topics ranging from Sports,Languages to Science %26amp; technology or even Politics and News.Yahoo Answers and Mylot.com fall in this category.Then there is Myspace.com where one can check out on a number of Albums or Videos .


Orkut and like forums provide Instant Communication with Friends (both Real and Online.) .


The features which I like these sites to add are :


1) Provide a user the facility of restricting the number of people who can send a Friend Request because as of now we receive too many friends' requests on these forums.


2) More security - I have heard tales of Individual Pictures being misused.That is why people are afraid of putting their own pictures many times .
Reply:It's an excuse to post up a photo of yourself in a way that doesn't seem overly self-centered.





I like the idea of something meant solely to increase a person's amount of socializing...





What I think they could use is more music... LOL.
Reply:Real life? Idiot.
Reply:what attracts me to social networking sites is it is another way to stay in touch with friends and family. they offer a way to meet people and find out information. what better way to find out about a company or location than to ask someone who works or lives there.





if two sites are similar i would choose the place that has similar values and goals to my own. if i want to stay in touch with certain friends and they are only on one website then i might consider joining that one. whereas if i want to meet people then i am more willing to try a site my friends are not on.





there need to be better safeguards for privacy and safety. some information in someone's profile would be difficult to confirm but other things would not be as hard. in addition, some information is not as relevant and does not matter as much if a person exagerates to make themselves sound better. age is a key area minors are often able to get into content that may be age inappropriate. they can put themselves at risk for being targeted. granted parents need to know what their children are doing, but many sites have insufficient safegards to keep children safe. even adults are not always safe because social networking sites do not use the available technology and try to make safety a priority.





profiles can be personalized, but only to an extent. some questions only allow for certain answers but do not allow people to type their own more appropriate answer or skip the question.





most sites allow you to personalize your profile, send email, chat, send instant messages, save profiles/ make a list of friends. sites that do not have all the "usual" features would benefit from adding them.
Reply:Yahoo Answers is pretty good. Myspace is my favorite but like everyone is saying it has become over-run by trolls, weirdos, and spammers.





If you are talking about personal sites for singles, then I am not interested. I already have friends and don't have a problem getting dates. If you are talking about interactive sites like this one then thats ok. Just figure out how to limit one account per person.





Most of us are also turned off by Top Contributors and Top Ten list. It only makes the trolling and cheating worse. That is why I don't stay active on these sites. I just don't have time for the crap.
Reply:i want help of poor %26amp; i want leran abut sciences
Reply:I like meeting new people. I love Myspace. You meet new people. You can add your favorite songs, customize your profile, and just describe what you like, what you don't like. I hate it when people send chain letters though. They're everywhere like Youtube, Myspace, Yahoo Answers sometimes,and just everywhere!
Reply:I like using them because I can keep up with friends (as long as they keep their profiles up to date). It's also a good way to catch up with people I haven't talked to in awhile and keep up with bands I like (on Myspace). I like on Facebook that they tell you whose profiles have recently been updated so you know whose to look at if you want the latest news. I also like the applications that Facebook added. It's more stuff to keep you amused and keep you coming back. I like Myspace's customization options better since you can do all sorts of things to your page layout that you cannot do on Facebook.
Reply:The fact that I can link up with my friends without the hassles of email or phone calls.





We need more technology guarding against child predators. The last thing I need is my son to get buttraped by a gay pedophile.
Reply:What's missing is the social site that isn't harvesting your information to sell to advertisers. They should just charge to be on there, and have no ads whatsoever. If you can't support the site without selling out, then it's really not geared towards the users, but towards the advertisers as the revenue stream. The users' requests and needs end up taking a back seat to whomever advertiser is paying the most. Facebook has a clean interface but it still sells you out with saturated product placements/advertisements.
Reply:A critical mass of people I know combined with some unique features would pull me towards a new site. I currently use orkut and see no complling reason to migrate out of it, since all my friends are already here.
Reply:I wonder if we have enough local online groups to make local friends that we might actually spend face to face time with? If we had local online would we say all the things we say if we think they are total strangers and we might never see them again if we didn't mean what we said or we didn't like them?





I think that everyone is so busy, and the mass has people connected for reasons that keep them in and out of certain groups in many cases so it is the same old same old. So this keeps us engaged in mental activity and disengaged in physical activities, but I wonder if that is best or even good for us in some ways?





I get bored and wonder if others get bored as well, and yet I always seem to come back? I don't have the latest in technology so can't get into everyone of the latest sites, I think there are some that might be pretty good that I can't even reach.





Do we all actually realize that there are people on the other side of the screens typing in what is in their minds, it is not just a keyboard and a screen, these people have thoughts, emotions, needs, and wants too and they may be very different then they let on like and / or different then our own. Who helps them to get their real needs met if this is just computers and not hard bodies? It is confusing at points.





How are we going to make it work for all of us and if we spend to much time then they say something is wrong with that and if not enough something is wrong with that, let me ask who makes the determination for others what is enough or what is too much and why? Who has the right to do that?
Reply:the best thing about the networking sites are the ability to meet old/ longlost friends.
Reply:I agree with the first post you got. Too much HTML gives really long, annoying load times from people who don't realize how annoying it is to wait for them to load all their dumb videos. Facebook has done a good job stopping that, and the adds. I just wish they didn't give you all those updates about what your friends were doing. It's kind of creepy.
Reply:If I were college age, I certainly would have both myspace and facebook; but now, I am way too busy for that. I will be putting up advertising sites for my videos and other stuff, but that's just to get 'presence' and not really go into it on a daily basis.





Technologically missing? It's too easy for abusers, flamers, and other obnoxious unfriendly people to get on the sites (including Yahoo! Answers). You can delete and block but they just come back under another name...





Too bad there isn't an Internet etiquette course you need to pass (and I don't mean just agreeing to the "Terms and Conditions"). Once you pass the course, you get an assigned ID which can only be associated with one e-mail. That should bring civility back...





Mind you, I am not against well thought out arguments. I am against people who resort to name calling and or other put-downs as opposed to giving a succinct argument with data backing up any claims and counter-claims.
Reply:The best thing about social networking sites is the ability to re-connect with old friends while meeting new ones. It's also a good way to find out about people that you are newly aquitanited with.





The most important technological feature that is missing is the quality control of these sites. There is way too much spammers and fakers on these sites. If only there were a way to limit one account per person... but that'd be too costly.
Reply:I like the ones that give you a chance to rate pictures and profiles. When you do you can earn points toward prizes. I don't like a boring site.