Week 6; Entry 3: Gather

Gather was founded by Tom Gerace in 2005, and is a general social-networking site.
Communication – 4 Stars
This site allows users to converse via the comment section or a profile inbox. You are also able to join or create your own groups top converse with others, and within those groups create forums.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3.5 Stars
To create a profile on Gather, you go to the home page and enter your name, email address, username, and password. You must then verify your email address, so the site loses points for an unnecessary step.
Users can share photos, videos, and links on this site.
Applications – 0 Stars
There are no applications on this website.
Customization – 0 Stars
You cannot customize anything, except the notifications and whether or not you want your full last name to appear on your profile page. You are stuck with the same orange and white background as everyone else.
Notifications – 5 Stars
After you verify your email address, the site lets you select or deselect the types of emails you want to receive from Gather. This is AWESOME, because it allows the user to be specific in the types of emails they want.
With 12.5/25 Stars, I would not recommend Gather, because there are other, more well-known, social networking sites that allow you to do more.

Week 6; Entry 2: GamerDNA

GamerDNA was founded by Jon Radoff in 2006 (under the name GuildCafe Entertainment Inc.) and is a gaming social-networking site.
Communication – 3 Stars
Communication on GamerDNA is limited to a profile inbox, a comments section on your profile page, and the ability to ‘follow’ a user’s activity as well as other users follow your own.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3.5 Stars
To create your profile on GamerDNA, you go to the home page and enter your username, email address, password, gender and birth date. You also do not have to verify your email, which is a plus.
On this site, you can share which games you like/ own with other users as well as pictures and links.
Applications – 1.5 Stars
GamerDNA allows users to take quizzes and view other users’ game preferences.
Customization – 1 Star
You can’t really do much customizing on this site. All you can do is select your background from about 16 choices, all of which have either red, white, green, or blue mixed with a gray gradient.
Notifications – 2 Stars
GamerDNA does send you emails through your profile inbox as well as your email address.
With 11/25 Stars, GamerDNA seems pretty bad. However, If you are a gamer and like to socialize with others that share your interests, I would recommend this site.

Week 6; Entry 1: Imeem

Imeem was founded in 2003 by Dalton Caldwell, and is a social networking site generally used for streaming music and music videos.
Communication – 2 Stars
Users can communicate with each other on Imeem via comments section on their profile page, a profile inbox, or just commenting on their playlists.
Profile/ File Sharing – 2 Stars
To start your profile on Imeem, the user must go to the home page and enter their name, email address, password, birth date, and gender. You then must confirm your email address, so the site loses points for wasting your time.
The user can share their musical preference and links with other users.
Applications – 0.5 Stars
The only applications on this site apply to adding the Imeem app to your iphone or Android.
Customization – 3 Stars
The user can choose from a few basic templates as their background, but can’t create their own or add/ remove/ move their modules. However, you can add to a list, on the side of your home page, other information that you would like to share.
Notifications – 5 Stars
After your account has been created on this site, you can go to your account settings and choose how often Imeem will email you and with what information. You can choose for the site not to email you at all or you can specify what you would like emailed to you. This is AWESOME!!
With 12.5/25 Stars, I wouldn’t recommend Imeem. You can actually download mainstream music on iTunes or indie music on Amie Street. That way, you could own the music as opposed to listening to it whenever you go on this site.

Week 5; Entry 3: Gaia Online

Gaia Online was founded in 2003 by Josh Gainsbrugh, and is an online interactive social-networking site.
Communication – 2 Stars
Users can communicate with other players (in-game), their inbox, and on forums.
Profile/ File Sharing – 2 Stars
When creating your profile, you have to first create an avatar, then you type your username and password and email address. You then must verify your email address, so the site loses points.
You cannot share files on this site.
Applications – 3 Stars
The user can play all kinds of games on this site. The actual interactive world itself is a game, along with cards, slots, pinball, etc. There are no other applications.
Customization – 4.5 Stars
You cannot change the page at all, but you can create your own avatar. You can choose clothing, hair, gender, and skin color.
Notifications – 3 Stars
The site sends you notifications, but they limit it to your profile inbox instead of your email address’ inbox or both.
With 14.5 Stars, Gaia Online is alright. I’m not really interested in these types of sites myself but some people are. Also the games are quite fun, even if I have no idea how to play in the interactive one, I enjoyed blackjack and the jigsaw puzzles.

Week 5; Entry 2: Fotolog

Fotolog was founded in 2002 by Adam Seifer and is a social networking site for photographs.
Communication – 2 Stars
Fotolog allows users to converse via leaving comments on other users’ photos or by joining groups.
Profile/ File Sharing – 2.5 Stars
When creating your profile on fotolog, you go to the home page and enter your user name, password, email address, birth date, and enter a security question. You then must verify your email address, so the site loses points.
Fotolog allows you to share photos… What did you expect?
Applications – 0 Stars
There are no FREE applications on Fotolog. You can pay $3 to have your photo in a rotation for 24 hours.
Customization – 3 Stars
Fotolog allows users to change their secondary and main colors of their profile page, but need to upgrade (requires texting) in order to get better features.
Notifications – 5 Stars
When you create your profile, Fotolog asks if the user would like to receive a newsletter or promotional offers from fotolog. This option allows the user to choose whether or not they want to be given emails from this site. There is also a link after you create your account to further customize these options.
With 12.5 Stars, Fotolog seems pretty bad… and it is. If you wish to share photos, you could use any general social networking site (Facebook, Myspace, Bebo) to do so. Fotolog was a bad idea, that was poorly executed. I forgot to mention that you have to pay for the upgrade, the gold camera, depending on the increment of time you would like to have the features.

Week 5; Entry 1: Flixster

Flixster was founded in September 2009 by Joe Greenstein and is a social networking site for movies.
Communication – 3 Stars
On Flixster, users can only converse via instant messaging, a wall, and forums.
Profile/ File Sharing – 4 Stars
To create your profile you need to go to the home page and enter your email address, name, birth date, gender, and a password. You also don’t need to verify your email address, which saves you an annoying step.
Flixster allows users to share photos, reviews, and videos.
Applications – 3 Stars
This site contains applications like games, quizzes, and polls. You are also able to watch movies and shows on Flixster.
Customization – 4 Stars
Right after you start your profile on the site, you are asked to pick from their pre-set backgrounds. Later, you can choose to add widgets (modules/ windows), hide your age, and change your background to another pre-set. The site loses points for not being able to create your own background.
Notifications – 5 Stars
When you first sign up to join Flixster, you are asked if you would like to receive updates via email. This allows the user to choose whether or not they are notified, which is an awesome choice to have.
With 19/25 Stars, I recommend Flixster. You can watch videos and such on torrent sites, youtube, google, and hulu, but you can’t converse with other movie watchers and really connect with anyone on those sites. Which is why this is a SOCIAL networking site.

Week 4; Entry 3: Elfwood

Elfwood is a social-networking site, founded by Thomas Abrahamsson in 1996, dedicated to fantasy art and stories.
Communication – 3 Stars
The user has an Elfwood inbox, and can write on their friends’ wall.
Profile/ File Sharing – 2 Stars
Creating a profile on this site is relatively easy. First you go to the home page, type your user name, password, email address, gender, birth date, and country. You then have to verify your email, so the site loses points.
Elfwood allows users to create their own smileys, upload artwork and stories, and locate yourself on an Elfwood world map.
Applications – 2 Stars
The user is able to share artwork and stories when activating a free application. The user can also pay twenty four dollars to have their account upgraded to a patron (I didn’t do it, because it doesn’t seem worth it). The site loses points, because you have to pay for an application that doesn’t specify what it does.
Customization – 0 Stars
You cannot customize your profile at all. You’re stuck with a hunter green background.
Notifications – 1 Star
Since I’ve joined the site, I’ve only gotten one email, which was to verify my email address. However, the sender’s name is ‘nobody’, which concerns me somewhat.
With 8/25 Stars, I would not recommend Elfwood to anyone. If you really like sci-fi and fantasy artwork and dislike deviantART for some reason, then you can give it a try.