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.

Week 4; Entry 2: Tripwolf

Tripwolf is a travel-based social networking site that was founded in 2007 by Sebastian Heinzel.
Communication – 2 Stars
The only means of communication the user has with their friends is their inbox.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3.5 Stars
Creating your profile is relatively easy. You go to the home page, enter your name, email address, username, and password. However, you then must verify your email, so it loses points.
On the site, you can organize your gallery (photos), trips, travel journals, and your favorite places. You can also send links in the emails you send to each other.
Applications – 2.5 Stars
Tripwolf basically allows users to plan/ organize their trips on their website. However, other then this, there are no other applications.
Customization – 0 Stars
You cannot customize your profile page. You are stuck with the white and blue background that seems to be the default for almost every single site I have reviewed.
Notifications – 5 Stars
When you first sign up to join Tripwolf, the site gives you the option of receiving emails from the site or not. This is the best option, because those who want to be notified can be and those who don’t want to be don’t have to be.
With 13/25 Stars, Tripwolf seems bad. However, it is just my generic rating system screwing over another good website. If you like to travel, and want to share your experiences, this is a good site for you.

Week 4; Entry 1: DeviantArt

DeviantArt is an art based social networking site, first launched in 2000. The site was founded by Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens, and Angelo Sotira.
Communication – 4 Stars
This site allows the user to add others as friends, or to subscribe to their artwork. The user has a deviantART mailbox and you can comment on each other’s artwork.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3 Stars
To begin your profile you go to the home page and fill out some basic information (as well as choosing free membership or premium which costs $7.95 a month). You then have to verify your email address, so the site loses points for a waste of time.
You can favorite other user’s artwork or upload your own. You can also share links in the comments section of a picture.
Applications – 2 Stars
This site has no applications. Unless you count being able to buy certain items as an application, as in a DeviantArt store. There, you can buy articles of clothing, electronic skins, and collectibles.
Customization – 2 Stars
On DeviantArt, you’re stuck with the same grayscale background as everyone else. You can add widgets (modules) to your profile page, but most of them you have to be a premium member for.
Notifications – 2.5 Stars
DeviantArt doesn’t send you any notifications at all. You can rate this yourself, depending on if you like receiving notifications or not.
With 13.5/25 Stars, DeviantArt seems to fall flat. However, like other sites, this social networking site has a specific purpose in mind.

Week 3; Entry 3: Libary Thing

Library Thing was developed by Tim Spalding in 2005. It is a social networking/ cataloging website for book lovers.
Communication – 2 Stars
The user can talk to their connections in their comments section, and in forums.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3 Stars
Creating your profile on this site is really easy. You go to the home page, enter your selected username and password (email address optional), and your account is created. You can then edit your profile with more detailed information.
The user can’t share any files on this site.
Applications – 2 Stars
Since this site is based on books, the user has book-related applications. You can create a reading list, the website has recommendations for you to read, and you can add books to your library (books you own/ have read).
Customization – 3 Stars
The customization on this site is limited to choosing which modules show up on your profile page and to the display styles of your book titles. The background stays the same, but they are neutral colors (browns, greens, and white), so it’s not that bad.
Notifications – 2.5 Stars
Library Thing does not send you notifications (as long as I’ve been a member – a month). You can consider this good or bad, depending on your preference.
With 12.5/25 Stars, Library Thing seems bad. This seems to happen a lot (maybe I should’ve chosen better criteria, but I can’t think of any that could apply to all). Again, since this site is genre specific, it seemingly has done poorly. However, anyone who is a fan of books, or wants to hear other’s opinions about what they should read, should definitely check this site out.

Week 3; Entry 2: Amie Street

Amie Street is an MP3 blog created in 2006 by three Brown University seniors. You can download indie music as well as upload your own music on this site.
Communication – 2 Stars
You can’t really communicate with people on this site. You can comment on artists/ songs and people can reply to those opinions. You can also see what other people are listening to and get updates on what they’re listening too. However, you can’t talk to this user, and they don’t know you’re following them. So, it’s kind of stalker-esque.
Profile/ File Sharing – 4 Stars
Creating your profile is easy on this site. You go to their home page, enter your email address and password, then select whether or not you want to get emails, and your account is created. You can go in and edit your account information later, except you can’t change specifics, I guess for safety reasons. For example, according to my profile I’m nine years old.
You can’t really share files on this site, considering it’s all about the music. You can download and upload music for cheap or free, but that’s basically it.
Applications – 1 Star
The only thing close to a possible application I saw was creating a playlist in which it appears you have to upload your own music to add to it (not necessarily your/ your bands music, but music you already own).
Customization – 0 Stars
You can’t customize your profile at all. You have the same blue and white (that combination seems to be most common) as everyone else.
Notifications – 5 Stars
This is the first site I’ve come across that can make everyone happy as far as notifications are concerned. When you first create your account, you can choose whether or not to receive emails on Tuesdays and Fridays with information on newly released music. If you select yes, you will. If you select no, you won’t receive any emails at all.
With 12/25 Stars, it seems Amie Street sucks. However, similar to my Linked-In review, it is not necessarily supposed to be like other social networking sites. I would highly suggest anyone into checking out indie music or anyone with a band trying to get started to join this site.

Week 3; Entry 1: Orkut

Orkut is a social networking site owned and operated by Google and developed by Orkut Büyükkökten.
Communication – 5 Stars
Orkut has an instant messaging feature, a profile inbox, and a comments section (Scraps) where a user and their friends can communicate.
Profile/ File Sharing – 3 Stars
When creating your profile, you enter your name, email address, and password as well as checking some boxes on their home page. You are then sent a verification email. One you verify your email address, you need to verify your birthday, gender, and the fact that you’re 18 or older. It loses points, because of the inconvenience of going through the first step of signing up, having to verify your email, THEN letting you know you have to be 18 to join the site.
Orkut has a section called ‘Scraps’, which is basically where you can post items, and look at your friends’ shared files. You can type text, share photos and links in the scraps section.
Applications – 2 Stars
The applications for Orkut are not that great. The site only offers games and modifications for your scraps, and that’s it.
Customization – 0 Stars
You cannot customize your Orkut profile page at all. No module placement, no background changes, nothing. You’re stuck with a blue-grey scale.
Notifications – 2.5 Stars
I didn’t get any notifications… at all (I’m still waiting for it to let me know that my friend added me as a friend). I gave this a neutral rating, because you obviously don’t want to be overwhelmed with pointless notifications, but having some important ones wouldn’t be horrible.
With 12.5/25 Stars, I would not recommend Orkut. It’s big in Brazil and India, but that’s probably only because they haven’t heard of Facebook or Myspace. My guess is if they had, they’d make the switch.

Week 2; Entry 3: Bebo

Bebo, “Blog Early, Blog Often”, is a social networking site that was founded in January 2005 by Michael and Xochi Birch. It was bought by AOL in 2008 for 850 million dollars.
Communication – 5 Stars
Bebo has an instant messaging feature, a wall and an inbox to help you keep in touch with your friends.
Profile/ File Sharing – 4 Stars
When creating a profile, you go to the home page and enter your name, email address, password, gender, and birthday. You will then be asked basic information questions, followed by your profile page. There is a link that asks you to verify your email on your profile page as well. Not only does it lose points for making you check your email, it also loses points because the notification is marked as spam. So, I was waiting for twenty minutes for the letter to show up, and I finally noticed it was in my spam folder.
Bebo allows users to share photos, videos, music, games, and even what they’re doing on other social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook.
Applications – 5 Stars
This site has many different types of applications. Bebo has games, quizzes, stickers, even other interactive pages as applications for their members to use.
Customization – 4 Stars
Bebo allows users to customize their profile page with a list of skins (backgrounds) as well as module placement. However, while the pre-sets are cool, you cannot create your own design.
Notifications – 4 Stars
Bebo sends notifications through your email address inbox, but it only sends the important ones. Ideally, we would find a social networking site that delivers important notifications to its own inbox .
With 22/25 Stars, Bebo is tied with Myspace. Although I use Facebook, I will say that if my friends were on this site and I heard about it first, I would have chosen Bebo.