For an example of why social networking might not be the perfect idea for every website, let's first look at the social network for dead people.
Respectance.com marks the latest attempt to create a workable website for online memorials. The goal is to create a site where people can post online tributes to the departed; the Respectance twist is to add Facebook-style features to the effort. Some of these are genuinely useful: For instance, given its owner's blessing, anyone can upload photos to a Respectance tribute page. And it must be said that the site is a fair sight classier than many of its overwrought predecessors.
But this isn't just a tribute site: It's a social network. This means that, alongside the condolence book and the wall of memorial photos, there's a list of the departed's "friends."
If nothing else, it's trendy. To contribute, you first have to sign up for a Respectance account, then request to be added to the deceased's buddy list. Once you're on the list, your name links to your profile page, on which all of your deceased friends are listed, as well as the tributes you've made to each of them. It also means that you can send and receive private messages from other members, and check out their own networks of friends, living and otherwise. (Sure enough, dead celebrity tributes have appeared, thanks in no small part to Respectance itself, which posted dozens to get the ball rolling, leading to an immediate gravitas deficit.)
But social networks, by their definition, put the networking part first. So on one hand, Respectance features touching tributes to the departed, while on the other, it sidelines itself with an invitation to check out who's paying tribute to whom, who's just posted words of bereavement about grandma as well as her late arch-rival on the next tribute over, and whose tribute to Tupac (June 16, 1971-Sept. 13, 1996) was longer than their tribute to anyone else.
Suddenly, everything's a social network. While the likes of Facebook are working on enlisting everyone with a pulse into one gigantic, globe-spanning network of contacts, the past year has seen the phenomenon infiltrate smaller sites, too. For one thing, there's been a boom in social networks that copy the MySpace model to cater to specific constituencies: librarians, tennis players, car lovers, fans of Barack Obama, dogs, you name it.
There's Bakespace.com, a fairly literal MySpace clone that adds a section for sharing recipes along with photos. Or Eons.com, a questionably named social network for people aged 50 and over. (It too, ominously, contains a section for obits.) Or Catster.com, "where every cat has a homepage," which currently boasts more than 125,000 cat profiles. Those are just the obvious knock-offs. On most every new community-oriented website, the buddy list is a must-have item. Whether it's a site for librarians or political groupies of a given stripe, some form of social networking is bound to be built in.
Whether this is useful idea in every situation, or merely a trendy one, remains to be seen. Traditionally, online communities have thrived around forums, the trusty, low-tech bulletin boards that are more oriented toward contributions rather than poring over other members' social lives. A move toward more involved community sites might register as an intrusion and distraction, rather than an enhancement.
