Joe Explains Social Link Sharing Sites (Except Not Boring This Time)

Morning, folks -- so here's followup on the entry I did yesterday on social link sharing sites like the new Netscape Beta.

By reading the comments, I can see that I wasn't quite getting through to people. This is because my explanation, while technically-sound and expertly-crafted, was also really, really boring. And dry. Bloodless, even.

Folks -- don't let all my boring "user/editor moderation model" stuff fool you -- with social link sites, it's pretty simple. Do you like it when Jay Leno features funny headlines? Or when the local news does their "Weird News" segment? Social link sharing sites do all that and more, plus they're faster and cover a lot more ground. They work like this:

1. All users can submit links to Web sites they like, hot news articles, odd stories, good blogs, funny videos, etc.
2. All users (or in some cases, a select group of moderators) can give submissions they like a vote or "thumbs-up"
3. The submissions that get the most votes get pushed up higher (like to the front page or top spot).
4. Repeat.

(Each submitted item also has a comments area -- in most cases, users can also vote on other people's comments -- again, with some variation of the "thumbs up/thumbs down".)

Okay, you might say, that's how they work. So what? Why would I want to visit one?

Here's why: Social link sharing sites are FUN.

This is because you have hundreds or thousands of people submitting links to stories that are weird, funny, stupid, stupid-but-funny, interesting, heartbreaking, useful -- any combination of those and more.

Plus, people who want their submissions to get seen and voted on put a little work into them, trying to craft a funny, attention-grabbing headline, or finding something that's just really neat that people might not know they might like, with an angle that will make them want to check it out.

Here's a kind of lame example from me: There was a USA Today article that I would have missed if I hadn't seen it on Digg yesterday -- it was about an 18-year-old NASCAR driver who got his start playing driving video games and racing go-carts.

There are few things I pay attention to less than NASCAR, but it was an interesting story.

So there's the whole serendipity factor. It's a great way to procrastinate, or find something new.

As I used to say, "You're not bored... you just need better bookmarks."

More importantly, social link sharing sites give you control. If you only want to see the highest-voted stuff on the front page, that's fine.

However, if you want to burrow through the lower-voted stuff to find a diamond in the rough, you can do that too. And if you want, you can also submit your own stories that you think people might be interested in and see how people react.

It's a different way to gather and show off content -- it depends on lots of people submitting stories and voting on them, instead of just a few people at the top.

Go to Fark.com, slashdot.org, digg.com, newsvine.com, or www.beta.netscape.com to see this in action (each uses a slightly different angle and a different community flavor, but it's all about the links.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: Netscape, Social Link Sharing, Digg, Slashdot, Newsvine, Fark