On the "everything2" site, which uses this same engine by the way, this is known as a getting to know you node. What's your favorite color? Emacs or vi? Last book you read?

A lot of participants in many communities are understandably interested in reading such nodes and extending the inevitably long list of replies. A lot of other participants shrug and move on to something else to talk about... something more on-topic or worth the time to read.

I don't mean to sound rude; we've all heard about the arrogant colleague who asked at party introductions a boorish "will I need to remember you?" But what's the real value of, as you say, consolidating our online identity from site to site? People migrate and mutate their identities online; that's one of the medium's strengths.

And what's the value of lumping it all in a single getting-to-know-you posting? If you wanted to research connections on a particular individual, it wouldn't be that hard. Make some guesses. Review the clues on each potential site's equivalent of a "personal node." Hey, just ask them with a direct chatterbox /msg or email. Why ask en masse, to invite answers of strangers, answers that you won't really absorb or catalogue?

Lastly, what value will this have to the reader in a year? Some monks will have left their perlish frocks behind by choice, or passed through the perly gates (uh, sorry). Maybe the folks who replied will have risen here while ended their involvement in other virtual communities. Even with some revisions to the replies, it's instantly out of date, and soon about as interesting as asking whether they caught that Adam Ant concert at the Garden last weekend.

Don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud. Enjoy the cocktail conversation value of this. I was just asking myself, but if you've got more coherent thought behind 'consolidation of online identity,' it would pass some semi-interesting time.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

In reply to Re: What are your other public, online identities? by halley
in thread What are your other public, online identities? by zby

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