my.9rules: Bringing Social Back
Yesterday we launched a new version of 9rules that we like to call ‘Ali‘ (sidenote: We started using codenames for all the new versions of 9rules starting with Version 4, Phoenix, and trust me it makes things easier from a historical perspective). This version does a lot of things differently than previous versions of 9rules and adds quite a bit of new functionality. What I wanted to discuss in this entry was one of the new features of the site that we named my.9rules.
If you actually read what I write you will notice that I called my.9rules a “feature” of 9rules instead of trying to describe it as a full-blown social network, when in fact it does basically everything that other social networks do. However, there were two things that we kept in mind when working on my.9rules:
- We didn’t like how current social networks handled us.
- We wanted to actually make a social network have meaning if we were going to attach it to the 9rules brand.
Last week I asked the question of “What don’t they do well?” and I had Ali in mind when I was writing it. For me, most social networks try to sell me on too much stuff that I don’t need. I already have sites that I write on so I don’t need a blogging option. I use Flickr for sharing online photos so I don’t need another place to do that. del.icio.us handles my links and last.fm watches my music. So as you can see I really don’t need another platform to handle this data, but it would be nice to have a place outside of my sites for others to see what I am getting into.
That is the approach we took with my.9rules. We live in an open data world now. We have so many accounts setup in so many different places that it is hard to understand why some sites believe they have to give you another way to store data. In all honesty we probably couldn’t do photo-sharing better than Flickr or bookmarking better than del.icio.us so why even bother? The point shouldn’t be to lock people in so they are forced to use your site, the point is to offer them a compelling solution so that they want to use your site.
Another issue I have with social networks is they aren’t very social. Usually you get to leave a comment or send a message and that’s it. Maybe you get to be a voyeur into someone’s life, but most places simply offer a one-to-one conversation mechansim. At 9rules, we have Notes where great discussions take place yet there was no way to really get to know the people who you were having these conversations with. In a nutshell we had the “social” without the relationships and created my.9rules to fill that void.
So now you can get to know about the people you are having conversations with through their blogs, photos, links and music. This isn’t about aimlessly adding friends just to see your number go up. This is about actually building relationships with people that share the same interests as you and this is only the beginning.
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Question? Do you have to be a 9ruler to use my.9rules? I ask because I went to the my.9rules section and I didn’t see a way to sign up or start an account. I did notice the sign-up for the Notes section, but that seems counter-intuitive to me. I understand that Notes came first, but leaving the sign-up attached to Notes makes it seem as if you’re signing up for Notes only. Maybe you and Rundle should change the wording at the top to indicated that when a person signs up now, they are signing up for the whole she-bang that way no one clicks away confused like I just did. Just my two cents…..
By Frank 'viperteq' Young on February 9, 2007 6:34 am
No Frank, you don’t have to be a 9rules member to be a my.9rules user. You can sign up for my.9rules here:
http://9rules.com/register/
Thanks for bringing this up because we really should change the registration link to say “Register for my.9rules” not “Register for Notes”. All of us were logged in so we didn’t even notice it.
By Tyme White on February 9, 2007 8:55 am
A couple of thoughts…
When I visit the my.9rules page, my eye is led immediately to the “notes” link. I’m thinking I’m being led this way primarily because of the big red arrow from the textlinks ad that is pointing to the right. In the current placement of the ads (I believe they rotate positions?) the red arrow is pointing to Ali, (ad currently located on the right side of page) who is looking down to the notes links, which when clicked on take me to a page which is no longer my.9rules.
When I visit Kristin’s page, currently the top link, because she has 31 points (why and how do you earn points again?) I am once again led off to the right where I see 9 from the top 9. However, the “top 9″, in Kristin’s case only consist of 4 at the moment, as a couple of bloggers have multiple posts listed. Forcing my eye to the left, I see a little info about Kristin, and see what notes she’s thinking about and replying to. It’s not till I scroll down, or look under all this other stuff, that I really get to know her, see her photos, what she listens to and writes about.
Question —
If this is Kristin’s little corner of 9rules, and I am visiting that page because I want to know Kristin, shouldn’t I see what’s up with her first before I get hype from what everyone else in her circle of friends is doing?
You’re doing some cool stuff here, generally and congrats to you. Generally speaking, the issue I see you having to deal with is that you’re trying to bring more people from the “outside” into the atmosphere of 9rules, which is cool and all. But you’re using terms and lingo that is (assuming) designed for the members to understand. Hence, it’s easy for the newbie to get immediately lost…
• Notes?
• Points?
• 9 from the top 9?
• Why does she only have one topic, but 4 entries?
It’s easy to get spun around in there if you’re not a member. Just something to consider.
Finally, you should really think about your placement of ads, particularly the big, red ugly one that leads everyone’s eye off to the right. Perhaps trash it for a text link?
By Mark on February 9, 2007 9:07 am
[...] I am not a huge boxing fan (since I don’t watch boxing all that much I wouldn’t want to call myself a fan for fear of being ridiculed) but I am a fan of Muhammad Ali, and his boxing style and career. When I read Paul’s entry about the redesign, and when he referred to it as Ali, I got a little bit frightened. Would the new site hold a candle to my thoughts on Ali? [...]
By Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee | Colin Devroe on February 9, 2007 11:14 am
Frank, no you don’t have to be a member to have a my.9rules profile page, it’s the same as your Notes account. I realize how silly that sounds, so we’re working on wording and visual presentation of this whole “accounts” thing and “users vs. members” thing right now.
Mark, I see where you’re coming from. I just changed the TLA ad to one I put together but I see that we might have to change it again. Like I said to Frank, the wording beteen Notes, members, users, points, etc., it all has to be refined and thought about from a non-user perspective.
By Mike Rundle on February 9, 2007 12:05 pm
wow!
What a nice change! I visited the 9rules website after two days and it’s completely changed! I love the new version!!
By Avinash on February 9, 2007 4:56 pm
cool stuff
wish I was part of 9rules :(
By engtech on February 9, 2007 5:44 pm
Congrats Scrivs. 9rules is definitely heading in the right direction. Ali sets you guys even further apart from the pack. Can’t wait to see what the future brings.
By Travis on February 9, 2007 7:38 pm
I don’t even know how I found this blog I am finally figuring out how to meander around.
Clever way to get people to pay attention to your network without actually letting them in your network.
By cooper on February 10, 2007 12:28 am
I love it! It’s a lot of fun.
Some people have been pretty critical but really, it’s the common thing for people to criticize anything called a “social network”. I look at it as just the same old notes with some snazzier user profiles added on :)
I really like the little widget that Mike has on businesslogs. Is that something we’re all going to get to use eventually?
Is there any way we could get some more feeds for notes? I’d like to track specific people’s comments on notes and/or add notes that I comment on to my lifestream on my site.
By kristin on February 10, 2007 12:55 am
Kristin: All in due time :-)
By Scrivs on February 10, 2007 2:44 am
I have no problem with social networks – maybe I ought to join a few! ;) Love the design and the “tabbed navigation”. Great concept.
By John Lampard on February 10, 2007 7:47 am
What are our chances of getting a Digg module?
By Robert MacEwan on February 11, 2007 12:09 pm
Robert: It’s coming.
By Scrivs on February 12, 2007 6:15 am
Holy shit! I can’t believe how pimp this site is! You guys have really out done yourselves and have created an amazing platform for a real social network.
Your code is clean. Your design is tasteful. And, the incorporation of feeds on the profile page is good practice. I’ve been dormant on the site for the past couple of weeks and then I got a friend invite. It’s clear to me that I’m going to get less work done over the next couple of months. Thanks…
By Justin Kistner on February 13, 2007 3:35 am
Is there a reason why you use the “last modified” date instead of “date posted” for sorting my blog’s rss? I think they should be sorted by the post date, this way it doesn’t screw up the order when you have to make edits on an old post.
By Andrew Swihart on February 19, 2007 11:26 am