I joined your community on Orkut ! Nice. Let's hope it will grow !
I also opened the Travel-on-SmugMap-and-GoogleEarth community on SmugMug which is dedicated only for Travel Photos with Latitude and Longitude for people to find those pictures by clicking on "Map This" (SmugMap and GoogleEarth). Let's hope people will like it.
Hello everyone. I recently joined an online community (powered by Google) called Orkut. Its a new social network designed to meet old & new online friends. Its similar to the myspace site, but with a more professional look & feel.
They have thousands & thousands of "communities" that people form for all kinds of different topics & passions for other people to join. I stumpled upon a couple other online photo services that already had communities dedicated to their service, including 3 different Flickr communities. Sooo, out of curiosity I did a search for Smugmug communities & it turned up a big fat zero. So not to be outdone by the other guys, I started one myself. Here is what it looks like:
Orkut is VERY cool. Like I said, its powered by Google & just like Gmail, you can join by invitation only. So, if anyone wants me to send them an invite, I would be more than happy to. Lets see just how big we can make this community. Cheers...Kerry
" is an online community that connects people through a network of trusted friends.
We are committed to providing an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests. "
From their front page, it sounds like similar combo to what Smugmug "friends" clubs and Dgrin combined. A little different, and might be fun. But I have to admit, I've had my own community for a few years of 2000 members and it was ALOT of hard work. Years. We always had offers from posters to join their site, and frankly it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. [all the hard work, and then someone inviting away the people to a "bigger and better" place.] It can be a bit irking to the owner, who has put blood sweat and tears into their own community, fully expecting the new communities to "pay their dues" as well.
I know most forum communities are told to promote their site by posting their link on others, and all that is meant well, but it puts some volunteers in an uneasy position.
In this case tho, I do understand your efforts, and that was nice of you.
Basically, [and I realize some may disagree with me], we pretty much have all of that here and in the album site SmugMug, but the idea of promoting our work over there might be a good idea. Thanks.
Im actually getting kinda disappointed with the whole Orkut thing as a whole. I was never really impressed with it, but I invited all my friends & gave it a good shot for months. I even started a few communities of my own, including the Smugmug one. I thought since it was "from Google" it would move forward fast & get better. Well, sadly that hasnt happened. Neither me nor my friends are visiting it much anymore.
It boils down to a few things, but they are big ones. The first is that the features of Orkut just plain suck & are lacking big time, especially given its affilation with Google. There is really no reason for me to keep coming back. About the only thing to do is join a community, filter through the posts that are in Portuguese & read the boring/retarded posts that usually make up the rest.
The other reason is, its usually clunky & giving me the dreaded "bad server, no donut for you blah blah" error. And where is the intergration to other Google services? This thing should be flying by now. I dont know what the holdup is.
Now, I am not going to knock them, or say that they don't have an equal right to belong, but there has been a lot of frustration for the English language users that have to constantly wander around to find a place that they can communicate with other people, because the majority of Orkut users are in fact Brazilians who constantly break the rules of the "English-speaking only" communities by posting in Portuguese. Read about it on the Wikipedia here.
So, im thinking of just deleting my account with them & trying something else, like now im using Tribe.net & its pretty sweet so far. Here is my profile if you wanna have a looksee. See how you are able to integrate RSS feeds right into your profile, like I did with my Smugmug page?? Pretty neat. You are also able to integrate your Tribe page into another site, like I did here with my Smugmug site. Although, that page isnt live & is just for testing right now.
So, what do you all think about Orkut? Should I give it more time or is it a lost cause??
So, what do you all think about Orkut? Should I give it more time or is it a lost cause??
To be honest, i joined your smugmug community because i felt bad about it having only 2 or 3 members. I don't think i've ever looked at any other time. I think the problem is a community about smugmug has no "use".
Smugmug is the site where most of us put our photos. Dgrin is the forum/meeting place for the ones who want to talk about photos & smugmug. So what added value does an orkut-smugmug community have?
To answer your question, i would say it is a lost cause.
I think some of you misunderstood. I wasnt really asking about the Smugmug community at Orkut, but about Orkut overall from the people who use it (or dont).
Given the lack of features of Orkut, there isnt really anything to do over there on the SM community (or any other community) that couldnt be done here or in a normal forum (yes im aware of that). I thought since its affiliation with google, the features would have came around by now (which is why I created the SM community), but as it stands, its just a lack luster forum with a pretty face. Thats it.
So, guess what im asking is, do you Orkut members really use Orkut?? I know I dont.
I think some of you misunderstood. I wasnt really asking about the Smugmug community at Orkut, but about Orkut overall from the people who use it (or dont).
Given the lack of features of Orkut, there isnt really anything to do over there on the SM community (or any other community) that couldnt be done here or in a normal forum (yes im aware of that). I thought since its affiliation with google, the features would have came around by now (which is why I created the SM community), but as it stands, its just a lack luster forum with a pretty face. Thats it.
So, guess what im asking is, do you Orkut members really use Orkut?? I know I dont.
I did use for a little while. No longer, though.
I know that in Brazil there must be a whole lot of people using it.
I did use for a little while. No longer, though.
I know that in Brazil there must be a whole lot of people using it.
Yep, Brazil is by far the No. 1 country that uses Orkut. (see attachement) I have quite a bit of friends in Brazil, and i know alot of them, check it many times a day, more often than their email. Especially the "scraps" is a big thing. It's basically a public email. Check out the profile of the girl who Bone kissed on the U2 concert in Sao Paolo, she has in excess of 3.238.439 scraps!
To be honest, i have used it, and am technically still a member of Orkut, but i don't really know why. It doesn't give me anything that i can't do without Orkut. Sending messages or scraps is just plain annoying, because i have to login and see if there are any replies to them. Email rulez, atleast that comes straight to my computer without me having to do something for it. Communities...what good are they? what do they offer? nothing.... I know some people in brazil use it to find old friend or schoolmates, atleast that's something of a use.... but i don't know any other dutch person who has an orkut account. Besides the messages/scraps/communities? what else does it offer? nothing really. There are equivalents of orkut all over, hyves, hi5 etc... but they are all the same and offer nothing more than orkut.
If i want to know something from, or talk to a person, i call him/her, or email. Done. no more orkut for me....
Just deleted both my Myspace account as well as my Orkut account. Both of those were truly craptacular. Social networking sites can in fact be useful, but those 2 were a complete waste of time & more like competing in a popularity contest.
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Hello,
I joined your community on Orkut ! Nice. Let's hope it will grow !
I also opened the Travel-on-SmugMap-and-GoogleEarth community on SmugMug which is dedicated only for Travel Photos with Latitude and Longitude for people to find those pictures by clicking on "Map This" (SmugMap and GoogleEarth). Let's hope people will like it.
Tks !!!
Celso.
We are committed to providing an online meeting place where people can socialize, make new acquaintances and find others who share their interests. "
From their front page, it sounds like similar combo to what Smugmug "friends" clubs and Dgrin combined. A little different, and might be fun. But I have to admit, I've had my own community for a few years of 2000 members and it was ALOT of hard work. Years. We always had offers from posters to join their site, and frankly it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. [all the hard work, and then someone inviting away the people to a "bigger and better" place.] It can be a bit irking to the owner, who has put blood sweat and tears into their own community, fully expecting the new communities to "pay their dues" as well.
I know most forum communities are told to promote their site by posting their link on others, and all that is meant well, but it puts some volunteers in an uneasy position.
In this case tho, I do understand your efforts, and that was nice of you.
Basically, [and I realize some may disagree with me], we pretty much have all of that here and in the album site SmugMug, but the idea of promoting our work over there might be a good idea. Thanks.
It boils down to a few things, but they are big ones. The first is that the features of Orkut just plain suck & are lacking big time, especially given its affilation with Google. There is really no reason for me to keep coming back. About the only thing to do is join a community, filter through the posts that are in Portuguese & read the boring/retarded posts that usually make up the rest.
The other reason is, its usually clunky & giving me the dreaded "bad server, no donut for you blah blah" error. And where is the intergration to other Google services? This thing should be flying by now. I dont know what the holdup is.
Now, I am not going to knock them, or say that they don't have an equal right to belong, but there has been a lot of frustration for the English language users that have to constantly wander around to find a place that they can communicate with other people, because the majority of Orkut users are in fact Brazilians who constantly break the rules of the "English-speaking only" communities by posting in Portuguese. Read about it on the Wikipedia here.
So, im thinking of just deleting my account with them & trying something else, like now im using Tribe.net & its pretty sweet so far. Here is my profile if you wanna have a looksee. See how you are able to integrate RSS feeds right into your profile, like I did with my Smugmug page?? Pretty neat. You are also able to integrate your Tribe page into another site, like I did here with my Smugmug site. Although, that page isnt live & is just for testing right now.
So, what do you all think about Orkut? Should I give it more time or is it a lost cause??
moderator of: The Flea Market [ guidelines ]
Smugmug is the site where most of us put our photos. Dgrin is the forum/meeting place for the ones who want to talk about photos & smugmug. So what added value does an orkut-smugmug community have?
To answer your question, i would say it is a lost cause.
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
"You're fired."
"I'm Fired"
"No. I like it in here."
from my favorite vo guy.
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
Given the lack of features of Orkut, there isnt really anything to do over there on the SM community (or any other community) that couldnt be done here or in a normal forum (yes im aware of that). I thought since its affiliation with google, the features would have came around by now (which is why I created the SM community), but as it stands, its just a lack luster forum with a pretty face. Thats it.
So, guess what im asking is, do you Orkut members really use Orkut?? I know I dont.
I did use for a little while. No longer, though.
I know that in Brazil there must be a whole lot of people using it.
When I hear the earth will melt into the sun,
in two billion years,
all I can think is:
"Will that be on a Monday?"
==========================
http://www.streetsofboston.com
http://blog.antonspaans.com
To be honest, i have used it, and am technically still a member of Orkut, but i don't really know why. It doesn't give me anything that i can't do without Orkut. Sending messages or scraps is just plain annoying, because i have to login and see if there are any replies to them. Email rulez, atleast that comes straight to my computer without me having to do something for it. Communities...what good are they? what do they offer? nothing.... I know some people in brazil use it to find old friend or schoolmates, atleast that's something of a use.... but i don't know any other dutch person who has an orkut account. Besides the messages/scraps/communities? what else does it offer? nothing really. There are equivalents of orkut all over, hyves, hi5 etc... but they are all the same and offer nothing more than orkut.
If i want to know something from, or talk to a person, i call him/her, or email. Done. no more orkut for me....
www.ivarborst.nl & smugmug
Just deleted both my Myspace account as well as my Orkut account. Both of those were truly craptacular. Social networking sites can in fact be useful, but those 2 were a complete waste of time & more like competing in a popularity contest.