Useful social network, or waste of time?

February 28, 2013 1:45 PM

What is FacultyRow.com?

I am a college professor and, as it happens, I am on the job market. Even though I am seriously considering leaving academia entirely, I am still applying to academic jobs in my field, and am also generally interested in careers/jobs in which my advanced degree is an asset.

Today, I received an auto-generated email from the website FacultyRow, in which I was informed that I am "being reviewed for Super Professors," a subsection of this site which apparently promotes and praises certain professors for ... reasons or criteria which are unclear to me.

I poked around on the site, and can't really figure the thing out. It does not seem to be a scam or a lie, but there's something about it that seems rinky-dink to me. Does anyone know anything about this site? Is it worth registering for it? Are there actual, measurable benefits?

I ask because I can use all the connections I can get: not only am I possibly changing careers, but I'll soon be moving to a yet-to-be-determined location. I've even bitten the bullet and jumped into professional social networking (LinkedIn), something I've avoided for years. (No Facebook for me, thanks.) If FacultyRow is legit AND useful, then I'll consider signing up, because having more connections is better than having fewer connections.

Any opinions welcome!

posted by Dr. Wu to work & money (6 answers total)

I should add that the only things I've turned up via cursory Googling are press-release-type announcements about/from FacultyRow itself, and these are not very useful.
posted by Dr. Wu at 2:13 PM on February 28

I've never heard of it (though I'm a graduate student) - most of the academic online networking I know of goes through academia.edu and/or mendeley.org. Or regular networks, like Linkedin, facebook, and google+.
posted by ChuraChura at 2:17 PM on February 28

I'm an academic, and I've never heard of it.

It might be legit but not useful. This is kind of a problem for any sort of new entry into the already oversaturated social-networking scene: in order to get users, you ahve to be useful, and in order to be useful, you have to have users. If they're a new or slow-to-get-off-the-ground concern, they may be tapping you (and others) in an attempt to build up their userbase. If they're not asking for money, it's probably harmless but unlikely to be helpful.
posted by jackbishop at 7:18 PM on February 28

Academic. Never heard of it.
posted by professor plum with a rope at 2:26 AM on March 1

Thanks, all. Looks like I won't be signing up for this one, but I will surely check out academia.edu and mandeley.org.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:43 AM on March 1

Almost all the academic online networking I know is via Twitter. I use Mendeley but I don't consider it a social networking tool per se.
posted by grouse at 2:47 PM on March 1