Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with socialnetworks

Where to find MCAT and LSAT teachers?

Kattiara17 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:58:30 -0800

I'm trying to find communities/forums/social networks that would focus on MCAT and LSAT. The end goal is to find qualified teachers for these subjects (not help on taking the actual exams).. any ideas? My company provides prep classes and tutoring for students. One of the hardest parts is finding qualified instructors to teach these sessions. A teacher has to have a certain score in their subject test/area to qualify for our training (and subsequent certification) before they're able to actually get in front of students (for example, LSAT teachers must have scored at least a 172 before we accept them for training, etc.).

While it's not too hard to find good teacher applicants for the more general exams (SAT, GRE, etc.), what's consistantly a challenge is finding good LSAT and MCAT candidates -- even more specifically, MCAT Physics and Chem/Org Chem.

Are there any online communities or forums that might be good places to try reaching out to? I feel like with social networks for everything from knitting to wine, maybe I'm just not looking in the right places. Thanks for any suggestions!

best practices for supporting online user communities?

mere — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:34:44 -0800

Does anyone have any information about best practices & strategies for online community support and community development? I'm in the final running for a Community Support job at a small niche social networking site, and I'm trying to do some research about the best way to manage the various tasks of the role.

The job involves managing the email support queue, handling issues with the forums & moderation thereof, development of help documentation, and general usability stuff.

I have experience with most aspects of this position, but I want to read up on any information I can find about managing user support & forum moderation of online communities.

The site has a very diverse group of about 125,000 active members--overall it's a friendly, helpful, close-knit (heh) community of users, but as you can imagine with a group that large, all sorts of issues come up.

There are lots of virtual communities on the internet (Hi, MetaFilter!) and there are people out there who work in community support. (Hi, MeFi staff!) Has anyone written about their experiences in type of work? I'm having a hard time finding information about it.

I got a name.

telstar — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:32:43 -0800

How do you come up with new screen names? Every frikkin' comment-ready site out there wants a user name and password registration these days and I am starting to feel kinda dry and used up thinking of a new one for every site. Yes, I know I could simply use the same user name over and over, but a few years of that led to memory (and identity) problems. So what happens is that I sit there at the reg screen and wonder "hmmmmmm". Anybody got a tried and true method for generating new screen names?

What is the psychology of friendship?

pipstar — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:10:55 -0800

Lately, the concept of "friends" seems to have become incredibly diluted by the casual use of the term by Facebook, MySpace et al. But in "the real world" what do you consider to be important when you are making and becoming friends? Is it how long you've known someone? How frequently you meet up? What you have in common? Something more intangible? Also, I'd love recommendations of any books looking at the psychology of how people become friends.

Need a site like AskMetaFilter. Any Suggestions?

ISeemToBeAVerb — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:33:59 -0800

Does anyone know of a template that is similar to AskMetaFilter? I'm trying to set up a communications site for my company, and I think that this format would suit it perfectly. I'm not much of a programmer, but I really like the social format of this site and think that my company could benefit from a similar structure for our interior communications. Any suggestions?

What cases have you seen of self incrimination or unflattering postings on the net?

bjtitus — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:21:12 -0800

What cases have you seen of self incrimination or unflattering postings on the net? What should teens know about their activities on the internet and how their lives might be affected by their postings on social networks, blogs, and other sites? I (a high school student) have been tasked with presenting on various dangers of the internet to teens. The list includes the dangers of pornography (a topic which I am not covering myself), bully/hate messages, self incrimination, and the use of information by colleges and businesses.

The goal is to make students aware of the dangers and to make them think ahead. We have head several cases of kids getting into trouble and even not getting into certain colleges because of internet activity.

I want to know your feelings about these topics and any cases you know of. Feel free to link to videos, studies, pictures, or anything that could help me aggregate information about these topics.

ROI from community in traditional business?

jstorerj — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:01:07 -0800

Has anyone seen articles/metrics on how traditional businesses are succeeding by leveraging community and/or social networks? If you have link to specific research and/or articles it's appreciated. Thanks!

How do you use Facebook

willnot — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 08:27:02 -0800

Can you help me understand the power of Facebook or other similar social networking platforms? I think I understand it at some level, but I feel like I must be missing something, so please tell me how you use these systems, and why they're better than other more traditional communication tools. The other night, I was listening to a recent This Week in Tech podcast, and they were going on and on about the power of Facebook and how the battle for the internet advertising dollar was shaping up to be between Facebook and Google. I get that there needs to be a certain amount of hyperbole in any lets sit around and talk about anything show, but they really did make Facebook sound like a powerful tool -- particularly because of the applications that you can integrate into it.

I'm much older than most of Facebook's users, and I didn't have any school e-mail addresses back when they were closed, and once they opened up, I didn't see much point in moving over to yet another social network -- particularly since none of my friends are over there. But, the podcast made me think that I should at least check it out to see what I was missing, and after setting up a stub of a profile, I still don't think I understand what's missing.

I'm not sure why posting something on a wall (or comments on myspace), is preferable to e-mail. If you're planning an event or something it makes sense because people you didn't think to invite might be able to include themselves too, but generally e-mail just seems like a better tool for most of what's done in comments, so what am I missing there?

I thought the applications would be more about productivity, but most of them just seem to let you hug your friends or send them gingerbread men. I guess that's cute for a second, but it seems like it would get old fast. Some of the games could be fun, but outside of that, is there something I'm missing there?

I know I'm from a different generation than most of the users, and I know it would be more useful if everybody (or even anybody) from my circle of friends was on there, but outside of that, I really want to understand the appeal, and I just don't, so please tell me how you use it and why it's better than other tools like e-mail or IM or whatever.

Mid-term for Schmoozing 301: Introverts v. Extroverts

choragus — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 06:40:30 -0800

What can I do to create an environment that aids my fellow Introverts toward schmoozing with the cult of Extroverts without causing distress to either type? Lecture
I understand Extroverts ("Type e") want to meet as many people as possible and tend to spend less than 10 minutes on any one person while networking.

Contrasted with Introverts ("Type i") expending 30+ minutes of their networking time talking with a few interesting people and thus forgetting/avoiding to work the room. My personal belief is this is so "Type i"s don't have to look for another schmoozing partner.

So, woe to the "Type e" who gets trapped for a 30-minute toe-to-toe conversation with an "Type i". Or, so I've been told.

One Essay Question for the Mid-term Exam
Imagine you are in the room at the event to schmooze for friends and/or business connections.

As either a "Type i" Schmoozer or "Type e" Schmnoozer, what has to happen in the room to get these two oil-and-vinegar types to mix it up and buzz about the event when they gather around the coffee pot or water cooler the next day?

10 extra credit points for indicating whether you are a "Type e" or "Type i" in your response.

This examination is complete when your answer is posted.

Good Luck!

Is there a social networking site for writers?

kingtaj — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:03:17 -0800

Is there a social networking site for writers? There are lots of general social networking sites, like myspace, linkedin, etc. I have also seen some more specialized sites like dogster. Is there something along these lines for writers?

bebo.com: good or evil?

sanitycheck — Mon, 28 Mar 2005 14:20:35 -0800

I've gotten a couple e-mails from bebo.com recently as friends have signed up with the service. Should I join as well? It seems like a good idea in theory, especially since my group of friends tends to be a bit nomadic and it is difficult to keep up to date on everyone's current snail mail address and phone number. However, I know next to nothing about these Bebo people. Can I trust them with mine and my friends' e-mail and snail mail addys?

in.credulo.us

gyc — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 19:49:14 -0800

So what's so cool about del.icio.us? I don't get it. So it's an online bookmark system that you can share. What exactly is so cool about that? What do you use it for? What does it let you do that you couldn't do before? Why should people care who has what sites bookmarked?

Are there any sites that allow sharing of images downloaded from the web; or of collections of bookmarks; and do any of them combine this with social networking?

GleepGlop — Thu, 18 Nov 2004 17:27:58 -0800

this is a multiple question:
a) images
b) bookmarks
c) social networking ive asked these questions many times and have searched high and low for the proper forums but i have never found satisfactory answers, so i hope you dont find them silly.
a) i have over 1000 images in like 50 folders that ive saved from my days of web browsing, and i have -never- seen a good image collection on the internet. I long to have an image collection swap meet. To give you an idea of what i have, its folders like 'fine art' 'alternative art' 'contemporary art' 'design' 'funny' 'photography' etc etc. Ive recently learned a trick from my pals at #mefi that you can add 'parent directory' to your google search for images and you might find someones image folder. Ive played around but havent found anything. Does nobody collect images from the net? Is it a copyright issue that people arent posting them? I dont get it...

b) the same thing for bookmarks: i would love to see other people's bookmarks. Again i have over 1000 in 50 folders. Finding links is easy, but id love to see what people's 'core' bookmarks are. Again little success finding these posted. I threw up a crap website with a zip of my bookmarks folder, but it didnt cause quite the rebel uprising that it should have. I dont get it...

c) social networking: you know how with sites like friendster you can write your interests and you can link to other people that wrote the same words that you wrote... well big deal. I think a successful site is going to have to get inside your head to make matches. If i could cross reference my bookmarks with other people's and it told me 'there are 134 matches' i would be like 'ok, i have to meet this person'. Hmm?

Social Networking

soyjoy — Tue, 28 Sep 2004 09:53:56 -0800

Web communities / Friendster knockoffs. I've studiously avoided delving into any of these, but suddenly, by tomorrow, I need to be more knowledgeable than I am about them, especially Tribe.net. I went there to check it out and it's "down for maintenance." I searched here in AskMe, and found passing references but nothing in-depth. Can anyone point me to some overview of these type of sites, which ones are tailored to what kind of connecting, which ones are still around, which not, which suck, which don't, and why?

What is the best/nicest social network?

plexi — Tue, 20 Jul 2004 14:47:11 -0800

What is the best/nicest social network? Orkut, Friendster, Flickr, maybe Dogster?