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There's been a lot of talk recently about whether or not Tribe.net will continue to operate. The only remaining engineer on the site, Darren, quit a few days ago because he was allegedly yelled at over email by the founder/CEO Mark Pincus. His resignation announcement was on twitter but has since been erased, I'm sure due to legalities.
I have a bad feeling. I've been on so many message board / social networking sites similar to Tribe that have failed, and it's been such a shame. Unless the site gets swallowed up by a larger company, I don't see how it can survive on the model it's been running on for so many years.
I've been here since this site was in beta in 2003. God I can't believe I've stuck through all of it, with all the server failures and down-time. I have to say over the past 6 months my usage has gone waaaaaaaaaay down. Even so, it's been such a valuable resource over the years, especially for alternative thinking and ways, that it would seriously blow if it all just went down the drain.
I've always thought that Tribe hasn't embraced its core users- hippies, burners, freaks, fags, alternative college kids, and outside-of-the box thinkers - because as we all know, those people aren't the "right" demographic. I found an interesting post by a woman who used to work for Tribe, on how to save it. I thought I'd pass it along. brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/...ba0bdc3e
I know a lot of people in this tribe are new to the site so I probably sound like a rambling idiot, but to those that have been here awhile...perhaps we can discuss?
There's also another site triberefugees.ning.com to network in case Tribe does go down. If you'd like to keep your contacts, I suggest that site.
Julie
I have a bad feeling. I've been on so many message board / social networking sites similar to Tribe that have failed, and it's been such a shame. Unless the site gets swallowed up by a larger company, I don't see how it can survive on the model it's been running on for so many years.
I've been here since this site was in beta in 2003. God I can't believe I've stuck through all of it, with all the server failures and down-time. I have to say over the past 6 months my usage has gone waaaaaaaaaay down. Even so, it's been such a valuable resource over the years, especially for alternative thinking and ways, that it would seriously blow if it all just went down the drain.
I've always thought that Tribe hasn't embraced its core users- hippies, burners, freaks, fags, alternative college kids, and outside-of-the box thinkers - because as we all know, those people aren't the "right" demographic. I found an interesting post by a woman who used to work for Tribe, on how to save it. I thought I'd pass it along. brainstorm.tribe.net/thread/...ba0bdc3e
I know a lot of people in this tribe are new to the site so I probably sound like a rambling idiot, but to those that have been here awhile...perhaps we can discuss?
There's also another site triberefugees.ning.com to network in case Tribe does go down. If you'd like to keep your contacts, I suggest that site.
Julie
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Arizona
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Re: Where do you think Tribe is headed?
Wed, September 17, 2008 - 10:35 PMThe link was interesting: "When I joined the company it was pitched to me as a listings business (ala Craigslist) with a social component. After we launched the site it quickly became obvious that we'd built something else entirely, but for years we stubbornly clung to the idea that we were a listings company. "
I don't have the history with Tribe that you do - I was brought in by someone else who wanted to get at least three people into a Tribe that she was billing. I was the third. That was only two (?) years ago. I would've never guessed that there was ever a listing component to Tribe - it struck/strikes me as a totally social vehicle. And, even as a social vehicle, I find it somewhat, well, lacking sometimes since it seems that there is a core of individuals who pretty much control how things progress in any given Tribe. This (the sense that Tribe discussions were scripted by a handful of individuals, or their representative alternate personalties) could be a good thing on occasion, and on other occasions, a bad thing. I often felt that I was coming in 'half way through the movie' and well, that I was only given permission to watch someone else's prom.
Listing business ala Craigslist? Wow...I never would've guessed, not in a million years. I also had no idea that Tribe had been around that long - since 2003? *gasp* I guess that this is why I always felt like such an outsider - since 2003 is plenty of time for people to coelesce into tight knit, loyal and, on the flip side, unapproachable cliques.
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Re: Where do you think Tribe is headed?
Thu, September 18, 2008 - 8:33 PMInterestingly enough, I've found listings on here to be very productive. Probably because about half my friends are in fact local people that I know and see in person every once in a while. Things like "Can someone check on my dogs for a week while I go visit my mother?"
I hope tribe just keeps trundling along the same path it seems to be on now -- a social network with pockets of fairly tight community quite unlike myspace, facebook or ning. A social network with no hold barred if you care to join the wilder tribes, but also one where just about any subject you think of has got somebody willing to discuss it with you.
Plenty of room for improvement in the basic stuff, message handling, profile page display, photo and video gallery, blog features, tribe administration and the like, but I think adding applications like facebook or really out of control profile things like myspace would ruin it. The vast majority of people who come here are here wanting to exchange views, opinions, facts or whatever. They are not mostly here to preen and advertise.
One small feature stands out to make tribe unique -- when you get a message, your email notification includes the whole message. This is a small thing, but it says you don't have to log on to find out what your message is, you have time to digest and think about how to reply, if you want to. Unlike facebook or myspace, I find that if I message a total stranger on tribe, chances are about 95% I'll get a reply, while on the other two, it's more like 50%. I'm talking about a polite message that is a comment about something in that person's profile for example.
I'm not sure how tribe can do more to embrace what has turned out to be their core users. I'd say that generally we are not the kind of people who respond to advertising links, which is the main source of revenue for any social network type of site. About the only thing that I can see that might make money for tribe and keep the hardware working would be to get into cloud computing. But not the junky apps a la facebook, something more robust more like google apps, but easier to use.
As for ning, there is something there, but the last time I was on (I'm in three or four thingies there), I found it very disconcerting to use. It's got kinda like tribes, but no way to browse around and find like minded people. Certainly nothing like this tribe. And the garish interface is hard on the eyes. but that's me.
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Re: Where do you think Tribe is headed?
Thu, September 18, 2008 - 9:17 PMI have really enjoyed tribe and getting to know interesting people from all over the country. I hope it stays in existence.
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Re: Where do you think Tribe is headed?
Thu, September 18, 2008 - 10:25 PMI've actually clicked on quite a few links from Tribe, more so than any other social networking site, becuase those ads are never geared towards me. However, I have been interested in a few things on here and clicked around...but that was only after Tribe started understanding who their market was and geared ads towards the general users. There are various clothing ads for Burning Man type apparel, and also some alternative health stuff I've clicked on.
I remember a few years ago Tribe took the tribes that had mature content, you know with names like...."I love blowjobs, how 'bout you?!" lol complete with graphics pics, and relegated them to private status. That became a problem for users because as a private tribe, no one could see the listings in any of the public forums. So, no new users could join, or see that these tribes even existed. Those tribes became less active, and you had to get invited, which turned off a large portion of users. It used to be very, very liberal in terms of content...and obviously when a site grows, rules regarding mature content need to change, BUT the complaint was made that it wasn't done in a way that supported users. Instead it just relegated the freak tribes to private. I also remember around that same time Tribe changed its terms of use agreement, in which they had a host of "agreements" users needed to comply with...one of them being that Tribe retained some sort of rights to your content and photographs on your profile. I don't remember and am too lazy to look it up, but that made a lot of people leave the site completely...especially artists.
They hired an ex-CEO from a major corp., I believe Coca-Cola, and that's when the site changed it's layout, design, and a lot of the great social type networking things we now have back on the site, were gone. Thankfully the design has gone back to the original idea and the focus is mainly on the social aspects of the site.
I love Tribe, obviously to know all of this inane shit over the years lol!! BZut honestly, I think it still has great potential, even though it has slowed and they can't seem to get their servers in order. I also think it's unique and enjoy the various features you can put on your profile. It is exactly the right amount of "extras" imo and makes the site a great tool. I hope it stays around for many years to come!
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