Personal Interest Community

1. Personal Interest Community Aliyah Moye, Shawn Hughes, Mya Williams, and Lincoln Key

2. Personal Interest • A personal interest site is a virtual community where people come together and freely talk about things they have in common, make new relationships, and catch up with old friends.

3. Classmates www.classmates.com • Classmatesis a website for looking up people in your graduating class that you might have lost contact with and want to reconnect with them again. • The members of this site can be anyone who graduated school in the United States. Most of the people you would be seeing would’ve been classmates of yours though. • The roles of the individuals registered for this site are to update their profile, and keep in touch with the people from their class. • The group functions formally and informally. Formal: With the registration you provide your first and last name, your email address, and you have to complete a profile. Informal: Since you don’t have to put your credit card in to buy anything or you SSN. • Classmates is organized between the high school and graduation date. It doesn’t have a great security system, their isn't much guidelines because there isn’t a lot of personal information given out. It’s simple. • Classmates can be compared to school; Online conversations although are easier and give you better chance to be yourself when you get to know people. School on the other hand, with it’s face-to-face interaction can be awkward for some. • Classmates seems like a very limited site, whenever you find who you were looking for you wouldn’t really need it anymore.

4. www.soundcloud.com Sound Cloud • Sound Cloud is an audio-distribution website that is also structured as a blog and social media site. • Small artists to superstars use this site to share free songs and gain feedback. • A free profile acts as both a user and an artist. With free profiles you can critique music, talk to artists, other members, and create groups. • This group functions both formally and informally. Formal: If you register for a $130/year account you have to use real names, but you can still upload and have your profile as your artist name. Informal: You can register for free with your artist name and upload songs with all sorts of different names. • This community is regulated by moderators. Not all songs are submitted to the group are instantly. There can be many moderators for one group but only one has to accept it. The group has a set of guidelines they must meet to be accepted. Other than that users are free to post as they choose. • In the real world this can be compared to bands. Many bands exist they get together, write music, play for each other and collaborate live. However on Sound Cloud everything can be done virtually. • For Sound Cloud I feel that this is a website that can survive for awhile. As we progress in the technology era people are more likely to stay inside because that is more convenient for them.

5. Café Mom www.cafemom.com • A community where moms come together to get advice and support on topics such as pregnancy, health, fashion, food, entertainment, and more. • Café Mom is a family of brands that connects informs and entertains women through vibrant communities and compelling editorial content. • It is the largest meeting place where moms come for conversation. This site functions both formally and informally. Formal: You can’t ask for advice or join in conversation without registering. Informal: You can read blogs without registering your email and a screen name. • Café Mom enables users to determine who can view their profile, you can control which facts about you are shared including age and interests. Their Café Mom avatar, screen name and set mood can be viewed by everyone. • Café Mom can be compared to a play date. Online you can get extremely personal with people you barely know. But then again you may just feel comfortable because they have the same interest. If you look at a play date, parents are talking about other things other than their children all the time. They could talk about work or people. On Café Mom people basically only talk about mom stuff, simply because it’s a mom website. • For Café Mom there is always going to be parents looking for someone to talk to and people who have the same interests a them.

6. eHarmony www.eharmony.com • An online dating website that is designed to match single men and women with each other for long term relationships. • The members of the site are single mean and women looking for a long term relationship. They have to fill out a survey, upload a picture, create a profile, and buy a subscription. • This group functions as a formal site. Formal: On eHarmony like many other personal interest sites you have to register with your email, create a profile about yourself, and then you buy a subscription to get you compatible match. • When you sign up for eHarmony they make you take long survey about yourself and then you can communicate for free with people but you have to buy a subscription to get your match. They regulate their site in those ways but also they have to make sure nobody going on there is married, they aren’t soliciting or selling drugs, there isn’t any nudity, and that everyone is who they say they are. • I would compare this virtual group with going on a blind date in real life. On a blind date you know about the person, what they do, appearance description, etc. But at the same time you don’t know exactly how it will go. Online it’s basically the same except for there is a picture and you may have talked a bit. But you don’t’ know how the date will go. • I believe that on a site like eHarmony it will stay around because there will always be someone who is looking for someone else.

7. Christian Mingle www.christianmingle.com • The goal is to bring Christians who are in search of meaningful relationships together. To match individuals with common interests, whether it be platonic or romantic. • The members are manly Christians who want to find a relationship with another Christian with similar interests. • Christian Mingle is an informal group. Informal: An individual has to create an account, the website doesn’t run background checks. The individual is just tested to be honest and supply the website information thy want to give out. The people have the freedom to talk freely to whomever they want. • Social Controls: Children under 18 are not permitted to use the site, information collected is stored in files, information is distributed to people with similar interests, the moderators have check ups on each individuals profile to make sure they don’t have anything insulting, have nudity, and they are who they claim to be. • Christian Mingle can be compared to church. The whole point in Christian Mingle is to find someone who has the same religious values as you an then make a relationship build off of that. In church your surrounded by a congregation of people who believe in what you believe in, it’s just about making that move to further the relationship. • For a site like Christian Mingle I believe that it has a good chance of surviving because the Christian religion isn’t going anywhere and you’ll always have someone who is looking for love.

8. Websites/Sources • www.cafemom.com • www.soundcloud.com • www.classmates.com • www.eharmony.com • www.christianmingle.com