Tribe.net
From Free net encyclopedia
Tribe.net (often shortened to "Tribe") is a website that hosts an online community of friends, similar to Orkut or Friendster. Anyone may register as a new Tribe user, and may then define his or her immediate network of friends, either by choosing from existing members or by inviting new members to join. Each of these users may in turn define their own network of friends. (This process results in a type of user-driven viral marketing on behalf of Tribe.net.)
As more and more people and their friends join Tribe, it results in an elaborate social network with many thousands of members. Tribe users leverage the small world phenomenon as a way to enhance their own immediate social network. As of March 2004, the population of Tribe is skewed heavily towards people living in San Francisco, though the geographic distribution is gradually normalizing as people from other places join. As of June 2005 it had over 300,000 members.
Tribe.net features many "tribes," a kind of topical forum. A new tribe may be created by any registered Tribe user. When a user creates a new tribe, that user is the moderator of the tribe. Any user may in principle join any tribe, although some tribes are private or require permission from the tribe moderator to join. In addition to threaded messages, members can use tribes to announce upcoming parties, concerts, business icebreakers, or other events easily and reach select audiences. Currently there are thousands of tribes, with more being added daily.
The company behind Tribe is privately owned, financed largely with venture capital. Tribe has partnered with the Washington Post and Knight Ridder.
In a controversial move, on December 20, 2005, Tribe.net decided to prohibit sexually explicit content, partially in response to 2257. This move disappointed many users, as Tribe to that point had been notable for an exceptionally permissive content policy. However, some Tribe.net users were glad to have sexually explicit content less pervasive throughout the network.
On January 19th, 2006 Tribe.net changed its layout and User Interface (UI). The management of Tribe claimed that they received approximately 40% positive feedback during a small beta phase with 3000 users (a relatively small percentage of their user base).
User reaction to the new UI, coupled with the lingering discontent from previous month's prohibition of explicit conduct, has led to rampant controversy amongst many of the site's long-time users. A large and outspoken group of current members of Tribe have repeatedly expressed that the new design, layout, and overall feel of the new website go against many of their original reasons for joining the site. Tribe's original "grassroots" approach to member-based forum monitoring and the focus of many tribe.net participants on alternative lifestyles and the arts was appealing to those who found other sites like MySpace or Friendster to be rather broad based and commercial.
Tribe.net has repeatedly stated that they have no intention of reverting to the previous look or interface of the site.
Trivia note: Tribe.net has the largest billboard in San Francisco, posted on the side of its office space in the Potrero Hill neighborhood. Ironically, this billboard is not licensed or sanctioned by city officials and is only visible for a few seconds from the northbound lane of Highway 101.