Although MySpace and Facebook may reign supreme in terms of numbers, there are hundreds of other social networking sites out there, targeted at connected people with specific interests, hobbies and lifestyles. MySpace and Facebook are great forums for general networking, but when people want to connect about something specific, their size can be a detriment. Other smaller forums allow users to have more in-depth discussions and really focus on what interest them.
For example, I recently discovered a great social networking site centered around fitness and have since been motivated to find others that coincide with my hobbies. I stumbled onto Peertrainer.com while searching for the “Top Ten Running Songs” (I’m attempted to train for a mini marathon next month. Notice the word “attempting.”) I was pleasantly surprised to find helpful advice and support, in addition to suggestions about the best tunes to pump me up during my runs. There are tons of other sites out there like this one and below I’ve listed a few that struck my fancy.
Travbuddy.com- A site for travelers to swap stories, advice and meet others who share their passion for exploring the globe.
Shelfari- A virtual book club. Write reviews or pick up tips about what to read next (My suggestion: Water for Elephants…. 100% amazing.) GoodReads is also a great place for book lovers.
DiveBuddy.com- This forum exists to connect scuba divers with their next dive buddy. Maybe I’ll meet a cute one that wants to go to Belize…..
-Margaret Henney
Margaret Henney (Social Network Specifics, April 17) is right on. I have followed http://www.PeerTrainer.com for a long time, and the site is amazing. The site is dedicated to people who want to lose weight and maintain their gains in weight loss, not an easy task as anybody who tried it knows. Judging from the posts of participants, the sucess rate is astounding.
What is intriguing to me about this site is the quality of advice and support rendered by the members. It is mostly accurate and correct; even when advice is erroneous in some details, it does not take long for it to be corrected by other members of the community.Being a doctor and a scientist I have to admit to a certain suspicion I had when I first came across the site; is this another site dispensing wrong, and sometimes harmful information? Do these people know what they are talking about? Don’t they need some “adult suprvision”? I was pleasantly surprised – the wikipedia principle works!
The factual information is accurate, as I said. But another indispensible ingredient is the warm and supportive atmosphere. All the great science and good info would not help without encouragement and support, and this the members offer each other in spades.
I highly recommend this social site, even if you are not trying to lose weight. It simply is a great community to be part of.
Comment by Dov Michaeli MD, Ph.D on April 21, 2008 at 12:36 am
Thanks for mentioning DiveBuddy.com. Our little community of scuba divers has grown pretty dramatically during this year thanks in part to blogs like yours. 1000′s of scuba divers have met new divers and dove safely together thanks to our site. Thanks again! Greg Davis (my profile: http://www.divebuddy.com/Greg)
Comment by Greg Davis on October 6, 2008 at 10:01 pm