Tom Woroniecki:  

’s no requirement to fill in the fields related to all the topics - you can pick and choose from the spectrum of benign to ridiculous. But when you execute a casual click on the favorites tab, you’re immediately hit in the face by a blast of topics that litter the page. You think to yourself, “I just wanted to get reacquainted with some of my old friends, not climb Mount Kilimanjaro.” I myself began with all good intention and in a very short time (I believe I filled in text boxes of three topics) said to myself, “I just can’t do this” and quit. Oh yeah, and as an example of idiotic (I could probably print the favorites page, hang the printout on my wall, blind fold myself, twirl around a few times and throw a dart at the page to pick an example just as bad)…” pet's description of me”. - The “announcements” section. This one is pure and simple chicanery. You’re urged to… “Let your friends know what's new with you—create a new announcement now.” That’s easy enough to do. Ahh…but just try to read an announcement posted by another member. Sorry pal, you’ll have to fork over a few bucks to get more than the first line. This in turn means that other members will have to drop a few Lincolns to see the announcement you post. What a scam! - The “bios” section. OK, I can understand maybe having one single “life” bio, but five bios? That’s right; there are five…life, school, college, workplace and military. We’ve passed the overkill threshold a long time ago folks. But the worst part of it is the prompt above each bio text box. Take the school bio as an example. The prompt reads, “Who was your biggest crush? Which teacher inspired you most? And if you could do it all over again, would you? Spill your funniest, happiest, and craziest school memories here.” I mean what’s all this spoon-fed business? It sounds like a fourth grade homework assignment. Help, Jane, stop this crazy thing! There must be a better way. A way where hopeful participants find themselves wanting to express more about themselves knowing that by doing so they’ll have more of a presence and a greater probability of staying connected based on that presence. Well, there is. I threw out the names of two popular social network sites in my earlier “life bio” message. Classmates.com happens to be one as well, but it’s too specific. General social network sites are much more freeform. “Express yourself” as the song used to say. Personally, I like MySpace the best. It gives you a lot of leeway in how you decorate your page. Get yourself a page. IT’S COMPLETELY FREE. Is Classmates useless? No, in fact it makes a great redirection vehicle since it’s where most former classmates will make their first stop. If they’re allowed to read complete bios without being charged more, they’ll get the scoop on a better way to make the connections they seek. Well, that’s it for now. I ask only a few more favors of anyone who reads this…1) send me an email, 2) tell others to email me and 3) visit my MySpace page. BTW, I would have made this whole thing an announcement in Classmates (which is really where it should go), but I was aware that if I did almost no one would see it. Here’s hoping that we meet again soon in the physical or virtual world. -Tom