GTI is awesome for us who're here. How would it be for complete noobs?

First off, I don't think you should avoid inviting friends just because something might not meet their approval. That's for them to decide. If you're afraid of them judging you for the behavior of others on the site, well, I'm sorry.

I don't like the idea of adding the inviter's team to the invitee's team. It's like saying, "hey, welcome! here's a bunch of crap you might not want."

So does that mean that you never check out the public convo's? I was hoping maybe this would be less cliquy, but in this scenario you're happy to never have to see anyone new, unless they barge into your convo like this.

Well, I disagree. And that's kind of what's at the crux of the issue...

Many of us on consumating, and hence, many of us now here, are the thick-skinned kind who think that everyone should say what they want to whomever they want, and it's up to others to "take it or leave it". But I'm one of those people who try to moderate what they say and what they expose people to depending on who the audience is. Those are just two different approaches to dealing with others, and I'm not saying I'm right and anyone else is wrong; it's just different.

But so, if you're going to expose everyone to everything, and require that they leave they don't like it, then that's what you'll get: people leaving. If GTI is destined to be a site for the thick-skinned only, that's okay. That's a culture we could easily inherit from consumating. But it would be a shame if that weren't the intention, yet it nevertheless happened.

But that's the thing, they don't have to leave if they don't like it. Teams are a fairly effective filter for cutting out the crap you don't want to see.

I think this place's cliqueyness is not for noobs. So it will be interesting to see how it pans out.

@Rabbit, Teeray: I find this really interesting. Early on, some people commented that they thought teams were cliquey, but others find the main page itself cliquey, and see teams as a good way to filter out some of that (eg by skipping reading posts that are relevant only to ex-consumaters).

@ acidlace: Personally, I've found the cruder side of Consumating more or less avoidable; the rougher side of the site does dominate, but I've always found enough space in the margins to just, well, do my thing, without running into it too often. For every conversation about fisting, there's another one about film noir or poetry or educational reform. (Okay, maybe the ratio's more like 10:1. But still, the point is that even Consumating had space for thin-skinned types like me who aren't really into talking about sex all the time.)

I would guess that a complete newbie on GTI is inevitably going to be a bit intimidated at first, because most of us who are already here kind of know each other at this point, but I guess what I'm saying overall is that on any social networking site, you stumble in with no idea what's going on and eventually find your niche. That was definitely true for me on Consumating, anyway.

i like the concept of inviting people into your team. if you send an invite to them, it only makes sense that they'd be automatically added, and inherit some of your teamness.

i very much (this would be in bold italics if html worked) agree that a lot of the site is rougher, and into more nonsense than i really care about. i don't care about video games and fisting and oh-em-gee the latest pitchfork reviews. bacon, i do care about, but that's bacon, and it's a wonderful thing. the other consumemes can die with that site, as far as i'm concerned.

@ansonia: I completely agree that every social networking site is daunting when you first join.

part of my own personal consumating story is that i feel i joined the site - long, long ago - back when you didn't have to wade through all the fisting to get to the film noir. and i still kinda feel the loss. GTI has got me all excited because it seems like the balance is different, and with the teams idea, more under the control of each individual member.

nevertheless, something happened at consumating that tipped the balance a long way, and for my own selfish reasons i think it would be sad if it happened again.

it may be foolish romanticism, but i'd love to return to the good ol' days when i could read scores and scores of posts each week that made me think "this is awesome!". i get the feeling that GTI might do that.

@ethan. yes! can we all just pause a minute and give thanks to bacon?

okay. that's good.

That is to say, they wouldn't be added automatically. It would tell them that so-and-so likes these people. Kind of like an introduction.

I'm not technically a noob here and I already can't stand it, so I don't know what that's saying.

@corey: ... that is to say, that's a much better idea than my original suggestion.

it gives people an initial ground to stand on in terms of the page they arrive at (which my idea didn't incorporate), but in terms of presenting them with a team, it uses recommendation instead of fait accompli.

Hard to say, ethan. But mostly I'm just disappointed. It's not that I so much mind the "post pictures of your shoes/crush/etc" but when it takes up half of the posts, I get annoyed. That kind of thing needs it's own place. I'll admit I haven't been looking super hard, but I don't find that many actual conversation topics that interest me. I know, I could be doing something to make this better, right? But this site is something we all create, and...right now, it's just eh.

erica, i have to say i totally agree with you. i found a couple of people that weren't consumators that i'm enjoying, but mostly i HAVE gotten very tired of seeing eight goobjillion photos on public posts page. it'll be nice if/when we can get that page categorized so we don't have to see all of it. and i won't lie, i just went through and added a bunch of people to my team so i can just click on that page, instead of the public posts. i'd also really hate to see you split, so don't. it's not like we've had tons of conversations or anything, but i always thought you had something worthwhile to add.

@ erica: I agree with you on how annoying it is when those things take up half the posts. That's the beauty of the team thing, though -- I wasn't really aware of how widespread the crush/shoes pictures were until I left the safety of the My Team page and wandered into the Public Posts arena.

It probably IS cliquish to maintain a small team, but I'm doing it anyway. I've been a little ruthless and probably excluded some perfectly nice people, which I kind of feel bad about, but I think I'll enjoy the site more if I don't have to wade through stuff that isn't interesting to me.

Thanks ethan!

acidlace - I did hear about that. I meant to post in that topic, but then I forgot.

Ansonia - yeah, sooner or later I might need to winnow out the team. But right now it's like...people on my team hardly post ANYTHING! So I'm not sure what to do.

GO, TEAM SQUAREPEGS.

You guys are doing all the hard work for me, which is good because I have to actually do hard work for my clients all day and I don't want to do anymore when I come to play on this website. So thanks!

The official plans right now include:

* a way to create "themes" that people can respond to. posts to these will not be included in the main public posts feed.
* a way to see just topics/photos/essays/links
* a way to see just topics/photos/essays/links by tag
* a way to unwatch topics
* a way to watch topics without posting (this may replace thumbs up or something)
*
* a way to post to your team only
* private messaging

it will be great.
stick with it.

I highly recommend using the team feature to pick and choose people who post things you want to see. That is how I designed it to be used. You must fight the urge to associate social network buddy with friendship. This is a content subscription, not a marriage!

I'm sorry, Acidlace for hijacking your conversation. I'm going to get back to the seriousness of this matter. ;o)

Honestly, I 'know' some people on this site, and yet I'm still rather intimidated by it. It does appear to be lots of people who know each other and that can be extremely intimidating. So I can imagine how it would appear to be to someone who stumbles upon the site.

The only reason I found out about the site was through a friend from consumating that I still keep in touch with, although I deleted that account. When I clicked on the emailed link, I came to the sign up page, as Ben said. However, I had no idea what it was and the page told me very little. I wanted to know what I was signing up for prior to signing up. So I clicked the Public page, as I would assume most people would do prior to signing up.

At any rate, I thought perhaps that it would be a lovely idea to have some selected profiles or topics on the front page. I'm not suggesting fake profiles, but perhaps ones that encourage a sense of inspiration.

Perhaps we should focus on what we want to make of it ourselves. And devise a work around for any of our complaints.

i kind of like it, so long as it isn't overdone... maybe if you had the option to leave them open or close them to clean up clutter? because i know on consu i liked just leaving my morning thread, and then i'd have to close and reopen it every time i wanted to talk about something else for a day.