2003-08-12 - 1:53 a.m.

Friendster. Face value fun, or shameless self-promotion?

I dunno. I just know that I better get with the program or otherwise I�ll find myself out of yet another loop.

It still feels weird, though, asking my friends if they�ll be my friendster friends.

Or are we not really that close?

It�s worse than forcing friends to pose for a picture. Nobody minds, but it�s the asking that�s embarrassing.

And with friendster, it�s not the fear of rejection, really, but the fear of finding out, and that�s not just limited to someone saying no.

Although it is reassuring that, despite the horrible response time and frustrating log-on the site offers, I can look at a picture of my friend Buttercup, and above that picture, read Buttercup is your friend.

That�s reassuring. Evidence.

Frankly, I�m amazed that I�ve allowed myself to write over 600 Diaryland entries.

I�m also ashamed and am only now admitting that I put my picture up on make-out club. I swear, I didn�t know how lame it was.

Is Friendster the end of Diaryland?

My guess is no.

I�m an idiot, but I don�t see friendster lasting forever. In that, it�ll last forever, but that the first major media article it gets will be eclipsed by the fact that the trend will be over, and it�ll start sucking.

And of course (and this is just me pulling numbers out of a hat) 70% of the folks who are on the site now will update less than 20 times in the next year, and 90% will sign up, update less than five times, and will be done within three weeks. Sites like these need members updating to keep �em interesting, not just a flood of new members who quit out.

Diaryland is still five years ahead of it�s time.

Maybe all the folks who want to be on the internet will get and then abandon Friendster accounts, and the folks who are left on Diaryland will become a loose-knit community of writers who update. I imagine that many of these people will also be paying members.

But fantasies, even remotely plausible ones, stop for now. I better get on with it. I chose Diaryland in the face of LiveJournal. I chose a Mac in the face of Windows. I�ve run out of dorky things to say--for now!

But I�m consciously trying to have fun. And stop being such a Strong Sad.

So I�ll go with Friendster. Even though I know they�re probably selling my e-mail address.

And if I ask you to be my Friendster friend, it�s cause I actually want you to be my friend.