In a previous post, I talked about my goal of joining various hobby oriented social networks that interest me. I spent several hours during one weekend joining those groups and here are my reviews and comments of those sites.
The first hobby oriented social network I joined was Ravelry. This is a social network for people who either knit or crochet. So far, I haven't been able to find anything to really criticize about the site. Other than while their photo uploading function is wonderful, and even includes a cool centering feature, please make sure the photo you upload is oriented the correct way. The reason is, because unlike with Facebook, which allows you to rotate the photos you've uploaded, Ravelry doesn't.
Ravelry also contains a fabulous notebook for you to use. The notebook is where you can store photos of yarn that are in your stash, which is definitely something that any knitter has. Needles and crochet hooks can be kept track of in the notebook, as well as projects you're currently working on or are planning to start. The project function in the notebook is great because again you can add photos, update your progress, make comments, and share this project with others on Ravelry . In the project function, you can include all information you could think of that would pertain to working a particular project. There is a space to indicate the type of yarn and where you bought it from and it's cost, needle size, gauge, and size that the item will be made in. The list goes on.
Then there's the multitude of groups on Ravelry . I think I joined about 3 on my first visit. The groups are wonderful and at least with my experience have given me the opportunity to get together with the group's members in person, which I feel is most important with social networks. Why join a social network if you're not planning on conversing with actual people and especially in person?!
The next social network I joined was Stitcherie. I have done needlework since grade school. This is a social network for; you guessed it, people who do cross-stitch or needlepoint. The site's purpose may also apply to other types of threaded needlework such as crewel embroidery-I'm not sure.
My main gripe with the site is that the registration process isn't compatible with the Opera browser I use. Once I switched browsers everything worked fine, but as with anything that's not compatible with Opera; it irritated me.
On Stitcherie , I can't add my future projects or add items in my stash to my page, either. What I can do is upload pics of my projects and in the captions section of these images include pertinent information on these projects.
It doesn't make sense to me about the lack of a stash function or future/current projects function on this site, since like knitters; people who do any kind of embroidery have a stash. Hopefully, the powers that be on the site will read my post and add that as a function.
The site only has six groups and none of these were groups in my area. I had been hoping to find a group of cross-stitchers or at least people who did embroidery so we could stitch together, but no. Maybe I should try starting one?
The upside of the Stitcherie is that not too long after posting pictures of my finished projects, I had received many wonderful compliments on my needlework skills. So, I do think that's definitely a bonus that the people are so friendly. No one can complain about an ego boost.
Another hobby of mine is miniatures. This is a hobby that I've been interested in since I was 12. At one time, I even worked in a dollhouse shop. The next network I joined was the mini nook, which is devoted to the world of miniatures.
I didn't see any groups on this site, so that kind of stunk. However, if the function is there I should at least start one.
The downsides to this site are similar to those with Stitcherie and even Ravelry in regards to adding photos. The pictures can't be centered and/or rotated once they've been added to the site. Also when you upload the images into an album, you need to take care to only add pictures that are a certain file size. Pictures that are too large will not be added to your album, and this is not made clear immediately. The reason being is that if you're anything like me when uploading pictures, I tend to click the upload button and then go off and do something else. Instead of sitting and watching the site upload my picture(s). Several times I saw a sentence flash across the screen. However, I wasn't paying attention, and then wondered, why aren't all of the pics I uploaded in my album? It took a couple of times of going through the uploading process of these pictures with huge file sizes for me to finally realize why they weren't being added.
A further gripe with the album function on this site is that the order of the images in the albums can't be changed, so you need to be very careful when you chose the order in which to add any images to an album. I added two albums of the same house project and then finally realized afterwards that I should have added them in reverse order because I couldn't change their order once they were uploaded.
The next social network I joined was Genealogy Wise. The site is devoted to people interested in genealogy. This social network had a bit more convoluted registration process. I was able to create an account on the site, but was unable to do anything with it for the better part of a day. This was even after confirming my email address. The reason being was that the powers that be on the site needed to approve my membership.
I have a funny gripe with this site's photo adding and manipulation function. After adding my profile picture, I found that the top part of my head was clipped off. This made me appear to have been hit on the head with an anvil. I tried to adjust the centering and the size of the photo I added, but to no avail. Finally I tried another solution, I added another picture of myself and thankfully wasn't stricken with the head clipping 'feature'.
Unfortunately, unless more functions are added to this social network, I don't see its usefulness to me. I had joined the network thinking that I would be able to upload some of the genealogical data I've collected. Maybe even upload family groups to the site that would be visible to people researching that surname? However, the only useful function I've found is creating a group, which was one of the first things I did. I created a Womble surname group, so if you happen to be researching that family please stop by and join my Genealogy Wise group.
An interesting note is that I did receive a comment from a Genealogy Wise member. I should probably follow up on this because you never know who might know someone or something that could help in furthering your genealogical research.
Google+ is a new social network and is still in it's beta stage. I was able to join this after finagling an invite from a high school friend. I tried looking up various people I knew, but so far my only contact is my high school friend. At my knitting group, it was suggested that I look for the knitters that are using it. So I definitely have to give that a try!
Sunlight
