I enjoy commenting on articles and finding people with similar interests, does such a site exist?
In the spirit of my quest I took some time today to look at Plime.
According to the website:
Plime is a news aggregator, wiki (editable by all) and friend finder in one. It relies on the power of online community participation to control it's structure and editorial content. It's also a great place to meet others with similar interests.
I first noticed Plime when I was checking my server logs and I saw an influx of traffic from their site. Curious I took some time to look over their site and try it out.
- Good
- Clean wiki-style interface
- Collapsable category listing on the left side
- Up and down voting is transparent
- All submissions can have an image associated with them
- You can customize your color scheme
- No advertising
- Bad
- Karma system easily abused to inflate a users power
- No FAQ on site
- Aggresive "don't come around here no more" moderators
- Same content you will find on Netscape/Reddit/Digg
I went into Plime expecting a basic news aggregator type of site. I found a good variety of categories and a system designed to help you find people with similar likes. I even submitted two stories to see how the community would react. This is when things turned bad.
One particular user (may be a mod, no way to be sure) I ran into was actively taking the role of a cop. He dropped comments all over the site pestering posters about abusing the system or only posting articles that would result in personal gain.
I can understand moderating a community and looking out for content that does not belong but I got a very unfriendly vibe from Plime. I do not think I will be going back there again.
Don't just take my word for it, take a look at their website and make up your own mind.