Facebook and Mylot; the Highs and Lows of my Online Communities

There are a whole plethora of social networking sites around at the moment. I'm not too familiar with a lot of them. I know the names of sites like MySpace, Bebo, MyYearbook, Yuwie, and Friendster, but I don't know exactly what they do.

And I don't really need to know, as all of my friends are on Facebook; and to be honest I wouldn't want the mess of having some friends on one application and some friends on others. It would be too confusing, and I would probably also get confused at having to find my way around all of these different sites. I know where I am with Facebook (at least the old version of the website, which I'm still using - and will be sticking with for as long as they let me!)

I'm sure that most people are familiar with Facebook. When you open an account there you can look for all your relatives, colleagues, friends, new and old, and make "Facebook Friends" with them. You can send messages to your Facebook friends, share photos, videos and your current status (or what you're doing right now!) You can also play games (although sadly not Scrabulous any more...), take quizzes, join groups and share all sorts of zany applications with them.

When I first joined there was an annoying trend of turning your friends into vampires, pirates and suchlike. Luckily the kind people at Facebook have provided us with the option to ignore such notifications, and I'm glad that this trend has now passed!

One of my favourite Facebook applications at the moment is (Lil) Green Patch, in which you can help save an area of rainforest by sending plants to your friends for their Lil Green Patch, receiving plants for your own, and helping to maintain your own patch and theirs. So far I've saved 6 square feet of rainforest! (I know, it doesn't sound that much really, but I think it's probably possible to do a lot better if you really put some work into it!)

Until recently I was a real Facebook addict. I was on there anytime I had a free moment, day or night - and sometimes very late into the night! It's such a huge site, that it's possible to waste (sorry, "spend"!) an unbelievable amount of time there.

And when you're not doing any of the activities I've already talked about, you can do the most exciting Facebook activity of them all; one that people may or may not talk about; yes, stalking!

As some people don't restrict access to their profiles in any way, it's sometimes possible to look at the profiles of people you haven't seen for years, or people you just want to know more about - without them knowing! I know this sounds a bit cruel, and perhaps even just plain wrong, but they do have the option of restricting access to just their friends. (Hmm, is that enough justification? How about the fact that it's not just me, everybody does it... don't they?!)

But as I said above, I was a Facebook addict until recently. I still use it; it's the main way that I keep in touch with some of my close friends and far-away family members; but now something else has taken its place in my affections.

I was introduced to myLot by somebody I met online, and they sold it to me as a site where you get paid for having discussions with people. It turned out that they weren't lying in any way, but it rather made me think that chatting online to strangers would provide me with a handsome income! And that was my inital reason for joining.

It turned out that you earn (on average) $0.01 per discussion that you start or answer; - so I was never going to get rich quick! MyLot actually has an earnings algorithm which calculates what each member earns, based on their activity on the site, but what's contained in this algorithm is a very well-kept secret that leads to much speculation amongst the myLot community! But one thing that most people have worked out, is that you do better if your posts are at least 4 or 5 lines, and of a reasonable quality (ie. you can't just continuously type out the word "cabbage" for four lines, and hope for the best!)

Despite only earning 21 cents in my first three days there, I didn't leave. I was finding lots of really interesting discussions about every topic under the sun, and I just couldn't help adding my two-penneth worth to as many of them as possible. I was sharing opinions with lots of lovely people, some of them even became my friends, and I was hooked!

Ironically, although my initial aim was to make some money, it was only once I'd decided to stay there for the fun of it that my earnings really increased! I think when you really get into this site you participate so much more, and before you know it you're earning, well, more than 21 cents in three days! I'm still not earning loads, but I've managed to reach the minimum payout of $10 each month that I've been there, which is rather nice. Some people earn more, others earn less.

So, what I'm really trying to say, is that it's best to treat myLot not as a site for earning a living, but as a highly enjoyable social networking site, much like the others - but which compensates you for using it!

So myLot is my new social networking addiction. It's not unlike Facebook in that you make friends with other users, and you can send them messages. You also set up your own profile, which isn't as user-friendly as on Facebook, but you can add photos, music, information about yourself and html bits and bobs.

However, unlike Facebook, which to me has a somewhat impersonal feel about it, myLot feels like a real community. It's a very friendly place, (both in terms of design and membership), everyone is welcome in any part of the site, and members refer to eachother as myLotters and even have their own greeting (Happy myLotting!)

Another big difference is that on Facebook most of the friends you make tend to be with people you already know in real life. Most people tend to join myLot not knowing a soul, but they soon find themselves making lots of brand new friends!

My experience of myLot has been a very positive one. As well as meeting lots of great people from all over the world, I've learnt plenty of new things, and had my views challenged and even changed on occasion. What's more, if ever I want to get some advice on something or find out anything at all, I know that there's a group of people out there who'll be able to help.

My only gripe is that it's so darn addictive. Hours of my day (or night) just seem to disappear...