LooseSuits

David you're the man... seriously. I was talking to Paul and Tyme the other day about finding screenshots of our old designs and having them in one place and you brilliantly put it all together. I just sent you some points as a thank you gift. Also, I made this note an Editor Pick. Totally awesome.

And the new 9rules.com design that I'm working on trumps them all. Just puttin' that out there.

David, thanks for this! I'm relatively new to 9rules myself, and while I've seen a couple of those things, the really old stuff is new to me, and very interesting. Good man, good man.

This is BRILLIANT, David.

And the new 9rules.com design that I'm working on trumps them all. Just puttin' that out there.

Ooh. That sounds great, Mike. Now after you're done with that, how about redoing Chawlk ... =)

*kidding, kidding*

PS: I've just realized how much easier it was to find good member content back in the day. Those are amazing designs, Mike. No notes, true, but I can probably spend my whole life browsing the writing going on there.

Thanks a lot David, almost makes me think we need a wiki to keep track of all the changes that we do. Maybe not...

I've just started Googling 9Rules and trying to read the FAQ's to get a radar fix on everything. I came over to Chawlk today after reading Mike's blog entry about the "old 9 Rules coming back." I must admit it is all a lot to take in for a noob. Maybe it's because I teach elementary school that I am always trying to SIMPLIFY things and not make them more complicated.

The way I understand 9Rules as it was is that it was an application based group of writers that are "hand-picked." I guess one question that comes to mind is: "Who are the people who sit in gold at the top of the stairs" that's from an 80's punk song called 2nd Generation by The Alarm.

Coming from a noob perspective it all seems a bit elitist and I really don't want any part in elitist groups. At the same time I value quality blogging and it will be nice to trust in the members entries that they are all sorted ... again, by whom and through what criteria is another question.

I think I will focus on Chawlk for now since I have gotten used to notes. Reading Googled articles it seems the old school really despises notes. i find that troubling as well. Notes are really easy and cool and laid back. I love participating in them. I am not sure if I will apply to be a 9Rules member when the "next round" of applying happens but Chawlk is going to definitely be something to try and do daily to network with writers and readers out there.

I was planning to do an article on my blog about 9Rules and I think it would be silly since it is way over my head in past, present, and future. I'll continue to use Chawlk as an "everyman" and watch from a distance as this foreboding 9Rules many are buzzing about relaunches itself new and improved and hopefully very successfully for its members.

Is there anything you would add about 9Rules? Is it too early for me to be able to do a real review?

Thanks

Riley a big thing is that Chawlk has not launched "officially" as we haven't finished up everything on the site yet (including the homepage, about and FAQ pages explaining stuff, etc.) and also the new version of 9rules.com that will be strictly member blogs and their entries has not been launched yet, so right now the total strategy of "relaunching 9rules and moving stuff to Chawlk" is not yet complete. Very soon it will be though, and we'll have new about pages and explanation sections describing both Chawlk and 9rules, and also giving some more context to the things you're currently seeing on Chawlk.

If it's possible it might be best to hold off on an assessment of the social qualities of 9rules, especially since they're all being migrated over here. Perhaps once Chawlk is fully complete and launched (aka, whenever chawlk.com goes to something other than the current splash page!) then it'd be easier to understand the things going on at both sites.

Riley, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the whole 9rules notes and member moolah. I'm not a member of the network (application pending since last year), and I'm not part of the triad, so I guess as a notes user I'm in the same position as you are. Here's what I understand about 9rules and I hope it helps you.

9rules's history is convoluted mainly because it was big back in the day, and big breeds jealousy. There are people out there who want nothing more than to spoil 9rules's image, and I guess this grew out of hand because bloggers have unusually large egos (and the Triad responded in ways that sometimes encouraged flame wars).

But anyway. 9rules.com started out as a place for Scrivs to keep a list of all the sites and blogs he wrote at. Now I don't know where he got the idea from, but he decided to turn it into a collection of blogs, mostly design ones, and these bloggers were big names. 9rules got famous pretty quickly (if you've got big names affiliated with you you'd become big - no surprise there), and according to the old timers it was a close-knit community, where people helped each other out with design gigs and code and whatever else designers do in their free time (get drunk? I may never know).

I'm pretty blur with Mike and Tyme and Colin - if I'm not mistaken Mike and Colin were on board from day 1, but Tyme got 'promoted'. Colin left after Ali, if I got my facts straight.

Anyway, Mike, Scrivs and Tyme are the people behind 9rules now, and they're nice people once you get to know them. Mike is the designer, Tyme is the people person, and Scrivs the CEO. Though if you see them on Superstreams (interactive video conferencing sessions) you'll know they're not anything like corporate executives.

9rules accepted sites through 24 hour submission sprees. They happened twice a year back then, and sites that were good enough (good writing, good design, good interaction with readers) got accepted. The submission system is currently closed, as Tyme is still drowning in Round 5's.

Ali 1
Ali 1 (a redesign) introduced my.9r, which was basically notes and all the fancy profile thingies you see on the site. The triad were getting complaints about how members weren't really interacting with the readers, so they opened up a section where this interaction could happen. A community sprung up. Back then there were community leaders, who watched over specific topics like Writing and Blogging and Design. There were complaints, of course (aren't there always?) but these people worked hard and eventually they created an ethos of mature discussion (and blatant lolcat usage). It was a good place.

Sometime 3rd quarter 2007 they announced they were working on Ali 2, and it would be a whole lot better. This led to jokes on a section for ponies (no, I don't understand how that came about either), and we were pretty excited about it.

Ali 2
Ali 2 came out, and it introduced clips and cliques and other even more fancy social features. There's also a gallery of hot chicks somewhere in the entertainment section, if you care to look. The main problem members had with Ali 2 was that they were now all required to participate in Notes.

This, naturally, didn't go well with some of them.

9rules was also bloated up. It used to be a simple concept (blogging network), but now it was forum+digg+facebook+blog network. If you asked me back then what 9rules was, I'd probably die of circuit overload before I can try expressing the feeling of community and the features the site boasted.

This bloat is addressed in the upcoming site split. Community and social networking features will be moved to Chawlk. And 9rules? 9rules will go back to it's original format: the blog network.

PS: (No, 9rules didn't pay me to write this. And no, I'm not 100% sure I got the above right. But that's what I know, Riley, and I hope it helps.)

<end>

Hey there. Thanks so much for that. Clearly this is not the right time for me to write a review of Chawlk, but down the road I will be constructing a favorable review because I have a very good feeling about its potential.

If you are interested my series on social networks I use is in process here:

Finest Hour of Social Networks

My original outline was:

Part I
BlogCatalog
Entrecard

Part II
Facebook
Fuel My Blog

Part III
9Rules
Twitter

Part IV
Final Thoughts

Since I can't fill a post on Twitter, I'll have to pick something else for Part III. That shouldn't be a problem, maybe Squidoo as a social network? Any suggestions?

I'm here for Chawlk because I am looking to network ... period. The 9Rules business model, or whatever Tyme and the gang want to think of it as doesn't sound like my bag of chips but you never know.

I ended up here through my good friend Lorelle van Fossen who is pretty much the top in my book. She had a leaf link and I came over. It's been a wierd ride asking queestion the past couple weeks trying to understand 9Rules, but I think I am that much closer.

meanwhile, I will hang out here at Chawlk and let the really hungry apply to the new 9Rules. If anyone wants to nominate me I wont fight it ;)

To close this thought (and I hope the thread continues) so far the triad (your term) has been nothing but cool to me since I popped my head in Chawlk. I look forward to their success at this quite remarkable company.

d

Thank you for the kind words. :)

I'm a bit confused on the "can't fill a post on Twitter" part. You could include Twitter, FriendFeed, SocialThing...meaning the off-shoots of Twitter and how to manage social sites better. I'm not sure how you are defining "social networks" but if you are using a general definition like "tools to help you interact with others" then you might want to consider Seesmic - which is Twitter-like using video.

No MySpace or Virb? Are you trying to keep the topics down to two per chapter?

When you start publishing your series, let me know. I'd like to check it out. :)

Thanks Tyme, I sure will. And thanks for the suggestion. I know I don't use Twitter for even half of what it is made for, so that's what I meant. But you give me some food for thought. Take it easy!

This is all great reading material, which I'll have to sift through a couple times more.

If I'm not mistaken, I was selected in June of 2006 and even then the whole history of 9r is a lot to take in. Perhaps if you're new here, it becomes almost impossible.

In that view, the switch to Chawlk is a good thing. Users shouldn't need to know the full history and inner workings of a social network to be able to participate.

A wiki might be a good idea. For now, there is an entry on Wikipedia. I added the Chawlk announcement, but someone should really work on that though.

Okay, had the chance to go through this some more.

@Shadowsun That's an awesome write-up. I shot you beacuoup points for that.

@rileycentral I think I've done more posts about Twitter alone that I can think of. Of course, Twitter really isn't a social network (but I don't want to open that can of worms) but I agree with Tyme's suggestion. It's changed so much for so many and its certainly a service that's out there.