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SD! :
About :
Profiles : Network
Your Network
Your Network is a feature that was added to The Slave
Register in July 2005. It allows people with profiles on the site to list
other users of SD! they've met in real-life or know online.
"Social Networks" like this exist in everyday life, and in the
various BDSM communities and scenes around the world. They provide a way of
finding
new people with shared interests and of establishing a good reputation: most
informal social activities rely on "the Friend of a Friend" idea
to introduce newcomers and to allow people to "ask around" and get
some idea what each other is really like.
The Network feature of SD! let's you add some of that social network
to your SD! profile.
Your network appears as a web page with a list of
people, saying whether you know them online or in real-life, and allows you
to place a comment next to each one, to indicate how well you know them:
| Name |
Type |
Joined SD! |
Location |
Last visit |
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| Mr Example |
real-life |
231 days |
UK |
near Manchester |
17 days |
| A reliable guy - my first contact in the
scene |
| Miss Demo |
online |
31 days |
FR |
Paris |
18 minutes |
| A great shoulder to cry on! |
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Each person you add is a connection in your network, and you will also appear
on their network page (if there's anyone in your network, a link to your
network page appears near the top of your profile page.)
Adding people to your network
Once you're signed in to your SD! profile (You can sign-in using this link)
you can start adding
people you know to your network by finding their profile pages.
(If you're unsure of a friend's SD! profile name or registration number,
you could also just ask them!)
When you're signed-in, the button "Add/change in your network"
appears in the middle of everyone's
profile pages. If you click on one of those buttons, the system will let you
send a SD! memo to that person asking if they want to join your network. If
they agree, then you'll each appear in each other's network pages.
Once this is done, you can also add comments about each other,
using the comment box on the same "Add/change in your network"
page: you can use that to write a one-line comment about
the person, which will appear their network page if approved. When you submit
your new comment, the system will again send them a memo asking
if the comment is ok (they may also send you a memo with a comment about
you: just use the Memos link in the top left hand corner of the screen
to read the memo and decide whether to make their comment publically visible
or not.)
The "Add/change in your network" page
also allows you to highlight people on your and
their network page, to indicate your are in a relationship.
The connections on your network are normally sorted according to the date of
their last visit to SD! (up to six months), but highlighted
connections appear near the top of the network
page with a blue background. You can also indicate the person that is your
owner, in which case they will appear highlighted on your network page, and
ownership connections will appear on your and their profile pages.
Network "etiquette"
We need
network connections and comments to be approved by both users to stop people
abusing the system with malicious comments about people they don't like,
or by pretending to have a huge circle of "famous" friends to
build a false
reputation. Even with those safeguards in place, there are some things you
need to bear in mind when using the networks.
It's possible for people to create an imaginary circle of friends, who all
know each other and all say great things about each other. There isn't much
we can do about that, but at least these "sock puppets" won't be
any real person's "Friend of a Friend" and so they shouldn't be
too misleading. Clearly, recommendations are only worth anything if they're
made by someone you've met and trust!
It's also easy for the networks to put people in an awkward position, if
someone you don't know / can't remember / don't actually like asks to join
your network. Please try to handle this with maturity: if you're not sure
who they are, don't be afraid to ask for more details, since it's easy to
get names, faces and online nicks mixed up at a busy munch or club, for
instance.
Conversely, if someone turns down your offer of joining each other's
networks, don't jump to take offense: maybe they've just got a bad memory,
or they are very cautious about who they add, or maybe they're just
downright shy...
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