As I try to decide how my book/blog/Website/workshop/consultancy/business should go (too many slashes, but I still believe it’s got plenty of potential), my blog posts have become a bit less regular than I’d like. And the apologies get old, but I will anyway. Sorry.
So let me throw out there two ideas I’ve been bandying about in my head, and the amazing potential they have — separately or, better yet, in sync with one another — and if someone takes the proverbial ball and runs with it, I just ask they remember who gave them the ideas. Preferably at Christmas, or in their will, whichever comes last. I’m a patient pan.
First up: PetPeeves.com — oh come on now, everyone has a whole herd of them. Or gaggle, or pick your favorite Animal Husbandry Grouping. You could even make it a voting deal, where the most broadly felt, frustrating pet peeves move up the list, and those as I’ve blogged about before (no big-size Kleenex boxes, really?) could still stand, just down, way down the list.
Advertising there might be tricky – but where there are eyeballs, there’s potential profit, right? (Maybe someone could even design a lil cutesy mascot – think Gremlins crossed with puppies — and call it a Peeve. Sort of like a Minion, but with definite attitude, sort of like a Jackson Galaxy-proof Cat From Hell.)
And then, on the other end of the “but of course! Why didn’t I think of that!” spectrum, there’s … Nicebook. (OK, it’d have to have another name – Msr. Zuckerberg likely wouldn’t take too fondly to that – but you get the drift.)
A social network where jerks are booted and signal-to-noise ratio is exalted. Two slogans: “Be nice or be gone.” And “Not Pollyanna, just less drama.”
It’d be pretty darn hard to keep things on the sunny side of life — as it is on Facebook, for sure — but wouldn’t you like to associate at least some of the time with nice folks, who in general would far rather share Cute Cat and Dog Videos or praise their friends then tell tragic tales of woe, or bitterly spleen-vent and argue, again, over … well, the usual — Obama, the 1 percent, how kids today have it too easy and Hey You Get Offa My Lawn!
Anyway, if the Nicebook folks get too ornery, you could just send them over to PetPeeves.com! And if — and granted, this is a ridiculously huge if — the folks get too nice on the Venting Mothership that PetPeeves.com would no doubt become, you could send them over to Nicebook and say “Be Nice over there!”
After all, each of us has some form of those proverbial (again with the proverbial) Devils on one shoulder and Angels on the other, trying to turn us toward the dark or light sides. And depending on your mood, you could hang out in one spot or the other that particular night.
The Yin and Yang of social media – no more one site trying to be all things to all people in all moods, good, bad, foul or happy as a lark!
So there you have it – the Next Facebook. Or two. You’re welcome!
Which reminds me, I’ve said before how many of us spent much of the ’70s and ’80s waiting for the Next Beatles, before eventually, sadly realizing there wouldn’t be one. But Facebook – teens are leaving it in droves, right? It’s becoming like an old shopping mall where only geezers such as myself shuffle along and post cutesy pics on our walls? No?
PetPeeves.com and Nicebook. Someone needs to create them – why not you?
Heck, if I were half as smart as some folks think I am – not many, but some – I’d have already snapped up both domain names and be willing to part with them for a few measly Numbers With Commas In Them.
Nah. Then I’d become someone else’s Pet Peeve, and might have to herd them over to Nicebook (Slogan: “Where Nice is Not a Dirty Word”) and tell them to zip it and Have a Nice Day!
Leave it to Barney 