The Social Network too.

I've received a great deal of commentary regarding this expansive idea which I'm posing and much of it was precisely the type of critique I was hoping for. The main problem with any social network is how do we weed out the noise, the spam, the phishing and problematic members of the community. Well upon the creation of this website I believe it should be invite only (also, as posed by an anonymous commentator: there could be the option to e-mail one of the higher ranked members for an invite). But we want this to be expansive and very open to the public, so whatever limiting invite-only type of methodology we use, it will eventually be dismissed and the floodgate let open for the masses to join in.  So that brings up many issues, the first of which is how do you stop people from spamming and attacking the site. Well that is where the highly developed rating system comes in:

The Rating System is common throughout social networks and forums all across the internet, a reward of votes places you in higher standing amongst whatever community you are posting within, what I'm proposing is an even more interactive and integral version of this. Each new member is only allowed a certain number of posts a day, maybe only one or two on the first day until they receive a rating from other members who have already established themselves. Each person is also given an allotment of ratings which they may dole out per day, the higher ranked you are the more ratings you can give out, an unrated person would not be allowed to rate anyone at all. Also the higher your rating goes the more privileges you're granted. For instance programming changes and changing content of certain pages may be granted to people with the highest ratings. All major changes, before being made, will require a vote by other members (voting of course would come after hitting a certain level).  This allows the more trusted members of the community to have more access to changing the shape and the feel of the website. The users will thus be able to decide which users are the most suited to be moderating and running a website of this magnitude.

Of course this has it's flaws, but the idea of this site is that every system and network that is created should be critiqued and amended until it's as well honed as we can get it.

Another commenter asked about specialized users who maybe represent a magazine or a group. I think this is a perfect example of where this website can go. Every field could have it's own specialized area and the rating system could factor that in, allowing people to be rated and ranked by their specific contributions and talents.  Once the ball gets rolling on the website the potential is limitless.

(also I'm dropping the whole STEVE thing, that was too silly).

-Mr. Internet