Written by Gary Glass
Sunday, 07 June 2009 15:35
Columns -
Gary Glass
This week, after nine years, Readerville closed
its doors. Long before MySpace and
Facebook and Twitter, Readerville was one
of the earliest social networking sites on the Internet. Its tag line perfectly
captured its spirit: “The social life of the mind.” Readerville’s design was years
ahead of its time — attractive, usable, and yet feature-rich. MySpace will
never look as good as Readerville did five years before MySpace began. I don’t think
Readerville’s departure leaves a void that cannot be filled, but I do think that
there are very few other offerings of its kind.
Karen Templer, Readerville’s proprietor, in her announcement about the site’s shutdown,
did not go into the reasons behind the decision,
but she did say this:
These days, I’m thrilled at the vast assortment of tools for people to connect online — from
blogs to Facebook and Twitter, to the many social book cataloging sites, and beyond.
Readers have resources nobody could have imagined nine years ago…. I like to think
Readerville helped set the stage for that in some small way.
I suspect that sites like Facebook and Twitter have claimed a lot of the social
networking traffic that sites like Readerville offered, and that the explosion of
the blogosphere and online content and commenting has taken a lot of the discussion
traffic. Readerville’s focus was books (hence the name), and it was always a great
place to learn about new books, but a large percentage of the day-to-day postings
on the site had little to do with reading. It was really an online community of
people with common (but varied) interests — united largely by a passion for
books, yes, but I think there was more to it than that.
Readerville was something of a spin-off from Salon’s
Table Talk (Ms Templer formerly worked for Salon),
and BookBalloon is something of a spin-off from Readerville (where I was a long-time
member). And over the past couple of days since learning of Readerville’s shutdown,
I’ve been asking myself what did it offer, and what does BookBalloon still offer,
that Facebook and the blogs do not. Here’s my answer:
BookBalloon offers an opportunity to have substantive discussion in a respectful
atmosphere. Not that there aren't other good reasons to participate here, but to
me, that is the real differentiator. It seems to me that for people who want to
have real discussions about ideas, books, and current events, in an atmosphere free
of abuse and ridicule, our online options are limited. Facebook is a great way to
stay in touch with friends and reconnect with old flames. Blogs are an unparalleled
resource for staying current on particular topics. But if you want to have serious
discussions about issues that you care about, and you want to do so without enduring
the ridicule of dozens of anonymous blockheads, or if you just want to be able to
follow a discussion without filtering through reams of silly babble, then you’re
going to need something else. It’s the rare blog writer who has the time or the
inclination to police the swarms of trolls that infect them.
As Readerville veterans will understand, there’s a distinction to be made between
the kind of social interactions one has on Facebook and Twitter, and the sense of
community and engagement that grows out of discussions that take place over an extended
period. Facebook and Twitter encourage a sound-bite culture. They’re good for chitchat.
“What’s on your mind?” But seriously engaging with people in a discussion group,
whether by trying to express your appreciation for or your objection to something
you’ve all read, or challenging one another’s ideas about current events, or sharing
your first-hand account of the latest California wildfires — over time you
get to know people to a degree you can’t on Facebook. And you get to know and even
to appreciate people that you don’t necessarily agree with, and that’s always good
for the soul.
And did I mention books? And movies? And music? And writers? These are things the
people on BookBalloon engage about. From what I’ve seen, there’s no better place
online to do that. But I, of course, am biased.
