Every day, I seem to receive at least one email or invitation to a new “social network” of sorts – and just about every one of these networks are networks unto themselves. That is to say: they’re community silos, not community expanders.

This is frustrating – and I don’t see the trend changing anytime soon. As someone who has always had a community (or network) of friends, both real and virtual, the last thing I want or need to do is split them up. I don’t need another proprietary chat room – I don’t need another proprietary commenting system.

So, each of these “Web 2.0″ efforts wants to be the next success story – right? Why, then, do they not understand that the “Holy Grail” of social networking is in eliminating the walls between social networks? It’s not just about doing yet another mashup – it’s about bridging existing gaps.

Chat (active interactive) and Comments (static interactive) seem to be communication devices that some people already have (but not everyone, admittedly). Still, for those of us who already have solutions in place – why make yet another silo for us? Why not break down that barrier and allow us to use the tools we already have in our stable?

Dunno. I’m not down on the whole idea of social networking – but I am down on the idea of creating yet another social network to get to the people who are already in my social network. Gawd, that phrase means absolutely nothing to me anymore (I’ve said and heard it enough times).

I understand the validity of creating rich, live chatting experiences – but not at the expense of abandoning (read: ignoring) my existing IRC channels at irc.wyldryde.org. IRC has been around forever – imperfect, but widely adopted. The only reason Twitter “works” for me is that it allows me to receive updates via my IM network of choice. Imperfect, but already running on my desktop.

If you decide to integrate some kind of live chat within your service, at least let people choose to use their own instead of yours. If security is an issue, then you shouldn’t be doing chat in the first place. Live chat, of any kind, is only as strong as the room’s active members and moderators.

Stop creating community (communication) silos, please? Please?

• Monday Night Live
• Changes in Our IRC Network Channel
• Subservient Chris Raising Money for WyldRyde
• How Can You be a Good Member of our Live Community?
• Accessing IRC Chat via a Web Browser: Mibbit
• Chat Room Rules and Guidelines
• IRC Chat Safety and Security
• Flash IRC Script
• Schedule Bot in IRC
• What Do You Read?

Last night, on our way home from dinner, I asked Ponzi if she’d come on cam to say hi to everybody who was tuned in. I told her there were probably 100 people in there and she said there probably wasn’t. We quickly discovered the chat room count sitting at 79, so she dismissed me and went about her nightly business. I told the chat room that Ponzi wouldn’t return unless we had at least 100 people in chat.

Minutes later, people were twittering away – asking their friends to join the fun. Then someone decided to post to Digg. In less than a half hour, our chat room swelled to over 400 people – actively asking questions. I was answering them in rapid-fire succession. Our server was taking quite a hit, but we kept going thanks to everybody (SubWolf, Sean, usrbingeek, LordKat, Bear, Kat, Freekie, IslandDave, SC_Thor, Ryan, Pierce (and I hope I’m not leaving anybody out).

We had a total blast – and someone suggested that Ponzi do a live cooking show, taking questions from the audience all the while. I think she’ll do it, but I don’t know when. The site is streaming 24/7 (and the community is buzzing, thanks to new friends from Facepunch. All in all, this is nothing more than an ongoing experiment – but it’s turning out to be quite successful (espeically for our existing sponsors, I can safely say).

• Creating Community Communication Silos
• Changes in Our IRC Network Channel
• Subservient Chris Raising Money for WyldRyde
• How Can You be a Good Member of our Live Community?
• Accessing IRC Chat via a Web Browser: Mibbit
• Chat Room Rules and Guidelines
• IRC Chat Safety and Security
• Flash IRC Script
• Schedule Bot in IRC
• What Do You Read?