Popping my blog cherry with some socialising

My angst over not having posted on this blog yet has become ridiculous, as my resistance to putting my thoughts out there for all to see has continued to grow! Someone posted a while ago that had this blog been anonymous, they would have posted sooner and I’m in that boat too. But before I get into a subjective analysis about what it feels like to blog I’ll move on….

Nightline did a story a few weeks ago about a new virtual community called “socialise” which I thought I’d check out. Started by a couple in Wellington who wanted to create something in between online interactivity such as myspace and real life meetings, on Socialise you are represented by an “avatar”; a cartoon-like image of yourself. Once your avatar is created (you can make basic clothing and hair decisions etc), you have the choice of 4 rooms in which you can go and meet others – a beach, a boat, a nightclub, or a café. You can also make a date to go on a private ‘virtual outing’ with another avatar, where you will have virtual money to play games with and maybe even buy your date a drink! After an outing you have the option to rate the ‘performance’ of your date so future suitors can avoid bad dates. The website claims that “socialise members can go on a virtual outing with other members and behave and interact almost as you would on a real life outing”. In the main chatrooms the interactive options are ‘sit’, ‘blow a kiss’, ‘drink’, ‘dance’, ‘give rose’ or ‘lay down’ as well as entering text which appears in a speech bubble above your avatar’s head. Looking for a virtual date? Registration gives you 21 days of free ‘socialising’, after which you’ll need to fork out $35 a month if you still want access to all areas… www.socialise.co.nz