[SoftwareMaven]

Custom grouping is too hard for the masses, so any social network that relies on that will continue to be the one nobody has heard about.

The WLN controls are actually a pretty good compromise in that they make it pretty easy and relatively clear to create the one differentiation that most people really want: real friends versus acquaintances.

I wish we lived in a world where people actually read the popup dialogs that popped up in front of them before clicking on "OK"...multiple times (a real experience that I witnessed that altered my perception of the masses completely). Unfortunately, we don't, and as the ones building the software, we have to deal with that (and often suffer when it comes to things like FaceBook that has has mass-adoption overlap).

[Ripster]

I see your point, and agree, well said, but not all social networks/web apps should aspire to be the next Facebook, some of them should try to do something different, not necessarily for the masses.

[SoftwareMaven]

I totally agree. Community has totally been lost in many of these "social" apps. The best social network I interact with is a motorcycle forum still running vBulletin.

I think the huge challenge in these sites is that they start off simple and targeted (like Facebook), then grow, and find they don't have a sane way to deal with that growth.

Of course, trying to solve it before you need to is just a pointless waste of time, because odds are very against you ever needing to solve it.

[StevenHodson]

I agree with you that some of the best so-called social networks are the old-style web forums. Having run for a very long time I see more of a 'community' built around it that any social network and really isn't that what it is all about - being a part of a community?