[Forrest7778]

I think that you are correct in many ways:

It addresses the point of people being afraid to express themselves because there is almost always a large mass of objects to pin - so you should feel more comfortable pinning something that you may or may not be secure about your friend's agreeing with. If someone was to think "Wow, those shoes are ugly" and you had it pinned - hey, it's a huge pinboard and I'm sure they agree with more things about you than they disagree.

It's also a complete positive board - much like the like system is, there isn't a way to track how many people don't like something - so there's safety in numbers of pinning something someone else already has pinned.

I think that something innovative that could possibly be added towards the pinning system is to allow people to add their own tags to the objects that you can pin - and allow people to add the pins to their own groups - and allow these groups to be reviewed publicly like a portfolio. It would be much easier to obtain information about people who like groups of specific objects then. (Assuming this isn't already done - I'm not a Pinterest user myself.)

[davemel37]

Great Point. By not reporting back to me the negative feedback, and the massive amount of pinnings I do, It removes a big element of the fear involved in social sharing, while still having the benefits of being recognized when something awesome is shared.

I still think someone needs to find a way to make social sharing a win for both sides to really start influencing purchasing decisions... Or better yet, hide my friends likes, plus ones, and recommendations, and only share them when I ask,"what do you think of this?"

That would be a nifty function that lets me control when I ask for recommendations (i.e. when I am seeking the approval from friends) but eliminates the lag time of waiting for a response from my friends...