slip into my tightcircle
Written: Nov 13 '00 (Updated Nov 13 '00)
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With message boards and clubs being all the rage these days, a new and innovative website has hit the internet, leaving all those other guys in the dust. At tightcircle.com, you can keep in touch with family members and friends via a tightcircle webpage or through your E-mail account. In my epinions Prod5 tightcircle, we rarely even talk about epinions anymore because we’ve all become such good friends. Even though the 40 members in it are spread out all over the United States, we stay connected through tightcircle by regaling each other with our daily anecdotes (okay, so we really just talk about the Hello Kitty vibrator mostly).
So, why should I pick tightcircle over any other community webpage, message board, or club?
Well, here are some of the way cool features you will get with tightcircle that you generally won’t find anywhere else on the Internet…
1. Picture uploading and captioning
Okay, so you can put pictures into a photo album on your cute little Yahoo! Club or Lycos forum. But can you caption your pictures and have them rotating with each page click? On tightcircle, every time a member accesses his/her circle, a new picture that has been added into the gallery will pop up each time. When I go to write a new message, there I see MattJoe slopping up chocolate pudding, or Superflychick looking hot on the beach, and of course we have the Hello Kitty vibrator set up in the rotation too. Put in as many pictures as you want and watch them change with every page visit.
2. File sharing
Currently only 2 mb, but still a great way to share a .doc, .jpg, .mid, .avi, or whatever other type of file you can think of that can be under 2mb! Not good for mp3’s yet, but I have a feeling that might change because the webmasters are hip, happening folks.
3. Filtering and Muting
I’ve recently discovered the beauty of muting members who just don’t have a clue. You don’t have to kick them out, just hit that good ol “MUTE” button until they “Simma Down Now!” This way, you can check the filter for messages they have sent in and decide for yourself if it is something you want in your tightcircle for everyone to see (the mute button is generally an extreme action to take when a member is causing major problems). The filter is utilized as well when a member E-mails a message in from perhaps a different E-mail account than they registered with. No problem, just review the message to determine if it came from a member, then accept the message as well as their new E-mail address and you’re good to go.
Now that I’ve sparked your interest with the fancy features…
Here’s how tightcircle works:
1. Either go straight to tightcircle.com and join by registering your email account and giving yourself a nickname or just join someone else’s tightcircle that suits your interest. Many tightcircles are private, invite-only forums, but my epinions tightcircle happens to be an all public-access forum, so just go to my profile page, fill out the form, and get ready to be a part of the hip crowd.
2. Send messages into the tightcircles you belong to by either going to each tightcircle’s homepage or by sending an E-mail into the tightcircle. (Did I just say you could E-mail your messages in? Can’t do that with Yahoo! clubs, can ya?)
3. Read your messages (called ‘digests’) by either going to the tightcircle’s homepage or by changing your settings on your profile so that digests get sent to your E-mailbox however many times a day you like. If there are 12 new messages in your tightcircle, then you will receive one digest in your mailbox with all 12 messages in it. No more of that tedious clicking on every single message link to read all of them – tightcircle is very convenient and you won’t have 40 emails a day from it (unless you have VERY busy little chatters in there).
4. Create your own tightcircle by simply being a member! All you have to do to start the party is become a member by completing my step 1. It’s all FREE and you can create as many as you like.
Why does tightcircle rock so hard?
It’s convenient
If you hate to visit Yahoo message boards multiple times throughout the day to see new messages, then tightcircle is for you. You can have the digests emailed to you so that you can read them at your convenience without having to check a message board to see if there are new messages.
If you like to visit the message boards regularly, but hate logging in – then tightcircle is for you. Every time you go into tightcircle, your i.d. and password are stored so that you will see all of your tightcircles listed on the main page. The bonus of being a member in many tightcircles is that you only have to visit one page (tightcircle.com) and you will see a list of all your circles with an indicator if there is a new digest in it. No more signing into multiple message boards only to find out there are no new messages!
It’s efficient
Don’t like the nickname you signed up with? No problem! Instead of re-registering under a different name, you can have your name changed by an administrator. Also, if you belong to many tightcircles, you can have a different nickname in each one if you desire.
Want to have each forum displayed in a different format? You can do that too. Instead of having simple messages displayed by each member, you can have a conversational setting that reads like a play. Or you can set your tightcircles to html format. All of this can be done with a few changes to the settings on each tightcircle. Very cool.
Anything else I need to know about it?
The messages are non-threaded.
Tightcircle is like a conversation. This can be good to some, and not good to others. Everyone sees all the messages, and they are not threaded, so you have to follow the conversation that is taking place. This also means that if you are answering a question, you should make it obvious as to what question you are answering (instead of replying “Yeah, I liked it”, you would need to say “Yeah, I liked Tammy’s sexy Fudgicle review” so people know what you are talking about). It’s not hard, but it takes more effort than simply posting a reply on a threaded message where there is a titled topic.
The Webmasters are very helpful and responsive
Ever try to contact the administration at the Yahoo! Clubs? TRY is the operating word in that question – you’ll wait 3 weeks before you hear back, and I guarantee you that coveted E-mail will be a generic form-letter. At tightcircle though, you will get a quick, personal reply to your questions and the folks that run the joint are pleasant to speak with as well.
So slip into a tightcircle today – I promise you’ll have a blast!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
st3on1ey1baby
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Member: tammy rocks
Location: Tempe, AZ
Reviews written: 84
Trusted by: 134 members
About Me:
hi
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