Netvibes' Contacts (black) Board review

Just a few lines to present my view on the Contacts board of Netvibes in the Ginger upgrade (but why not everybody is in Ginger ?).

Well, the background ... is black but as you will see also the My Followers that are also my Friends are highlighed ... in a blackcard, but in a ... darker black AND with a green sign on the right side. The Followers that are not (already ? ;)) my friends are just ... in black with no other sign. The "My Friends" option works in the same way.

As a general impression I would say that for my small screen a lot of space is lost ... in black as only my friends/followers are presented by groups of 8.

At the same time the "My Followers"/"My Friends" sign is repeated twice: in the left menu and in the Contact board. And also a lot of space is lost under the cards. With out those lost spaces a third row of contacts could be arranged, if needed.

Some Friends/Followers are presented with Name AND Firstname on 1 row others on 2 : it could be easier to have all on 2 rows. The 3rd row is the country one when declared.

On the practical side, Netvibes should do better than other Social Networks, by giving better ways to:

• display friends (not only date of subscription),
  
• browse between friends in the 2 directions (first/last),
• offering funny applications to visualize relationship between friends...
• create groups of interest ...
  

I know, I know that all that will come, but I am so impatient ...

4 rules for What are Friends and Followers in Netvibes ?

If you are new to Netvibes and/or to Social Networks like Facebook or Twitter you could have some difficulties to understand what are the FRIENDS and FOLLOWERS of your Netvibes page in the new Ginger release.


FRIENDS
When you arrive on Ginger you have already one Friend: Netvibes Then you will explore Netvibes and you will arrive on someone's universe (let's say: Free-Ingrid-Betancourt) .
If you check her contacts you will ONLY see her Follers (not the Friends !)
If you like her Universe and/or want to get in touch you click under her profile the: add friend .
(For: How to Find Friends with Netvibes read my previous post here)

If you now go in your own CONTACTS (by clicking Conctacts in your own Netvibes page) you will see that your New Friend has been added on your Friends list.

But the term FRIEND is not correct as the correct one should be: FOLLOWING.

Yes, if you are Friend with Some one, in Netvibes and the other Social networks, that means only that you FOLLOW that person.
Following means being able to read and watch his/her Activities.
(For my post on Activities go here)

The contrary is not true:

Rule 1: YOUR FRIENDS DO NOT FOLLOW/READ YOU !

That is quite strange for "normal people" but the Web works with asymmetric communication ;)
In normal life when I phone to a friend he answers me and so forth. Not here.

So, now you are able to follow Free-Ingrid-Betancourt Activities but Free-Ingrid-Betancourt is not. But on her Conctacts she will see a new Follower: you.

Rule 2: WHEN YOU ADD A FRIEND , YOU BECOME HIS/HER FOLLOWER !

That means that if you click on Activities or you watch your MY COMMUNITY Widget you will be able to read her activities , updates ...

Rule 3: WHEN YOU ARE FRIEND, YOU CAN SEE YOUR FRIEND' FRIENDS
When you are a Friend to someone you can, if you go back to your Friend Universe, see who are her/his Friends not just her/his followers. And if the Friends' of my Friends are my Friends rule works then you can find new friends...

FOLLOWERS:
Are following a person Activities.
When you check you own Friends and Followers if you see a little green mark on the right, that just means that you already have added him as Friend = you are already following.


Of course, all your Friends are green marked and possibly just some of your followers are...
But, if you check your Friend' Friends you will see yourself but with no Green Mark: Netvibes bug or choice ?


In conclusion, for what I am concerned, I think that the minimum is to check who is following you and as I am quite open to new ideas I like to transform my Followers in Friends ;)
What I require is just to have an Interesting Universe...

Rule 4: ONLY WHEN YOU AND YOUR FRIEND ARE MUTUALLY FOLLOWER AND FOLLOWING (FRIEND) THAT A REAL BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATION CAN WORK.

Suggestion for Netvibes:
When 2 users are mutually Friends that should be marked differently and perhaps also named as : "GOOD FRIENDS" with a special "BEST FRIENDS" group to be left for the Good Friends to decide...

Hope is it clear enough...

New Invite Friends option for Netvibes Ginger

There is a new option in the Contacts section of your Netvibes Ginger: it's the Invite Friends.

With this option you could send an email to friend to invite to join. But you can not write or modify the message.

At time of writing, the function does not seem to work... I let ypu know