[Imc-alternatives] wow/imcs with networking?

[Jay]

Hi alternatives,

For the last couple hours I've been thinking about the 
imc-alternatives sitemap, working toward sketching out some 
wireframes of our site.  I started by going through  popular non-indy 
news and social networking sites to get a sense of what I like in the 
layout.  After more than enough of that decided to do something I 
hadn't done for a long time, which was to go down the indymedia 
cities list one by one and skim the designs to see what layout 
different IMCs are using.

Wow.

I found most IMCs sites to still look clunky, design-wise, especially 
ones based on the indymedia.org black-background color scheme.  But I 
had forgotten about the sheer volume of participation that still 
drives in the global network.  If you ever need some inspiration, run 
down the cities list some time and you'll find an overwhelming number 
of working sites in a dozen different languages on almost every 
continent.  It's really quite amazing.

One thing I wanted to gauge is whether any Indymedia sites are using 
social networking or have a Community section that offers users the 
chance to post profiles.  Of all the indymedia sites, the only one I 
saw with a Community page that was easy to find was the Belgium IMC 
-- "http://www.indymedia.be".  That page featured really nice 
pictures of site users who had posted profiles.  The "community" 
element seemed to stop with allowing users to post an image and some 
text about themselves, probably after filling in a form.  There 
didn't seem to be a way for users to communicate with one another.

Does anyone know of any other indymedia site that has a community 
section?  I only read and recognize romance languages so some IMC 
that uses other characters may have a networking area that I may have missed.

Anyway, if you want to remind yourself of the vast potential group of 
current indymedia activists and site visitors who may support the 
alternatives project, go down the cities list and enjoy.

Jay