Surf the Mind

A friend and client of mine asked me about SNEmpire today. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but a quick Google I discovered it’s a $500 social networking script. The sales page actually looks pretty good, but I went to one of the sites running the software (imsocialize.com) and was less than impressed by the user interface presented there.

Instead of recommending a buy, I pointed my friend to several open source social networking scripts that might server her needs:

Dolphin
The demo site and the showcase of sites running this script are very impressive.

Elgg
This looks like another contender. It’s got a pretty basic interface, but from a user standpoint, the simplicity is great.

Mahara
Mahara is a little less like Facebook, and a little more like LinkedIn. If your users are all about business and achievements, this might be the best solution for you.

Insoshi
A bit basic, but like Elgg, it’s got lots of potential.

PHPizabi
A great looking site right out of the box.

While each of these will require some customization, and they don’t come with tutorials, and maybe that makes all the difference to my friend. But making sure the foundation of my business — the software — is rock solid would be more important to me than spending time on the customization and learning curve were I planning a social networking site.

I have a stack of things I want to tackle that’s at least a foot high.

I have high priority, low priority, and just about every priority on the scale in between.

I KNOW that I should be working… but sometimes, when there’s so much to do, it’s way too easy to procrastinate. FreeCell looms large on my computer, begging me to cave in to the distraction. The latest bunch of books I bought at Amazon are whispering that they want to be read. Play some games, make some tea, fiddle with the Kindle, surf the web… all the distractions seem more appealing than my actual work.

So, what to do when there’s so much to do you’re procrastinating even starting?

• Recognize what’s happening.
• Deal with it.
• Force yourself to work.

Which is exactly what I’m going to do now.

Right after I make myself a cup of tea.

DOH!

Today my friend and I went to a fountain pen turning class at Lee Valley. It was a ton of fun, and I walked out with my very own hand-turned fountain pen.

I have, for more than a week, been trying to get some resolution from the hotel I mentioned in earlier posts by telephone. I was, I suppose, of the belief that a phone call would be more effective than email. And in some cases it is. But today, out of frustration, I pulled open a Google search to dig out some relevant email addresses. I sent an email to the Assistant Manager I had been dealing with, and copied the email to the hotel’s General Manager AND the customer relations department of the hotel chain’s head office.

A half a dozen phone messages couldn’t get a call back from the hotel in six days. An email worked within six minutes. Not only did I receive a phone call, but my issues were resolved nearly instantly.

What was in the email? Simply a note to say that I was dismayed with the lack of contact, that I thought I had been lied to when the hotel management said they would quickly resolve the issue, and a promise to share my negative experience on hotel review sites on the Web. I believe that it was the fact that the mail was sent to his superiors rather than the content of the message that spurred the Hotel manager into action, but the accusation of deception and dishonesty on the part of the hotel probably helped as well.

In any case, all’s well that ends well. And as a final takeaway, I’ve learned the power of a well distributed email to achieve results.