Consumating

Infobox Website
name = Consumating
favicon =



caption =
url = http://www.consumating.com/
commercial =
type = Social network service
registration =
owner = CNET
author = Ben Brown and Adam Mathes
launch date =
current status =
revenue =

Consumating was a social networking website founded in 2002 by Ben Brown and Adam Mathes. It used tags as a way for members to interact with one another, as well as multiple contest for photo and text. Users could also rate one another in a tongue-in-cheek approach to an online popularity contest.

About

Consumating runs under the slogan, "A New Way to Find People Who Don't Suck." Despite the title, Consumating was not merely a dating site, but more of a social network where users could find others with similar interests based on the tags displayed in their profile or by location (using their zip code), as well as gender and age. Users had the ability to message each other, although they were limited to ten new messaging contacts a month.

A user profile consisted of up to five pictures of any kind that the user wished to upload, a personal motto, and whatever tags that the user wished to give themselves.

Users also had the ability to rate each other's profiles with a simple option of a thumbs up or thumbs down. Each thumbs up gave the user two points, while each thumbs down removed one point. People were ranked in terms of their popularity based on total points. Other users were also allowed to add tags to other people's profiles, which were listed separately from the tags submitted by a user to their own profile.

Users also had the ability to start conversations, similar in style to miniature message boards. The user could choose any topic and other users could respond however they see fit until the original author decided to close the subject. This meant that only one subject could be open for a user at a time. Conversations also served as fodder for the anonymous quotes which appear in the "Just Overhead" feature at the top of the Consumating interface.

The owners of the website also held weekly contests for users, always in two forms. The first was a "Question of the Week", new every Monday, in which the users gave a single answer that other users can rate, similar to profiles. Answers could be serious or completely random, as there was no strict guideline for how to participate in this contest. Users could also add a single picture to their answer. In 2006, Consumating changed the policy for giving thumbs up or thumbs down to the question contest by removing the possibility of someone giving a thumbs down on a user's page. However, the ability to thumb down a response remained in a separate section of the website dedicated to that week's particular question, making it more difficult for users to enter a thumb down for every single question that a person has listed on their page, an act termed "thumb bombing".

The other weekly contest was a photo contest, new every Friday, in which Consumating's owners picked a topic, and users must upload a picture illustrating or relating to the topic, often as a self-portrait. Again, there were no strict rules about this, and users were able to upload anything they want, even slight nudity in some cases. Users were yet again allowed to rate these pictures, which added to a user's overall popularity total.

Consumating is also a big supporter of its members meeting in person, usually in large groups. These meetings, termed "Consumeetings", are publicized on the website's front page to help promote the various locations at which meetings occur.

History

The site was founded in 2002 by Ben Brown and Adam Mathes. Brown and Mathes, who originally coined the term Google bomb in 2001, later joined together to form the joke website "personals.uber.nu", which was meant to mimic online dating, but later evolved into Consumating. After its sale to CNET Networks in 2005, the team was joined by Josh Goldberg. Adam Mathes is no longer involved in the day to day running of the site.

After Ben Brown left CNET in Spring 2007, Jesse Keyes took over managing the site. [cite web |author=Baio, Andy |title=Waxy.org |date=2008-02-08 |work=CNET to Shut Down Consumating |url=http://www.waxy.org/archive/2008/02/08/cnet_to_.shtml |accessdate=2008-02-13 ]

At the beginning of March 2008, CNET announced that it would be shutting down the site on March 14, 2008. [cite web |author=Keyes, Jesse |title= Consumating.com |date=2008-02-13 |work=The news you don't want to hear |url=http://consumating.com/profiles/Jesse%21/topics?id=141427&responseoffset=0#link3147685 |accessdate=2008-02-13 ]

In response to the news of the site's closing, several of the site's own users began creation of new, similar sites to Consumating. One of the new sites, [http://theNTSH.com theNTSH] , is a site built upon the familiarity of the parent site. Another site, [http://GoTeamInternet.com Go, Team Internet!] , is the brainchild of Consumating.com co-founder Ben Brown.

Open source

On March 10, 2007, it was announced at TechCrunch that "every single line of code for consumating will be released."

Later on an entry at Google Code was found for Clonesumating - the official title of the open source version of Consumating with Ben Brown listed as the Project Administrator.

Closing down

As of 2:35 PM PST March 14, 2008, Consumating.com has closed down.

ee also

*List of social networking websites

References

External links

* [http://www.consumating.com/ Official website]