On Saturday September 20th, Avatar Social Network (ASN) celebrates its first birthday and is holding a party in Second Life. It comes pretty close to marking my first month of involvement in ASN, so what better time to take another look, and also chat to Arkad Baxton, ASN’s founder about the past year and what may lie ahead?

As I noted in my first piece about it, ASN was established to provide a social hub where users of virtual worlds and games – not just SL – can interact with one another in a wide variety of ways: post comments and pictures to a common feed, write blog articles, discuss topics on the forums, post videos and photos to their own walls and to albums, create their own pages and feeds, create groups to promote and share creativity, in-world activities and so on – and generally have fun.

Since starting up in September 2013, ASN has enjoyed steady growth as people have discovered it, although over the past few months the growth in sign-ups has increased somewhat dramatically, passing quickly through both the 2,000 and the 3,000 mark and continuing to rise. But why set-up a social network in the first place? Second Life, World of Warcraft, many OpenSim virtual worlds, and so on, have forums where users can interact, and some have supporting social networks (SL for example has the SL feeds, Moolto, SL Friends…), so why start another?

“I get that question a lot actually,” Arkad says in reply. “People using virtual worlds and games like World of Warcraft and so on did not have a social network environment where they could freely interact with one another as their preferred avatar or character. Nor did they have a place where they could discuss their various interests in different worlds and games. The social networks and forums they did have were focused just on individual platforms. So I decided to try to make a place where people can freely make friends and share content no matter what their main interest in games or virtual worlds.”

Given the current rate of sign-up, ASN has certainly garnered a lot of interest among a widespread audience, which has in turn generated a core of active users who use the service daily, blogging, interacting through the feeds, groups and pages, and sharing their content. Indeed, such was the popularity of the site at the time of my joining (when membership was just touching 2,000), the service was actually showing signs of strain, and I wondered how it would handle future loads. I needn’t have worried.

ASN has a development roadmap in place, which is constantly being refined, updated and acted upon. Proof of this came a few days after my original article, when ASN’s ISP moved the service to bigger, faster and more robust servers. At the same time additional back-end services were introduced, including the use of SSL / HTTPS for more secure connections between users’ computers and the ASN servers.

An interesting aspect of ASN’s roadmap is that it is not being defined solely by the ASN team and their service provider. Feedback, ideas and input is openly sought from ASN members, both through the website’s feedback page, and through direct discussions with Arkad himself.

“Feedback has had a huge impact on the changes we make,” he notes during our chat. “Our feedback page lets people add their ideas and thoughts. Others can vote on them to show us how strong the demand is for specific ideas or suggestions, and our team is reviewing and evaluating them as we go. Obviously, we can’t please everyone, but we always listen to the members.”

Nor is the roadmap and listening to feedback confined to the core website; in my first article on ASN, I made an entirely personal aside about the level of access the Android app requests of a device. This was not a direct critique of the application or any suggestion that the app is doing anything untoward; merely that as a non-technical person, i felt the app exceeded the level of access to my device I was comfortable in giving.

On reading the article, Arkad contacted me to enquire what could be done to redress this, his view being that if I felt this way, others may as well, so it would be good to try to amend things if possible. As a result, and alongside the development of an iOS version of the app, a possible revisit to the Android app could be on the cards (the app is already undergoing an overhaul so it works more smoothly with the more secure servers).

Of course, the development of the service requires funding, so I asked Arkad how that is managed. “The primary revenue for the site is coming from advertising at the moment,” he replied. “That being said, there are various investors involved, so the finances are somewhat diversified, and we are hoping to add to the revenue stream by offering additional paid services down the road.”

One of the criticisms from outside of ASN is that there is so much anonymity involved – not so much where users are concerned, but in how the site is operated. ASN is owned by a virtual company, AP Holdings; while this may well be a Second Life company traded on SL Capital Exchange, it is still virtual and the only name associated with it is that of an avatar.

“ASN is a website structured to give people the freedom to be known purely as their preferred avatar or game character, and we promote the fact that no real-life information need be given or shared in order to use the service,” Arkad says in addressing this criticism. “We’ve simply tried to demonstrate this in a ‘show by doing’ approach. However, I do recognise that trust in a service is important, and we will soon be providing information on the actual company behind ASN and we will then continue to publish information related to it as the growth of the website demands.”

Another area where ASN has sometimes been critiqued is in its rules – something which actually strikes me as a little odd, given most forums and social websites tends to have rules or requirements of one sort or another. Arkad’s view on this is equally frank.

“No one likes vague disclaimers; our rules are clear and out there, so people can review them before they ever sign-up, and they can then judge whether or not they want to use the website or not. ASN is designed to cater for many people, and rules help ensure we all know where we stand in terms of behaviour. It also helps with moderation; people know what is acceptable and what isn’t, so there is no need for heavy-handed moderation. If we allowed people to do or say whatever they wanted to say, then this probably wouldn’t be the case.”

It’s hard to argue this point, particularly given that in the month I’ve been involved in ASN and engaged in discussions and exchanges, it has actually been quite refreshing to see how open such discussion can be. Little (if anything) of value is lost from debates and discussions, and the level of discourse is relaxed and informative.

The ASN moderators, while low-key, are all ASN members who have grown with the service and who have demonstrated the ability to act responsibly and impartially on the rare occasions moderation is required. They keep an eye on things at ground level. Behind them are the ASN service administrators, who pass out information and updates on the service and who deal with user enquiries and provide help desk support. They also make the final decision on things like abuse reports and issues of content. Working within the company managing ASN, they operate alongside the site’s developers.

The heart of ASN, however, are the users. They breathe life into the forum, create the content, start and maintain conversations, and so on. As mentioned above, there are now over 3,000 signed-up members, and a fairly broad group of core members. As with any social network site, the value a person gets out of it is only equitable to the value put into it. In this latter respect, it is fair to say that ASN is proving to be a vibrant community – and it is hard not to put this down in part to the fact that the rules on using the service are so clear-cut.

“People love to be in a positive environment,” Arkad agrees. “You can see that in the content and the posts and everything. There’s so much fun and laughter, so many positive contributions which have helped to both establish ASN and spur its growth. I do believe that keeping the website clean with the rules as we have them has a major part in this growth. Together, the people and the rules have made ASN warm and inviting.”

To mark ASN’s first birthday, an all-day party is being held in Second Life on Saturday 20th September, starting at 9:00 SLT and running through until 23:00. It will feature a mix of music from DJ and live performances by well-known artists, gifts, assorted “specials” and more. Not only is it an opportunity for ASN members to get together in-world and have fun, it’s also an ideal opportunity for anyone who has been curious about ASN to pop along and find out more for themselves from the people who use the service.

As well as celebrating the closing of ASN’s first successful year, the party also heralds the start of its second. Given there is a roadmap for future development, I tried to tickle Arkad into revealing some of what’s planned.

“Well, I hope to release the iOS app soon,” he replied. “But as to the rest, I don’t want to spoil any surprises because we have a number of things planned! I will give you one hint, however: music! 😉 .”

That left me with just three further questions. The first two of these being: is he happy with the way things have gone over the last 12 months, and what would he like to see for ASN over the course of the next 12?

“I wanted to create a social media website where members can enjoy a lot of features at one place, a very easy way to connect and keep in touch without being separated by different grids or games. A place where the content would be positive and members can enjoy themselves and be rewarded for their efforts, ” he replies. “I think the activity and growth we have demonstrates that this is what people want, and that makes me happy.

“Looking to the future, in one year we’ve achieved 3,000 members, had 70,000 posts and 12,000 friendships. I would like to see ten times these numbers by next year, with a lot of happy members, new fantastic friendships crossing the divides between worlds and between games.”

This sounds like an ambitious aim; but given the degree with which those joining ASN are willing to get involved and enjoy themselves, there’s nothing wrong with setting one’s sights high. My own experience of ASN – albeit for just a month – is that it really is a warm, inviting environment that naturally encourages participation and sharing. I’ve made a number of new friends, some of which have already carried over in-world, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.

As an observer, it’s been interesting to step back and watch how work is progressing on enhancing the site and to address issues. Arkad has never been anything less than frank and open in our discussions over the course of the month, and his willingness to reach out on matters such as a purely personal concern with the Android app has been impressive and speaks to someone who genuinely wants to build a successful platform sensitive to the needs of its users.

For my final question I asked Arkad that if there was one thing he could point to as being a major reason for ASN’s growth to date, what would it be. He responded by pointing to a video of Pharrell Williams’ song Happy, which seemed an appropriate theme to end with. However, rather than using the video Arkad pointed to, I’m going to use one by Jupi Shinn that puts the song in more of a proper context (and which is also a personal favourite!).

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