GreekValley.com - A social network for greeks

[mboyle]

Hey Everyone, I'm a Sigma Pi at Penn State Main Campus and I wanted to share a project I've been working on with you.

Short Story: I built a "facebook for greeks," go check it out at GreekValley.com

Long Story:

I built Greek Valley to make it easier for greeks to communicate and coordinate activities like socials, rush, philanthropy events, etc. It's a work in progress, but so far the site is broken down into four main sections:

Chapter Room

Only your fraternity or sorority can view what's posted on this page. Use this section to post important announcements or photos of things that you wouldn't want the rest of Facebook or your greek community to see.

Events

See what's going on with your organization and schedule new events like socials, sports, philanthropy, whatever. You can also posts pictures or stories to the walls of events that have already passed.

Directory

A list of all of the fraternities and sororities registered at your university, including members.

Community Wall

Here you can post messages (publicly or anonymously) to your whole greek community.


So that's Greek Valley. If you're interested, please, please go check out the site at GreekValley.com. If you have any feedback feel free to let me know what you think in this thread, I'll definitely implement good ideas.

Also, feel free to friend me on Facebook, my name is Michael Boyle and the link to my profile is http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?...26&ref=profile

Hope to hear from you guys!

[KSUViolet06]

Or they could just use Facebook, the GIN system, Chapter Communications, or any number of other sites that do the same thing.

[mboyle]

Well, not necessarily. While there are other solutions out there, Greek Valley is the best.

Facebook isn't great for this sort of thing because it's too generalized and there are privacy issues. It used to be that you could post pictures of anything with impunity but now that potential employers, school administrators, and even people outside of your specific organization can see virtually everything that you post it's back to G-rated material.

Further, it's too confusing and complicated to consistently utilize the tools Facebook provides to manage greek life as a whole.

I also checked out chapter communications before I started working on GV and while they took a good swing at solving the problems greek life faces, they haven't done a very good job of it. Their install base is pretty wide but a very small percentage of their users utilize anything but the badge that's displayed on your profile.

And as far as the other thing you mentioned goes, that doesn't seem to be specific to greek life at all.

Why don't you actually check out GV before being so quick to recommend alternatives as equal offerings?

[GammaPhi88]

How would you make sure that the Chapter Room section is for members only? Anyone can fake affiliation on the internet, and I really don't think any GLO's headquarters would give out member numbers.

[mboyle]

Originally Posted by GammaPhi88

How would you make sure that the Chapter Room section is for members only? Anyone can fake affiliation on the internet, and I really don't think any GLO's headquarters would give out member numbers.

Good question... before you can view the chapter room and even the community wall, other members of your chapter have to create accounts and vote you in. Before anyone is accepted as a member other users in the same chapter have to answer yes to a "Is *so and so* a member of Gamma Phi Beta?"

Once a certain number of people confirm your membership, you're a member. If someone who isn't a member tries to fake being in a chapter they'll quickly get voted out by other members of that chapter.

[icelandelf]

Originally Posted by mboyle

Good question... before you can view the chapter room and even the community wall, other members of your chapter have to create accounts and vote you in. Before anyone is accepted as a member other users in the same chapter have to answer yes to a "Is *so and so* a member of Gamma Phi Beta?"

Once a certain number of people confirm your membership, you're a member. If someone who isn't a member tries to fake being in a chapter they'll quickly get voted out by other members of that chapter.

So who votes them in?

[mboyle]

Originally Posted by icelandelf

So who votes them in?

People waiting to be voted in can vote on other people.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Or they could just use Facebook, the GIN system, Chapter Communications, or any number of other sites that do the same thing.

Right. GreekValley isn't the first of its kind. At least 20 of these Greek social networking sites have sprung up since Facebook and MySpace were born, and all have been unsuccessful and dropped off the radar because Greeks tend to stick to MySpace and Facebook anyway.

Good luck with your venture, but it's nothing new. Your product is NOT unique.

[AlphaDeltaDelta]

Haha... GC can be a bit of a harsh place it appears.

[mboyle]

Originally Posted by AlphaDeltaDelta

Haha... GC can be a bit of a harsh place it appears.

Indeed. Still, I invite all of the people who've commented so far to at least try the site out before you make your judgements on its uniqueness or usefulness.

Everything people have said so far seems to have been based on my post, not on actually pulling up GreekValley and giving it a whirl.

[GammaPhi88]

I took a look at GreekValley, and as you said, it is a facebook for greeks. That said, I don't really feel compelled to get another facebook solely to keep up with my Greek friends...facebook works just fine for me when it comes to keeping up with friends, Greek or not. Do we really need this? Are Greeks so exclusive that they need their own facebook?

[Senusret I]

Actually, YOU ARE SPAMMING.

We don't have to try anything out based on the word of someone who isn't part of this community.

[rufio]

fraternity live?

[BabyPiNK_FL]

Did anyone else mentally sing "Sweet Valley, Sweet Valley High. Meet you at Sweet Valley" ?