Hey just thought i'd drop in to say - love the idea of this and have already sent my email in for it! Role on the launch!!

do we really need yet another social networking site? they could've teamed up with an existing community like vox or livejournal or even *gasp* afterellen.com. but i guess that would cut into their projected advertising profits or however they're going to monetize site users. it seems like they're a little late on the social networking/web 2.0 bandwagon but at least the logo doesn't have that generic web 2.0 look--all plasticky, smooth edges with a reverse reflection and some pastel gradient background (plaxo.com, mozilla.com, etc.). so i have a sliver of hope that is entirely based in design. who knows if it will succeed or just end up as another internet roadkill fatality? i love how scribegrrrl called it littlechickensbankbook.com. ha!

oh, and hilary rosen is the prez of ourchart.com. personally, after all of the riaa madness she spearheaded (sueing senior citizens and children), she scares me. there are many who would like to have her head on a platter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilary_Rosen

Today they have a kind of twisted "Dear Abby" where you can ask Jenny (!!!) for advise on love. It wasn't there yesterday. It scares me a little. Aside from the fact that you're asking a fictional character, which is a little insane in itself, it's Jenny who's just recently overcome very serious issues... I mean, it's probably not meant seriously, because the advice she gives (to someone who's "new to all this" and trying to find a girlfriend in the big city) is just eerie:

"So, here’s what I would do if I were you: act depressed, even if you don’t feel that way. I don’t mean “Oh, I can’t get out of bed in the morning” depressed – I mean “My model ex-girlfriend just started dating Portia De Rossi’s first lover” depressed. And I think you know exactly the feeling I mean.

If drinking makes it easier to put on the affectation, or even to really get sullen, then drink up. Drink, drink, drink. Yeah. And remember that when you look bored and miserable, all kinds of hot women with questionable sexual boundaries will start throwing themselves at you. I mean, literally. It’s like the worst-kept secret in the world. I’m surprised you don’t know it already.

You may not find the love of your life this way, but then again, maybe you will. In any case, at least you’ll be getting fucked."

I don't really know what to make of this. I guess I have to revise what I said yesterday about the site being interesting. Something's very odd about this.

And has anybody tried the S4 chart? It's a joke.

Sorry for my ramblings, just disappointment talking.

PS: (1/11/07) Now they have their lesbian news on Thursdays, one day before Sarah Warn's column. Is there a war on??

has anybody else gotten spammed from signing up for ourchart?

I haven't signed up but I watched the video podcast of Ms. Chaiken explaining certain decisions they made. It's interesting. There's also a blog by her. And a lot of other stuff in the making...Blogs by so-called guestbians (although Scribe claims that the word belongs to AfterEllen) including Jane Lynch. Fantastic.

I guess I'll have another site to visit each week now.

A Sirius radio host posted a guest blog yesterday in which she said "Creating a common space for lesbians and their pals is long overdue, and who better to lead that charge than the creative juices behind "The L Word."

Uh, "long overdue"? Are they forgetting that AfterEllen's been doing this for almost 5 years? And the L Word fan sites have been around for awhile too, to name a few.

I was about to say as much when I saw that some genius person posted this comment titled "Common Space for Lesbians Exists Already":

I just wanted to comment that there is a site up already that gives us lesbians a place to visit to find out the latest in lesbian entertainment, music, movies, tv shows, gossip, etc. It's called AfterEllen.com.

and then someone else posted this:

Not only do we have the wonderful AfterEllen.com for entertainment there is also the great and wonderful and International Shoe.org for community, support and dating. 

I mean, jeez, Ilene! Arrogant much? I'm looking forward to seeing what OurChart has to offer, because it's always great to have more lesbian websites, but don't act like you invented the concept of a lesbian website!

(Here's the blog post I'm talking about if you want to see it: http://www.ourchart.com/node/124)

Scribe Grrrl did invent the word, you can see it in her first L Word recap back in January 2004.  AfterEllen.com was even selling t-shirts with the word on it for a year or two.

I checked out OurChart this morning and it looks semi-interesting. Not sure I'll go back on a regular basis, because I'm not as interested in politics and that seems to be their strength, beyond the L Word stuff, but we'll see.

I haven't even been to OurChart.com (I loathe the idea and the self-righteous attitude), but I smell a lawsuit. Between stealing intellectual property like "guestbian" and generally being idiots about the supposed niche that only they can fill (I'm rolling my eyes right out of my skull), MTV needs to go get 'em!

That's sooo the wrong feeling to have but yet it feels so right. Nobody should even try to mess with what AfterEllen has accomplished over the past several years. Call me self-righteous. :)

I love reading your comments regarding AfterEllen and OurChart.  That rocks.  I read a comment there in the 'Hookup' blog where someone mentioned AfterEllen too.  Its nice to know we have such loyal fans.

What baffles me is how they made this such a PR nightmare.  Advertising all over on Showtime about OurChart and 4 episodes into the season its not even fully functional.  Maybe they should have set a deadline?  Business 101.

I really enjoy The Hookup blog there though.  It started off kind of slow, but I find it pretty funny and witty.

url=http://www.ourchart.com/the_hookup

So, in this case, two women expressing the lesbian lifestyle = bad.  Why?  Oh, silly me, they're not *really* lesbians.

Just curious as to the requirement here.

Wondering when I will meet the quota for my voice to be accepted.

Most people think Katherine Moennig is as queer as they come and she's never "come out" as straight, fwiw. Not to mention that neither she (nor Jennifer Beals) had anything to do with Ilene Chaiken - who, you'll be happy to hear, is a card-carrying lesbian - deciding to launch a lesbian website.

But wait. It's okay to judge people based solely on their sexuality, isn't it? Er... umm... wait a minute... I'm seeing a flaw in your plan, iusedtobeshanesgirl. :-/

True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self, but the point is not only to get out, you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand. -Henry James

I have mixed feelings. It is sort of like watching Will & Grace and then logging on to justjack.com as a lark to see if the site really exists. (It did, but now it just redirects you to NBC).

There is something a bit twisted about a website that is created specifically to be a spin off of a show. (Afterellen and various fansites are very different from this venture).

It desperately wants to be something more, but I can see where the show will soon be an advertisement for the site, and vice versa.

Is this a good thing or a bad thing? The jury is still out for me.

Yeah...I work in social media...I cringe whenever they start talking about the site on the show. Marketing marketing marketing.

I signed up, even after I vowed I wasn't going to. 

While I hate the arrogance behind it, I can't help but wonder what's down the rabbit hole.  Jaded cynic that I am, I still suspect that at some point they are going to opt for subscription-based content. It is one thing for Showtime to subsidize TLW site with the advertising budget, but banner ads aren't going bring in enough bank to keep OurChart in the black.  Exclusive original content is their cash cow.  I won't be at all surprised if GirlTrash turns out to be their fledgling attempt at play for pay content.