Social Network Triangulation in the Late Night Shots online community

Late Night Shots is an interactive online social networking site that allows its members to explore their city’s “social landscape and bar scene”. There’s a community for several cities including Atlanta, Dallas, Charlotte, Charlottesville, Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C. It’s a closed network in which membership is by invitation only.

I was invited by a friend to join this site while living in Washington, D.C. Although I didn’t go on the site too often or create an entire virtual online social circle for myself, I did become more aware of frequented restaurants, bars, and events in the D.C. area based on my preferences of the types of places I like, connect with friends, connect with friends of friends, was entertained by forum rants posted by hill staffers, and get an overview of the young professional “mover and shaker” social events that were going on around town.

Below are a few screen shots of interactive areas of the site that promote triangulation among individual users and groups:

1. Members can view the most visited bars around town and see where the best hotspots are, and where the most socializing is occuring; therefore, members can visit these bars and interact with other Late Night Shots members:

2. An overview of the most recently spotted members out on the town:

Members will spot other members out at bars and will tag them so that they show up on the “spotted” list. These people don’t necessarily know or talk to each other; it’s sort of like a secret admirer game:

Members are spotted using the Hunting Range application. With this system, a member will spot their target, go to their target’s site and add that person to the member’s Hunting Range. If the target also has the member on their Hunting Range list, the interest is considered mutual, and the member and the target will be notified on Thursdays by 8pm that they are on each others lists. This can lead to the formulation of relationships among users.

On a members homepage there is a Notifications section that allows the member to see how many other membrs are hunting you, how many are in the members range, and how many matches have been achieved.

3. Forums are another way for individuals to share thoughts and common interests that could lead to the creation of groups within the site. Groups are usually by invite only, as well:

4. Members can register an event they are holding or would like to promote in order to encourage other members to come or tell non-members. This could encourage non-members to meet other members that may invite them to join the site, and encourage triangulation among members who attend a common event:

This is the form that a member sends to a non-member who the they’d like join the site: