A Case Study of User Vetted Social Networks: DontStayIn

Since their introduction, social network sites (SNSs) have attracted millions of users, many of whom have integrated these sites into their daily practices. As of this writing, there are hundreds of SNSs, with various technological affordances, supporting a wide range of interests and practices. While their key technological features are fairly consistent, the cultures that emerge around SNSs are varied. Most sites support the maintenance of pre-existing social networks, but others help strangers connect based on shared interests, political ones, or activities. Some sites cater to diverse audiences, while others attract people based on common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities. Scholars from disparate fields have examined SNSs in order to understand the practices, implications, culture, and meaning of the sites, as well as users' engagement with them. Social network sites might be defined as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. What makes social network sites unique is not that they allow individuals to meet strangers, but rather that they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks. This can result in connections between individuals that would not otherwise be made. On many of the large SNSs, participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. To emphasize this articulated social network as a critical organizing feature of these sites, we label them "social network sites." DontStayIn DontStayIn, commonly abbreviated to DSI, is a social networking site based around clubbing. Primarily covering the UK it lists nearly 185,000 events and has over 430,000 verified members. The social media on the site is gathered by encouraging members to upload picture galleries to the site for events they've attended, add events and venues and otherwise contribute. One of the most interesting things about dontstayin is the way the site works to build up its user base in a very organic way. If someone were to go clubbing in certain places they might have their picture taken by a spotter from dontstayin who would give them a card saying "you've …