So, Jessica sent me an invite to Wallop. She wrote a good article about it, and I'll write my own highly clouded by my enthusiasm for Tribe.

First, there's the bad. While I don't think there can be anything quite as bad as MySpace, this one has some pretty annoying kinks that hopefully they'll sort out as they go through the beta process. The worst is that it's all Flash. For me this means slow loading, the annoyance of having to reload the entire system every time I navigate away (or, in many cases, hit the back button), and internally cringing about accessibility. Not to mention I right click - a lot. It's my main web navigation. This site has some right click accessibility, but it's all for site-related options, not the typical "Open in New Tab" and whatnot.

On top of the accessibility issues, there's usability issues, major ones, and almost no help. The system isn't very intuitive (most people trying to be innovative miss this key necessity). I think the worst offender was that clicking on any of the four pictures in the Network pane took me to my Network page instead of the profile of the person I clicked. This makes even less sense when there's a network button in the navigation bar.

There's very few mass-edit options. I had to change the width of the URL in my RSS-fed blog in every single post (though being able to modify them, and even delete them, was a nice feature - something Tribe could take note of). Plus all my RSS feed posts are showing up in my conversations as well, and, of course, no mass editing means I had to delete them one by one. One of the few (maybe only) mass-edits you can do is uploading several pictures at once, just by shift or control-clicking them in the file box. I loved this. Especially after spending a night on Flickr uploading one at a time.

I'm not quite sure I like the profile either. The profile section is simply one input box where you write what you want. I much prefer the detailed profiles ala Tribe.

My favorite feature so far, though, is the Music section, though there's parts of that I'm not sure of, too. It's similar to Last.fm's Radio system in that you can listen to the music you upload, and the music people in your network upload. The part I quirk at is that the music plays on the Wallop page itself, with no way to pop it out. So, again, if I navigate away, I lose what I'm listening to.

One of the other things I liked was the side navigation. "What's New" flashing when something happens is really handy, as is the "History" bar for going back to a profile you scanned earlier but forgot to save. The networking system is really neat, with it's flexibility, though I still think Tribe's is superior with it's degrees and showing who connects you.

The 8 picture slideshow on your main page is something else I liked, but I think if you drag pictures onto the slide show, you should be able to drag them off, instead of hitting the delete button. I'd also be nice to adjust your slideshow speed. With all 8 pictures in, it goes a little fast.

I think the Mods and Conversations sections have great potential and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with them. I don't see the Conversations section going much of anywhere with no directed groups, though. See, you can make groups, but as far as I can tell, not search for them.

If anyone wants an invite to form their own opinions, I have 7 - just toss me an email or Tribe message.