You can send them to me.  I love shoe shopping, MACS, and chemical peels myself =)
Lexillent, Mar 7, 2008 @ 16:35

Omg this post is so funny...



a) Maybe... girls ... are afraid of Sharks...

Have you considered changing your profile...



b) go to Lausanne.



c) combination of previous.







masson, Mar 7, 2008 @ 17:14

Wow this is so funny! Well so you know, I would reply to you if you'd send me a mail. I wouldn't judge before knowing... So you were really unlucky.

If you want to go shoe shopping, I couldn't be happier! I just looooove shoes...

And if you want to have a coffee, I'd love that too, plus I could practice german, so what more could i ask for? That is,  if you'd like my company ;-)

Have a good day, and alles gut, Ich hoffe dass du andere leute treffen kannst, Grüsse.

Nancy
Nancy_Geneva, Mar 7, 2008 @ 17:23

Well, then there are those of us who stop you on the street and scream, "Are you the (in)famous Mr. Sark?!?"  I can attest to your fabulous fashion sense as well as wicked sense of humor. . .

But when you say MAC, do you mean the machine or the makeup or both?

I think you should have your own cable show titled, "The World of Mr. Sark..." or perhaps "Mr. Sark's Switzerland...."
Translator, Mar 7, 2008 @ 18:22

[quote] But when you say MAC, do you mean the machine or the makeup or both?



I think you should have your own cable show titled, "The World of Mr. Sark..." or perhaps "Mr. Sark's Switzerland...."[/quote]





Actually both, i can´t wait to trade my trusted Powerbook in for that sweet Macbook Air, and I really love MAC´s conceconcealert stuff is perfect for those nasty shadows under the eyes.



Maybe I should start a weekly youtube videblog.
Mister_Sark, Mar 7, 2008 @ 18:51

[quote]Well, then there are those of us who stop you on the street and scream, "Are you the(in)famous Mr. Sark?!?" I can attest to your fabulous fashion sense as well as wicked sense of humor. . .



But when you say MAC, do you mean the machine or the makeup or both?



I think you should have your own cable show titled, "The World of Mr. Sark..." or perhaps "Mr. Sark's Switzerland...."[/quote]



so much for the spell checking fuction. from simple typo to häh!
Mister_Sark, Mar 7, 2008 @ 18:53

Mister_sark: I ain't sure that what you describe is indeed the case. Surely some people are more suspicious than others, and surely some women on glocals are extra suspicious when men reply to their posts. Fair enough (and needed), cos glocals is an open community and the occasional ass hole can slip throgh.

But I still see the pictures from the Member-Activities organised by women, and the pics clearly show that the activities are well balanced on gender...so I wouldn't say that if you're a guy replying to an activity, you'll be deleted by the woman organiser immediatly (unless you're Syd_brown or Extremal, who - as all women know - are only after one thing. In Syd's case that thing is rocks, and is Extremal's case it's weights)

Women, hey women, what do you think?
Nir Ofek, Mar 7, 2008 @ 19:33

Sarki: I forgot to ask 2 things:

1. Is your observation based on personal experience? If so, come on, tell us...

2. Would you have any suggestions on how to tackle the issue you raise?

Danke, Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 7, 2008 @ 19:36

[quote][b]



looks at my pictures will know right away that i am not looking for that kind of fun, rather go shoe shopping with her or redecorate her living room.



SAD![/quote]



Hi Mr Shark,



If is not that kind of fun (woman), what kind of fun you are looking for? I mean if anyone has to judge you from your picture (as you said) She will rather put you on side for men than her....just kidding...don't take it seriously.



I don't disagree with you in some points but it could be vice versa. Most sicking thing is when situation turned that point that you are not a human either man or woman.



Nevertheless, It's not a good idea either to blame all for someone's fault. I have met some wonder full ppl and friends through glocals. World is very difficult place we just have to learn how to deal with this.

frdousi, Mar 8, 2008 @ 02:47

[quote]Sarki: I forgot to ask 2 things:



1. Is your observation based on personal experience? If so, come on, tell us...



2. Would you have any suggestions on how to tackle the issue you raise?



Danke, Nir[/quote]



1. Yes, it happend to me and i was actually a bit upset. I will not name names, you know who you are.



2. It´s hard to suggest anything, since the people on Glocals are so diverse, but i guess lots of girls get chatted up by guys who are looking for the above mentioned, thats why they are so cautious.
Mister_Sark, Mar 9, 2008 @ 04:39

[quote][quote][b]



looks at my pictures will know right away that i am not looking for that kind of fun, rather go shoe shopping with her or redecorate her living room.



SAD![/quote]



Hi Mr Shark,



If is not that kind of fun (woman), what kind of fun you are looking for? I mean if anyone has to judge you from your picture (as you said) She will rather put you on side for men than her....just kidding...don't take it seriously.[/quote]



no worries darling, you are spot on. Come on, the three big letters are glowing on my forehead like freaking neon signs and i know that.



Mister_Sark, Mar 9, 2008 @ 04:41

Hi M Shark,

agreeing with you: during real glocals events, plp are much more friendly than in most other places in GE/LS/ZH. However the chat remains a very scary place for most I think, same for emails. Still very difficult to start normal discussion on those...

Cheers,

B.
brooster, Mar 9, 2008 @ 15:40

Sarki, all:

This brings up an interesting topic of how to build trust among glocals members, even before they meet in an activity.

Right now, glocals is an open community, and anyone (who has an email address and speak basic english) can join. This is both good (cos it's more inclusive) and bad (cos it means a higher risk of having members who don't share the glocals spirit, like Sarki mentions).

Other community sites have similar issues, and deal with them in different ways:

1. Allowing in only new members who are invited by current, trusted members (like www.asmallworld.net)

2. Allowing in only new members who clearly belong to a certain circle (like www.facebook.com when it just started, and allowed in only students who had a .edu email)

3. Developing a robust online reputation system for each member, that is visible to all other members (www.LinkedIn.com is good at this, and www.ebay.com is the king of it)

4.  Ensuring that each member knows that if he/she is kicked out of the community, he/she can't come back. (like www.ricardo.ch. If you want to post something there, they send you a letter with a code to your home address. You then use the code to become a member. If you're then kicked out, you know the site will never send you the letter again).

On glocals, we're currently not using any of the above things, and so far it worked well (with a few exceptions). But as the community grows and becomes more well known, the risk of getting non-glocals-spirited members grows as well. Cracking this, as we move forward, is a key priority for us.

We'll keep you posted on our specific thoghts on it, as they firm up a bit. But any comments / ideas / suggestions about it are very welcome.

Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 9, 2008 @ 17:57

Hi Nir,

I've had some weird chat with guys with strange intentions, but it is so simple to then politely stop the conversation. I never judge before exchanging a few words... But I must say that Glocals is a pretty "healthy" and good site. The fact that it's open makes it richer. You always have the choice to not chat with the perverted ones, right ladies?

I wouldn't change anything, thanks to glocals, I have made many new friends (female and male) and I'm really happy about it and if the it started to be a limited site, I would never have met them. I also use facebook, and i must say, the only people in my friends' list are my school friends and people i already know... but lately also my glocals friends.

So thanks for you great site, and let's be smart by chosing who we chat with and hopefully, it'll remain as good ;-)

Nancy 
Nancy_Geneva, Mar 9, 2008 @ 20:34

I think Mr Sark makes a good point with how messages can be misinterpreted based on Gender. If he asks to attend an event the organiser should indicate their reason for exclusion , this is only good manners. In fact without resorting to giving people a "reliability scoring" it's usually quite simple to check the persons previous posts or activities (unless a newbie), no one could mistake Mr Sark's intentions if they were to just read a few of his posts.



With reference to being chatted up via email or the online chat , we all have the ignore button and can easily restrict chats to our friends. And any persistent person can be reported to Site Admin why make it anymore difficult.



I would rather keep the Glocals open and rely on the good nature of the 99% of the people here to self administer the others.
britabroad, Mar 10, 2008 @ 11:59

Mister Sark,

Your post sounds ironical.

First email I sent for an activity in Geneva online

(2 years ago, before it was not named glocals) was to you for an activity you organised

(cinema). You don’t remember about this, but me I do as it was my “first” GOL activity.

You replied to me with a so suspicious attitude toward me, that I gave up to participate. I felt like Jennifer Garner in Alias because Mister Sark was not nice ;-))

Now it’s you who live this… as we say in French “l’arroseur est arrosé”

PS : sans rancune ;-)
TSATSA, Mar 11, 2008 @ 15:29

hm, that is funny, since i cannot remember posting a cinemy activity at all and i have the memory of an elephant. are you sure it was me? especially as you were not a member of GOL or now glocals 2 years ago.



anyway, if i answer to a mail i am mostly very brief.

more

"we are meeting at 19:00 at bar X on the XXth of march, reservation in the name of mister sark. see you there"

than

"hello sugar puffs, how is life treating you today? i am so thrilled that you have decided that you might join us for my activity in case you have nothing better to do like wash your hair, sort your purse collection or watch the paint on your wall drying. so if you will honor us with your appearance, we will be waiting for you at bar X. it´s a splendid location with hundreds of thousands of delicous cocktails, hot, adorable, faithful, ready to worship you staright men and of course you will get the best seat so that everybod will be able to see the magnifcents that is you. of course if you decide to be fashionably late, that is no problem since we have nothing better to do then wait for you. of course i can arrange for a limo pick up if you wish, just let me know."



if i write a mail to someone i have never met i usually am a bit more detailed, since the person has no clue who i am. I must say i find it rude if you send a mail to someone and you get no reply what so ever. i don´t have a problem if someone tells me, that the activity is full, he/she thinks that i might not fit in or that he/she doesnt want to talk to me since they might not sparkle as much next to me as they usually do.



to finish my little rant, and please it´s supposed to be witty and sarcastic, so don´t take it to seriously i have one more thing to say and this time feel free to read it with a bit of bitterness. What happened to saying thank you? i tend to send private messages in reply to questions on the forums since its more personal and a lot of people don´t even reply with a quick thank you message. I am not asking for your first born but i am asking for some manners dammit.
Mister_Sark, Mar 11, 2008 @ 15:55

i joined 2 years ago and it was you off course as my previous nick was "Irina Derevko"¨

You replied to me like that "Why do you wanna know where it will take place ? you want to put a bomb ?

Could be a joke if you gave me the details but obviously you did not cause you did not want me to participate. So in that case, undertand that some persons can act like you (which is not my case, i don't judge and send sarcastic answer to people i don't know)

Most of person who organise an activity answer like that : Hello let's meeting at this place,etc... which was not the answer you sent to me

For the manner you don't have to give me lessons, it seems like you don't know who i am as you always has wanted to excluse me without searching more. Be careful cause judging people without knowing taking time to know them can bring bad surprises...
TSATSA, Mar 11, 2008 @ 16:40

assumptions assumptions assumptions...



think about it, why should i have a reason to exclude you on purpose? maybe because we are fans of the same tv show, maybe because your nick name is taken from a criminal mastermind who has a history of bombing and shooting people into nirvana, same as the person i took my nick name from? if you didn´t get it, that i was making a joke, i am very sorry for that. well, you know, you could have replied to the message that you simply want to participate in the activity and promise to leave all deadly weapons at home. but maybe it was a language barrier , who knows.



what i find interesting though, is that you thought my statement about manners was pointed at you...



also i find it interesting, that, although you sad i don´t know you, that i have ALWAYS excluded you, indicating that i would do it on purpose. maybe i am too simple minded but for me this is a paradoxon. someone i don´t know, i can´t purposely exclude. well in my world of logic it is.



but this thread is not about you and not about me, it´s about communication in general, so if you wanna start a thread "why mister sark sucks" fell free. it will be my sincere pleasure to read it.



and for all the readers of this thread who ask themselves why i didnt respond to her like any other member, i didn´t because i am NOT any other member. i am me, and thats fabulous.



i will go to crazytown now, thats ok, they know me there.







Mister_Sark, Mar 11, 2008 @ 17:05

I don't want to start the thread "why mister sark (...)" you mentioned. Pity you did not mentioned you joked in relation to TV serie, that would have been more diplomatic to precise to the very new member i was ! Anyway, people are human and everybody make mistakes...so let's moving on...

PS : in the serie, Mister Sark put also bomb ;--)))
TSATSA, Mar 11, 2008 @ 17:21

Great.

So it was all a misunderstanding caused by watching too much tv...

You guys seem to have alot in common (including the tres Glam photos) - When are you 2 organizing a glamorous night out on the town?

O
SiteAdmin Oded, Mar 12, 2008 @ 00:57

I thought for quite a while about whether I should post this or not. It's long and dull and off-topic and, even worse, is badly timed. Take it or leave it.



-------------------------------------



Aside from the spat, there is a rather far-reaching issue underlying this thread. Has it not come up before here? That of personal security and predatory behaviour in open communities. In general. Of course predatory behaviour means many things, but represented by gender as here is probably the easiest and most common example. It's proven time and time again -- as the huge networking sites know only too well, and the media is only too happy to remind you -- a bind to tackle.



The reason is of course that the apparent flaw in the system is also the feature. It's the *whole point* as online communities mirror social interaction in realspace: the more you put in, the more you get out. Or rather in the case of the web, the more information you give up about yourself, the richer the experience becomes. The tails on that coin is obvious.



But it gets amplified for geographically-based communities such as Glocals which, at least in the remnants of GOL, is highly concentrated in one town. One small town that you can cross in 15 minutes (when the lights aren't f*$"ing red, that is). A community forum that is driven by helping each other out, and in a large part, by MeetSpace. Fold in the fact that many people are here short term and no zero Genevois before they arrive, it's the obvious ways to get out of your tiny, overpriced sublet where the TV is only in forrin. It's highly likely that you pass other Glocals in the street; that people recognise one another from the forum but without ever having interacted.



The reason I'm reacting to this is that I was talking with 3 other Glocals members last about this, all of whom just happen to be hott chixx. The discussion was largely centred on how they had all been involved in Glocals chats, usually late at night, with unknowns. Always their initiation, often strange, sometimes inappropriate. Always men. Now this may well be what we call in my game a 'selection effect' -- a false observed trend that's purely statistical. Or it may not. The information is (should be) in the server logs if anybody has the impetus/time/skill to deal with it.



Yeah sure, of course there's the ignore/ban button. And of course you can report users to Admin. But anyone with the slightest bit of knowhow is just mildly inconvenienced by such things. Bans etc deal with the *almost* everyone. But it's the 1 percent, 1 permille that are clever as well as strange. The ones that actually have an insight into how people work.



Nir_ points out four alternatives, although as a function of scale, I would imagine they would either kill the forum dead after six months, or turn it into a popularity contest in one. And every forum I have ever read is already enough of a popularity contest. Most of these measures would have kept me out of the community, for example. That said, none of you actually know whether that would be a good thing or not!



The summary is that what you have now is as good as it gets. The experience is only rich when it's in a free environment. Insert as many dreadful cliches here as you want. It's a pretty hard sentiment to communicate without resorting to cliche...



If you read this far I'm really really sorry. I told myself I wasn't going lecture forums any more.



Matt (no Daily Mail here, thanx)



hayes, Mar 12, 2008 @ 11:40

Matt:

Thanks, good post.

If you're free tomorrow night (Thu), we're meeting with 3-4 glocals members to dig a bit deeper into the 'trust on glocals' debate. I just posted it on Member-Activities. Check it out - sounds like you could add a lot to that discussion.

Thanks,

Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 12, 2008 @ 12:09

Hey Nir_ et al.



Yeah, I spotted that while checking that the all important Electron announcement was still in the right place ;) I thought I had clicked on the wrong button...



Firstly, I am going to go and look at art tomorrow night so I can't be there. Sorry.



Secondly though, I find it difficult to advocate any policy other than complete derestriction. If *trust* is really the goal, then I don't think you can build it on anything other than *trust*. If *security* is the operative word then the situation is different. Since I guess that it's ultimately *security through trust* that you're looking for I see no other way. There are any number of measures you can impose, of course. That's for you to decide and I appreciate it's a non-trivial problem. So yeah. I would encourage all openness. But good luck cracking a very tough nut.
hayes, Mar 12, 2008 @ 12:58

Hi Matt!

Beware of the bald guy! He's just trying to hit on you!

Last time he wrote 'good post' it was Iolly's post. She had his kid since! [Tongue]



Seriously:

Good post and good attitude.

I used to welcome newbies whenever my attention was raised by a smart motto, a nice pic or anything surprising in their profile.

I do it less often because -since the network grew up- I realised many newbies still needed to build their confidence and some of them didn't answer or answered aggressively.



I decided to let them grow up in the group, before spending efforts that would often be misunderstood.

After all... I'm too old to play the pick-up boy, and too young to play the old satyr! [Wink]
Stef__Granny, Mar 12, 2008 @ 15:31

Well, one of the problems concerning advertised Member Activities is that the organiser is not always outspoken about his/her intensions and applying hidden restrictions, which I have experienced myself. 

In my opinion an add should be fully clear, and restrictions outspoken. We see every day restricted adds such as 20+, 30+, 40+, 30-50, Danish fondue, Finnish evening, Mom needs her Starbuck, unemployed drinks, Frilancers Social Club, German-speaking Swiss evening etc, etc. I think that all this is fine and that it is anyone's prerogative to put a restricted add.

But an open add is an open add addressing every Glocal member wanting to participate and should be managed on first come first serve basis.
haegar, Mar 12, 2008 @ 16:27

[quote][b]Stef__Granny (12/03/2008)[/b][hr]Hi Matt!
Beware of the bald guy! He's just trying to hit on you!
Last time he wrote 'good post' it was Iolly's post. She had his kid since! [Tongue][/quote]

Stef:

Good post! (my place or yours?) Seriously - come join us tomorrow evening for this discussion on 'trust on glocals'. You're a veteran member, you're a people-person, and so you're views will probably be very helpful. And dinner is on me. Drop me a line if you're interested.
Nir Ofek, Mar 12, 2008 @ 17:43

[quote][b]haegar (12/03/2008)[/b][hr]In my opinion an add should be fully clear, and restrictions outspoken.[/quote]

Haegar:

Thanks (I'd say 'good post', but you might think I have the wrong ideas...(-:

One of the things we're considering is enabling Member-Activies organisers to select - when they post their activitiy - who should be able to see & join their activity, by different criteria (languages spoken, hobbies, age, etc). This follows from my thinking - consistant with yours - that if someone organises an Activity, he/she should be able to openly state who is invited.

What think?

Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 12, 2008 @ 18:14

Tinks, Isa:

Thanks. As said, this is just one thing we're looking it, and we're just in the process of beginning to ask questions about it and understand what organisers think about it.

Some of the feedback we received so far from people who organise activities is that some activities are aimed only at certain members. The criteria the organisers spoke about could be age, but could also be a bunch of other things: time in Geneva, langugae spoken, hobbies, industry of work, etc.  

In any case, we're just collecting early feedback about this idea (and others).

Tinki:

Anything related to hair will not be alowed as a criteria (look at my picture to understand why...(-:
Nir Ofek, Mar 13, 2008 @ 01:57

Nir, I'm disappointed I was hoping to arrange a mullet party, seems you won't becoming :D
britabroad, Mar 13, 2008 @ 07:28

So to summarise:



mister_sark was a bit riled by what seems to be an isolated incident. Reading his posts, he appears to be thick-skinned enough to get over it ;) . Moreover, since it seemed to involve TSATSA, and neither of them has been seen in a while, they are most likely off making up somewhere.



hayes, Mar 13, 2008 @ 09:49

Yes, you maybe be right - unfortunately. It seems that a few (males for example) might be spoiling things for other genuine (male for example) responses to females. As soon as I joined glocals I had 4 chat invitations in under 10 minutes...er... I hadnt even posted anything! So I could only surmise one thing - wrong of me I'm sure. I was a tad disappointed as when I joined I read that it WASNT a dating site.

...Did you say "shoe shopping?" when, where...tell me, tell me...:w00t:     :D
Tammyshanker, Mar 13, 2008 @ 11:58

[quote]



As soon as I joined glocals I had 4 chat invitations in under 10 minutes...er... I hadnt even posted anything! [/quote]



Maybe these people saw you on the "new members" section of the homepage. In fact I'm not sure about the real utility of this section. As an average member (and sometimes activity organizer) it has almost no utility for me. On the other side, it could be very useful for a "vampire" looking for new blood.





marcomarco, Mar 13, 2008 @ 16:10

As a guy I've had uninitiated chats once in a Blue moon, but when I set my wife up on this site I was signin as her and almost immediately had requests, which I obviously choose to ignore.



Perhaps Siteadmin should change his name, picture and sex just to see how often this occurs.



britabroad, Mar 13, 2008 @ 17:38

It seems that a lot of the complaints are based in the excessive number of chat requests received by girls. Personally I never received a chat request (ok, once or twice in two years) and I tend to disconsider the chat feature most of the time as it seems that it is annoying to people (meaning mostly females).



Since I believe the idea of GoL is to encourage chatting and not to desincourage, perhaps the suggestion would be to develop an active chat feature (eg. instead of selecting a busy sign you select something like "I am open to chat") or a general chat for many people (I guess this idea was dismissed some time ago).

zenbrain, Mar 13, 2008 @ 18:47

[quote][quote]



As soon as I joined glocals I had 4 chat invitations in under 10 minutes...er... I hadnt even posted anything! [/quote]



Maybe these people saw you on the "new members" section of the homepage. In fact I'm not sure about the real utility of this section. As an average member (and sometimes activity organizer) it has almost no utility for me. On the other side, it could be very useful for a "vampire" looking for new blood.

[/quote]Or a normal Glocaler wanting to welcome new friends!
Stef__Granny, Mar 13, 2008 @ 19:04

I would only be flattered, if I were you!

And it's not only men.

It happened to me as well, here and on other sites, and I only found it flattering!

After all, I'm sure it happens to you in bars and night clubs as well.

As you can say 'No thank you' there without barring the whole club as sleazy, please feel free to do it here, and let the bouncers (SiteAdmin or Nir) know about the ones that won't understand your answer!

They'll try to be thanked after, but you can still say 'no thanks' to them as well! ;)

[quote]



Yes, you maybe be right - unfortunately. It seems that a few (males for example) might bespoilingthings for other genuine (male for example) responses to females. As soon as I joined glocals I had 4 chat invitations in under 10 minutes...er... I hadnt even posted anything! So I could only surmise one thing - wrong of me I'm sure.I was a tad disappointed as when I joined I read that it WASNT a dating site.



...Did you say "shoe shopping?" when, where...tell me, tell me...:w00t: :D[/quote]
Stef__Granny, Mar 13, 2008 @ 19:10

:D :laugh: you do deserve each and any of those friends!!!

They must have a lot of fun!

And I'm sure you don't even mind sharing the chocolate! ;) [quote]



Maybe these people saw you on the "new members" section of the homepage. In fact I'm not sure about the real utility of this section. As an average member (and sometimes activity organizer) it has almost no utility for me. On the other side, it could be very useful for a "vampire" looking for new blood.

[/quote]Or a normal Glocaler wanting to welcome new friends![/quote]

I make no complaints – at my age it is already a miracle that a man

Wants to chat. Apart from one really bad apple, the rest I have

Treated with good humour, boys will be boys.

I am not a man-hater, I admire men and adore their company, their

Wit and sense of humour, I have many men friendsand that is it, repeat that is it.

And of course – my fridge is well stocked with chocolate (forgive the

British sense of humour !!)

[/quote]
Stef__Granny, Mar 14, 2008 @ 11:06

Sparked by this forum thread, last night we (we = me and siteAdmin) did a mini focus group with 4 volunteer glocals members, to dig in deeper about trust / security / hunters on glocals. It was the 1st of several discussions we'll have with members to better learn what members think.

 

I wrote up a quick summary of what we heard last night, and it's now being approved by those who participated. After it's approved (or if it's approved), I will make it public.

 

Nir
Nir Ofek, Mar 14, 2008 @ 11:35

I meant that your friends were having fun thanks to your sense of humor.

Sorry for your husband.

They say better lost than found!
Stef__Granny, Mar 14, 2008 @ 13:31

 

hi, one thing surprised me while reading all the posts. No guy seems to be complaining of unwelcomed attention/ messages. Are women better behaved or simply not contacting  strangers up front ?
titoan, Mar 18, 2008 @ 14:26