Who or what is Yowlink? Yowlink is…

Yowlink is your Caribbean social network.  You should be able to benefit by being a member on Yowlink.  That’s OUR goal.   When you visit Yowlink, you should immediately feel like you are at the place you belong.  If not, please tell us.  We need to know what we can do to improve, and we are ALWAYS improving.  You may give your opinion by visiting our Contact page.  We read ALL of those.  You may also comment at the end of this article but we may not read all of those.

That being said, our admins and support staff get lots of questions when logged in.  Surprisingly, they only get them in the chat (IM) at the bottom of each page, and an occasional PM (private message).  The questions are typically of the nature:

(1)  Who or what is Yowlink?

(2)  Is this related to Facebook or a part of Facebook?

(3)  Are you guys selling things?

(4)  What is so special about this site?

(5)  What will membership cost me?

Yowlink is NOT…

(1) Facebook nor Twitter nor Myspace nor a combination of any of them.

(2) a general-purpose social network where everybody in the world  joins but few know the purpose

(3) a general-purpose social network where everybody in the world joins but few benefit from

(4) a place that harbors any type of “slackness” or public bad behavior, whether in the chat or group discussions, or private messages (PM)

(5) a site that supports spammers and scammers

Yowlink IS …

I told you what Yowlink is NOT first before telling you what Yowlink is.  Yowlink…

1. is a  social community (network) owned, developed, and sponsored by people from the Caribbean with your best interests in mind, hoping you can use it as a medium or platform  for advancement.
2. is intended to reach ALL Caribbean people but, realistically, expects to reach 200,000 members.  200,000 members is an an estimated 8% – 10% of all Caribbean people or people with Caribbean ties who use the Internet at least once per month.
3. encourages collaboration, participation, and action from members / visitors.  We provide all the means for you to do this via groups,  discussions,  links,  events,  activity, IM chat, our “friend” mechanism, etc.  In other words, all the tools are here.  You need no supporting network to accomplish what Yowlink hopes you will accomplish.
4. expects you to make new friends in addition to finding old friends on the network, even if they don’t exist on other large networks.
5. is FREE and will REMAIN FREE. There is NEVER a charge for you.
6. filters out scams and schemes, or anything that is intended to separate you from your money or your identity/privacy.
7. targets ONLY those with Caribbean ties or interests, not the entire world.
8. brings you 24 hour live music in the Yow! Caribbean Radio station.
9. has Caribbean celebrities like you, Oliver Samuels, Maxine Tulloch, etc.
10. always respects you and your privacy.  We don’t share our info with any groups.

So next time you visit Yowlink, bring a few friends with you. Notice I say ”bring… with you”? If you invite someone to an event but you don’t attend, they usually never return. So it is with Yowlink.

Groups, Discussions, and Links…

Anyone who is a member can create a group, discussion, or link.  If the group is public, anyone can join.  However, people or entities who join groups can be banned by the group admin for any reason.  It’s their prerogative.

Yowlinkers, when you create a group (particularly a public group), be cognizant of certain things (or should I say, here are a few guidelines) to make your group(s) more appealing:

• Put a representative picture depicting the group.  Don’t leave it blank.
• Write a good paragraph / description of the group’s purpose / mission / aim / goal.
• Invite members or your friends to join.  You cannot have a good public group with 10 people in it after 2 weeks.
• Keep the group active by posting new information or updates often.
• Make some of the people you have confidence in group moderators (mods) so they can “police” the group to make sure people are not abusing the group’s purpose and/or each other.

Talk to mi nuh.