I just read this story on Techcrunch. Full disclosure is that I didn’t even bother trying the site. I’ve had a bunch of time to think about this, developing a social network myself. Recently, you might have noticed that The Big F started sending the text of private messages along with emails. This is, in fact, a duplication of services. Not that I think Facebook is wrong in this practice, but what makes email inadequate?

I can see that The Wall has some validity, as do public Grapevine messages on Snooth, as do all private messages to people with whom you have no relationship prior to the social network in question. You necessarily do not BCC all your friends on email correspondence. For some people, private messages are just that — they manage their own private email servers and appreciate being able to do so.

I do believe that email is broken. It’s broken by spammers, it’s broken by buggy email sending software, it’s broken by bad practice. It’s still what we currently need, and I consider it somewhat sacred. Please, keep your private emails private. Consider the content and the recipient, and get a private email account if you can.

If anyone knows a good place to get a private server (no external access) that has an easy streamlined setup for the normal user, please post about it in the comments. Mostly I rent space at a virtual hosting house and set up my own email — beyond the average ken.