One of our projects at Saltlick Labs is running a free community called BreakkUp.com, which lets users receive social relationship advice via the web or through two iPhone apps we offer on iTunes. By going mobile, users can submit questions from virtually anywhere, at any moment, and receive immediate feedback.

We restrict usage to people over the age of 13, recently enacted a set of hardline rules, and hired a moderator with a background in psychology and sociology who will also help us regulate the "trolls". Recently, a number of adults who read the service have expressed discontent for the types of questions that are being asked by the younger audience.

What I see are kids looking for answers because adults aren't talking to them. There is a breakdown happening on multiple levels from media to parents to the public school system. However, it seems people prefer to shuffle blame and talk about the problems rather than take action.

The BreakkUp team discussed whether or not we should limit this type of discussion, and the staff voted AGAINST moderating sex questions. We felt it's better for these kids to talk openly about their questions, rather than blindly act on curiosity. Many have found support from peers their own age (and older) that made mistakes in the past, and have helped prevent others from doing the same. On the same token, young kids have given advice to adults going through divorce issues who are struggling with how their kids will react if the parents split.

We do expect some level of dignity and DELETE raunchy and graphic content. And we've already banned numerous people for down-right insensitive and/or inappropriate comments. But, I feel we can not expect our individual morals and values to be universal. This is the internet after all, and the BreakkUp community is accessed in 75 different countries. Some cultures and regions are more comfortable and open discussing the details sex than others — the line is fine at times but we're doing our best to offer a balanced service.

And as far as premature exposure is concerned, users at BreakkUp are no more exposed to the facts of life than if they asked Google. Wake up baby-boomers, take responsibility, get involved in your child's life, and open discussions. It's bad enough many families watch TV during dinner, but the lined was crossed when it got plugged into the family mini-van and coined an "innovation" by auto companies.

ps. 1960's

Jonathan (@jon100) posted a link to a Wired essay entitled "Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004" which reiterates why I'm enjoying (and can't stop talking about) the lifestream software I installed.

As a writer, though, I'm onto the system's real appeal: brevity. Bloggers today are expected to write clever, insightful, witty prose to compete with Huffington and The New York Times. Twitter's character limit puts everyone back on equal footing. It lets amateurs quit agonizing over their writing and cut to the chase.

However, writing great quality content (whether by a single individual or multiple) is an everlasting contribution to the social knowledge pool. I read numerous personal blogs that expand my thinking and provide more substance to the interwebz0rs than simply witty tweets and activity feeds. If the authors disappeared because they weren't gaining the necessary traction to monetize, or believed knowledge exchange can be conveyed in 140 characters, then the beauty of the internet is dead to me.

Figured I'd post my thoughts on my new personal blog, couldn't fit the 140 limitation. :)

Link to article: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay

I did not like feeling pressured to write for my blog when I had one, so it died quickly. Last night a friend passed me a link to Sweetcron, and it is the perfect solution I have been looking for. It essentially tracks your social RSS feeds, while giving you basic functionality to interject a thoughtful blog post from time to time. I'm still tinkering with the layout, and trying decide if I should add all my RSS feeds or limit them to a few...

Admin Interface

I'm giving a strong recommendation to Sweetcron for the casual blogger. It's free (still in beta) and the install process is straight forward, however not quite as automated as WordPress or the like. From the picture above, you can see the admin interface is very clean, simple, and manageable - giving you adequate administrative control without being cumbersome to use. I'm loving it!

http://sweetcron.com