Avoid Bad Movies with Flixster.com

Two days ago, I became a part of something truly exciting. For me, at least.

I joined flixster.com, one of the latest advancements in the world of online communities.

Like any other seemingly normal day, I came home from work and logged into myspace.com to read the latest bulletins. (Let's face it, we all do it.) One of the titles caught my eye.

"Hey," it read.

This piqued my interest because bulletins are never titled so simply. Myspace messages, maybe, but rarely bulletins. So I wanted to read it, naturally. The bulletin itself was pretty straightforward, although it was a form. "Hey, I joined this site, go check it out."

I was a little leery that it the link might be a virus, but when I held my mouse over it, I saw that the base site was flixster.com, and my curiosity overcame. Ultimately, I'm glad I took the risk.

It works something like this (don't take my word on the order here, but all of the following will happen at some point in time or another. That much I know for sure.):

One. You sign up (for free!).

Two. You invite your friends (via email/myspace/etc.)

Three. You start off rating 50 movies. If you're overzealous, you can add comments to each movie rating. Or you can do it sporadically, a comment here, a comment there. (Like Old McDonald, except minus the animals and ridiculous sounds.)

Four. You create a profile for yourself. You can choose pictures or videos from your favorite films. You can upload your own photos. You can add your favorite movies, actors, and directors. It's craziness, I tell you. And the best part? It's all about movies! Who doesn't love movies!?

Five. You compare your own movie ratings (of the fifty original) with whatever friends of yours are on the site.

Six. You surf the site and rate more movies! Kind of like the rinse, later, repeat you might do in the shower/bath. Scintillating!

It's fun, I tell you.

Immediately after joining, I spent close to an hour browsing through the website, rating movies, adding favorites, quizzing myself, etc. It was fun and I enjoyed it. And during the time I spent there, five of my friends had accepted my invitation. Apparently, we don't all agree on some movie choices, but no matter, for the most part, our film tastes are similar.

It's spreading like wildfire. Join yourself and see how compatible you are with your friends.