MOG.com - the Latest in Online Communities

MOG.com is still in the Beta form, which means the creators are still working out the bugs in the program but it is available, bugs and all, to the public.

"Discover people through music and music through people." MOG.com is a music community, much like MySpace, MyCyberScene or Facebook.com in that members create profiles and communicate with other members through posts and private mail. The difference lies in the subject matter of the site. MOG.com is all about music. MOGgers posts (which are available for the whole community, the MOG-O-SPHERE, to read and respond to) can be similar to a blog, that is, more lengthy, detailed commentaries, or similar to what MySpace calls a bulletin. MOG posts offer member commentaries on what they are listening to musically, sets up opinion and general interest polls ("What are the musical skeletons lurking in your closet?" as an example), or serves as a place to ask "What song is that?" MOG etiquette begs that all posts be music related and inoffensive to other members.

MOGger profiles show all about their little corner of the musical world. Whereas members of MySpace or MyCyberScene load their profiles with information about their favorite movies, television, books, and heroes, about their families, friends and pets, members of the MOG community load their profiles with all things music. The majority of a MOGger profile consists of lists. Lists of bands that they feel deserve a chance at fame, lists of songs they think everyone should hear at least once.

There are also lists compiled by the MOG-O-MATIC widget program. This is a tiny program which members download from the site and install on their hard drive. It scans the music files on the member's computer and shares them with the rest of the MOG-O-SPHERE. These lists include such information as the last songs played on the member's mp3 software (Windows Media Player, Winamp, MusicMatch), the most popular artists/songs/albums played on the mp3 player each week or each month as well as a list of all the member's digital music files, sorted by artist then by number of tracks by that artist. Each of these widget controlled lists (as well as the member created lists mentioned above) are optional and can be deleted from their profile.

When it comes to customizing the look of a MOG profile, the process is not as simple as with the other online communities. MOG provides approximately ten layouts, or "skins," that members can apply to their profiles or they can create their own by downloading a pre-made cascading style sheet (CSS) code and changing the colors or background images for the profile through that code, then uploading their new code to the MOG site. This requires a working knowledge of CSS programming and because of that, most MOGgers are choosing from the supplied skins.

MOG is great for someone like myself who is without musically similarly minded friends with whom to discuss the latest musical additions to their libraries, or who is living in an area without an "active scene." Not only can you find out what "MOGs like me" are listening to that you may not have heard yet, but you can also find out what your favorite musicians are listening to. After all, who better to ask what you should be listening to than the people who create the music you enjoy listening to?