Not as "Lively" as You'd Think

So I went over to the new Google site, Lively, today. Just thought I'd investigate the whole avatar/private chat room/create your own thing.

I've made a couple of avatars for my Photobucket and Yahoo IM pages, had some fun with accessories and backgrounds and such. It isn't that hard once you get the hang if it. I thought, new site, maybe I can learn to make my own room, have some more fun, invite my friends.

Some forums and chat groups I hang out in, we go to private rooms to have private conversations about topics that no one else in the general rooms wants to talk about - politics, conspiracy theories, etc. I've even chatted with (people who portrayed themselves as) real Indians from India, even folks from Pakistan, China, and Iran and Iraq. I add that little disclaimer (portrayed) because on the Internet you can be whomever you say you are, and one never knows for sure. But I've gotten a lot of interesting information from people from other countries; people who believe a lot of different things, who come from various lifestyles and backgrounds quite different from my own.

So I thought I'd explore this whole Lively thing. Well, I picked a room that no one was in to explore it and the possibilities. To get into this room, I had to create an avatar. I spent a half hour creating the avatar, and when I tried to enter the room, POOF! it disappeared. I played with the whole create an avatar/go into a room thing for two hours, and never even got to visit a room.

Maybe it is because the site is new, or maybe because I was new to it all. But it was damned frustrating. The instructions and helps were simplistic to say the least, and answered none of my questions, solved none of my difficulties. So the two hours I allot myself on the Internet (6 AM til 8 AM) were shot in the wazoo.

I might try again a little later. But I am pretty irritated at it right now; the whole concept, the whole premise of "new, exciting, and fun" that was such a letdown.

Not to be prejudiced, but why was their big excitement on the Google homepage all about the 'addition' of 15 Arabic sites, backgrounds, wallpapers, etc? I don't mind those of Arabic descent - all whom I have met, on the Internet and in meatspace, have been intelligent and forthcoming, even friendly - but why the big deal? Makes one ponder...