movix

So, I've been reading various posts here about social networking sites, checking what people are doing/saying and generally just being curious about why/how these sites grow in popularity. So I thought I'd test an idea out with this mocked up site: www.movix.co.uk/muzixs

It's a dating site for the 'we're really into our music' niche. The idea comes from that uncomfortable, first time chat with someone that you maybe meet at the bus stop, in the queue at the supermarket or maybe on a poorly planned blind date. The conversation often seems to go something like 'hey, so what sort of music are you into? Then you find you have the same tastes and wow... it's all good.

If you like this, we'll build it.

I'm not actually starting a social networking site, but I've always been curious about the hundreds, if not thousands that are out there - where did they get their first few thousand users? Obviously we all know the story of how Facebook started, and how their user base grew. Same applies for the story about Twitter and the big screens at South by Southwest (SXSW) festival, but what about all the others?

Has anyone here who's started a social network got any insight on this? As far as I can see, no users = no social network.

I've got room for 15 bookmarks along my Firefox toolbar. What have you got up there?

So far I have: Hacker News, Share on Posterous, Shorten with bit.ly, The Funded, Tumblr, Twitter, Kickstarter, Presspack it, BBC News, Virtual Worlds News, Crunchbase.

What do you suggest for the remaining spaces?