Unless you're really active in using these sites as they're intended - that is, to meet new people - things get old pretty fast. And we don't really want to meet new people, as we do a crappy enough job of keeping in tough with people we already know and love.

We had forgotten we even had a Tribe.net membership when we got this email:

We're looking for folks to help by going on the site and recommending some of their favorite things (restaurants, clubs, services, etc.) about San Francisco. It shouldn't take to long we're happy to give you a $25 Amazon gift certificate in exchange for the help."

We went to Tribe's San Francisco page, and...hey. Doesn't that look familiar? OK, seriously, what's the deal? We checked out their company profile, and still fail to see any specific connection with craigslist - in fact, they're listed as competition. Not that craigslist has the monopoly on the clean, unadorned interface, but, wow. The similarities are remarkable.

But's that's beside the point. We want the $25 from Amazon, so we replied. (And you can, too, by emailing [email protected].) What we're wondering is what that means for Tribe, that they're begging their members to recommend products and services? They must want some sort of results pretty seriously, if they're ponying up $25 bucks per recommender.

So, dear reader, what do you think Tribe (a San Francisco based company, incidentally) is up to? Share your conjecture and theories in the comments - and if any Tribe employees are out there and want to give insight, we'd love to hear it!

"We're trying to make Tribe.net work even better for San Francisco members and we'd like your help. Plus, we can even pay you for it--in the form of a $25 Amazon gift certificate.