A new online community is attempting to copy the wildly successful format of the social networking site Facebook, but with one big difference.
Instead of finding common ground through mutual interests or friends, members are encouraged to unite over the things they hate.
In fact, Hatebook.org could easily be described as an anti-social networking site, where instead of making friends one makes enemies and instead of receiving messages, one receives junk mail.
"Obviously people feel the need to talk about their neighbour and their friends and their teachers, professors, students, in a negative light while maintaining a pseudonym online, and that's the forum to do it," Photi Sotiropoulos, a media expert from McGill University, told CTV's Canada AM.
The site, which boasts over 65,000 international members -- or "suckers" as they're called by Hatebookers -- was started by a German market researcher close to one year ago.
The majority of Canadian members of the site are from Montreal -- 530 -- and most are male and in their mid-20s, Sotiropoulos said.
Other sites have also tried to copy the successful Facebook format, such as Deathbook, a site that helps members keep their dead loved ones' memories alive, and the self-explanatory Dogbook and Catbook.
A quick perusal of Hatebook reveals some striking similarities to Facebook. It mimics the site's look and style, though instead of the familiar blue and white, Hatebook uses an angry-looking red and pink.
And in terms of content, not surprisingly it's pretty negative with messages showing up such as this one from someone calling himself "drevil": "We love to hate - this world is so ridiculous - be evil - take over the world!"
While some posts are quite vitriolic and the language is often foul, most messages appear to be playful slams directed at other members rather than rants about specific issues.
While Facebook and other sites like LinkedIn or MySpace allow members to create a social network and as a result connect with people of similar interests, hobbies or passions or to reconnect with long-lost friends, Hatebook seems simply predicated simply on, well, hate.
"The motive of this website is hate and it's this very counter-intuitive thing. Nobody really understands its raison d'etre," Sotiropoulos said.
But he suggested that sites like Hatebook are gaining popularity as a backlash against the more mainstream sites and their "anti-social" feel -- and that they serve as proof that online social networking is here to stay.
