A newly buffed up SocialPoster, with more features, more sites, and a tuned up user interface is still lacking in critical features as a social network posting automation tool.

In the "nice" column we have

• Second largest group supported - 61 working sites
• Categorizing the type of site supported
• Clean and clear design

Unfortunately the regular "naughties" are present

• No TOS or Privacy Policy
• No workflow or history
• Fragile direct-URL posting method
• No monetization
• Bad error reporting
• Inappropriate sites listed

Large Group of Sites Supported - With Categories

"Beaten" only by Post Toaster's 70 sites, SocialPoster supports a goodly list of social sites. It is really nice that the author has taken the time to categorize them as pligg, top, etc.

It is really important to consider posting your content at appropriate second and third tier sites, and this pre-selected list will help do just that as it contains lesser known sites such as RelevantLogs and FritterWare . (I know of dozens more, but it's still good to see someone heading in that direction - kudos to the author for that!)

Unfortunately....

Inappropriate Sites Are Listed

One of the sites listed is Teenwag, which really has no place on this list. I know you could argue that Facebook (another listing I would have left off) shouldn't be there either, but Teenwag is especially inappropriate. The average age is <15 and, frankly, nobody using this tool or reading this should probably be doing much posting in that arena, and certainly now without a lot of care. (Disclosure: I have a pre-teen and am sensitive about this.)

I know it sounds all holier-than-thou Googlish, but: Don't be evil.

(I am not even going to talk about openly displaying Google Page Rank!)

Good Design

Like SocialMarker, the design is really very nice, with good single page layout, options for framing your work, etc. But it really is a very small site: one section for posting (1 page), one section for webmasters (1 page), and a very low volume blog: 3 posts since 25/Sept/2007. Which makes me wonder about the...

Lack of Monetization

There is a single ad pointing at their "premium" product, Social Bookmarks Submitter. Since that product seems to support fewer sites than the free section, it is hard to imagine a lot of $150 conversions. So you have to worry about your time investment in the tool.

Lack of Workflow

Like all the others in this tier, SocialPoster doesn't help you keep track of anything you're doing, making a sustained complex effort much more difficult than necessary.

No TOS or Privacy Policy

None, nada, nuttin. So what *is* in that iFrame it's putting around your browsing? I looked: it's cool. But using software without a TOS is foolish, in my opinion.

Fragile Architecture

Like the others, SocialPoster uses direct-URL posting and pops you into sites based on hard-coded site URL's. Let's do some math:

(60 sites * 4 URL's per site)

- (60 webmasters who hate SEO's)

- (lack of monetary incentive to maintain)

= Eventual failure

Bad Error Reporting

And maybe the failure is happening now. The system let me "link" delicio without being logged in (hint: no link saved), and it did the same with Myjeeves.ask.com.

On the upside, it did walk me though the other 8 sites and either gave appropriate error messages or worked, depending on what I did. So 20% rot in my sample. Maybe that is good enough for free.

Grade: C+

I liked the UI, appreciated the attempt to codify and classify the sites, and thought that including good second tier sites in the list was useful. I dinged them, like the others, for having bad workflow, an opaque business model, and no TOS/Privacy Policy. I was especially disappointed to find inappropriate sites in the "can post" list.