Teen launches social site

BY: MARIA LOCKWOOD, SUPERIOR TELEGRAM

 Like most of today’s teens, Pete Merrill grew up making friends with a keystroke. He navigates MySpace, Facebook and My Yearbook with ease. But the Minong teen was looking for something different – a social networking site that focused on good old socializing.

So he made his own.

“It was one of those ‘why not’ things,” the 17-year-old said. It would be a cool project, he thought, a hobby.

Merrill is known for his ability to tackle things head-on.

When he was recruited into the band “The Scarlet War,” he taught himself to play bass guitar. When the band needed a Web page, the Minong teen learned to design one.

The idea for thirdie (pronounced third eye) evolved while Merrill was designing the band’s Web site.

“I started thinking to myself that I could make my own site and make it to my own liking,” he said. “At the time I had been getting a lot of ‘app’ invites from my friends on MySpace and I wanted to make a site that was more focused and based off of staying social with other members and discussing topics or blogging.”

After nearly 150 hours of work, thirdie launched in February. With daily editing and monitoring, Merrill estimates he’s spent well over 1,000 hours of his spare time on the site. The work has paid off. Today, his “hobby” boasts more than 2,200 members from all over the world and receives about 10,000 hits a month.

“I just think he had a lot of initiative,” said Merrill’s mother, Barb Nelson. “I’m proud of him.”

She said she doesn’t even mind sharing the family computer with her son the Webmaster, although she kicks him off occasionally.

Merrill got one of his proudest moments recently when a friend on another networking site, MyYearbook, recommended thirdie to him.

“That was kind of a cool feeling,” Merrill said. “I made that. And if they’re trying to recruit people that must mean that it’s good.”

In particular, young people are drawn to the site. Merrill said the majority of members are under the age of 20, including many of his Northwood School classmates. By watching statistics online, Merrill can tell that about 75 percent of the people who visit the site decide to become members.

What is the lure of thirdie?

Mike Manson of Rice Lake said he spends an hour or two a day on the site, talking to people and trying to beat his high score on games.

“It is fantastic,” he said. “There are so many nice people on it and it’s just fun all around to use.”

Manson appreciated the lack of applications and group invites. No one will recruit you into their mafia, send you fish for your cove or ask you to tend their farm on thirdie.

“It’s a solely social site, it is focused on socializing with others with the exception of the couple games,” Manson said.

Topics range from the controversial – racism, sexism and the growing use of text speak in conversations – to the trivial – “I’m bored. Somebody talk to me.” You can recruit a band member, talk about your favorite movie or post blogs.

And thirdie adds a personal touch, an involved creator. Within a day of joining, new members get a friend invite from Merrill.

The 17-year-old feels thirdie has the potential to get as big as MySpace. “That’d be awesome,” Merrill said. But if it does, he’ll need a little more help.

The teen spends three to five hours a day on the computer keeping an eye out for spammers, hackers or malicious members. But he still manages to get out in the sunlight, hang out with friends and spend time bouncing on the trampoline in the backyard. His grades are A’s and B’s. What was he doing with those extra hours before thirdie?

“Video games,” Merrill said with a grin.

He may have given up Madden Football, but the teen gained thousands of friends and a knowledge that could chart his future career. Learning to design a Web site – adding scrollers, graphics and links – is like learning a foreign language. It’s a dialect Merrill wants to get more fluent in. He hopes to pursue a career in web or graphic design after graduation.

But right now, he’s busy making friends.

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