We could, for example, create an empeg tribe, and we'd automatically get a message board, notification service, and other features around the empeg tribe.

Kinda sounds like what we already get on the BBS.

Seriously though, tribenet does look like a much better concept... The hart part is getting everyone to join one of these little community deals. My friends are lazy and will expect me to just call them... Trying to impress upon them the coolness and usefulness of something like Friendster is hard to do... But Friendster does seem to be gaining some popularity, at least in our geekish circles.