What is Tenuous Links?  Well, it’s a social networking site that takes the form of a multi-faceted web portal offering its users several free online facilities that have been developed to allow them to communicate all that is good about the wonderful World Wide Web. But what does that mean?

It's a website directory

Tenuous Links started life as a website directory in 2002. The idea was to provide an alternative to the big search engines.  The basic premise was to not use complex algorithms to determine the order in which we display the sites we list.  Instead sites are ordered using a simple manual process that involves rating each website against five key factors of aesthetic, usability, speed, quality of service and originality.  2007 saw a major overhaul into its current web portal form, however at its heart is still a comprehensive directory of the Web's best sites.

It's a microblogging site

TLitter (pronounced litter) allows our users to microblog, i.e. leave a short message on our site.  These messages can take a number of forms.  General messages can be posted on a user’s personal TLitter line, or our users can elect to broadcast a message and have it displayed on the main TLitter line that is just a click away from our home page.  In order to keep broadcasts special there is a minimum time interval between each broadcast, however at present this interval is set to about twenty minutes.

In addition to microblogging, TLitter also allows our users to keep up-to-date with recent happenings on the site by providing a list of notable events. These include member registrations, directory additions, newsletter publications, etc.

It's a blogging site

Tenuous Links blogs or TLogs provide a straightforward way for our users to publish their thoughts and insights on the World Wide Web.  TLogs were introduced to allow our users to share information about the sites that they find in a little more detail than can be done in a directory entry, or for that matter a microblog.  The basic idea is that links to the sites or web-based finds are users are extolling can be embedding in the text of the TLog.  That said, Tenuous Links is too rock n roll for rules and TLogs can be used for just about anything our users want to say.  All we ask is that they are clean and legal.

A unique aspect of TLogs over than other blogging websites is Tenuous Links helps its TLoggers promote their publications and get their message across.  Every TLog published appears for a short while in the Latest TLogs portlet on our home page, and there is a notification of each posting on the main TLitter line.  In addition to this we syndication each TLog entry using RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom feeds.

It's a social networking site

Tenuous Links allows its members to follow each others activity our site using a facility that we call tenuous linking.  When a member links to another, he or she can follow what other member is doing such as adding favourite links, linking to other members as well as any TLogging and TLittering they do.

Tenuous links also allows our members to message each other using TLitter. They can do this in the public domain, viewable by all, or they can elect to whisper there messages so only the intended recipient can view what they are saying.  Links between users is undertaken via each user’s hub page described below.

It's a social bookmarking site

Users of Tenuous Links can store their favourite links by clicking on the heart shaped symbols displayed beside each link.  This allows them to access to their favourite tenuous links (TLInks) from any computer with web access, whether it be at home, in the office, or in an internet café while travelling.  The TLinks users click most are also displayed on their Tenuous Links home page, or hub page, in order that they can be shared with other users of the site.

It's a online profile site

Each person that joins Tenuous Links has a hub page created for them.  This is a user’s personal Tenuous Links homepage that serves as an online profile.  It includes a few words about themselves, a tenuous claim to fame, their favourite TLinks, and a list of their latest TLog entries.  The hub page also the place where users can tenuously link to each other and share their travels through Tenuosity.