About fourteen months ago, as loyal readers may remember, I blogged about an online effort to launch something called the Jane Austen Letter Writing Society, which aimed to create a social network based on that creakiest of dinosaurs, the hand-written letter.
No idea how that project is going, but given the web’s impulse to replicate and monetize all things, perhaps it should come as no surprise that a second Austen-themed letter-writing club has appeared online. The most salient difference between the Letter Writing Society and the newer entrant, the Jane Austen Pen Pal Club, seems to be money: you could join the Society for free, but the Club costs $39 a year.
In exchange, members will get access to a list of fellow Janeites interested in corresponding (unlike the Society, the Club permits email), as well as to pages dedicated to Austen-related news, blogs and member-penned fanfic. “The 'Jane Austen Pen Pal Club' was created to facilitate the connection of Austen fans the world over,” the site explains.
Although the Club’s web site is stylish and well-designed, circumstantial evidence suggests that there have been few takers so far: my exploratory clicks a few days ago brought me the offer a free one-year membership, even though the site’s “Get Started” page describes that deal as a “holiday season” gift to the first twenty-five people to sign up. In the world of free membership in Facebook, the Republic of Pemberley and, indeed, the Jane Austen Letter Writing Society, getting anyone to pay to join a social network – at least one that doesn’t involve dating -- seems an uphill task.
Hey! An online dating service just for Janeites! Why has no one thought of this? We’ll call it OkJane, or austenHarmony, or RegencyMatch.com. I invite proposals – for investment, I mean! Not those kinds of proposals! -- from all you Janeite venture capitalists out there.