Take a bow Justin Hartman and the rest of the Afrigator crew! Great site, great feel, constantly improving. Superb.
A few weeks back I got invited to Gatorpeeps by Stii via a tweet dialog that we had. Didn’t know much about it but dived right in. What a great surprise. Although I only have 10 followers and less than 100 peeps, I found the community humble, friendly and relaxed. What a pleasure.
It reminded me of the pre-Internet days when everyone on a BBS at the slow end of a 9600Baud Hayes (in)compatible modem was just there to help each other out. No showboating, no egos, just people interacting with people. It felt good then. And it feels good again.
So what’s wrong with twitter? Nothing. But these are local folk with local perspectives which makes it easier to relate to and quicker to build relationships. Hey, I’m certainly not a big mate of any of my followers but it feels comfortable and that says a lot about what Afrigator is doing right.
I’ve met some remarkable people in the last few weeks. Here’s just a few of them.
@ashraf runs a super cool football fanzine. Why go hunting for footie gossip when I get a peep feed .
@aegjung is an interesting combination of Afrikaner philosphy and culture and alternative views of things.
@cntombela has a another great footie blog with local flavor too.
@justinhartman is the open face behind Afrigator but his blog is a lot wider than his job
@robertbravery gives me a quick daily dose of web content/tech knowledge. Short and sweet.
@stii is a developer supreme at Afrigator and his blog is a mixture of developer experiences and observations.
Go on, get your blog onto Afrigator and start peeping. You’ll be surprised how many people like you are out there.
Like I said … if you ain’t on the gator, you ain’t in africa.
f3yourmind 
I like it.What you say is so true when comparing Twitter. There is nothing wrong with Twitter, just that Gatorpeeps is more local.
I have had more traffic from Gatorpeeps than from twitter, even though I have nearly four times more followers.
Wow you sure bring back memories of those old BBS days. I remember them so well. You had a fast connection, I had a 2400 modem.
BTW thanks for the mention.
I have some cool posts on Gatorpeeps that you might enjoy:
GatorPeeps – SA’s Twitter – What I like about it
How to make Gatorpeeps work for you
You know you’re addicted to Gatorpeeps when …
I am not on the continent, but do enjoy it. Keeps you up to date with all local news. On Twitter you a number, Gatorpeeps you are a person. Best South African invention. Better than biltong!
I totally agree with you. I find myself spending less and less time on twitter and I think gatorpeeps is to blame for this!The guys at afrigator are doing an amazing job with all their products. Afrigator, adgator and now gatorpeeps .
I just wish more of the local bloggers would try and interact via gatorpeeps, but I guess this will come with time.
Respect! You have it spot-on with the community feeling – “just people interacting.” It is great. We need more articles like this to raise the awareness and have more and more “locals” join.
140 characters have never been able to say so much!
Yo! thanks for the mention, basically afrigator is doing what many fail to do, and that is bring africans together, ever since I joined afrigator, I’ve met incredible africans, discovered incredible african blogs and have learned a lot,
Afrigator rocks! and your initiative rocks man!
Thanks
Thanks for the kind words Aslam 😉
You’ve made the entire team’s week here at the GatorPen! I think that that one of the things we do best is listen. We don’t have all the best ideas, but we know that you guys do, so if there’s something you think we can do better or something that you would like to see added to Afrigator, GatorPeeps or Adgator, please let us know and we’ll do our best to make it happen.
Till next time, keep on blogging!
Lester Hein
Product Manager
Afrigator | Adgator | GatorPeeps
Hey Alsam,
Thanks for the kind words! It is great to have “met” you 🙂