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A well-executed Facebook parody site called Hatebook has stepped in to provide (temporary) misanthropes with a place to air grievances about everything they hate. Hatebook looks and functions much like Facebook, except with an evil twist for everything. The color scheme is hellish red, profiles include a section called “Why I’m Better Than You!”, and members can create “Hate Albums” that consist of photos and descriptions of things they hate.

Now that Internet users have forged online relationships with the people they like, they can turn their attention to shaming the folks they hate.With Enemybook, a new program that runs on the social networking site Facebook, you can connect to people you loathe, display their photos and evil deeds, and give them the virtual finger.Enemybook is one of several new online applications developed by computer-savvy twentysomethings who say they are tired of bogus online friendships. In a dig at the notion of virtual networking, they hope to encourage people to undermine, or at least mock, the online social communities sites such as Facebook were designed to create.

"People are yearning to express the ridiculousness of some of the features of Facebook -- having all these friends that aren't genuine," Matulef said. "For some people, Enemybook is about expressing their distaste for political figures or celebrities. And for other people, it actually is about spreading hatred for their despised co-workers and exes."

Bryant Choung, 26, a software engineer in Washington, D.C., who created the program, said he was bothered that Facebook had become little more than an online popularity contest and designed Snubster to provide "a backlash against the ridiculous phenomenon that was social networking.""It's nice because Snubster was supposed to be a parody of Facebook, and by being able to work directly in and around Facebook makes it work so much better," Choung said.

Now that Internet users have forged online relationships with the people they like, they can turn their attention to shaming the folks they hate.

It currently has 1,200 users, who cumulatively have recorded nearly 2,300 acrimonious relationships

"People have always been mean and petty and now, with the culture of putting everything online and the reality shows that thrive on voting people off the island or telling people you're fired, it's not surprising that people want to blast their enemies to the world," said Patrice Oppliger, assistant professor of mass communications at Boston University.

The founder of a new anti-social networking site, however, is finding that shared hates can be an equally effective bonding tool. Software engineer Bryant Choung intended to satirize social discovery services when he launched his beta site, Snubster, last month. The site lets members create public lists of people and things that rankle them. "The whole concept of online social networking was really starting to irk me," said Choung, who initially envisioned Snubster as a way to stem the often irritating flow of invitations to join networking sites like Friendster and LinkedIn. While such sites seemed like a good idea at first, their usage too often devolves into "an attempt to get as many fake friends as possible."

Snubster is among the latest in a series of sites created to poke fun at social networking. Others include Isolatr, a spoof site that claims to be "helping you find where other people are not," and Introverster, which bills itself as "an online community that prevents stupid people and friends from harassing you online."

Online social networks are usually all about bringing together people who like the same things. The founder of a new anti-social networking site, however, is finding that shared hates can be an equally effective bonding tool.

Virtual communities together form a social network which is superimposed on, and complementary to, the network consisting of face-to-face communities.