I have a question about Categories on some of these alternative platforms. Specifically, I'm interested in comments about Minds, Tumblr, and/or MeWe.
With my Google+ posts, I had set up something like 20 different categories, and then the vast majority of my posts I would place in one of these categories (with just a handful remaining merely "Public").
So my question in regard to those three different platforms is: Can you categorize your posts on any of those platforms like you can with Google+?
With my Google+ posts, I had set up something like 20 different categories, and then the vast majority of my posts I would place in one of these categories (with just a handful remaining merely "Public").
So my question in regard to those three different platforms is: Can you categorize your posts on any of those platforms like you can with Google+?
Some use #HashTags, which are the most common way I've seen to organize. Others have actual groupings/collections. Is there a specific feature of Categories you are looking for?
ReplyDeleteMeWe - nope. The best you can do is create a group that only you can post to, but others can comment and invite. None of it shows on your timeline though.
ReplyDeleteSorry - terminology!
ReplyDeleteIn Google+, categories are called "Collections."
Here are mine, as an example (this page also shows "Communities" - but I'm specifically interested in the function of placing my posts in categories):
plus.google.com - Steve Greene - Google+
MeWe should really have a unified timeline, at least optional...
ReplyDeleteThe closest thing currently for diaspora* collections is a custom hashtag. For instance, I might use #spg64_scifi, such that no one else is interested in posting to it, but anyone can subscribe to it. However, there's no convenient way to follow someone and automatically follow all of their custom hashtags — it must be done one by one. Furrther, anyone can post to your hashtag, and you can do nothing about it.
ReplyDeleteI think G+ was good because you had both push and pull mechanisms available for the content producer => consumer, collections and following. Communities are a broader form of collections, and also allows special interest groups, or just a group of like-minded people.
ETER9 offers 10 types of Collections, also called Eternalization Categories, including Science, Technology, Art, Cinema, Portfolio, etc... You can add any Post of your to any or ALL of them, and you can also add Public Posts by other users to your Collections without Resharing them.
ReplyDeletehttp://elifennell.com/eter9-user-guide/#EternalizingPosts
Tumblr, of the ones you named, comes closest by far to reproducing Google+ Collections.
ReplyDeleteThe way tumblr does it is superior to G+ collections. You have hashtags, but you aren't limited to using only one hashtag. Tumblr does a great job of popping up a list of your most used hashtags, so you don't have to type them all the way (more time consuming, and more prone to misspelling).
ReplyDeleteThe best thing about tumblr is that you can click on a hashtag and it brings you to a search URL of that hashtag for that user.
In diaspora, it's not quite there yet. You can click on hashtags, but it brings up a pod-wide hashtag search rather than just for that user (the pod's data also includes some posts from users outside the pod, depending on if someone in the pod is following them).
I've put in a feature request which will address this in diaspora (or at least the pluspora pod), by:
1) Auto-adding person specific hashtags to each post
and
2) Auto-removing person specific hashtags from any post not made by that person.
For example, if I post something with #myart, it will auto-add #myart(isaackuo@pluspora.com) to the bottom of the post. If anyone else tries to post something with the #myart(isaackuo@pluspora.com) hashtag, it will be auto-removed.
Thus, the pod-wide hashtag search will actually only return posts made by me for that hashtag.
This will bring tumblr-like hashtag functionality to pluspora.
In the meantime, I've just been using hashtags that no one else would use. There isn't any mechanism preventing others from also posting using those hashtags, so it's not a true Collections replacement, but it's close.
(Oh, in diaspora you can follow hashtags, as well as individuals.)
Hashtags are not Collections. The person who Posted this asked about Collections, not vaguely-similar-to-the-concept-of-collections-at-best, it feels like a disservice to the them to keep answering about something other than what they asked about.
ReplyDeletetumblr's system is already implemented fully, and it works. It works better than Collections. It existed in its current form long before Google+ added Collections. Google+'s Collections were an inferior copy of tumblr's hashtag system from the very start.
ReplyDeleteI repeat: hashtags are NOT Collections, and Tumblr does not use them as Collections. The Tumblr equivalent of Collections are Tumblr Blogs.
ReplyDeleteHashtags are for Indexing, Collections are for Organizing.
Eli Fennell, maybe this post is ripe for a table?
ReplyDeleteUmm...no. Hashtags can and are used for organizing in tumblr.
ReplyDeleteTumblr side blogs are a different thing - they can be interacted with independently from the main blog. That's not how Collections work at all. You can't message a Collection, for example. You don't have separate notification streams for your different Collections, for example.
It's OK. I've said all I meant to say on that point. Just thought it important to clarify that point.
ReplyDeleteOK, maybe I'll say one more thing: The way I would define a Collections-equivalent, is it must at the minimum be a topical space, containing only Posts you've Shared/Reshared (or, on ETER9, you can directly add someone else's Public Post to a Collection of yours). There must be a specific URL for each one, as well, so a URL that goes straight to a Science Collection, a URL that goes straight to a Technology Collection, etc... Now, for a more fully fledged replacement, the Collection (whatever they call it) should be Followable/Unfollowable separate from your Profile, which Tumblr Blogs allow, and like G+ Profiles and Collections Tumblr Blogs and Collections can and often do have different Followers.
ReplyDeleteA Hashtag is an Indexing thing. Yes, they 'Organize' those Indexed Posts to make them easier to find Posts, just as Twitter does, but they're not Personal, Topical Spaces showing only Posts/Shares from a specific user. Hence, not Collections.
There is indeed a URL which goes straight to a tumblr person's hashtag. For example:
ReplyDeleteisaackuo.tumblr.com - IsaacKuo's Sketchbook
This is, in fact, one of the killer features of tumblr - and one which I'm working on adding to diaspora (it's mostly there - it just needs a couple extra routines inserted in there).
You can indeed follow/unfollow them, but this is something where tumblr side blogs are NOT like G+ Collections. In G+, you can follow a person and it will automatically let you follow all of that person's posts in all of their Collections (that aren't explicitly set otherwise). There's simply no equivalent of that with tumblr side blogs. They're completely separate blogs as far as anyone other than yourself is concerned. There's no way to even see what a person's side blogs are, much less auto-follow them all.
Tumblr side blogs are fundamentally independent blogs.
Tumblr hashtags, in contrast, are indeed personal topical spaces showing only posts/shares from a specific user. The big difference is that they allow crossposting so you can post to multiple hashtags at once. This is greatly superior because a lot of posts are relevant to more than one topic.
Eli Fennell BTW, I did check out eter9. It's got excellent potential. I'll explore more when I'm not battling beating winter to get everything done that needs to get done here on the home front.
ReplyDeleteEli Fennell I consider Google's implementation of collections to have been quite misguided. I agree with the OP that their main purpose should have been categorizing, however Google gave them properties that became analogous to communities (similar to single-poster groups in MeWe).
ReplyDeleteI believe that you should have to follow the poster of the collection, and select which one of the streams to unsubscribe from. Making the collections independently accessible was not a good idea. Collections should not have become communities.
The point of categories is to still be able to follow you cousin Eva, that loves to post pictures of dresses, shoes, and cats, while at the same time not having any of her posts of dresses, shoes, and cats in your stream. (quite the opposite point of hashtags).
DL Keur I like ETER9, but I don't know if it's the place most former Plussers will migrate.
ReplyDeleteEdgar Brown I liked the idea that collections can be subscribed to independently. For instance, if I have 107 collections, and you only like Antarctic Marathons, it's going to take you a while to unsub from the other 106.
ReplyDeleteEdgar Brown I can accept that as a legitimate and alternative viewpoint. I wish ETER9, allowed me to choose which Collections to Follow, since it's an All-or-Nothing Following System, i.e. you Follow the Profile, and can't separately Follow Collections, or Unfollow any if you do Follow their Profile.
ReplyDeleteShaun Griffith that is something that can be easily addressed by UI implementation. For example an "unfollow all" button as you circle the user. Or simply add the user to a circle if you follow any of their collections.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned above, a mewe group that's read only would suffice, a link to it could be put in your 'about' section I guess.
ReplyDeleteCategories could be simulated within a group using hashtags, a pinned post containing the available tags would serve as an index of those.
Personally I've stopped trying to recreate G+ and am embracing mewe as is.
Eli Fennell added a correct clarification. Google+ "collections" really are categories in regard to how you can categorize your own posts - moreover they are not system-wide categories but are custom categories that each user makes for his own posts, just in order to place his own posts in his own categories that he has set up.
ReplyDeleteNow, in addition to that, Google+ actually also has a great hashtag system. You can always hashtag your own posts if you want to - and additionally you can go to Google+ pages showing posts for the hashtag you select (that use the same hashtag) - and in addition to that you can also use multiple hashtags. Google+ really did do things right - which is exactly why I'm so sad about Google+ disappearing.
But as Eli mentioned, I am specifically interested in (asking about) a method of placing my own posts in my own categories (that I define; i.e., custom categories).
Eli Fennell I see what you mean about Tumblr blogs. I have not used that, but just made posts on my account. Minds also has user blogs, and I haven't used that yet either.
ReplyDeleteI am doubting they function in the same way - but thank you for the pointer, I can work with that. What I am doubting they work similarly to Google+, because if you "followed" a user you would always see all of his posts - but instead of following a Google+ user you can "follow" just his collection(s) you are interested in, and then not all of his posts would show up on your stream, but only those posts to his collection(s) that you followed. I am thinking that, for example, on Minds when you subscribe to a user you will see all of his general posts but not his posts to any of his blogs - but I don't know this, I could be completely wrong about this.
"The point of categories is to still be able to follow you cousin Eva, that loves to post pictures of dresses, shoes, and cats, while at the same time not having any of her posts of dresses, shoes, and cats in your stream. (quite the opposite point of hashtags)."
ReplyDeleteThat's the point of hashtag filtering, but obviously it only works if Eva properly categorizes her posts in the way you hope.
Categories are an inferior method of doing this. Okay, let's suppose Eva has the following Categories:
Dresses
Shoes
Cats
Selfies
You don't want to see her pictures of Dresses, Shoes, and Cats, but you do want to follow her Selfies. So, you follow her Selfies Collection.
But in fact, a lot of her Selfies have pictures of Dresses and Shoes. She still posts them to her Selfies Collection, unfortunately, because G+ sucks. She can only assign one Category to any post. Even though you hoped to filter out all those stupid Dresses and Shoes pictures, Eva wasn't given the choice to properly Categorize them.
In contrast, with hashtag filtering you could have filtered out #Dresses and #Shoes and that would have eliminated those unwanted posts from your stream.
We're working on more powerful hashtag boolean math filtering, but I'm not aware of any social media site which provides complete SQL-like filtering capabilities.
In any case, the way G+ handles it, it's at best a flawed tool that wasn't thought out very well.
The thing about tumblr side blogs is that they were implemented because a lot of users were creating multiple blogs and it was a real pain to switch between them. A different side blog was a way to create a new virtual identity - something really popular with the RP crowd.
ReplyDeleteWith RP (role playing) on tumblr, the blogger would take on a virtual persona - often just a temporary thing until the blogger was tired of RPing that character. The blogs, messages, replies, etc...those would all be in the pretend RP persona.
Side blogs were a way to do this without going through the trouble of creating a whole new tumblr account.
Viewed within this context, you can see why it made sense to make the side blogs purposefully undiscoverable between each other (and the main blog). The RP community is really big on keeping the RP identities "private" and separate from the "main" identities. So, there is no way to even tell that a side blog is a side blog; no way to tell what a blog's other side blogs are; no externally visible connection at all (unless the person includes links on their profile pages, of course).
Steve Greene on mewe I can opt out of a contacts posts showing in my feed, and therefore only see what they share to a group, if I'm in that group.
ReplyDeleteFor Diaspora, really the currently intended solution, from what I can surmise, is that you'd join a different like-minded pod (or create your own) for each collection. From there you'd host a profile somewhere that you manually publish all of your collections. The 2 things missing from what I can tell are unified profiles that automagically publish your collection list and join you to other pods, and a simplified pod creation system that also allows you to re-use the same server resources.
ReplyDeleteYou kind-of what a "home" pod where you create the content, such as Pluspora (you decide from there if it's public or private within that pod) and then cross-post to the appropriate content pod. This seems like an easily solvable compromise with some simple scripting, hashtags, and bot users. ie: Set your "Doctor Who Bot Account" to receive notifications when you post and re-post anything that you share that it can see (ie: public or with the bot in an aspect) that contains a list of keywords with or without hashtags: ie: Dalek, #Doctor, TARDIS, #sonic <- hashtags are only necessary in this case when you use words that might be used in multiple contexts.