I only found out last night Google is shutting the door. Too bad, I really invested in this site and made many great friends.
Anyway, due to owning several communities here, having many friends, acquaintances and so on, I created a Google Meetup Group on Facebook.
It's for anyone needing a place to land, advertise, talk about what's next etc.
It doesn't matter if one plans to go to MeWe or another site, having a stable meetup group on G+ should help as things wind down and members/friends need a place to find out what's happening.
I'll promote it more in the next few months to get the word around.
Here's a link for any interested at this early stage
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189060457917856/permalink/1189062911250944/?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189060457917856/permalink/1189062911250944/?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22:%22O%22%7D
Anyway, due to owning several communities here, having many friends, acquaintances and so on, I created a Google Meetup Group on Facebook.
It's for anyone needing a place to land, advertise, talk about what's next etc.
It doesn't matter if one plans to go to MeWe or another site, having a stable meetup group on G+ should help as things wind down and members/friends need a place to find out what's happening.
I'll promote it more in the next few months to get the word around.
Here's a link for any interested at this early stage
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189060457917856/permalink/1189062911250944/?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1189060457917856/permalink/1189062911250944/?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22:%22O%22%7D
My membership in your FB Group is pending, al m. I'd like to put one of my G+ Collections on FB but am having difficulty figuring out how to do so. Any advice for me? FB just looks like a mess!
ReplyDeleteJeff Diver You have been accepted, just like all members will be.
ReplyDeleteI'm really not proficient with FB yet, but saw the need to get us a space to help transition off G+.
Welcome and ask me again in a few weeks when I better understand how FB operates.
In the meantime, your question makes it clear that we'll need some FB experts on site. I'll see what I can do in the coming weeks about that.
Thanks ;)
John Skeats John R. Ellis I don't suppose you'll be setting up shop on FB to help out?
Yeah, I'm going quiet after g+ shuts down.
ReplyDeleteI've been permanent banned on twatter, done a runner from #faceplant due to stupidity of the interface.
See ya.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/nDSErj7QazwS5TxLj_WnbTiIyJdi5cO570sfmqCt21N4o5cSzpWCTAhBl2vRwz85BIkekRRzNHXk-VA=s0
I use FB but Rarely and have some trivial communities there. We have a Lounge for G+ Refugees there (Private and set up a year ago when it was obvious G+ was going down). I don't plan to migrate any G+ Communities there - I have tinkered with communities on Minds and MeWe so far. And I use "migrate" loosely - I doubt G+ will give us any useful tools, nor am I going to try and preserve anything - Fresh start on anything I'd consider on a new platform.
ReplyDeleteMichael o'donnell Oh no dude. Your an oldtimer here on social media. That would be a big loss.
ReplyDeleteMaybe at least join the Google Meetup to at least keep in touch with the rest of our crowd?
John R. Ellis Yeah, I'm a member of that lounge, yet haven't spent any time on Fb for com purposes.
ReplyDeleteYou did indeed call it right so long ago now.
Anyway, your invite to the Google Meetup was sent out yesterday. We'll attempt to create something useful no matter what new social site Plussers end up calling their own.
Michael o'donnell At least join Pluspora where all our Friends (5000 so far) are sitting around dissing G+.
ReplyDeleteYou too Al M - Pluspora is a Diaspora Pod in the Federation.
Speaking of - Di Cleverly has a new G+ Community for helping Plussers set up Pods for their communities.
ReplyDeleteJohn R. Ellis My main objection to Diaspora is that there are no communities like here on G+, other than that it seems to be ok. And they banned Pedojim! :)
ReplyDeleteJohn R. Ellis Can you link Di Cleverly's com as some may want that info.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Heather Wallace Jill H Ricrab Kyle G.
ReplyDeleteThanks m8.
ReplyDeleteIt quite simply is a bit exhausting at times.
As I said before I was on twatter and got permanent banned, I had friends on there, I was nearing a thousand followers and got banned for some unknown infraction based in "aggressive following behaviour", 13 times I was temporary banned.
The fact was that having a voice was discouraged.
Well fuck that.
al m Thanks! FB seems to understand communities or interest groups fairly well, but not so much what we here at G+ know as Collections.
ReplyDeleteA special thanks for thinking of tagging John Skeats and John R. Ellis. Their expertise and advice would be most welcome. In our chaotic world we need our sages to guide us!
I see John has already replied. One wonders why Google didn't prepare for an event that John and others long ago warned us might be coming.
John R. Ellis I tried, couldn't get on.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's fantastic.
I'll probably never know.
Enjoy.
I love MeWe for groups. I'm staying. Pluspora is awful for people like me who hate hashtagging everything. MeWe is a lot like G+ but more privacy controls.
ReplyDeleteI will try to round up some links or invites later today. I think you might need an Invite to get into Diaspora or Pluspora.
ReplyDeleteMichael o'donnell Mewe does have some issues due to the massive influx of G+ refugees, I suggest you to try it later.
ReplyDeleteal m This is the first G+ group I've heard of on Facebook. Can you (or others) think of any others that exist?
ReplyDeleteI've added your group to #PlexodusWiki:
https://social.antefriguserat.de/index.php/Established_G%2B_Exodus_Communities#Facebook?x
If you can check that that works as expected I'd appreciate it.
social.antefriguserat.de - Established G+ Exodus Communities - PlexodusWiki
John R. Ellis That Diaspora Pod community isn't ... all that new, actually ;-)
ReplyDeleteplus.google.com - The Diaspora Pod Incubator Community has been launched at Google+ by Di Cleve...
Anton A Another issue with MeWe is that you can't share posts from it, and content on MeWe is invisible to outside search engines. That's a serious limitation if you're looking to reach people outside of MeWe itself.
ReplyDeleteAnton A Diaspora itself doesn't have groups, though a related protocol and network (and one that inter-connects with Diaspora) does: HubZilla.
ReplyDeleteI've been experimenting with Isaac Kuo on sorting out how to talk between the two, today.
Peter Maranci Excactly! It's a closed echo chamber and I would love to show my post to the whole world. Let's see if they will change that with the new update, otherwise I will look for alternative like hub.toot.cat - Anton Armsberg - or https://kune.cc/?locale=en#!antonarmsberg
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Interesting! Please keep us updated!
ReplyDeleteJeff Diver
ReplyDeleteYou can use either a Page or a Group to house your collection on FB Just depends on what you ant it to do and what you want out of it.
Facebook is not an option for me. After Cambridge Analytica came to light, I requested my data to see what FB had on me. In addition to posts, photos, likes, etc., I found that Facebook had record of every phone call and every text message (not the contents, but the phone number) of *every text and call I made or received since 2011*.
ReplyDeleteThat's a hard fucking pass for me, thanks. (And I hope it gives the rest of you pause to reflect on the implications, as well...)
Jeff Diver
ReplyDeleteThis may help you with Facebook Page vs. Group:
facebook.com - Facebook Tips: What’s the Difference between a Facebook Page and Group?
Jonathon Barton I'm with you, I haven't trusted Facebook with anything due to their repeated invasions of people's privacy and flagrant attempts to force/trick people into exposing everything publicly. I have a Facebook account to talk to some family members and old friends who refuse to budge from it, but I put nothing important or personal on Facebook. I also refuse to install any Facebook-owned products on my mobile devices because of the nasty things (like what you found).
ReplyDeleteJohn R. Ellis
ReplyDeleteSame here as to fresh start... since my community was mostly helping about G+,YT, HOA, Zoom, etc. it is mostly outdated within a month or so - and a lot is preserved on YT so I won't mind tooooo much seeing it go.
al m I won't be "setting up shop" on Facebook for the reasons given above. I'll be here on Google+ until the bitter end. During that time, I'll be exploring alternatives for a new home, but it won't be Facebook even temporarily. I'm currently testing MeWe, Eter9, and Pluspora. I'll almost certainly end up active on only one of them. MeWe and Eter9 look the most promising to me thus far -- but there is a lot of time for that to potentially change.
ReplyDeleteIf I had a choice between Facebook and no social media at all, I'd go with no social media in a heartbeat. Facebook is Hell.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I wish someone would work up some sort of meatspace social media. Something where you could go to a local place and meet with people in your neighborhood who share the same interests. It would be a lot healthier than any social media. Maybe something like clubs used to be in Edwardian or Victorian England.
John Skeats Keep an eye on Solid and Inrupt. Still very young, but interesting things happening.
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci That's a bit like what the Birches did, after Bebo:
ReplyDeletehttp://allthingsd.com/20130521/bebo-founders-go-analog-with-exclusive-battery-club-in-san-francisco/?x
allthingsd.com - Bebo Founders Go Analog With Exclusive Battery Club in San Francisco
Peter Maranci
ReplyDeleteHave you tried this - sounds exactly like what you are talking about.
meetup.com - We are what we do
Edward Morbius I'm wide open to something new, but i know nothing about Inrupt or Solid. I took a brief look at inrupt.com but saw nothing about social networking. Do you have a link with more information about what they're doing in that area?
ReplyDeleteJohn Skeats I knew nothing about the Federation concept, (Hubzilla, Friendica, Diaspora etc), but honestly, with 10 months to go, I'd encourage you to have a look, see if one of these would fit your needs.
ReplyDeleteI'm speaking from a position of bias mind you, I won't go back to FB< and wasn't impressed with the community on MeWe either, whereas Friendica allows me to see and interact with Hubzilla, Diaspora and it's own users in federation space.
Take the time to have a look around, ask questions, then decide, and don't feel you're under pressure to leap right away, there's time.
Jill H FYI in case you are not aware...MeWe is free until images and gifs you post reach 8 gigs of space. Click on the Cloud button at the top of your account to see the monthly fees. Then you either delete content or pay a monthly fee for increased storage. It might take 3 years or so to reach the limit if you don't post images but then what? Who knows what the fees will be then. Also chat is not free past the free trial. MeWe is a Facebook experience with fees. If you are a group admin bringing your members to MeWe you are committing your members to deal with the MeWe fees which are individually assessed.
ReplyDeleteI've been avoiding F******k since it opened to the general public, partly because of the sort-of-stampede to it and the accompanying mass hysteria. It may still be the best way to reach a large crowd -- but I never did like large crowds, actual or virtual!
ReplyDeleteI'll probably move my own postings -- mostly on books and classical music -- to MeWe, at which point I'll pin the URL to the top of my page. I'm also considering -- gulp! -- Instagram, where I'd simply post pictures of the same posts (announcing online reviews, etc.), along with actual working links.
Steve Vasta you do know that Instagram is owned by Facebook now, right? And the creators of Instagram recently left the company, I Believe. By all accounts Facebook is turning Instagram into Facebook Photos, with the usual Facebook attitude toward privacy and cross-linking the hell out of everything.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I find myself saying this a lot, but if you're going to move to MeWe please be aware that you cannot share links to individual posts on me we to anyone outside of me we. Neither can anyone else. Also, search engine such as Google cannot index MeWe. So you'll be kind of shutting yourself away from the rest of the internet, at least in regards to whatever you post there.
Kathie Gifford Well, nothing is for free. Consider the level of privacy, lack of ads, etc. Facebook is disgusting. I'd rather pay a little something than have Facebook stalking my every key stroke. I haven't hit any limits on anything so time will tell.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I just dealt with my first troll in a group and I LOVE the ability to control how much people can interact in a group. Many more choices than G+. I'm happy and I'm staying.
And yes, you can share links. I've had no problems sharing to here or to other timelines within MeWe. There are many more privacy controls compared to G+. Perhaps you have a setting or the other poster has a setting preventing you from sharing.
MeWe has already stated that they are working on making posts with a public option so others can find you easier. Last I read, they were hoping the feature would be added by the end of the year.
Jill H That "public" option will only be public within MeWe. As for sharing links to individual posts on MeWe, you're the first person I've heard saying that. Could you link to a MeWe post here, please?
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci Aha. I can share posts within MeWe. I can share my profile, groups here but I cannot share a specific post from MeWe to here.
ReplyDeleteTrue, the public option seems like it will be public within MeWe. I love the privacy. However, if your goals are to attract as many followers as possible then MeWe probably isn't a good fit.
Peter Maranci Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDeleteI do know that FB bought IG, and is basically treating it as a data mine. The point for me, however, is that IG hasn't generated the same sort of follow-the-crowd hysteria. (That may be because FB was the first to really catch on -- much more than the not-quite-lamented MySpace.)
Since I never post anything that I wouldn't want the public to see, the privacy issues bother me less than they do for others here.
Thanks also for the comments about MeWe. But this leaves a quandary: it sounds like Pluspora, like the rest of Diaspora, requires some technical know-how to set it up. Even if I could acquire said know-how, I've not got the patience for it. Suggestions?
Perhaps I really shall just make an old-fashioned (!) blog and be done with it. (People can also find me on LinkedIn.)
Jill H I'm like you as far as the privacy -- one of the things I've liked about G+ is precisely that the whole world hasn't been hanging around!
ReplyDeleteOTOH, you could argue that the whole idea of social media is somewhat at odds with privacy....
steve taylor I have a Pluspora account but haven't seen anything that excites me there. I'll be watching the services over the next few months before I make a decision.
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci One of the things that encourages me the most about MeWe is that they have a survey specifically for Google+ refugees to see what requirements they have. If they follow that up by delivering on what Google+ users want, they could be big-time winners.
ReplyDeleteSteve Vasta well, we are researching all the available alternatives. That's part of the purpose of this group!
ReplyDeleteJill H I am actually a very strong privacy advocate. But I like to have the choice for each of my posts. Google Plus gave me that.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that worries me about MeWe not having the option for public posting, is that it seems that a lot of Google Plus users will be disappearing as far as the rest of the online world is concerned. One of the things I liked about G+ was that I could stumble across new and interesting people to follow. As I understand it, there will be much less of that sort of cross-pollination on MeWe.
Andrew Hatchett Thanks for your help!
ReplyDeleteal m, thanks for your efforts trying to help G+ members via Facebook. Regretfully, a Facebook group may not help those considering MeWe.
ReplyDeleteMeWe Admin Mark Weinstein, offers this comment:
Facebook is censoring some FB members talking about MeWe. What is that 10,000 pound FB gorilla afraid of? OMG LOL
Looks like someone is afraid of competition! Remember when Mark Zuckerberg claimed Facebook had no competition during his live congressional testimony . . . Yea right.
MeWe members, this is a MeWe badge of honor. If Facebook puts you in FB "jail" for telling your friends about MeWe, make sure to get a screenshot. This is a proud moment!
Personally, I'm enjoying the privacy of MeWe and expect that paying a little for the service will help maintain that privacy. G+ allowed me to post publicly and be found by search engines - but the downside to that was porn and scammers attracted by the public exposure.
Here's my recommendation to replace G+:
- if you're a publisher needing censor-free public exposure, join the many others moving to Steemit.
- if you wish a very private family group to connect relatives around the world, one that is kid-friendly and free of porn and garbage, then MeWe is for you. This same solution may work as well for private corporate collaboration.
Both Steemit and MeWe are user friendly and even simpler to learn than G+ . Why not go-for-it and get an account with both?
John Skeats Solid / Inrupt: three main factors.
ReplyDelete1. Tim Berners-Lee is the driving force here. He's had some success in past ventures.[1]
2. Self-hosting potential. Either at individual or group level.
3. TBL is personally building a data importer for Google Takeout.
Information remains vague, I'm trying to get up to speed. More eyes on this would be useful.
________________________________
Notes:
1. And, just in case anyone reading this is unaware: Sir Tim's former project was the World Wide Web itself. HTML, HTTP, the works.
Good #PlexodusAMA topic.
Edward Morbius Thanks. That certainly adds to my interest level!
ReplyDeleteWayne Brander What's happening to people discussing MeWe on Facebook is the same as happened to people discussing Google+ in its early days. Facebook is scared silly of competitors.
ReplyDeleteKathie Gifford So, you (and a few others) bring up some good points on cost. A few thoughts on that.
ReplyDeleteDi Cleverly and David Thiery, who set up #Pluspora, have estimated serving costs at the scale of 1,000 - 10,000 users, at roughly $0.25 per person-year. That is, the technical costs of providing social networking services are low.
There are several platforms that are very amenable to self-hosting. This does not work for everyone, but is a good option for many people. If you have a stable home base, home broadband, and a router, you have all the hardware and connectivity required for your own online presence.
The software itself is freely available also, and collaboratively developed, with, again, numerous options.
These are not the hard parts of that solution.
But there are hard parts.
Every connectivity system tends to breed and cultivate its own pathologies. And I'm not just talking about Internet and digital networks. Fascinating book by Kyle Harper, The Fate of Rome, describes how disease and epidemics, as well as trade, religion, and commerce grew up and evolved with the Roman empire and its sea and overland trade. And communications networks are the same. More books, though Elizabeth Eisenstein's The Printing Press as an Agent of Change is a good start.
As networks grow, providing hygiene support becomes critical. Cities required fresh-water and waste-disposal systems. Trade and commerce, regulations, inspections, and consumer-protection laws and lawsuits.
For data services, administering and monitoring distributed systems is likely to become a critical function. This ... sets up some potential conflicts and concerns: censorship, control, and more. But I don't see any way to build out a system without this. And the hygiene systems will be needed anyway for the existing Internet of Things (or as those Who Have Direct Experience with such matters refer to it: the Internet of Shit), let alone the highly probable build-out.
So the idea of people running servers on their home Broadband connections isn't far-fetched. In fact it is the present reality.
The question is how to prevent it from becoming total chaos.
That's where Solid seems promising. If TBL and his crew get this. Diaspora and the other federated platforms ... give me some pause here. They've mostly grown up small and among technically-savvy, eager, and mostly benevolent early-adoptors. Much as the early Internet did. The collision of that early Internet with the crass reality of the larger world was not pretty (and remains the source of a vast number of problems).
And if not Solid, then something else.
Back to your question: The marginal costs for additional self-hosting are effectively nil. So data-storage and everything else ... just pretty much gets washed. The questions are whether or not the residential / small office endpoints can stand traffic spikes (residential/small office comms networks are built for downlink not uplink capacity), if not, how that will be mitigated, and the ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and regulating of the overall system.
And then there's the question of what new ills will evolve to infect it. Because even in my optimism, I'm a pessimist at heart. It's what engineering and architecture are about.
#pinme
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius , the Solid / Inrupt development certainly looks promising. I might add that developer Sir Tim Berners-Lee is also a strong proponent of, and adviser to, the MeWe platform while his Solid / Inrupt project comes to fruition.
ReplyDeletevimeo.com - BBC Interview with MeWe CEO Mark Weinstein
Wayne Brander Thanks, yes, I'd seen that.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Thanks, looks good. All the links work.
ReplyDeleteFor now, we are all figuring things out. Once many issues are discussed, we can better set up the Meetup as a connection/information sharing hub while providing answers and advice for the many Plussers that'll be looking.
We'll put to the test what fb allows considering discussion and links to other social sites.
John Skeats Thanks for letting me know.
ReplyDeleteFor me personally, one of the smaller social sites would be just fine. But...I have a variety of coms, where some are international and diverse, thus need a larger public sharing site to flourish.
It's these types of issues/decisions, amongst many more, which we'll have to figure out so we can offer information and advice as Plussers eventually start transitioning to whatever site is comfortable for them.
I chose to create the Meetup Group on fb as it's a stable site where many Plussers are already members.
Thanks for all the helpful information. Great thread, and a good beginning for vetting the pros and cons of various sites and needs.
ReplyDeleteal m Yes, many Google+ users might already be members of the Meetup Group on Facebook, but many Google+ users have also indicated that they will avoid Facebook at all costs.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing to consider is that Facebook has a history of censoring discussions about alternatives to Facebook. In the early days of Google+, Facebook suspended users who made positive comments about Google+. More recently, current MeWe users have been reporting that Facebook has been censoring posts that mention MeWe. You therefore have to recognize that you probably won't find information about what might be the best candidates for a Google+ replacement anywhere on Facebook.
John Skeats Yes, you make some good points. Thanks for this. I'm hoping to hear all the skepticism/questions/comments etc I can at this point.
ReplyDeleteI feel confident that myself and those wishing to take part in the Meetup will be able to start vetting options to the point where we'll organize the information into an easily accessible format for the many that will be searching.
One main point I hear so far is privacy issues. Damn important, yet I also understand there's many other things to take into account depending on wants and needs...not just from my point of view, but trying to realize various G+ refugees.
As for many of the smaller social sites, a viable and lasting business model seems important.
It's one thing to advertise privacy and a few other features, yet another to be monetarily viable with a long term business plan that makes sense.
Anyway, as time passes we'll all get a better handle on what suits us.
Hats off to Edward Morbius doing an excellent job with setting up this community and other links for us.
Allan
al m It's +John Lewis who kicked this off, actually.
ReplyDeleteMy apologies to John Lewis as he's really set up a com that's informative and helpful. This community link has already been shared in the Meetup Group on Fb, and I'll definitely include the link on an easy to access post to direct members here in the coming days.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your contributions Edward Morbius. Due to your excellent modding, I simply assumed you ran the com :)
al m I'm more the quiet type.
ReplyDeleteUntil I'm not.
Thanks, John Lewis and Edward Morbius and fellow Community members! G+ users are certainly stepping up here to fill the void created by Google's lack of planning!
ReplyDeleteJeff Diver I was thinking about this last night. I have a suspicion I might post about later... about Google.
ReplyDelete