I'd think this has a good point.
Originally shared by Isaac Kuo
Say no thanks to MeWe
I do not understand the enthusiasm with which many users being abandoned by a "good" corporation's closed garden are running toward a newbie startup corporation's closed garden.
Oh sure - a startup promises everything and seems very responsive to the customers. They all do. They're not being funded by the customers, they're being funded by VC cash. They try to lock you in while they can, so they can extract value from you later. This is what always happens, because sooner or later the VC's always want their money back and then some (a LOT some).
And you know what? MeWe is going to fail. I mean...there's a small chance it won't, but most startups fail. From the VC's perspective, that's just the price of doing business. Most investments fail, but you get a big payoff from the one that doesn't. That's cool for the VC's, but what good is it for the end users?
For the most part, the end users aren't stupid. For the most part, we avoid getting in deep with dubious startups, and just try to take advantage of freebies while the getting's good. But with this MeWe mass migration, it's like a form of mass stupidity.
The hard truth is that there weren't enough G+ users to justify Google continuing to invest in G+. In terms of raw numbers, there weren't enough of us to keep a Facebook wannabe afloat. Even if we all migrated to MeWe, it would still be a struggling Facebook wannabe.
In contrast, far smaller numbers flooding into diaspora are enough to breath new life into the project. It doesn't have to live or die on high stakes venture capital. Diaspora and Friendica and Mastodon etc have been around through tough times...but without greedy VC's looking to cash the chips in, they have plodded onward rather than folding. The open interoperability means that it's not a closed garden. You can shift from one option to another if one goes down or stagnates.
If you want something future-proof, I'd recommend Hubzilla. It already federates with both the diaspora world (Federation) and the Mastodon world (Fediverse). It offers a unique capability to migrate from one pod to another live - no export/import process required (such as its predecessor, Friendica). Multiple "clones" can be live across pods, meaning that even if one pod goes down you're still up - your followers/followees see no downtime. It's not 100%, since followers/followees in diaspora/Mastodon are pointed to your "clone" on a specific pod, but it's as good as it'll get.
The bottom line is that you'll be part of an open system which has been around the block, and which is resilient to the loss of pods. Your followers/followees don't need to make the same choice as you do - they can use diaspora or Mastodon or whatever.
Originally shared by Isaac Kuo
Say no thanks to MeWe
I do not understand the enthusiasm with which many users being abandoned by a "good" corporation's closed garden are running toward a newbie startup corporation's closed garden.
Oh sure - a startup promises everything and seems very responsive to the customers. They all do. They're not being funded by the customers, they're being funded by VC cash. They try to lock you in while they can, so they can extract value from you later. This is what always happens, because sooner or later the VC's always want their money back and then some (a LOT some).
And you know what? MeWe is going to fail. I mean...there's a small chance it won't, but most startups fail. From the VC's perspective, that's just the price of doing business. Most investments fail, but you get a big payoff from the one that doesn't. That's cool for the VC's, but what good is it for the end users?
For the most part, the end users aren't stupid. For the most part, we avoid getting in deep with dubious startups, and just try to take advantage of freebies while the getting's good. But with this MeWe mass migration, it's like a form of mass stupidity.
The hard truth is that there weren't enough G+ users to justify Google continuing to invest in G+. In terms of raw numbers, there weren't enough of us to keep a Facebook wannabe afloat. Even if we all migrated to MeWe, it would still be a struggling Facebook wannabe.
In contrast, far smaller numbers flooding into diaspora are enough to breath new life into the project. It doesn't have to live or die on high stakes venture capital. Diaspora and Friendica and Mastodon etc have been around through tough times...but without greedy VC's looking to cash the chips in, they have plodded onward rather than folding. The open interoperability means that it's not a closed garden. You can shift from one option to another if one goes down or stagnates.
If you want something future-proof, I'd recommend Hubzilla. It already federates with both the diaspora world (Federation) and the Mastodon world (Fediverse). It offers a unique capability to migrate from one pod to another live - no export/import process required (such as its predecessor, Friendica). Multiple "clones" can be live across pods, meaning that even if one pod goes down you're still up - your followers/followees see no downtime. It's not 100%, since followers/followees in diaspora/Mastodon are pointed to your "clone" on a specific pod, but it's as good as it'll get.
The bottom line is that you'll be part of an open system which has been around the block, and which is resilient to the loss of pods. Your followers/followees don't need to make the same choice as you do - they can use diaspora or Mastodon or whatever.
I do think there's a high chance MeWe will fail (or at least end up very stagnant), but I don't like the other choices available, so MeWe it is.
ReplyDeleteIf it fails, I'll just stop using social media outright, which isn't a big deal.
Though I do understand for people whose jobs or hobbies revolve around it, they do need social media in some form. Good luck to them, wherever they go.
Dima Pasechnik What do you think of Flickr as an alternative for photographers? Cornell University displays some of its archives there & it's been around awhile.
ReplyDeleteflickr.com - Diver Railroad
I think the "I do not understand" comes from an engineering perspective.
ReplyDeleteThe points made are reasonable and correct. However, in my opinion, the federated social space needs more product management, not only project development, for a real mass appeal.
I'm fine with an engineering project personally but I doubt I'd be able to recommend it to anyone else.
I'm interested in keeping contact with friends I've met on G+. That's it, period. Many are going to MeWe. Some are going to Cake. So I've joined both. It has nothing to do with business, and I don't think any of us are "stupid." It was not Google that attracted me to G+. It was preloaded on my phone. By happy circumstance I met a lot of like minded folks. It took some effort, blocking idiots, trolls, hatemongers, etc. In the end I found people I enjoy communicating with. I suffer no illusions about the intent of Corporations.
ReplyDeleteBleeding-edge adopters always take higher risks. But the migration hasn't yet begun. Many more are still considering their options.
ReplyDeleteDid not like MeWe. Let’s start with the emoji thing!
ReplyDeleteWhat is a bit disappointing with the open-source social alternatives is this tendency to fragment rather than pool resources behind one or at least fewer efforts. This reduces the momentum and critical mass for each and making it harder to catch up in features and capabilities with the commercial competitors. Communication tools live and die with the network effect - i.e. they are only useful if the tool can connect to users I would actually want to communicate with.
ReplyDeleteWe respect his opinion, but their is another view on this matter. Within creation of 72 hours more than 300 peoples (most of them are from G+, as they mention) have joined our photography community & still growing.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely there are such community you can find which believe in flat earth (seriously...), but that does not mean all are same. In our community the interaction between members are really good.
For example, few hours back someone act quite badly over strict moderation of the community, but before we act against it the members them self came forward & make him accept his misbehaviour.
We can't say about future, but with such members we would like to see where it goes. You may check our community Photography On MeWe https://mewe.com/join/photography_on_mewe
The thing that really bothers me about MeWe is that I haven't been able to get a straight answer from them about their plans for linkability and search engine accessibility. Those are serious handicaps, in my view.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did hear from MeWe seemed disingenuous at best. They announced that they would have public posting in December, but it took further questioning to elicit the information that those public posts would only be public within MeWe. That really defeats the whole purpose of "public", and makes me suspect that the answer to my first two questions will be "no".
It is quite interesting how Diaspora and Mewe is splitting.
ReplyDeleteMost Europeans go to Diaspora. Most Americans go to Mewe.
Now all I need to know is what's VC. To me it means Viet Cong, perhaps it has changed
ReplyDeleteOlivier Malinur It's actually not all that surprising, though. MeWe is easier, while Diaspora is preferable on principle.
ReplyDeleteDave White Venture Capitalists.
ReplyDeleteWell said John Bailey
ReplyDeleteTeam Astronomy Oh, I joined. But I am never going to post or interact in it. Not worth me investing any time into a Facebook wannabe.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, the overwhelming bulk of my G+ followers/followees migrated to pluspora and other interoperable Federated options.
I made a MeWe account to maybe follow some few who went only to MeWe, but honestly more of them went back to Facebook rather than risk MeWe. Which is more likely to exist a year from now - Facebook or MeWe?
Isaac Kuo That's fine. You're not one of my G+ friends. Go where you will.
ReplyDeleteJohn Bailey That's cool that you don't care where people go. You're entitled to your attitude. This is social media, after all - not some life or death issue or whatever.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I care. I see this as a perfect time to advocate for a change for the better, and I'm taking the opportunity to advocate for open source open systems. Fortunately, I have a leg up on this...I have thousands of G+ followers, which gives me some extra weight. Truthfully, only a small fraction of those followers are currently active on G+. Based on the hundreds of followers who mass migrated with me to pluspora, I'd guess only a few hundred of my G+ followers are truly active currently. Regardless of having an order of magnitude fewer followers on pluspora, the level of actual engagement is about the same. I have a ton of inactive (and bot?) followers on G+...surprising absolutely no one.
Still. I gave MeWe an earnest shot, and I determined it's no good. I posted my opinion of this, knowing that there was a good chance my criticism would go viral with a lot of reshares. As luck would have it, my criticism post did indeed go viral with reshares. That helps my desired advocacy for open source open systems.
Of course, I didn't propose - or even mention - pluspora (diaspora) in that post. After studying and exploring different options, I determined that Hubzilla would be the option that would best fit most people.
I had a chance to advocate for open source open systems in a way that could have a meaningful impact. I took that opportunity.
Isaac Kuo I didn't say that I don't care where people go. Obviously if I followed friends to MeWe. I care where my friends go. I deliberately keep my follower count low. The percentage of followers to friends is low, as you say. The friends are the only ones that I'm interested in, the rest? People that follow, in order to get reciprocation, bots, etc ? Just numbers I'm not interested in, like all of the G+ folks that I've unfollowed or blocked over the years. I don't have the inclination or desire to communicate with people that have little in common with me. So... Where they migrate is of zero interest. Which platform will survive? Who knows. We can't predict the future. As far as Facebook, I never cared for that platform. I might as well just publish all of my data, and that of everyone I know on a public billboard. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteIsaac Kuo John Bailey Dima Pasechnik and others: Thanks for being pioneers of Google+ alternatives!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, those of us lemmings who have not yet gone over the cliff have begun to get indications that Google may yet provide some tools and exit strategies.
I suspect some dedicated Google+ staff may have caused a bit of a dustup inside HQ, pointing out that the Google+ decision may haunt the company for awhile if it is not properly implemented.
Trust may no longer exist among Google+ users, but hope remains. And we still have time to explore our options....
My encounter with MeWe was brief and not friendly. I got a SMS with a code, entered the code and it said it was wrong. Asked for another SMS, same story. Asked for email, same story. 2 or 3 days later, I tried again, same problem.
ReplyDeleteI deducted they are filtering by IP and look your country of origin. Probably Senegal is not a priority to acquire followers.
Now, after seeing the sectarian enthusiasm and jehovah-witnessed proselytism of the MeWe users, I am getting extra careful.
I can only imagine one of them knocking at my door to propose me "The Watch Fortress" and ask me if I know Our Founder Mark Weinstein...
Olivier Malinur I had difficulty joining MeWe, also. It doesn't have the resources to be as seamless a transition as joining G+. ( Although I had a bit of trouble there, in the beginning.) If you persist, you will get in. My friend from Thailand did.
ReplyDelete