Sheeesh
"A petition on popular echo chamber Change.org is beseeching Google to keep on the official floggers-of-the-dead-horse that is Google+, for the benefit of the few agoraphobic dwellers of the baronies and fiefdoms within."
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3065380/angry-google-users-form-support-network-on-changeorg
"A petition on popular echo chamber Change.org is beseeching Google to keep on the official floggers-of-the-dead-horse that is Google+, for the benefit of the few agoraphobic dwellers of the baronies and fiefdoms within."
https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3065380/angry-google-users-form-support-network-on-changeorg
I wonder how all those people who bitched to the Google+ Help community about how terrible, horrible, no good and all together awful G+ is are feeling now.
ReplyDeleteThere has always been an odd segment of the media, esp. the tech media, who hated G+ with an unholy and inexplicable passion (unless they were being paid off by Zuckerberg). This is just more of the same.
ReplyDeleteAn amusing observation is that the inquirer is among the minority of sites that feature any G+ button ...and it actually features three, at least on my Mac.
ReplyDeleteDave Hill I suspect because the tech media saw G+ for what it essentially was: an attempt to steal attention and users away from F******k. (The fact that a significant number of people, like us, eventually chose to use it as their primary social network doesn't change the fact that it was basically started as a crass power play.)
ReplyDeleteWell, being an "agoraphobic dweller[] of the baronies and fiefdoms within" is one way of looking at it. I was just having fun and enjoying the content, or so I thought.
ReplyDeleteFor specific communities and collections, G+ is the bomb. No pesky ads and that mess; and because it was smaller than Facebook, the trash seen on the internet stayed mostly on Twitter and Facebook.
ReplyDeleteNow we're told to skedaddle to "free speech" carriers, that in 2 years, may not even survive money wise (if no nuts shut them down due to attracting vile communities).
Dave Hill They hate G+ because they couldn't sell data from it and to it. All these companies that use Facebook, do so because trading user data is profitable for 3rd parties. Google didn't offer that feeding trough with G+.
ReplyDeleteAt least you know what companies didn't care and just went where the money was.
Steve Vasta Why that was seen as such a horrible sin is what confuses me.
ReplyDeleteI thought I was reading ElReg.
ReplyDeleteLinda Tewes I'm feeling pretty good. Because the G+ Help community did nothing to help except for deflect blame, claim that the user was at fault, etc. I'm glad to see them go down with the ship, because they were a bunch of twats to the people who expressed their concerns.
ReplyDeleteThantiK You should have left G+ a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThe INQUIRER just because your freelance tech journalist doesn't like Google+, doesn't mean he has to be so negative and insulting about its remaining passionate users.
ReplyDeleteThantiK They were volunteers and not Google employees even. Just community members. Didn't you know that? They're no different than people here.
ReplyDeleteGoogle+ wasn’t a “social network”, and despite always being compared to Facebook it was never a rival to the behemoth. In here you connect not to friends and relatives and their exes and former colleagues, but follow interesting content. Google+ was always the micro-blogging platform crossed with Discourse where engagement came naturally, and that’s how the platform ought to be judged.
ReplyDeleteFor the individual user, unless extremely small the total number of users on a platform is irrelevant to its usefulness. Google+ was in many ways the by far best tool in the toolbox. That it was misunderstood and overlooked by so many was, until now, their loss.
Halfey Halphstein Yup. The-Inq is just a low rent version of ElReg. You can safely ignore it.
ReplyDeleteps. Trying to remember ElReg's nickname for Google. "The Chocolate Factory"? Or is that Apple?
Dave Hill I know. Then again, the tech community also had this longstanding aversion to AOL, which also never made sense to me. (Funny thing: for all its stupid mistakes over the years -- buying Bebo may rank as one of the worst -- AOL keeps surviving. I still keep my primary e-mail there.)
ReplyDelete"The garbage isn't just being tossed out because it isn't being used, but because Google discovered a significant security flaw that, if exploited, would have given hackers access to literally tens of users data."
ReplyDeleteHar har.
Per Siden G+ is a social network where I socialize around interesting content.
ReplyDeleteWhere I met new friends instead of being subjected to my cousin’s TMI. Where I can follow/unfollow without creating a family feud. G+ is my refuge from FaceBork.
Martijn Vos The security "flaw" is just an excuse to get rid of a platform that isn't producing profit. Did Facebook with it's blatant security issues shut down? No. Because it's making a lot of money.
ReplyDeleteThe issue is money.
John Bailey Exactly. It was a lame excuse, and didn't even expose all that serious information. But it's funny how the article wants to have it both ways: it was a terrible breach of security that impacted nobody because nobody is using Google+.
ReplyDelete(Meanwhile Facebook leaks more data every day, and nobody cares.)
I couldn't help it. twitter.com - Kerem on Twitter
ReplyDeleteHalfey Halphstein Turns out that The Inquirer was founded by Mike Magee, one of The Register's co-founders, after being turned out of El Reg. He was subsequently turned out of the Inq as well, (the InqWell?) and has another venture or two since AFAIR.
ReplyDeleteThe venues are all heavy on snark, though not without occasional gems.
My read on the Change.org petition:
ReplyDelete1. Google have never to my awareness reversed a product-kill decision.
2. That's not for want of opportunity.
3. The petition's most significant use is as a metric for user interest and activity on G+. It's netted 30k+ signatures, which is approaching one of my own estimates for higher-level G+ activity (about 50k users).
4. The petition against Google's integration of G+ with YouTube, by contrast, drew 130,000 signatures. Draw your inferences accordingly.
I see no credible likelihood that Google will reverse their decision. I don't know that the stated reason is the true one (Google's statements of G+ goals, as with its size / activity levels, have been all over the map, and not much for veracity). Spending time grousing over the decision or coverage of it is almost certainly wasted effort. If it makes you feel better, fine, I'll almost certainly mute out of this particular discussion if that's where the follow-on discussion goes.
Size of a community is not the sole measure of its significance. I've measured G+ size and activity, by several metrics, and looked with interest on several other attempts at same. Despite the small size of the platform, I've found it useful and compelling. I've been trying to sort out what makes the parts of it that have worked, work, and how those might be encouraged elsewhere.
And, as the Community tagline says: you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.
Kevyne Kicklighter they are "official" community members according to them, and they regularly play both sides of that fence when it suits them.
ReplyDeleteWhen someone disagrees with them, they say that they are sanctioned by Google, have Google contacts, and are in direct contact with the Google Plus team.
When someone calls them out on something, they're like "ohhh woah woah there, we're not Google!".
Can't have it both ways.
Edward Morbius I think some folks over estimate the influence of Change.org
ReplyDeleteAll it ever did for me was get more email passed my junk filter.
ThantiK Just because you don’t understand how the Help Community works, it doesn’t mean they’re doing it wrong. Or that you are correct. It means you have mistaken expectations.
ReplyDeleteAs I said before, if you’re unsatisfied with your experience, you’re free to leave.
Linda Tewes I've always suspected its primary utility was as an interest selector -- cultivating email addresses associated with specific interests, almost always strictly political.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Google products attracts a certain demographic revolving around Tech. The community reflects that with the interests and who stays to keep them running (despite it's easier to gain audiences on other platforms). They wanted a closer community and without the distractions the popular platforms bring (do folks WANT to know what their friend's friend was eating for lunch???). It's a niche that'll be hard to fill in itself, but works on G+ well.
ReplyDeletehttps://news.sky.com/story/google-workers-walk-out-over-treatment-of-women-amid-sexual-misconduct-claims-11541589
ReplyDelete