This is the first in a series of posts to elicit personal experiences and feelings about potential alternatives to...
This is the first in a series of posts to elicit personal experiences and feelings about potential alternatives to G+. I'm hashtagging the series #GooglePlusAlternativeReviews.
This one is for MeWe. Please comment about your experiences with MeWe, if you have some, and how it feels to use it. Is it easy to use? Do you get much feedback? That sort of thing. I'm not looking for features or politics here.
Thanks!
#MeWe
This one is for MeWe. Please comment about your experiences with MeWe, if you have some, and how it feels to use it. Is it easy to use? Do you get much feedback? That sort of thing. I'm not looking for features or politics here.
Thanks!
#MeWe
A good idea. I've followed friends to MeWe, and Cake. But it's too early to form a good opinion. I've gotten so used to G+, and learning something new is a little challenging. ( Old dogs, and all that)
ReplyDeleteMeWe's been interesting. I've had a few nice interactions on Reddit, and some nice folks have liked my pictures on Deviantart.
ReplyDeleteI just tried the MeWe Android app for the first time and was quite impressed. Smooth experience and UI. Quite G+ like. It's in fact a lot better than their desktop web UI (which is very similar to FB, cluttered). I wish I could use something similar to their Android UI on the desktop too (it would make it closer to the UI experience here on G+).
ReplyDeleteI’ve been on MeWe a year and am all the way up there to 14 whole contacts. It’s terribly hard to search for friends. You can’t get a look at a community unless you join it. There is a longer lag time on your request to share with another person because you have to wait a while for them to send you an acknowledgment. Also search is terrible over all there. I only keep the account just in case it’s needed but have little hope to connect with many of my better G+ friends. The insistence of requesting real names is also a barrier.
ReplyDeleteOverall, MeWe is clearly productized and the user experience and learning curve is better compared to diaspora, friendica and hubzilla. The latter feel more like engineering prototypes than full products sometimes.
ReplyDeleteMeWe's issue of course is that it's centralized but then thousands of people flocking to a single pluspora pod demonstrates that people don't care about centralizing their data and trusting it to complete strangers (a risky and bad idea in general).
MeWe doesn't manage to reduce this risk of centralization but its UX fits better to an average G+ user (where average G+ user is assumed to be a non-technical social media user). The effort to avoid risks of centralization today requires significant technical skills, i.e. self-hosting your own diaspora pod or hubzilla hub for yourself or for your family. I hope this would change soon.
Lastly, MeWe doesn't suit for people who wish to build a world-public social profile.
ReplyDeleteHere's my experience: I've been on MeWe since August 2015. A few of my friends gave it a try at around the same time, at my urging. I started two groups there: Facebook Refugees, and Change the World.
ReplyDeleteOf the two, Facebook Refugees has been much more popular. It has 475 members. But I've been surprised at how little feedback there has been on posts there - not just mine, but everyone's. The only post that has gotten much of a response is the post I pinned to the top of the group when I started it. Other posts rarely get an emoticon, and I can't remember the last time I got an actual response.
Partly that may be because MeWe has a comparatively small population. Maybe that will change now that G+ people are going there. So far, though, I've spent very little time on MeWe. There hasn't been much content there that has interested me. And I don't think that many people are reading posts there. It seems more like a place where people talk, but don't listen or interact much.
Peter Maranci I think you have actually hit on the explanation of why I just don't get real interaction there. Definitely, most posts I see are just posts with no conversation started. I think people may gravitate to a site for conversation or for link sharing or promotion of something. It may come down to what kind of interactions do you wish to have.
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci I have seen the same thing in G+. 4 years ago G+ was vibrant with dozens of posts a day in the biggest communities, and hundreds of conversations going on. Today the same communities are lucky to have a dozen posts a month with barely any interaction.
ReplyDeleteI joined a few MeWe groups in the past week. They are very quiet despite showing a few hundred members. Every time I sign in, I see the prompt to tell my friends what I am eating right now. I am afraid if I do start hearing from other MeWe users, it is going to be so they can tell me what they are eating. That is not my area of social network interest.
ReplyDeleteI have a couple of communities to relocate. I have polled them about their thoughts, they are silent too! Aiiie! Can anybody hear me? I may ensconce them in MeWe and let them sort it out (i.e. give up my moderating duties). I do not find the MeWe groups that I have seen to be very appealing. Maybe lots of G+ influx can change that, but it is too early to anticipate.
Cade Johnson I had croissants and frozen hot chocolate for breakfast. Want to see a pic? :D
ReplyDeletefrozen hot chocolate, you say?! Does that freezer-burn your tongue when you drink it? ;)
ReplyDeleteCade Johnson Well, I did get a brain freeze! But it was worth it. 🤣
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious. :D
ReplyDeleteI'be been trying MeWe for the past week. It's fairly easy to use. I've joined some groups and they're not that active but not too bad. What I don't like is how my pictures are rendered. They're not as big as G+
ReplyDeletePeter Maranci thank you, excellent.
ReplyDelete#pinme
I am an outsider. Just dropped in and read some comments. Nice statements. My view is :
ReplyDelete1) No site is secure. Its pure business. There are data leaks in millions. They blame it on some bug. Full stop. And when it becomes crowded ads will start appearing in sites that vowed not to bave
Well I am just intruding as there is something in common - the tag of g+ refugee !
ReplyDeleteI have certain point here :
1) All sites have pure business in mind so there is no difference. They need your data to make money. Full stop.
2) FB has had enormous leak of data so has G+. So once you join any site, forget about their role in security. Suddenly some "bug" will develop and get away with whatever is profitable.You have to yourself withold information that you think private.
3) G+ is in ICU. Just search and you will find that most people have stopped posting one or two or three years back. So no fresh data is pouring on for them and hence no money. There are still so many intelligent posts. But these dont translate into money for ad makers. FB is minting money. because there is lot of shop talk there - people telling their food preferences or giving opinion on dresses ,travel, politics etc , This gives material for sale.
4) MeWe is somewhat similar to g+ in many ways and is evolving. And if you are selective in contacts and groups you are not likely not come across sick minds there.
You may stay with MeWe for a couple of month and look around, bring your friends, post your quality stuff and many more like minded people will come and enrich your pages.
In any case we have to leave g+ eventually. I have joined MeWe and so far it is good.
cobalt please , join this ... it is a group for finding contacts ... https://mewe.com/group/5bc4ba6b0297e45804672036
ReplyDeleteI've been using Google+ for several years. Sad days.
ReplyDeleteI put Ello, Diaspora, and Inrupt on my list to check out for a move.
1. Very quickly, I didn't like Ello.
2. Started looking at Diaspora. Like, seriously guys, not ready for prime time.
3. Inrupt - promising hype - but not set up yet - this is still on my list to check out when it, you know, actually gets produced.
Okay, I did a little more digging around. I put Minds and Tumblr on my list. Minds looked more intriguing, so I actually tried out Tumblr first.
4. Tumblr - this seems promising. I like the basic text editing capabilities when making a post. Definitely a bit better than Google+ actually. Made a few posts, they're coming out right, compared to what I'm used to with Google+.
5. Minds - this also seems promising. This actually has a little bit more of a similar "touch-and-feel" to making posts on my Google+ page (than does Tumblr, though I liked Tumblr too).
So I've decided for the time being to start paralleling my Google+ posting to my new Minds page - and get more into learning about more intimate details about the workings of the Minds platform.
Edgar Brown I find that smaller sized communities on Google+ actually are very active with all members posting whereas 1000 + size communities are often crickets. There are so many unused accounts on here. I’m using twitter for news and promoting my writing and Vero to replace google+ for now. Vero is too new to judge yet. I actually was considering breathing life back into MySpace. It’s just sitting there highly underused and could be revamped. IDK maybe.
ReplyDeleteSteve Greene this is really good insight. Thank you for sharing it.
ReplyDeleteWe have several months before google pulls the plug My solution is to try them all out and see which one is best.
ReplyDeleteLaura Kerr Choose ones that suit your needs best. Not all are usable yet, or are in testing. Others have people and subjects on them people dislike.
ReplyDeleteSteve Greene If you get the chance to split out those observations across multiple posts, one for each platform, that would be useful.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Laura Kerr Yes, precisely, we have time. Ten months total, likely through mid-January to assess alternative platforms, then the task of moving ourselves and communities to those.
ReplyDeleteA suggested planning template:
Oct 2018 - Dec 2018: Coordination, planning, and exploring alternatives.
Jan 2019 - Apr 2019: Execution.
May 2019 - Jul 2019: Re-establishing community.
Aug 2019 - ∞: Assessment of migration, rebuilding and expanding.
social.antefriguserat.de - Exodus Planning and Scheduling - PlexodusWiki
Edward Morbius yes there’s no panic and maybe something new will come along
ReplyDeleteLaura Kerr Actually, I'd advise against something new, for now.
ReplyDeleteExisting models, possibly with new delivery modes, are safest bets. New tech & vendors are high risk.
Down the road, after the dust has settled, that might be an option.
Laura Kerr
ReplyDeleteinrupt.com - Home
Steve Greene One of the new things (see above) I'm watching with great interest.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius I'm not sure about splitting them out. For example, I didn't spend much time with Ello. It was purely a "feeling" thing. I just knew very quickly I didn't like it it.
ReplyDeleteDiaspora was different. Diaspora might be great - if I wanted to spend the next 10 hours trying to figure out the details of how to make things work. I couldn't tell, because I'm just not interested in spending 10 hours to figure it out. That's why I said that it just isn't ready for prime time. (From my reading, Inrupt is actually based on a very similar platform mechanics model - but also when it is actually produced and opened up for mass use it's supposed to be ready for people to dive in and use it without a two day learning curve. Of course, that's just my guess, and I could be wrong - we'll see when it gets produced.)
I've seen posts by people from Tumblr in the last few years, but I never really knew what it was. (I had thought it was something like StumbleUpon.) I did like it when I checked it out. But then...
I checked out Minds, and right away it felt close to what I'm looking for. (So did Tumblr, but Minds was a little closer.)
I haven't looked at MeWe yet, and I probably won't for a little while. One of my (personal) issues at the moment is that I'm on the road, and am doing all of this exploration on a smartphone. (Yeah, I know.) When what I really want to do is get home to my computer and work the way I really want to. Oh, well. At least I have a Bluetooth keyboard to use with my phone.
Steve Greene I've just written a bunch of stuff, none of which pertains to MeWe other than "I'm still planning to look at it". I'll kick that into another post here.
ReplyDelete