So sad to me that less than 5,000 people have subscribed to this site. Makes me wonder, have I been wrong about G+? My experience has been so positive here. I have met and formed friendships with some of the best and brightest people that I have ever encountered....but, are there really so few of us?
My question: Do you think that G+ has been a safe haven for the most intelligent and inquisitive folks online; and do you think that it is because of that concentration of brilliance in one spot that it has been discontinued? Hmm. I know that any group of individuals has it's share of morons, but I honestly think that G+ attracted a significant percentage of the most insightful and talented folks who use the Net.
Probably just me, but I would appreciate your feedback. TNQ
My question: Do you think that G+ has been a safe haven for the most intelligent and inquisitive folks online; and do you think that it is because of that concentration of brilliance in one spot that it has been discontinued? Hmm. I know that any group of individuals has it's share of morons, but I honestly think that G+ attracted a significant percentage of the most insightful and talented folks who use the Net.
Probably just me, but I would appreciate your feedback. TNQ
I think the very first wave of bright shiny bling it on people, left before I even got here.
ReplyDeleteOnce the bling wore off, some people moved on.
Frankly once they announced closing time it got quieter, and quieter.
Pretty much. Oh, we have our share of morons, or at least people pretending to be morons because they think it's funny, but by and large the Plus has attracted two types.
ReplyDelete1) As you say, inquisitive, intelligent types who engage in conversations.
2) People who are actually interested in engaging in conversations about their own lives (as opposed to the usual 'Look at how great I'm doing' one encounters on FB, Instagram, and the like).
These two, of course, can and do (or did) overlap.
And then came the onslaught of Russian troll-bots and porno-spam (maybe just more of the former in another guise)...
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun. I interacted with people in Archeology, science, paleontology, Athiest, bird watchers and animal lovers in general.
ReplyDeleteI got a chance to interact with people from China, Vietnam, Russia Mongolia. G+ was amazing for me. I really appreciated having it and I'm glad I found it in 2011 early enough to see all the good and even when it starts to change it still has a lot of relevance to people who were looking for something different at that time.
I'll miss it a lot.
Edit: back in the early days there was just mostly Orkut, blackplanet(which was really for dating) and Facebook. Facebook was kind of weird for me because I didn't interact with outside people, only friend and family(early days only family) where as on G+ I was interacting with people from all over the world.
/sub
ReplyDeleteG+ mechanics enabled one to find like minds and be generally shielded from the noise of the masses. If you took the time to establish contacts. If you didn't, "ghost town." If you touched on even a minor celebrity that attracted attention from multiple subcultures, noise. You could find it all on G+.
ReplyDeleteThis is speculation... but I seriously doubt G+ is being shut down because it's too good at attracting a smart audience. It's being shut down because it is a liability that failed to deliver on what it was sold as. Gundotra sold G+ as a Facebook to Google leadership. It was sold as an identity platform. Things Facebook was threatening to achieve in a bid to become gatekeeper to the Internet - or at least a sizeable advertising / marketable portion of the 'Net. Vic also invoked a very non-Google culture (more Microsoft) around the project. Bribed involvement from other project developers. Created controversy over names and identity (so much for an identity service). This sparked both backlash internal and external to Google. So when the project fails under the weight of that backlash... what's left no longer serves its intended purpose and it has no champions to pick it back up. It languishes. Vulnerabilities pop up and scammers continue their assault. When political shenanigans brings Google in front of Congress, it's the last straw. G+ is just not worth it.
End of line.
Best luck resuming the fun & connections in the New World.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed my time and friends here since 2012.
ReplyDeleteIn a recent posting I was following, one non-white person expressed strongly that historically G+ did little to protect users from racist attacks, so apparently No, it was not a safe place for everyone.
ReplyDelete/S
ReplyDeleteTodd Q “So sad to me that less than 5,000 people have subscribed to this site.” Which site is that?
ReplyDeleteBrian Holt Hawthorne Google+ Mass Migration community has 4521 members as of this writing.
ReplyDeleteI think the implication is intended to be that less than 5000 people care what happens to Google+
Yes it was a treasure full of wisdom and exchange and the end is sad.
ReplyDeleteTodd Q By several measures of engagement, G+MM is among the top few hundred G+ communities for the past few months. I've been analysing that directly.
ReplyDeleteSize isn't everything, and many of the largest G+ Communities have either no activity at all, or only low-quality or spam content. The most engaged groups tend to have about 100 - 5,000 members or so, from what I've seen.
The active core of G+ is roughly 50-100k users or so, with up to a million or possibly more also engaging somewhat on a monthly basis, best I can tell.
A 5k membership is a very good showing.
Michael Fenichel
ReplyDelete1 - safe place ? A substantial part of that first group who left was due to the 'nymwars - not safe for those who need to use a 'nym, and their friends left in support. Morphing G+ into a second life in vanilla.
And yes I am on FB where I seek out the thoughtful conversations.
Uh. Which site has less than 5000 users?
ReplyDeleteGoogle plus had its ups and downs. I admit I got sick of being called a Russian troll or babykiller for any minor disagreement with leftist double plus good truth of the day.
On the other hand, despite that, I think some of the best SNR conversation I have ever had online was here.
The amount of member in the Mass Migration group is not representative of the amount of the G+ userbase. I don't understand why the membership number of this community is so low. I also don't understand how there are so many people who are so late in realizing g+ is about to shut down. (I've seen many posts or comments in the past few weeks where people seem to just now be finding out)
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the bulk of the people I'm this community are more of the "I want to stay in contact with my Plussers" mindset. Maybe only 5k care about that? Nah, more likely that this community just isn't being joined and/or very widely advertised. Also, it's pretty likely that there's a lot more people lurking, reading, but not joining to comment. See also: mewe growth figures. You can see a similar disproportionate membership in the mewe "welcome to mewe (not a ghost town) " community - while there's reported to be thousands upon thousands of new mewe members, there's only a handful of posts each day in that group.
In summary, I don't think the relatively low membership of this community can be used to measure the millions of disappointed users that will be displaced next month. I don't understand why membership of this community is so low.
Paul Hosking I would ask that you forgive me for my lack of longevity with G+. While I have been "Online" since 1995, that early usage was directed specifically toward business for the most part. I have been pursuing an Social Media presence since around 2014, so I was not exposed to the foundational aspects of G+.
ReplyDeleteAll the same, when I take into consideration my other Internet experiences on various "more popular" platforms, I have been so impressed with the quality of thinking on G+.
Of course, that is the problem right? We each have our own entirely subjective experiences on the Net.
I will continue to say that the loss of G+ marks a significant degradation of Internet discourse. But perhaps it is only my subjective opinion that is at risk; and who the hell cares about that? Lol. TNQ
Michael Fenichel Your's is a very sagacious comment, but I stand by what I said. I do not, in any sense, mean to suggest that there aren't lots and lots of bright folks sprinkled throughout the Net. Only that it was easy to find them on G+. Again, the Internet is almost limitless in it's extent; I know that. I just found G+ to be loaded with stuff that satisfied my subjective likes, and I admitted as much. In as much as I am now forced to find a satisfactory alternative, perhaps something else will supersede my fondness for my trusted old friend, G+. TNQ
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius Thank you Edward. Facts are still important things to many of us. TNQ
ReplyDeleteWalter Roberson Thank you Walter. While I am certain that more than 5,000 of us care about the loss of G+, I really expected more people to participate on this forum. I am left to assume that either I was wrong, or the Net has made so many folks complacent that ambivalence rules the day. In either case, I am left feeling a bit despondent. Aww well, it is what it is, lol. TNQ
ReplyDeleteeric peacock Yes....I agree with your analysis entirely. And thanks. TNQ
ReplyDeleteMy experience here in G+ was mediocre... I've invested my entire time and energy on social media wise to G+ but never got above 900+ connections (I hate calling them followers). G+ is going down is only a loss for me because it was a SEO friendly social media.
ReplyDeleteKerem Go No idea how people I interacted with here on Google+. The numbers don’t matter to me. I had amazing conversations, learned things every day, and made a few connections that I expect to have many years to come.
ReplyDeleteThat’s what Google+ was all about. We did our best
to discourage the commercial folks.
Todd Q I'm not sure you're actually responding to me... but if so, no slight intended. My point is that it isn't that G+ was too good - it's that it was poorly handled / managed.
ReplyDeleteChalk it up to "this is why we can't have nice things."