Carter Gibson took the time to post this last minute remembrance on G+. Carter apparently was with G+ 'til the end as Program Manager, Community Management (Google+) • Google San Francisco, CA.
My computer crashed just as I was updating here for the last time and I'm not sure I'll be able to run the Exporter program again before Google breaks all our links. So here it is. -Jeff
Originally shared by Carter Gibson - 23 comments
My computer crashed just as I was updating here for the last time and I'm not sure I'll be able to run the Exporter program again before Google breaks all our links. So here it is. -Jeff
Originally shared by Carter Gibson - 23 comments
I'm writing this knowing it will be my last post on Google+
From the day I was invited to the beta, I spent a lot of time trying to explain what drew me to this platform to others. Sometimes I'd do that to laughs. Other times to people who were genuinely curious. Every time people were legitimately dumbstruck that this platform could have so much influence on my life. From my journey here as a humble college student to a writer with over 1.2M followers to the Program Manager in charge of this platform's community and content, I've learned so much, had an incredible time along the way, and got to for some lifelong connections.
This post won't be another post trying to convince anyone why Google+ was worthwhile - or even ahead of its time. This will be a post about how much I appreciated the time we all spent here.
Google+ as a College Student
Google+ came out while I was senior in college. I was absolutely freaking out about what I was going to do with my life. Something wasn't computing for me as I interviewed for jobs in suits - so I joined Google+ and entered a public Hangout. It was madness in all the best and worst ways of the internet. Suddenly, I found myself keeping my college roommates up as I hopped from Hangout to Hangout. I'd meet some people I'd never see again, rarely I'd catch the curious Google employee, sometimes there'd be drama, and I didn't realize that a few people I met would become my actual friends.
It was around this time I learned what a Community Manager was thanks to the people Google had employed at the time. "Aha!" It clicked. Fostering community was something I could get passionate about. I began exploring as my follower count grew and grew thanks to circle shares and I began to watch my Ripples grow. This would lead to a talk in LA that resulted in me getting a job as an Associate Community Manager in SF with a manager who would go on to be the Community Team Lead at Reddit. He was my mentor along with Google+'s Community Manager and they are the reason for me having a career that I love.
Most importantly, there were HIRL's and my rants against "Product Evangelists".
Google+ as a Suggested User
There was something about the newness of Google+ that I liked. The blank slate was totally alluring - especially as I began to feel completely overwhelmed by the pressures of LinkedIn and Facebook. Google+ was a legitimate experiment for me. I tried to be as authentic, as transparent, and as outspoken about my passions as I could be. If I had to guess, that was the sole reason some kid in college got onto the Suggested User List (after making rant-y posts about how terrible it was to Google VP's) and stayed there for years.
I was officially "Fun and Interesting".
This was a weird club to be in. There was no communication about what it meant to be on it, why you were on it, or how to stay on it. All I knew is that I was doing something right and to just... keep going. This instilled a specific guilt in me to do something more with my time here than just post. I had always been a bit of an activist, but that list turned it up to 11 for me. I would experiment with starting a nonprofit, organize the #PridePulse community, start Secret Santa, and give interviews on traditional broadcast networks. I became a professional writer at the same time. It was extremely fulfilling, rewarding, stressful, and overwhelming.
Google+ Without the Magic
A really, really funny thing happens to you after you amass a certain amount of followers. People begin to be disappointed in you for not being what they expected. I can not express to you how exhausting that pressure is. My experiment in authenticity was caving in and I didn't have the energy to dig myself out. My real life was accelerating around me and I focused on that more and more. It was absolutely healthy, but I'm still disappointed that I couldn't maintain a presence here while I did - if, for anything, to maintain my connections to the people I had grown so close to.
I left Google+ slowly until I didn't post at all. But what I did do was stay in touch with a few of you. We friended each other on Facebook, met up, and sent each other Instagram posts. Sometimes we'd send each other a Hangout message and I always knew that that little chat notification meant someone from Google+ was reaching out to say hi.
I would sometimes come to Google+ to admire that the same people were posting the same things. Some SUL'ers were still posting their blog posts. People were sharing crafts. There were still inside jokes. I'd watch it like I was looking at it through a window and it always gave me a certain amount of longing.
Google+ as a Googler
Hooooo boy. This was certainly an unexpected turn in the story. I got a call from a recruiter telling me that Google was hiring a 'Program Lead, Content and Community' for a Google product. When I learned it was Google+, I asked if they knew about my history on the platform. They didn't - for better or worse. As an aside, while there is so much on Google+ I'm extremely proud of, there's also so much that was written by a college kid who was growing into himself and learning how to post. I grew up here. The next thing I knew, boom. I had a job at Google, albeit as contractor, but still! This was a place I had applied to no fewer than 3 times and I made it.
Working on Google+, I would go on to own our Featured Collections, Suggested Communities, a team of incredible Community Managers, Early Access, and - yes - the Suggested User List. I have never learned so much, so quickly. Machine learning? Check. Vendor operations? Check. Launch schedules? Check. Traditional engineering program management? Check. Ho. Ly. Shit. It was one thing after another and eventually I became a fulltime Googler - with the little hat thingy and everything.
Being on the other side of the curtain, I got immense joy supporting people doing incredible stuff. I believe that a Program Manager creates the mechanisms that allow people to be even more awesome and I got to do this at an incredible scale while making lifelong work friends and gaining even more mentors. I was so incredibly passionate about my work on Google+ and I wanted you all to know how much I cared about doing the right thing for all of you.
Google+ as a Memory
I hope that people, when they look back on my experience here, can remember this platform more kindly than they did when it was trying to bust out from the shadows of larger social sites. I hope everyone who was here with me read this and got a little warm behind the eyes remembering just how much time we spent together and what it meant for us. This was a special place and I'm so grateful to have been supported by it and to have supported it myself. Maybe one day they'll be another place where we can try a crazy experiment together again. For the future, www.instagram.com/prcgibson
From the day I was invited to the beta, I spent a lot of time trying to explain what drew me to this platform to others. Sometimes I'd do that to laughs. Other times to people who were genuinely curious. Every time people were legitimately dumbstruck that this platform could have so much influence on my life. From my journey here as a humble college student to a writer with over 1.2M followers to the Program Manager in charge of this platform's community and content, I've learned so much, had an incredible time along the way, and got to for some lifelong connections.
This post won't be another post trying to convince anyone why Google+ was worthwhile - or even ahead of its time. This will be a post about how much I appreciated the time we all spent here.
Google+ as a College Student
Google+ came out while I was senior in college. I was absolutely freaking out about what I was going to do with my life. Something wasn't computing for me as I interviewed for jobs in suits - so I joined Google+ and entered a public Hangout. It was madness in all the best and worst ways of the internet. Suddenly, I found myself keeping my college roommates up as I hopped from Hangout to Hangout. I'd meet some people I'd never see again, rarely I'd catch the curious Google employee, sometimes there'd be drama, and I didn't realize that a few people I met would become my actual friends.
It was around this time I learned what a Community Manager was thanks to the people Google had employed at the time. "Aha!" It clicked. Fostering community was something I could get passionate about. I began exploring as my follower count grew and grew thanks to circle shares and I began to watch my Ripples grow. This would lead to a talk in LA that resulted in me getting a job as an Associate Community Manager in SF with a manager who would go on to be the Community Team Lead at Reddit. He was my mentor along with Google+'s Community Manager and they are the reason for me having a career that I love.
Most importantly, there were HIRL's and my rants against "Product Evangelists".
Google+ as a Suggested User
There was something about the newness of Google+ that I liked. The blank slate was totally alluring - especially as I began to feel completely overwhelmed by the pressures of LinkedIn and Facebook. Google+ was a legitimate experiment for me. I tried to be as authentic, as transparent, and as outspoken about my passions as I could be. If I had to guess, that was the sole reason some kid in college got onto the Suggested User List (after making rant-y posts about how terrible it was to Google VP's) and stayed there for years.
I was officially "Fun and Interesting".
This was a weird club to be in. There was no communication about what it meant to be on it, why you were on it, or how to stay on it. All I knew is that I was doing something right and to just... keep going. This instilled a specific guilt in me to do something more with my time here than just post. I had always been a bit of an activist, but that list turned it up to 11 for me. I would experiment with starting a nonprofit, organize the #PridePulse community, start Secret Santa, and give interviews on traditional broadcast networks. I became a professional writer at the same time. It was extremely fulfilling, rewarding, stressful, and overwhelming.
Google+ Without the Magic
A really, really funny thing happens to you after you amass a certain amount of followers. People begin to be disappointed in you for not being what they expected. I can not express to you how exhausting that pressure is. My experiment in authenticity was caving in and I didn't have the energy to dig myself out. My real life was accelerating around me and I focused on that more and more. It was absolutely healthy, but I'm still disappointed that I couldn't maintain a presence here while I did - if, for anything, to maintain my connections to the people I had grown so close to.
I left Google+ slowly until I didn't post at all. But what I did do was stay in touch with a few of you. We friended each other on Facebook, met up, and sent each other Instagram posts. Sometimes we'd send each other a Hangout message and I always knew that that little chat notification meant someone from Google+ was reaching out to say hi.
I would sometimes come to Google+ to admire that the same people were posting the same things. Some SUL'ers were still posting their blog posts. People were sharing crafts. There were still inside jokes. I'd watch it like I was looking at it through a window and it always gave me a certain amount of longing.
Google+ as a Googler
Hooooo boy. This was certainly an unexpected turn in the story. I got a call from a recruiter telling me that Google was hiring a 'Program Lead, Content and Community' for a Google product. When I learned it was Google+, I asked if they knew about my history on the platform. They didn't - for better or worse. As an aside, while there is so much on Google+ I'm extremely proud of, there's also so much that was written by a college kid who was growing into himself and learning how to post. I grew up here. The next thing I knew, boom. I had a job at Google, albeit as contractor, but still! This was a place I had applied to no fewer than 3 times and I made it.
Working on Google+, I would go on to own our Featured Collections, Suggested Communities, a team of incredible Community Managers, Early Access, and - yes - the Suggested User List. I have never learned so much, so quickly. Machine learning? Check. Vendor operations? Check. Launch schedules? Check. Traditional engineering program management? Check. Ho. Ly. Shit. It was one thing after another and eventually I became a fulltime Googler - with the little hat thingy and everything.
Being on the other side of the curtain, I got immense joy supporting people doing incredible stuff. I believe that a Program Manager creates the mechanisms that allow people to be even more awesome and I got to do this at an incredible scale while making lifelong work friends and gaining even more mentors. I was so incredibly passionate about my work on Google+ and I wanted you all to know how much I cared about doing the right thing for all of you.
Google+ as a Memory
I hope that people, when they look back on my experience here, can remember this platform more kindly than they did when it was trying to bust out from the shadows of larger social sites. I hope everyone who was here with me read this and got a little warm behind the eyes remembering just how much time we spent together and what it meant for us. This was a special place and I'm so grateful to have been supported by it and to have supported it myself. Maybe one day they'll be another place where we can try a crazy experiment together again. For the future, www.instagram.com/prcgibson
Here are the attached comments:
Carter Gibson
+8
xoxo +Amanda Blain +Stacy Frazer +Tiffany Henry +Tom Moncho +Anna Lowry +Eric Martindale +Alida Brandenburg +Daria Musk +Brian Tomlinson +Sean Smith +Anna Lowry +Derek Ross +Bobbi Jo Woods +Al Ebnereza +anthony feliciano +Paul Spoerry +Andy Bohm +Laurie DesAutels +Carmelyne Thompson +Brandi Bull +Brian McDonald +Jerry James Stone +James Garman +Kia Bordner +Lori Friedrich +Stephanie Van Pelt +Cam Meadows +RAM Rich
1h
Anna Lowry
+4
Lol the final plus
1h
BZ Evans
+1
hey can you follow me 😹 “ℭ𝔬𝔪𝔢 𝔞𝔰 𝔣𝔞𝔯 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔶 𝔟𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔴𝔦𝔪” 👽 💘 😹 😉 🐲 ❣ 🌋 ♥ ♨ ❤ 🐉 🐙 💀 🉐 👀 😂 👻 🌟
'Other days will come, the silence of plants & planets will be understood & so many pure things will happen' ~ Neruda ♥
1h
Carter Gibson
+1
^ war... war never changes.
1h
Amanda Blain
+4
All the feels. <3
1h
Ivan Yudhi
+2
I'll be here till the end...
1h
Carter Gibson
+2
Love you +Amanda Blain. Come visit.
1h
George Thomas Stevenson
+2
Yep... Definitely gonna miss the people here. You guys made G+ what is was
1h
Sy Bernot (Psybernaut)
+4
Oh come on, you could get another 20 or so in. Stop slacking. Gonna miss you +Carter Gibson, your post kinda makes it official. So many of those names up there I don't have on Mewe or Plupora but I recognize them, I hope we all see each other in Valhalla and rejoice over the dank memes and good company.
1h
Wayne Harris
+2
great read & thank you for your part in this grand experiment
1h
Thomas Tenkely (Tenkely)
+3
Cheers!
1h
Carter Gibson
+3
+Sy Bernot - Heh! I can't bring myself to do another after pouring my guts out. May we find each other again in another sunrise.
+Thomas Tenkely - Cheers right back :)
1h
Carms Perez
+4
Thank you so much +Carter Gibson for all the amazing things you did, especially #SecretSanta truly touched so many lives, you and all the elves.
1h
Mr. A (The Legatus)
Awww
1h
Carter Gibson
+2
+Carms Perez thank you as well! Omg are you kidding. You were so fantastic.
57m
Lucas Appelmann
+4
thanks for the ride
48m
Steve Djadoenath
+2
Thanks for everything Carter
40m
Rob Watkins's profile photo
Rob Watkins
+1
Look forward to the future +Carter Gibson ! Thank you for your stewardship.
29m
Nina Trankovа
+2
Glad to read your post +Carter Gibson
From an excecutive shareholder in an industrial company in South-Easter Europe to Social Media Consultant Google+ is the U of the Tech revolution to me. I'll be happy to meet you in person some day.
19m
Carter Gibson's profile photo
Carter Gibson
+1
+Nina Trankovа - You know how to find me.
+Rob Watkins - Roooooobbbb! Exactly the same to you.
19m
Paolo Amoroso
+2
+Carter Gibson when the dust settles on the debris of the crumbled Google+ I hope Google will sit down, take a deep breath, and do the mother of all postmortems to at least learn a few lessons from this.
All of Google's metrics and market research can't tell how many loyal users the way Google+ was managed turned into rabid haters of the brand, and for how long this will haunt Google.
Carter Gibson
+8
xoxo +Amanda Blain +Stacy Frazer +Tiffany Henry +Tom Moncho +Anna Lowry +Eric Martindale +Alida Brandenburg +Daria Musk +Brian Tomlinson +Sean Smith +Anna Lowry +Derek Ross +Bobbi Jo Woods +Al Ebnereza +anthony feliciano +Paul Spoerry +Andy Bohm +Laurie DesAutels +Carmelyne Thompson +Brandi Bull +Brian McDonald +Jerry James Stone +James Garman +Kia Bordner +Lori Friedrich +Stephanie Van Pelt +Cam Meadows +RAM Rich
1h
Anna Lowry
+4
Lol the final plus
1h
BZ Evans
+1
hey can you follow me 😹 “ℭ𝔬𝔪𝔢 𝔞𝔰 𝔣𝔞𝔯 𝔞𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔢𝔡𝔤𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔪𝔶 𝔟𝔩𝔬𝔬𝔡, 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔰𝔴𝔦𝔪” 👽 💘 😹 😉 🐲 ❣ 🌋 ♥ ♨ ❤ 🐉 🐙 💀 🉐 👀 😂 👻 🌟
'Other days will come, the silence of plants & planets will be understood & so many pure things will happen' ~ Neruda ♥
1h
Carter Gibson
+1
^ war... war never changes.
1h
Amanda Blain
+4
All the feels. <3
1h
Ivan Yudhi
+2
I'll be here till the end...
1h
Carter Gibson
+2
Love you +Amanda Blain. Come visit.
1h
George Thomas Stevenson
+2
Yep... Definitely gonna miss the people here. You guys made G+ what is was
1h
Sy Bernot (Psybernaut)
+4
Oh come on, you could get another 20 or so in. Stop slacking. Gonna miss you +Carter Gibson, your post kinda makes it official. So many of those names up there I don't have on Mewe or Plupora but I recognize them, I hope we all see each other in Valhalla and rejoice over the dank memes and good company.
1h
Wayne Harris
+2
great read & thank you for your part in this grand experiment
1h
Thomas Tenkely (Tenkely)
+3
Cheers!
1h
Carter Gibson
+3
+Sy Bernot - Heh! I can't bring myself to do another after pouring my guts out. May we find each other again in another sunrise.
+Thomas Tenkely - Cheers right back :)
1h
Carms Perez
+4
Thank you so much +Carter Gibson for all the amazing things you did, especially #SecretSanta truly touched so many lives, you and all the elves.
1h
Mr. A (The Legatus)
Awww
1h
Carter Gibson
+2
+Carms Perez thank you as well! Omg are you kidding. You were so fantastic.
57m
Lucas Appelmann
+4
thanks for the ride
48m
Steve Djadoenath
+2
Thanks for everything Carter
40m
Rob Watkins's profile photo
Rob Watkins
+1
Look forward to the future +Carter Gibson ! Thank you for your stewardship.
29m
Nina Trankovа
+2
Glad to read your post +Carter Gibson
From an excecutive shareholder in an industrial company in South-Easter Europe to Social Media Consultant Google+ is the U of the Tech revolution to me. I'll be happy to meet you in person some day.
19m
Carter Gibson's profile photo
Carter Gibson
+1
+Nina Trankovа - You know how to find me.
+Rob Watkins - Roooooobbbb! Exactly the same to you.
19m
Paolo Amoroso
+2
+Carter Gibson when the dust settles on the debris of the crumbled Google+ I hope Google will sit down, take a deep breath, and do the mother of all postmortems to at least learn a few lessons from this.
All of Google's metrics and market research can't tell how many loyal users the way Google+ was managed turned into rabid haters of the brand, and for how long this will haunt Google.
39m
Thanks G
6w
+Edward Morbius
Excellent! I'm trying one last Exporter update here, hoping my computer
will manage to get through the whole thing without crashing. Just in
case, I've already put +Carter Gibson's "farewell address" together with its comments on gplusmigration.blogspot.com - G+ Migration posts via Exporter using the Blogger poster.
By the way, +Edward Morbius, you have an invitation via your protonmail address to guest post with new material on the blogspot archive. I hope you and +John Lewis (via gmail) will consider this option. I think these invitations have Blogger as sender. One guest author has already accepted the invitation and I look forward to their first post.
Meanwhile, back to Exporter for another update from G+! Thanks for the tip +Mike Keller. Glad the lights are still on for another few minutes, at least. If there had been a way to keep them on or prevent Google from turning them off, I'm sure one of our fellow G+ members would have found it!
By the way, +Edward Morbius, you have an invitation via your protonmail address to guest post with new material on the blogspot archive. I hope you and +John Lewis (via gmail) will consider this option. I think these invitations have Blogger as sender. One guest author has already accepted the invitation and I look forward to their first post.
Meanwhile, back to Exporter for another update from G+! Thanks for the tip +Mike Keller. Glad the lights are still on for another few minutes, at least. If there had been a way to keep them on or prevent Google from turning them off, I'm sure one of our fellow G+ members would have found it!
6w
+Margo Asher Спасибо и наилучшие пожелания вам и вашей семье!
5w
I kinda wish I knew beforehand that the contents of reshared posts would remain (though without attribution).
Nice post by Carter Gibson.
Nice post by Carter Gibson.
5w
So far
it's behaving much like it does within a G Suite enterprise when an
account is deleted. Reshares of their posts remain without a name
attached. All posts and comments written by them otherwise disappear
into the void.
I'm not assuming that Public cross-all-domain G+ visibility will remain a thing but we appear to have that for the time being.
I'm not assuming that Public cross-all-domain G+ visibility will remain a thing but we appear to have that for the time being.
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