On Social Media

Things you can (and should) be doing 1. Pin a #signalflare post to your G+ profile with forwarding URLs at the top of the post. Internet Archive grabs of your profile page will show where you're going. 2. Add forwarding information to your ABOUT page as well. 3. Save your own page to the Internet Archive. You can use the DuckDuckGo "!wayback" bang search, or replace " " here with your G+ profile page : https://web.archive.org/save/ 4. Save any other content you want to preserve at the archive. If you can make a list of URLs you can submit those with a command-line tool on Mac, Linux, BSD, and even Windows machines. 5. Freshen up your own Friends+Me Google+ Exporter archive. https://gplus-exporter.friendsplus.me/ 6. Make a final Google Data Takeout: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/circles,plus_communities,plus_one,plus_pages,profile,stream 7. Make sure your friends and Circles have done all of the above. 8. If you moderate a community ...

I've archived all publicly visible #signalflare posts on Google+ Contact Information Using Webrecorder (see earlier post), I've saved a ~30 MB WARC Web ARChive of all publicly visible posts containing a #signalflare hashtag. This covers about the past four weeks, going back to late February, 2019. I plan on mining this for forwarding and contact information. I don't have a post or user count for this yet but will update this post as I analyse the file. And I can make the archive available to others on request. I may eventually post it somewhere public (likely on GitLab). Stay tuned.... (more deets at the #PlexodusReddit) https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/b819lj/ive_archived_all_publicly_visible_signalflare/ https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/b819lj/ive_archived_all_publicly_visible_signalflare/

After the Shutdown -- continuing discussion and Data Import support For people looking for ongoing Google+ Exodus support and discussion, and/or assistance with data import to new sites and/or platforms: The #PlexodusReddit has a large archive of articles and posts related to the Google+ Exodus. Discussion's been light to date, though I strongly encourage stopping by. https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus (Alt: https://reddit.com/r/plexodus ) There is a Friends+Me Google+ Exporter subreddit. Use has been light, but this should be useful for people looking to make use of F+Me Google+ Exporter archives on new sites and platforms. https://old.reddit.com/r/FMGE_Support (Alt: https://reddit.com/r/FMGE_Support ) And there's the #PlexodusWiki for technical and contacts information: https://social.antefriguserat.de/ Ongoing Tasks There are some continuing projects that will extend beyond the shutdown, including: Updating user and Community directories. We have lists of around 1,0...

Google+ Exodus Endgame Originally shared by Edward Morbius Endgame: The Beginning is in 20 days On April 2, 2019, Google+ will be shut down. That's in less than three weeks. On March 7, the G+ Notifications widget was disabled. Interactions on Google+ are far less convenient. We need to start moving off this site and ensuring we have ongoing communications capabilities. I strongly recommend joining #PlexodusReddit if you haven't already: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus If you don't want to join Reddit, you can follow that forum via RSS: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus.rss The Archive Team effort to save all public G+ content to the Internet. Archive Wayback Machine has begun. Additional volunteer Archive Warriors are needed! https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/az285j/saving_of_public_google_content_at_the_internet/ A dataset of large and active G+ communities is available for outreach and archival https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/b06agd/large_an...

Things you can still do to help / prepare, for yourself and others As we enter the final few weeks of Google+, there are some actions and activities you can do which would help generally. First, be sure that you've addressed all your own needs. Post your forwarding information, hashtag "SignalFlare". Encourage your contacts to do the same. Export your Google+ content if you want to preserve it. Explore and settle on at least an interim home NOW . Collect forwarding information from your contacts. Help get the word out. About the Google+ Mass Migration community, about #PlexodusWiki ( https://social.antefriguserat.de ) and #PlexodusReddit ( https://reddit.com/r/plexodus ), and most especially to Communities which have been active but don't yet have a migration plan or destination settled. There are ways to migrate and preserve content, if that's desired. I really can't emphasize this item highly enough: Outreach on and through G+ is really, really,...

Google Notifications ("Mr. Jingles") may start disappearing for some users today As with other changes, the rollout seems to be staggered. This feature is being removed Google-wide. You can still access G+ notifications at: https://plus.google.com/notifications/all For discussion with functioning Notifications, there is #PlexodusReddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/ RSS feed: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/.rss

Google+ seems to be throwing intermittent HTTP 500 errors as of Friday 15 February 2019 It's not just you. Seems to come and go. This would be a good time to assure you have a good out-of-band channel for information and discussion, such as #PlexodusReddit. https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aqylij/google_seems_to_be_throwing_intermittent_http_500/ https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/aqylij/google_seems_to_be_throwing_intermitte

The latest from Google+ Moderators As I've commented there: Communities are not pages on Google+. Communities are people, and organisations, and conversations and sharing that happened on those pages. The pages were the structure within which we've worked, but they are not the communities themselves. Those communities are seeking to survive, and transition of G+, and to share with one another the considerations and concerns in doing this. Long before there was any announcement to G+ Moderators, weeks before , the community was effectively shut down, and not merely by not allowing new posts out of the Hold for Review queue, but by actively deleting new posts, including those that were well within the established guidelines and practices of G+M. When and others pointed this out and shared information of use to Community leaders, the previously pinned post was unpinned, though not deleted. It can be found here: https://plus.google.com/101377401059228002068/posts/Ue26mL1hHMd Ar...

Data Export Options for Mobile Users Google+ users with access to only mobile devices (smartphones, tablets), with metered or data-capped Internet service, unreliable Internet service, or very large Google+ collections, have particular challenges in exporting and re-publishing their content and data. We can try to help you, but you'll have to help us help you.... A run-down of options and resources available. #PlexodusReddit https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/afhf8h/data_export_options_for_mobile_users/ https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/afhf8h/data_export_options_for_mobile_users/

Public and Private Group Discussion Options -- an overview The question was asked "what options are there for private group discussions other than G+". There are numerous options, ranging in ease of access, use, capabilities, privacy, control, technical skill, and most of all, personal and group goals. There are a number of groups-oriented platforms: Google Groups, Yahoo Groups, simple email lists (underappreciated and powerful), and Usenet (obscure now, but also capable). All can host private groups. Reddit has "subreddits" -- forums. These can be public or private, and offer a number of useful features, though also limitations. I have grave concerns over Reddit's "ownership" model for its subreddits: Any Reddit member can request control of any subreddit, if the owner has been inactive on the site for six months. Federated platforms including Hubzilla and Friendica allow you to self-host group discussions on your own servers. If you...

Plexodus Month Three Report Barring further curveballs from Google, we've four months left to G+ shutdown. TL;DR: • Make your final or interim future choices NOW and announce them. • We're officially recommending the Friends+Me Google+ Exporter. It works, it's here, and it's proven. https://gplus-exporter.friendsplus.me/ • Think of moving this discussion off G+ in a month or two. • Google API shutdown starts January 27, completes March 7. • Share and gather contacts, talk to your contacts & communities, and make plans now. 111 days to shutdown. People and Communities should be choosing their interim platforms NOW . Debates over what to choose and breast-beating are well past time. If you're not deciding, you're deciding not to migrate. Google Data Export is not working, and Google are not responsive . This is what I'd feared. G+MM are making the Friends+Me Google+ Exporter the official recommendation for individuals and groups. Information: ...

Failure of Communication: No mention of imminent Google+ shutdown on G+ About or App pages Google’s failures of communication on the G+ shutdown are staggering. Crickets, after initially promising: Over the coming months, we will provide consumers with additional information, including ways they can download and migrate their data._technology https://blog.google/technology/safety-security/project-strobe/ And on December 12, 2018: over the coming months we will provide users with information to help them migrate off of G+. https://plus.google.com/+googleplus/posts/FSzektSjjrQg This extends to the Google+ About page and Google+ App page in the Android store. Here’s today’s Internet Archive grab of the Google+ About page. “Discover amazing things.” https://web.archive.org/web/20190104232119/https://plus.google.com/about But not a mention that the service will be shut down in 111 days. Here’s today’s Internet Archive grab of the G+ App on the Android store. https://web.archive.org/web/201...

Streamlining Google Data Takeout for Google+ Just posted at #PlexodusReddit , based on the discovery (and some further experimentation) that it's possible to specify Google products on the Data Takeout request URL itself. Generating and using Google Data Takeout is complicated. We've simplified one part of the process by specifying the products you need to take out to create a complete Google+ archive on the URL. And that would be: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/custom/circles,plus_communities,plus_one,plus_pages,profile,stream As always, when following third-party links to Google account services, verify that the link is what it appears and does what it says. We're providing the bare, rather than a formatted link, to make this clearer. What this link does is go to the standard https://takeout.google.com site, and then specifies a custom request, with the following sources ("products") selected: * circles: Your Google+ Circles. Essentially contact in...

Walking through the Google Data Takeout request process This is an experience report and NOT a "how-to" guide. I've finally made my first Google+ Data Takeout request since the G+ sunset was announced, and in fact my first since 2013. I've written up the process at #PlexodusReddit, which is pretty much me going into the process cold, though with a few references to look at. Mostly I just stumbled through the prompts with some educated guesses. The archive is being created presently, I'll update the piece when it's done with information on how it turned out. I've captured screenshots of most of the process as well, I'll post the finalised article to Diaspora, which allows inline images (Reddit does not, a long-standing gripe of mine with the platform). For those who've seen my repeated REQUEST JSON FORMAT posts, I've detailed just where and how that applies (I hope) as well. For delivery option, I've selected delivery to Google Drive ...

Google+ Communities Membership Analysis Preview What this is: A report of the results and analysis of a random sampling of 12,000 communities of the 7,974,281 total, based on Google+ sitemaps. Each observed community represents roughly 600 (598.8685) actual communities. The analysis is of the breakdown of membership among communities. Key findings: the distribution of G+ communities by size , with a rough bucket classification being: Members .... Estimated Communities 10,000+ ..... 10,200 1,000+ ..... 46,800 500+ .... 42,000 250+ .... 78,000 125+ ... 115,200 80+ ... 116,400 40+ ... 238,200 20+ ... 333,600 10+ ... 472,200 9+ .... 67,200 8+ .... 88,800 5+ ... 394,800 4+ ... 214,800 3+ ... 334,800 2+ ... 595,200 1+ ... 3,062,400 0 .... 989,400 There's more detail at the #PlexodusReddit, and I'm still working on analysis. Helpful suggestions appreciated. I'll try to make the full data availa...