On Social Media

How I picked up my new home I was a moderator of the largest Apple-related community on G+ with 900k+ members now looking for a new home after Google announced the sunset of the consumer version of Google+ in April 2019. Here are the main criteria for my final decision. • Mobility Computers are out for most of the tasks we do today on the Internet. Social networking is done on mobile devices. Especially young people like to stay tuned while on the go. I would never join a network if there is no app (Android / iOS) for it. • Quality Quality comes with well-researched content, packed in a nice housing, and provoking fruitful discussions. It needs moderation to achieve this admittedly subjective goal. • Responsibility We are all responsible for what we do. The Internet is no legal black hole. What you can’t say on your workplace you shouldn’t say on the Internet. People made rules (Etiquettes, Discrimination, Copyright, Fair Use, etc). We all know that there must be someone who takes care...

Wouldn't it be a perfect idea if a network like MeWe would cooperate with the Google+ team? Content, comments, followers, and some ideas and algorithms could remain the same and we all would be happy. Google could offer a control like 'Transfer my data to ...'. I know, it won't happen because nobody can generate profits.

My invitation for you The consumer version of Google+ will be discontinued in August 2019. All profiles, collections, and communities will be deleted by Google without any succeeding comparable service (as for now). I moderated the largest Apple-related community on G+ with more than 900k members successfully keeping out spammers, trolls, and sickos even in the comment sections of posts. It was absolutely clean admittedly it needed really hard work. Now I’m on MeWe after looking for an appropriate alternative. Please join my group ‘Apple iThings’ https://mewe.com/join/apple-ithings on MeWe. Why MeWe? MeWe feels like Google+. Lots of exciting improvements are announced for this year to let the expatriates feel well. Thanks a lot. Looking forward to meet you on MeWe.

Improving MeWe Here are some suggestions I submitted to the MeWe team. Hopefully they will work on some issues.

• Fix the problems with formatting of posts; sometimes there are some “*” characters although they haven’t bee entered 
• Fix the problems with disastrous looking formatted posts on Android devices 
• Reduce the number of emojis; they don’t have standardized meanings and it’s not that good if they leave room for interpretation; just limit them to + and - 
• Editing a comment on Android and iOS smartphones is a disaster; there’s nearly no space to see what’s entered and scrolling through the text is a very special challenge 
• Placement of controls isn’t optimized; it should always be possible to see the “status” of notifications; the controls “Me, We, Photos, Camera, GIF, ...” are much too close to the text field (use a drop down menu)
• A more frequent use of drop-down menus would be nice; some controls in the iOS UI are light grey and look like they were disabled
•  Rep...

MeWe Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words. Look at the screenshots to get an impression how MeWe’s groups (similar to G+ communities) work. Moderators (a very essential part of a well-running social network) can basically do the same things like they von do on G+. The main difference currently is that there are no categories. On the left side you see a pinned post in which I wrote down the purpose of the community and the rules.

Which network will be your new home? Thanks for voting.

The sunset of a great network The consumer version of Google+ will be discontinued in August 2019. So all communities, collections, posts, comments, and memberships will be deleted. Google has long used the phrase “Don’t be evil” as a company slogan, including it in the founder’s letter for its IPO in 2004, and at the top of its Code of Conduct. Alphabet has exchanged that by “Do the right thing” follow the law, act honorably, and treat each other with respect . Killing Google+ is a contradiction to the new slogan. Where to go now? I still hope Google will change its mind but its unlikely that the consumer version will ever come back. So here’s more about the Google+ alternative. It’s MeWe, a content network which concept is near to Google+. Mark Weinstein, CEO of MeWe, and Jason Hardy, product manager, are working hard to make MeWe the new home for disappointed G+ users. You can see how MeWe works by joining my group ‘Apple iThings’ https://mewe.com/join/apple-ithings even if you’re a...

Privacy? You alone as a member of a social network have to take care of your privacy. Just don’t post what others shouldn’t know. So this is no crucial point for me when looking for an alternative to Google+. What matters for me is • powerful filters of the provider and the right tools for group owners to keep trolls, spammers, and sickos away without an unacceptable effort Google didn’t give us these tools. They underestimated the role of moderators. • lots of members actively making a place interesting I’m not interested in creating time consuming good content which the is only read by a handful lurkers. Content creators also need some motivation. This can be the basis for fruitful discussions and making lots of interesting connections. I don’t find it useful if members in this community just post links to networks without talking about their pros and cons. Thanks for reading.