Google’s constant product shutdowns are damaging its brand | Ars Technica

...For a while there has been a subset of people concerned about Google's privacy and antitrust issues, but now Google is eroding trust that its existing customers have in the company. That's a huge problem. Google has significantly harmed its brand over the last few months, and I'm not even sure the company realizes it....

Absolutely true.

Good HN discussion.

As well as numerous Reddit posts.

(From #PlexodusReddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/b8kpis/googles_constant_product_shutdowns_are_damaging/)

#Google

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/04/googles-constant-product-shutdowns-are-damaging-its-brand/

Large and recently-active Google+ Communities dataset

A dataset of 103,188 larger and more-recently-active Google+ Communities is now available online, from my Google Drive account:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Pc_QmZE_RsGt2Irvm_BgEbFjRBssUOD9

This may be of interest to those who are seeking to contact active or thriving Google+ communities, to archive them, or to otherwise work with identified active communities.
What is this?

This is a subset of the full 8.1 million Google+ Communities, the vast majority of which have little or no publicly-visible activity or members. The subset does show both an appreciable membership and some degree of recent activity. Not every community in this list is active and healthy, but the ones that are are likely to be found here.

There's additional information, including membership counts, activity levels (visible posts, comments, plus-ones, and reshares), and some derived statistics, plus community titles, which may be useful in identifying communities highly likely to be active.

The file is a gzipped (compressed) textfile with comma-separated values, data fields in the first record. 103,189 records total.

More at #PlexodusReddit....

#GooglePlus #GplusRefugies #Plexodus #PlexodusReddit #SocialMedia #DataAnalyis #rstats

https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/b06agd/large_and_recentlyactive_google_communities/

Saving of public Google+ content at the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine by the Archive Team has begun

TL;DR: Most public Google+ content should live on at the Internet Archive thanks to a fanatical bunch of volunteers, and you can help.

Rather more at the link 😃

#GooglePlus #GPlusExodus #GPlusRefugees #PlexodusReddit #InternetArchive #WaybackMachine #ArchiveTeam #GoogleMinus

https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/az285j/saving_of_public_google_content_at_the_internet/

With the demise of Mr. Jingles, my plans and suggestions

I'd posted this to the rapidly-fading PLOOS, though some of the information applies here as well.

I'll be checking the Google+ Notifications page periodically, at least twice a day if possible. That's not as slick as the Notifications pane was, so expect slower responses to anything.

I'm trying to keep on top of the Google+ Mass Migration community, as well as the (much less active) Plexodus: The Beginning is Near community.

I've had a fair bit of personal stuff going on for the past few weeks which is making online time both less available and productive. My apologies.

The Plexodus Subreddit is an excellent place to get ongoing and post-sunset information. That would be on Google+, data migration (focusing much more on data import), contacts, where people are, and yes, yet more discussions about the past and future of social, online, and user-generated media.

https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus

There's far too much updating to do at the #PlexodusWiki. So I'll try to tend to that garden as well:

https://social.antefriguserat.de

(It means "before it was cool", in Latin, if you're wondering.)

I'm still working on my future personal blog home. That'll be at GitLab, as a continuation of the Lair of the Id. Plan is to post original longer-form content there, then syndicate it elsewhere -- Mastodon, Diaspora, and the Lair subreddit (https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius).

The New Lair blog will be: https://gitlab.com/dredmorbius/lair-of-the-id.git

For those of you who were Mirandans (or want to find out what the hell that was), there's still the /r/MKaTH and /r/MKaTS subreddits. I'm open to posting a bit more content there. MKaTH -- Miranda's Knitting and Tea House, is public, MKaTS -- Miranda's Knitting and Tea Society, is a related private forum:

https://old.reddit.com/r/MKaTH

For more on what that's about:

https://old.reddit.com/r/MKaTH/wiki/faq

There's also a more general Plusser's subreddit, /r/PLOOS:

https://old.reddit.com/r/ploos/

Otherwise, I'm posting at Mastodon, Diaspora, Tildes, Reddit, Hacker News, and a few other haunts, generally as "dredmorbius", as promised.

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https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus

#googleplus #GPlusRefugees #dreddit #plexodus #plexodusReddit #plexodusWiki

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.

And on December 12, 2018:

over the coming months we will provide users with information to help them migrate off of G+.

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."

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.

Though we've got to give Jerome Williams props for his one-star review:

Jerome Williams

December 25, 2018

Do not waste your money on this game, it is not what it used to be. At one point, this game use to be very active with frequent updates, new content, and events. Now it rarely gets new content and when it does, it's just old content that has been recolored. The one moderator that keeps the game running, only makes decisions that will benefit Spacetime Studios rather than the community it has built. Not to mention, the extreme unprofessionalism with the way he communicates with the community.

Terrible gameplay, indeed.

Though we'll note another metric of G+ uptake: 5.5 million downloads.

#googlePlus #GplusRefugees #google #plexodus

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Originally published at #PlexodusReddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/ae5lsv/failure_of_communication_no_mention_of_imminent/

Twelve Tips For Making Sense Of The World | Caitlin Johnston

Caitlin Johnstone is an independent media critic and commentator who I've just discovered, and am trying to assess. There are elements of her thinking and writing I agree with strongly, some not. I'd posted this to the Plexodus subreddit -- it's a bit wide of the usual remit, and thought followers might find this of interest.

This short piece provides a useful framework for assessing human, power, and media relations in the world. It generally resembles conclusions I've been reaching, though it may also be something of a cold reading. I'm thinking otherwise.

Think of these as points to consider in looking both at the opportunity presented by the shutdown of large social media sites, and the opportunity (and risk) of distributed and federated, self-controlled, media.

Johnstone's twelve points summarised here, though read her descriptions:

1. It's always ultimately about acquiring power.
2. Money rewards sociopathy
3. Wealth kills empathy.
4. Money is power.
5. The same ruling class controls the media.
6. People are always manipulating each other.
7. Society is made otu of narrative.
8. The lines between nations are imaginary.
9. Powerful forces are naturally incentivized to collaborate with each other toward mutual interests.
10. There is an immense amount of wealth that can be grabbed in the chaos of war and conflict.
11. The neocons are always wrong.
12. The push toward truth always starts with yourself.

Read the whole thing.

(Also posted to #PlexodusReddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/acmzr5/twelve_tips_for_making_sense_of_the_world_caitlin/)

#CaitlinJohnstone #plexodusReddit #power #wealth #class #control

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/twelve-tips-for-making-sense-of-the-world-43348077cf80

Plexodus 3 Month Status Update

I'm putting this update out a week early, mostly as things are moving swiftly and I've been busy.

Covered here:

• Make your final or interim future choices NOW and announce them.
• I switched recommendations for data export to the Friends+Me Google+ Exporter. It works, it's here, and it's proven.
• Think of moving this discussion off G+ in a month or two.
• Google API shutdown starts January 27, completes March 7.
• 127 days, or less, until Google+ is shut down.

Make your final or interim future choices NOW and announce them.

If you've been delaying making a decision on where to go after G+ is gone, you are now out of time. Make a decision NOW. I recommend picking a platform that is available now, that works now, and that addresses your needs, if not all your wants.

Pay attention to bones, not skin. Strong houses are build on solid foundations: established technology, reliable and proven leadership, a healthy community, and solid principles. New or not-yet-released platforms are an extremely high risk. If you're looking at a Community move, mailing lists, or Yahoo or Google Groups are excellent interim choices. Reddit and Groups.io might also make the cut.

I'm a fan of federated platforms, but these may not be a match for all others. Diaspora, Friendica, and Mastodon are especially reliable at this point. The first two offer much of what Google+ does, Mastodon is a microblogging platform similar to Twitter. For maintaining a reachable presence these are excellent choices.

For others, blogs or major social media platforms may well be your best options. They may have issues, but are a known quantity with established communities. Consider a beachhead on one or more federated platforms, cross-posting or syndicating your content, as a trial run. Take actions to keep your future options open.

I have changed my recommendations for data export: Use the Friends+Me Google+ Exporter if possible. It works, it's here, and it's proven.

Google Data Takeout (GDT) does not work for the purposes of migrating from Google+ to another platform for most users. There are attempts to work with Google on this, they've proceeded slowly at best and there has been NO official communication, or even indication to Google+ Top Contributors and Product Experts serving as the Google+ Help community moderation team as to when such announcements might be made.

My initial estimate was that if Google did not respond by the two-month mark, we'd likely be on our own, and that very much appears to be the case.

You'll be far more likely to succeed in exports using F+MGE.

https://blog.friendsplus.me/export-google-plus-feeds-45926c925891?gi=8990ce9d30d0

What this does is export personal content and communities, directly imports to Wordpress or Blogger, with other targets pending, as well as future incremental updates to that archive. It does not yet have a photos exporter, but I've been in touch with the developer who is working on that.

F+MGE does not and will not support mobile migrations -- users with only mobile devices and no desktop or laptop system. More below.

If you have made a GDT and successfully converted it, you may be able to ignore this advice, though again, F+MGE does incremental updates.

(We're discussing a similar and official recommendation at G+MM as well.)

Mobile-only user data migration

For now, our suggestions are:

• Borrow or acces a desktop or laptop system to migrate your data, if possible. Libraries may offer laptops to borrow or rent, as may other services.
• Utilise a server- or cloud-based tool. We're aware of one though it's not yet fully polished.
• Look for sites which offer direct import of G+ content. These will likely rely on G+ APIs and may not be available after March 7, or as soon as January 27.

We'll provide more information as it's available.

Think of moving discussions off G+ within the next month or two.

G+MM, P:TBiN, and all other Google Communities and content will very likely disappear on the April 2019 shutdown, presumably at the end of the month, although even this is not clear.

The best alternate space I have to offer is #PlexodusReddit:
https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus

I've been posting content there, much of it from P:TBiN and G+MM, some strictly to the Reddit. Discussions there will survive, discussions here will not. I've yet to decide if I'll close comments here or not, but that's also likely at some point in February or March.

Google API shutdown starts January 27, completes March 7.

That's not a G+ shutdown, but it will affect third-party apps, some websites, and quite probably other tools at least temporarily, including possibly Google tools. Expect to start seeing glitches.

F+MGE does NOT use the API and will NOT be affected by this. Other archival tools, including some mobile-friendly options, will be.

Here's your Exodus Schedule for 2019

January

• Provide updated status, plans, goals.
• Commit to new platform(s).
• Create a full Google+ data archive.
• Create new accounts as needed.
• Update your and community members' contact information.
• Provide breadcrumbs, hashtags, and other discovery beacons.

February

• Provide updated status, plans, goals.
• No later than now declare new platform(s) live alpha.
• Direct Google+ members to new services.
• Deprecate Google+ services.
• Publicise new location(s).
• Update your and community members' contact information.
• Select material for import.
• Perform necessary edits and modifications.
• Import and assess data.
• Provide breadcrumbs, hashtags, and other discovery beacons.

March

• Provide updated status, plans, goals.
• No later than now declare new platform(s) live beta.
• Direct Google+ members to new services.
• Deprecate use of Google+ stream / communities, close comments.
• Publicise new location(s).
• Import and assess data.
• Continue content edits and modifications as needed.
• Update your and community members' contact information.
• Provide breadcrumbs, hashtags, and other discovery beacons.

April

• Provide updated status, plans, goals.
• Update your and community members' contact information.
• No later than now declare new platform(s) live primary.
• Disable updates to Google+ services if possible (e.g., no comments, no posts).
• Directly contact missing members, reach out through members.
• Provide breadcrumbs, hashtags, and other discovery beacons.
• Publicise new location(s).
• 30 April: Presumed public Google+ shutdown date.

May

• Provide updated status, plans, goals.
• Direct Google+ members to new services.
• Provide breadcrumbs, hashtags, and other discovery beacons.
• Directly contact missing members, reach out through members.
• Publicise new location(s).
• Assess content integrity.
• Assess community integrity.
• Address content / community as necessary.

127 days, or less, until Google+ is shut down.

Google changed plans without warning once. They may well do it again.

#plexodus #googleplus #gplusrefugees #plexodusReddit

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Originally posted to #PlexodusReddit: https://old.reddit.com/r/plexodus/comments/ac89wl/plexodus_3_month_status_update/