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General search is still valuable for finding random programming examples that don't appear on Stack Overflow - there are a lot of blogs that usually have some h

General search is still valuable for finding random programming examples that don't appear on Stack Overflow - there are a lot of blogs that usually have some helpful example. For FB if there was something that allowed event planning, but didn't require people to create accounts for it (basically event planning with RSVPs, but handled through email or text). It'd be nice if this extended to optional accounts that had up to date contact information - this is the main thing I'd worry about missing (though I think Apple could just implement this by optionally pushing changes to the people in your phone with your contact information when it changes). For Twitter - there's a lot of value if you curate people you're interested in and engage with their tweets. People you would otherwise have no access to and interesting discussions/links/discovery happen there. Twitter can be great, but requires some effort. I think this would be helped by 'index lists' of users that are interesting to follow for new people (though this would cause a similar bubble issue that financial indexes have) but at the moment looking at someone you find interesting for who they follow is a decent way to find people.

kerkeslager 7y ago
> there are a lot of blogs that usually have some helpful example. Each with their own search, usually! I can see the downsides to this, but in trade you're getting a bubble that protects you from a lot of nonsense. > For FB if there was something that allowed event planning, but didn't require people to create accounts for it (basically event planning with RSVPs, but handled through email or text). That sounds like a fairly small project, and I can see the value. Maybe I'll code it up in the near future. > For Twitter - there's a lot of value if you curate people you're interested in and engage with their tweets. People you would otherwise have no access to and interesting discussions/links/discovery happen there. > Twitter can be great, but requires some effort. I think this would be helped by 'index lists' of users that are interesting to follow for new people (though this would cause a similar bubble issue that financial indexes have) but at the moment looking at someone you find interesting for who they follow is a decent way to find people. I'll concede this, but in my brief Twitter experience it was very easy for the noise to drown out the signal, and I didn't feel it was worth it to work around that problem. It doesn't solve a data problem I have: my data problem isn't that I don't have enough data sources, it's that I have too many, and too low quality.
- fossuser 7y ago
  I'd push that the real value of Twitter is less the additional data sources and more the available discussion that's possible with smart people doing interesting things that you would not have as much access to. Only mentioning this because I personally didn't understand the value of Twitter for a long time and didn't understand why people used it, but now I think I do.
  - kerkeslager 7y ago
    Is this really unique to Twitter, though? I've had very little difficulty contacting, i.e. academics whose papers I've read, or programmers who have written blog posts. You do miss some randos interjecting into the conversation, but these interjections detract from the conversation more often than they contribute. When I'm conversing with Joe Armstrong I'm not interested in the interjections of some rando who did an Erlang tutorial once and feels that qualifies him to have opinions.
    - fossuser 7y ago
      The advantage of twitter is you get to interact with someone conversationally on things they tweet that they find interesting. You also can learn unknown unknowns from things that are shared/discussed. Direct email contact is great, but has a higher threshold to engage in. I think it’s different than twitter, it compliments it - but I think it’s also a lot less frequent because of that higher threshold.
danfang 7y ago
The project I'm currently working on - Thread (https://get.thread-app.com https://get.thread-app.com) has first class support for events and RSVPs. Let me know what you think!
- fossuser 7y ago
  Nice - I’ll check it out, I agree with the goals. Can you invite people to events that don't have an account via SMS and have it handled that way or do they need an account and the app? I think being able to support people not on the app is the big thing I want (then the network may grow or not overtime, but at least it's immediately useful even without other people on it). One other suggestion would be a default retention period or “fuse” people can set that something like 6 months, but can be set anywhere from 1 day to 1 year. The other networks make it so hard to scrub old posts, I think there’s value in old stuff getting automatically dropped.
  - danfang 7y ago
    Yes, you do need an account and the app. Signup for the app is as simple as possible, just a phone number (to reset your account), name, and password is required. The reason an account is required is Thread does a lot more than just event planning - it includes messaging, photo sharing, location sharing, and more.
    - fossuser 7y ago
      Yeah, but if I have to force the people I want to invite to sign up then it’s dead on arrival. I want to invite people whether or not they also have the app.

kerkeslager 7y ago

> there are a lot of blogs that usually have some helpful example. Each with their own search, usually! I can see the downsides to this, but in trade you're getting a bubble that protects you from a lot of nonsense. > For FB if there was something that allowed event planning, but didn't require people to create accounts for it (basically event planning with RSVPs, but handled through email or text). That sounds like a fairly small project, and I can see the value. Maybe I'll code it up in the near future. > For Twitter - there's a lot of value if you curate people you're interested in and engage with their tweets. People you would otherwise have no access to and interesting discussions/links/discovery happen there. > Twitter can be great, but requires some effort. I think this would be helped by 'index lists' of users that are interesting to follow for new people (though this would cause a similar bubble issue that financial indexes have) but at the moment looking at someone you find interesting for who they follow is a decent way to find people. I'll concede this, but in my brief Twitter experience it was very easy for the noise to drown out the signal, and I didn't feel it was worth it to work around that problem. It doesn't solve a data problem I have: my data problem isn't that I don't have enough data sources, it's that I have too many, and too low quality.

fossuser 7y ago
I'd push that the real value of Twitter is less the additional data sources and more the available discussion that's possible with smart people doing interesting things that you would not have as much access to. Only mentioning this because I personally didn't understand the value of Twitter for a long time and didn't understand why people used it, but now I think I do.
- kerkeslager 7y ago
  Is this really unique to Twitter, though? I've had very little difficulty contacting, i.e. academics whose papers I've read, or programmers who have written blog posts. You do miss some randos interjecting into the conversation, but these interjections detract from the conversation more often than they contribute. When I'm conversing with Joe Armstrong I'm not interested in the interjections of some rando who did an Erlang tutorial once and feels that qualifies him to have opinions.
  - fossuser 7y ago
    The advantage of twitter is you get to interact with someone conversationally on things they tweet that they find interesting. You also can learn unknown unknowns from things that are shared/discussed. Direct email contact is great, but has a higher threshold to engage in. I think it’s different than twitter, it compliments it - but I think it’s also a lot less frequent because of that higher threshold.

danfang 7y ago

The project I'm currently working on - Thread (https://get.thread-app.com https://get.thread-app.com) has first class support for events and RSVPs. Let me know what you think!

fossuser 7y ago
Nice - I’ll check it out, I agree with the goals. Can you invite people to events that don't have an account via SMS and have it handled that way or do they need an account and the app? I think being able to support people not on the app is the big thing I want (then the network may grow or not overtime, but at least it's immediately useful even without other people on it). One other suggestion would be a default retention period or “fuse” people can set that something like 6 months, but can be set anywhere from 1 day to 1 year. The other networks make it so hard to scrub old posts, I think there’s value in old stuff getting automatically dropped.
- danfang 7y ago
  Yes, you do need an account and the app. Signup for the app is as simple as possible, just a phone number (to reset your account), name, and password is required. The reason an account is required is Thread does a lot more than just event planning - it includes messaging, photo sharing, location sharing, and more.
  - fossuser 7y ago
    Yeah, but if I have to force the people I want to invite to sign up then it’s dead on arrival. I want to invite people whether or not they also have the app.