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I've noticed I use Google+ a lot less these days. Stopped when I first heard about this policy. Not in protest, just a whole lot less trusting of them now. Ki

by nirvana 15y ago

I've noticed I use Google+ a lot less these days. Stopped when I first heard about this policy. Not in protest, just a whole lot less trusting of them now. Kinda like I stopped using Facebook when they made previously private data public by default. (Only reason I opened a Facebook account in the first place was their strong privacy policy.) I'm not putting my foot down, but mulling it over, and I think I'm done with google. They did a good job with plus and I had high hopes, but their ... rigidness... shows what I see as a disrespect for their users. I'll be moving my mail off of gmail onto paid mail hosts, etc, as soon as we get mail setup for the new company. In the 1990s I removed Microsoft from my life completely. I think I'll keep a company page on Facebook, and maybe the equivalent on google plus if they allow it, but no more for the personal stuff. I think there's a huge opportunity for a startup that operates a social network that actually caters to people's desire for anonymity and privacy.

sixtofour 15y ago
"I think there's a huge opportunity for a startup that operates a social network that actually caters to people's desire for anonymity and privacy." The problem here is that any successful endeavor will inevitably turn evil in some way. Once millions and billions are on the table, investors and shareholders will force the proprietors to scrape every bit of money possible off the table. That will usually involve some user-unfriendly behavior, like Google's real name, Facebook's ever changing privacy policy, and LinkedIn's recent emulation of FB. The only way that social networks can be pro-user is if they are a standards-based commodity like email, where anyone is free to implement the standard and offer the service. You can get the same email service anywhere you want, interoperable with every standards based server on the planet. It should be the same with twitter-like message bursts, and social networks. As it is now, bursting and socializing is built similar to early telephone networks, where many companies offered networks, they didn't connect to each other, and businesses had to have multiple network accounts to be able to interact with all their customers. That's just wrong. fastmail.fm offers excellent email service. They should also (be able to) offer standards based bursting and socializing; so should anyone else who wants to.
- politician 15y ago
  "The only way that social networks can be pro-user is if they are a standards-based commodity like email, where anyone is free to implement the standard and offer the service." This already exists for social data, it's called The Locker Project. http://lockerproject.org/#vision http://lockerproject.org/#vision
  - sixtofour 15y ago
    This is great, a great start. But this is an implementation, not a standard. I think it remains to be seen whether github repos give us anything like the long term stability and stewardship of RFCs. Not to mention the longevity of github. Yeah I know, you can fork. Everyone can fork.
iamdave 15y ago
I think there's a huge opportunity for a startup that operates a social network that actually caters to people's desire for anonymity and privacy. What IS diaspora doing these days?
- sp332 15y ago
  Their blog hasn't been updated since June http://blog.joindiaspora.com/ http://blog.joindiaspora.com/ , but the Twitter feed has a couple a features they've added recently https://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora https://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora They just sent out a survey to early adopters asking them about how they're using the service and what they should focus on.

by nirvana 15y ago

sixtofour 15y ago

"I think there's a huge opportunity for a startup that operates a social network that actually caters to people's desire for anonymity and privacy." The problem here is that any successful endeavor will inevitably turn evil in some way. Once millions and billions are on the table, investors and shareholders will force the proprietors to scrape every bit of money possible off the table. That will usually involve some user-unfriendly behavior, like Google's real name, Facebook's ever changing privacy policy, and LinkedIn's recent emulation of FB. The only way that social networks can be pro-user is if they are a standards-based commodity like email, where anyone is free to implement the standard and offer the service. You can get the same email service anywhere you want, interoperable with every standards based server on the planet. It should be the same with twitter-like message bursts, and social networks. As it is now, bursting and socializing is built similar to early telephone networks, where many companies offered networks, they didn't connect to each other, and businesses had to have multiple network accounts to be able to interact with all their customers. That's just wrong. fastmail.fm offers excellent email service. They should also (be able to) offer standards based bursting and socializing; so should anyone else who wants to.

politician 15y ago
"The only way that social networks can be pro-user is if they are a standards-based commodity like email, where anyone is free to implement the standard and offer the service." This already exists for social data, it's called The Locker Project. http://lockerproject.org/#vision http://lockerproject.org/#vision
- sixtofour 15y ago
  This is great, a great start. But this is an implementation, not a standard. I think it remains to be seen whether github repos give us anything like the long term stability and stewardship of RFCs. Not to mention the longevity of github. Yeah I know, you can fork. Everyone can fork.

iamdave 15y ago

I think there's a huge opportunity for a startup that operates a social network that actually caters to people's desire for anonymity and privacy. What IS diaspora doing these days?

sp332 15y ago
Their blog hasn't been updated since June http://blog.joindiaspora.com/ http://blog.joindiaspora.com/ , but the Twitter feed has a couple a features they've added recently https://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora https://twitter.com/#!/joindiaspora They just sent out a survey to early adopters asking them about how they're using the service and what they should focus on.