I'm not sure I read pork's comment as skepticism, necessarily. Rather, I'm more curious as to why, if such a forum is an unmet need, an alternative hasn't manag

I'm not sure I read pork's comment as skepticism, necessarily. Rather, I'm more curious as to why, if such a forum is an unmet need, an alternative hasn't managed to gain traction while Google+, at least in the author's opinion, has. I wonder if Google, having a fair number of CS researchers, might be able to get past critical mass / escape velocity / choice analogy by simply starting with its internal users and growing organically from there. You have to have something for the community to nucleate around.