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The problem with making your blog the hub of your social network is that there is no concept of private groups or private friends for a blog. Everything is pub
by toffer 19y ago
The problem with making your blog the hub of your social network is that there is no concept of private groups or private friends for a blog. Everything is public.
The post gives an example of uploading photos, and then automatically notifying friends via RSS that new photos are up. Sounds like Facebook, except on Facebook, only my friends could see the photos, not the whole world.
I don't think you solve this problem until there is an Internet-wide system for managing your identity. (Obviously, OpenID and OpenAuth are steps in this direction.)
Plus, I also think that it is psychologically more difficult to start a blog than it is to create a profile page on a social network. With a blog, you have to overcome the "Blank Canvas Fear" ("What am I supposed to say?") and the "Public Speaking Fear" ("I'm speaking to the whole world, not just my friends.") Filling out a Facebook profile and writing on your friend's Wall is a much easier way to start.
- brlewis 19y agoYou bring up an important point. However, I disagree that this particular problem requires Internet-wide identity management. If unlisted numbers are good enough for friends-only phones, then unlisted URLs are good enough for friends-only web resources.
- toffer 19y agoI'm not sure I understand how you would use unlisted URLs. Could you explain that more?
- brlewis 19y agoYou give your friends-only blog a link like http://example.com/unlisted/9vaekw03/ http://example.com/unlisted/9vaekw03/ Pass this link to your friends. They subscribe to its RSS feed, etc. They don't have to register with example.com. The tradeoff is that they can easily pass the link along, just as they could pass along an unlisted phone number.
- toffer 19y agoI see. That solution doesn't seem private enough to me. I may not want people to pass the link along without my say so, people could discover the URL by accident...
- brlewis 19y agoWhether or not password protection is more secure depends on how good your friends and family are at choosing and guarding passwords. If you're concerned about the one-in-a-trillion chance that a typo could lead to someone discovering your URL by accident, you could just make the random string longer.