7 ms·

Tangentially relevant, I'd love to follow more news from MirrowBoard on this project (and similar projects), but all they seem to have is a Google+ page, and I

Tangentially relevant, I'd love to follow more news from MirrowBoard on this project (and similar projects), but all they seem to have is a Google+ page, and I refuse to sign up for that for a handful of reasons, none which I can be talked out of. What happened to good old RSS? I'd subscribe to that in an instant, but every time I'm directed to a Google+ feed I close the tab and forget about the company. I'm pretty sure that for quite a few techies, looking to try out new gadgets and technology, a Google+ requirement is a deal-killer.

visarga 13y ago
Use a throwaway account.
- bananas 13y ago
  Isn't that just encouraging the problem and inflating sign up statistics?
  - MichaelApproved 13y ago
    Are you trying to protest or get the information?
    - bananas 13y ago
      That will be protest. Have some more, I've got plenty left: Back in the good old days before the Internet was segregated into several factions behind membership walls operated by Facebook and Google we had public feeds that: 1. Didn't require signing up for anything. 2. Didn't redirect to some shitty feed aggregator that throws out partial pages so you have to click through to a page stuffed with ads and tracking to get the full content. 3. Actually respected established standards for subscriptions. 4. Actually worked properly. Going a few years before that, we even had this thing called usenet which allowed you to subscribe to topics as well and communicate with other people posting on the feeds!!! Think of that!!! Then Deja came along, got bought by Google, everyone got marketed to death and made to choose ecosystems, a subscriber became a dollar value or a social information provider rather than an appreciated reader, content became small and insignificant and people got lazy resulting in blindly ambling into ecosystems and getting stuck there. And now we're creating throwaway accounts to subscribe to things because that's the only measure of value for content.
      - josteink 13y ago
        But that's not based on Federated OAuth REST Web-APIs with JSON-output and backed by a webscale cluster of eventually consistent NoSQL DBs, so obviously it's not trendy and can't have been any good. </sarcasm> At this point, pretty much everything about the internet is moving in the wrong direction.
        bananas 13y ago
        That's amusing because I'm actually just fighting a "unicorn poop" proposal that puts a shit ton of sensitive financial data into the system you just described on a stack built by the lowest bidding hipsters the new TA could get in. This is to replace the 10 years investment in the existing 100% working and 5% capacity Oracle/J2EE/SOAP solution. "But but with Ruby we can rewrite this all in a couple of months" (all 2.8 million lines of quite efficient Java - of course!) Agree with you entirely.
      - pekk 13y ago
        There were reasons why everyone started to gradually not include their whole articles in the feed, and they weren't named Google or Facebook. I don't remember this ever really working properly, except maybe when it was called USENET.
        a8000 13y ago
        Maybe it is time for an updated version of USENET, not tied to Google a la Google groups. I am aware that it still exists but the clients are outdated and they could use additional features.
        bananas 13y ago
        The clients are actually all pretty good. However interest in maintaining them is not.
- mjolk 13y ago
  Eh. If you use the same browser, Google can just associate the two accounts. Also, it's more of a hassle than just saying "forget it." It's entirely possible that if I went to a non-G+ page, I could be convinced to drop $60-100 on a whim. If you make me do stupid little things like remember credentials for a "throw-away account," then you lose the chance to capitalize on that impulse.
  - coolnow 13y ago
    You shouldn't need to really remember any individual credentials for websites. Use something like KeePass.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]
    - ipsin 13y ago
      mjolk: KeePass is a local password storage solution.
      - mjolk 13y ago
        Whoops -- I was thinking lastpass. Thanks for correcting me.
johnchristopher 13y ago
One should come up with a new word for that kind of wall: privacywall ? freeregwall ? signupwall ?
- keeshawn 13y ago
  Privacy pit?
Raphael 13y ago
Google+ has a read-only API. There are ways to generate a feed from a page. https://plus.google.com/+JaanaNystr%C3%B6m/posts/MKCV3vNsn1g https://plus.google.com/+JaanaNystr%C3%B6m/posts/MKCV3vNsn1g
kogir 13y ago
I hate that this is the top comment on something legitimately interesting. At a minimum email them, don't post here about it.
- scintill76 13y ago
  At least one good thing can come of posting here and becoming top comment: others may see it and take more care to cater to these users in the future (and since it is top comment, the commentor is apparently not alone.)

visarga 13y ago

Use a throwaway account.

bananas 13y ago
Isn't that just encouraging the problem and inflating sign up statistics?
- MichaelApproved 13y ago
  Are you trying to protest or get the information?
  - bananas 13y ago
    That will be protest. Have some more, I've got plenty left: Back in the good old days before the Internet was segregated into several factions behind membership walls operated by Facebook and Google we had public feeds that: 1. Didn't require signing up for anything. 2. Didn't redirect to some shitty feed aggregator that throws out partial pages so you have to click through to a page stuffed with ads and tracking to get the full content. 3. Actually respected established standards for subscriptions. 4. Actually worked properly. Going a few years before that, we even had this thing called usenet which allowed you to subscribe to topics as well and communicate with other people posting on the feeds!!! Think of that!!! Then Deja came along, got bought by Google, everyone got marketed to death and made to choose ecosystems, a subscriber became a dollar value or a social information provider rather than an appreciated reader, content became small and insignificant and people got lazy resulting in blindly ambling into ecosystems and getting stuck there. And now we're creating throwaway accounts to subscribe to things because that's the only measure of value for content.
    - josteink 13y ago
      But that's not based on Federated OAuth REST Web-APIs with JSON-output and backed by a webscale cluster of eventually consistent NoSQL DBs, so obviously it's not trendy and can't have been any good. </sarcasm> At this point, pretty much everything about the internet is moving in the wrong direction.
      - bananas 13y ago
        That's amusing because I'm actually just fighting a "unicorn poop" proposal that puts a shit ton of sensitive financial data into the system you just described on a stack built by the lowest bidding hipsters the new TA could get in. This is to replace the 10 years investment in the existing 100% working and 5% capacity Oracle/J2EE/SOAP solution. "But but with Ruby we can rewrite this all in a couple of months" (all 2.8 million lines of quite efficient Java - of course!) Agree with you entirely.
    - pekk 13y ago
      There were reasons why everyone started to gradually not include their whole articles in the feed, and they weren't named Google or Facebook. I don't remember this ever really working properly, except maybe when it was called USENET.
      - a8000 13y ago
        Maybe it is time for an updated version of USENET, not tied to Google a la Google groups. I am aware that it still exists but the clients are outdated and they could use additional features.
        bananas 13y ago
        The clients are actually all pretty good. However interest in maintaining them is not.
mjolk 13y ago
Eh. If you use the same browser, Google can just associate the two accounts. Also, it's more of a hassle than just saying "forget it." It's entirely possible that if I went to a non-G+ page, I could be convinced to drop $60-100 on a whim. If you make me do stupid little things like remember credentials for a "throw-away account," then you lose the chance to capitalize on that impulse.
- coolnow 13y ago
  You shouldn't need to really remember any individual credentials for websites. Use something like KeePass.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - ipsin 13y ago
    mjolk: KeePass is a local password storage solution.
    - mjolk 13y ago
      Whoops -- I was thinking lastpass. Thanks for correcting me.

johnchristopher 13y ago

One should come up with a new word for that kind of wall: privacywall ? freeregwall ? signupwall ?

keeshawn 13y ago
Privacy pit?

Raphael 13y ago

Google+ has a read-only API. There are ways to generate a feed from a page. https://plus.google.com/+JaanaNystr%C3%B6m/posts/MKCV3vNsn1g https://plus.google.com/+JaanaNystr%C3%B6m/posts/MKCV3vNsn1g

kogir 13y ago

I hate that this is the top comment on something legitimately interesting. At a minimum email them, don't post here about it.

scintill76 13y ago
At least one good thing can come of posting here and becoming top comment: others may see it and take more care to cater to these users in the future (and since it is top comment, the commentor is apparently not alone.)