People will never learn. It's easier to use the same crappy system as everyone else than use a better one. I think this time I'll leave twitter for good.
@warza: It's not so much about choosing Jaiku or Identica over Twitter. It's about choosing decentralized and sustainable solutions over centralized solutions.
The popularity of url shorteners suggests that most people don't understand why the web works and are going to continue to be surprised when these sorts of companies go out of business and take all the data with them. Mark Pilgrim's Freedom 0 article is a good introduction to a lot of this stuff: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/14/freedom-0
It's one of the reasons why, assuming we work out how to do it, Jaiku eventually must have support for import and export of history.
Of course it's not about choosing, but it is about trust. It's also about ease of use and community. At the moment none of the microblogging solutions offer a reliable platform.
So many people are on facebook, which can do most things, that the question to ask is whether the other services have any use.
URL shroteners after all are only interesting when characters are limited.
I'm going to miss FriendFeed. I didn't like the last redesign they did but they managed to attract some interesting people as users and I loved the way that their team interacted with their userbase.
You know what that means of course. There was no point in sticking with facebook if it's just given up the solo journey. Friendfeed being bought by Facebook makes a mockery of smaller independent projects.
The other thing I've realised is that, as danah boyd puts it, these different services express different and incommensurate social graphs: http://tinyurl.com/nel2k5 (That's a tinyurl because the original url has underscores in it).
FriendFeed with Facebook's userbase is a completely different product. Even if FB's userbase is a strict superset of FF's the connections between the users will be different which will lead to the creation of a different kind of community that uses the product in different ways.
The initial users who 'seed' a site have as much impact on the nature of the site as the features.
It's as if people feel there was an implicit social contract which has now been breached. Personally I haven't felt like that since the death of the Firefly social network.
There is a social contract between the community owner and future progress of any company. It evolves over time but websites should never forget their engaged users.
The problem with most social contract theory is that it always assumes that we're willing to pretend that there was a mythic past when this social contract was drawn up and by living in a society we've signed up to it. Unfortunately on the web the rulers (those who own these websites) don't feel bound by the same social contract as the ruled. Consequently they can do things which feel to the users like 'betrayal.'
It might be interesting to see the emergence of a social networking site with an explicit social contract between rulers and ruled. However someone would have to come up with meaningful sanctions for situations where the rulers violate the social contract.
14 comments so far
People will never learn. It's easier to use the same crappy system as everyone else than use a better one. I think this time I'll leave twitter for good.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by warza
@warza: It's not so much about choosing Jaiku or Identica over Twitter. It's about choosing decentralized and sustainable solutions over centralized solutions.
The popularity of url shorteners suggests that most people don't understand why the web works and are going to continue to be surprised when these sorts of companies go out of business and take all the data with them. Mark Pilgrim's Freedom 0 article is a good introduction to a lot of this stuff: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2004/05/14/freedom-0
It's one of the reasons why, assuming we work out how to do it, Jaiku eventually must have support for import and export of history.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by adewale
Of course it's not about choosing, but it is about trust. It's also about ease of use and community. At the moment none of the microblogging solutions offer a reliable platform.
So many people are on facebook, which can do most things, that the question to ask is whether the other services have any use.
URL shroteners after all are only interesting when characters are limited.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by warza
Facebook just acquired Friendfeed which reminded me of this thread. It will definitely be interesting to see what it will lead to.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by lemonad
I'm going to miss FriendFeed. I didn't like the last redesign they did but they managed to attract some interesting people as users and I loved the way that their team interacted with their userbase.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by adewale
@adewale: Me too. I'm hoping they continue to innovate they way they've done so far.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by lemonad
Louis Gray on Facefeed: http://friendfeed.com/louisgray
3 months, 2 weeks ago by topgold
You know what that means of course. There was no point in sticking with facebook if it's just given up the solo journey. Friendfeed being bought by Facebook makes a mockery of smaller independent projects.
3 months, 2 weeks ago by warza
I'm glad the FriendFeed guys found a way to make a bigger impact.
As a user though it's just one more reason not to invest too much time in companies that don't have a business model no matter what Paul Graham says: http://econsultancy.com/blog/221-paul-graham-says-don-t-sweat-about-business-models
3 months, 2 weeks ago by adewale
Great links on this thread. Feeling nostalgic after reading the Mark Pilgrim piece. Movable Type. Those were the days ;)
3 months, 2 weeks ago by jyri
The other thing I've realised is that, as danah boyd puts it, these different services express different and incommensurate social graphs: http://tinyurl.com/nel2k5 (That's a tinyurl because the original url has underscores in it).
FriendFeed with Facebook's userbase is a completely different product. Even if FB's userbase is a strict superset of FF's the connections between the users will be different which will lead to the creation of a different kind of community that uses the product in different ways.
The initial users who 'seed' a site have as much impact on the nature of the site as the features.
3 months, 1 week ago by adewale
I'm fascinated by the initial (and somewhat cynical) response of some of the more vocal users of FriendFeed) : http://jungleg.com/2009/08/11/after-friendfeeds-sale-trust-in-social-sites-has-been-shattered/
It's as if people feel there was an implicit social contract which has now been breached. Personally I haven't felt like that since the death of the Firefly social network.
3 months, 1 week ago by adewale
There is a social contract between the community owner and future progress of any company. It evolves over time but websites should never forget their engaged users.
3 months, 1 week ago by warza
The problem with most social contract theory is that it always assumes that we're willing to pretend that there was a mythic past when this social contract was drawn up and by living in a society we've signed up to it. Unfortunately on the web the rulers (those who own these websites) don't feel bound by the same social contract as the ruled. Consequently they can do things which feel to the users like 'betrayal.'
It might be interesting to see the emergence of a social networking site with an explicit social contract between rulers and ruled. However someone would have to come up with meaningful sanctions for situations where the rulers violate the social contract.
3 months, 1 week ago by adewale