So I got a notification that the Google+ app is changing (or going away?) and just curious if the community mods know anything about the future of these groups. I always liked it here way more than FB or Reddit.
Looks like it was just support for older versions of g+. The notification I received said a device I had still had an old version and needed to be updated to continue working.
Older versions of Google + and Google photo won’t be able to communicate, or update. So long as both are up to date you won’t have any problems. If you have an older device that no longer can be updated, you may have to upgrade devices.
I hate to put this out there, but I’ve been shopping around for an alternative to G+. I’ve highly considered shutting it down and deleting it outright after maybe leaving a migration message up for a couple of months.
Google has not taken spam control seriously, I’ve asked dedicated support groups here on G+ about it, and all I’ve gotten has been “You must not know how to use the moderator controls”…or “It’s probably something you’re doing wrong”. And a blind eye turned to the fact that G+ has been completely abandoned as a platform for development.
I haven’t found anything that fits this style yet. I’d tell everyone to move to the RepRap forums, but their software is dated and ugly - and I certainly don’t have any kind of ability to help if spam pops up over there.
I go through mod logs as often as I can, but crap-spam comments are getting out of control, more and more of its getting through and more and more legit content is getting caught.
Most of the people here who were actively helping one another got frustrated with the platform, and moved on with their professional careers and don’t have time to click 4-fucking times per spam post in order to mark it as spam in the mobile app.
Honestly this community is the best - the photo-centric nature and card-style layout means that everything is at the top all the time. It doesn’t get hidden in layers of “organization”, and since everyone has a google account, it’s easy to just hop in and participate.
Honestly, I don’t know what to do about it. G+ is dying, (has been for a while, tbqh) and nobody on the back end is trying to resuscitate it. Spam is getting uncontrollable, mod tools are nonexistant, there’s no API for other developers to offer up their own toolsets, the whole thing is starting to become a putrid rotting corpse.
I played with potentially programmatically controlling a google chrome instance, but they’ve got lots of the code obfuscated and I’m not familiar enough with javascript to be able to write my own moderation bot.
Honestly - if a developer were to figure THAT out, G+ (at least to me) could be salvageable. Like even a simple word-blacklist which would cause an auto-ban would eliminate half the spam overnight. (http://fiverr.com I’m fucking looking at you!)
Kinda wish you’d leave it up, even if you do leave: it’s been the best place for me to talk with people about printer problems.
@ThantiK my biggest problem is all those groups I didn’t choose to subscribe to spamming me. There’s a reason I was selective about which ones I joined - I don’t need popular and trendy spam.
@ThantiK If the community is a burden and the support has been failing then I can see plans to transition. I don’t think there necessarily needs to be one destination either, but the main reason this group keeps up for me is the layout and convenience within the Google ecosystem. Seeing as Google itself isn’t very reliable about upholding any one of their products, I can see hesitation in continuing.
Now with that said, I do think out of all of G+'s failings, communities was the exception. It made this profile useful in some respect. When they shoehorned G+ into YouTube, that was the final nail in the coffin but I still see valuable content here regardless even with the constant spam.
I’d say wait it out, they obviously have some end game planned that is probably going to be a reaction to FB. So instead of “hey check out this new social network” we’d just see them expand communities and cut out the other 90% garbage. One can dream though.
@ThantiK Absolutely agree with everything you said, G+ is an abandoned social media platform and you can’t even complain to anybody at G+ in person aboutb it. Everything about the spam control has been outsourced to foreign countries (India) and the fact that most spam now comes from India is beyond a coincidence.
@John_Bump I plan on leaving the community up and continuing to do my best to clear out the spam queues. I haven’t found any kind of alternative that would suffice as a replacement.
I won’t be abandoning you guys or sweeping the community out from under you, I promise that. 
FWIW I report stuff that’s clearly spam as soon as I see it.
@John_Bump You used to be able to report spam without clicking on it. Now that you have to click into it to report it, I no longer do.