ThantiK Clearly you guys have also realized that G+ is going away.

@ThantiK Clearly you guys have also realized that G+ is going away. Well I have done a bunch of research on different sites and so far I’m pretty set on MeWe. It is easy to use and has a lot of great features. I really suggest you check it out. Here’s a link to my PC group so you can get an idea of what it’s like. There isn’t much there and I’m not asking for any subs or anything. Just sharing this in hopes that you guys will also pick this platform so I can still be part of this great community. Take a look and comment on what you guys think of it. I think it could be a real contender. Plus it has a live community IM chat that’s pretty neat and a decent mobile app as well. If you do create a “group” as they call it, I’ll be sure to join!

Doesn’t look like you can read anything there without becoming a member first, which makes the whole thing a terrible idea. If the idea to spread information, the information should be available to everyone, even if they’re not members. Also, personally, before joining, I’d want to see what sort of content there is – not letting me see the content, not getting me to sign up.

@Nita_Vesa There could be a setting to enable that. I’m not sure yet. All this is still pretty new. I just found the thing like 2 hours ago but it seems better than anything else out there if you are wanting that G+ vibe and don’t want to use FB.

@Kevin_Danger_Powers Can’t comment on whether it is better or not since, well, I can’t see the content.

@Kevin_Danger_Powers it looks like Mario has already left G+…

@Cameron_Spiller yeah, that was kind of an accident. I was just trying to copy the picture and I ended up changing my photo and didn’t feel like changing it back because I’ve been busy setting up WeMe.

@Nita_Vesa just create an account. Use a junk email and a fake user name. They don’t need much information to create and account. If you like it, create a new account with your actual info.

Looks like a good platform but the problem will be exposure.

I’m guessing everyone in the group already had G+ and searched for 3d printing from within.

How do you bring new 3d printing enthusiasts to a group inside a platform they never even heard of?

We’re very niche and we grew organically to the size we did due to the very large number of people already using G+.

If we don’t grow the group, wherever it ends up it’ll die.

@Kevin_Danger_Powers that does nothing for searchability.

For me, going from one beholden platform to another isn’t super appealing. Adding to that an explicitly closed platform is pretty much a total non-starter.

Diaspora?

There are 2 big things whatever a new service must have in order to me to back it personally. It’s gotta have content viewable publicly, searchable by Google. And it needs to have a quick painless way to sign up, preferably just by a SSO with social media accounts that already exist. There are more things I’d like to have, such as a multi-column layout etc. Being on an existing platform, or a platform with good exposure is also a bonus, because we want people who are new to the ecosystem to be able to find us - simply because a lot of us here are to help others. That’s certainly what I’m here for.

I think i’ll mainly be off to reddit or discord. seems to be where i mostly hang out other than G+.

I am on Mewe and some of my other groups have joined. We had so many people join up a Mod came on our page and had a live talk with us! They were happy to tell us about plans to open the exposure and how people share info and such. PS they have searchable groups and they can contact the croup for an invite to join.

Signed up for WeMe too. Biggest pain for me is that you cannot share your posts to any other app but WeMe.

I also agree with most comments here. I hope they’ll grow and make changes soon…

There’s another option - maybe not a great one, but it is an option: If you want G+ to stay, then say so - there’s an active petition on Change.org. Okay, my hopes of that helping much aren’t too great, but I want to have tried. Chip in with your opinion, and maybe, just maybe we’ll get something out of it…

@Ingo_Ulrich Google has never in its history, continued to keep a service around due to a petition. It’s a waste of time and energy.

@ThantiK Yes, they’re behaving like a$$h0les more and more every day at Google - tell me something I don’t know… But as it’s not much of time and energy, I want to at least try to keep the only social network that keeps to the basics without trying to ram commercials down my throat. I’ve met quite a number of people on G+ I’d hate to lose (okay, ‘met’… but still…), and now they’re trying to pull the plug because of their own damn inability to make it known (“data leak”? Lousy excuse, if you ask me - there’s at least one social network that should have been closed ten times over, if that was the reason…)? Seriously, they really don’t know what they have with G+, the morons :grinning:

@ThantiK I agree with you, there. It’s just naive optimism to believe that some online-petition like that would change the fate of a service like this, unfortunate as it is.

And yet, doing nothing and beeing pessimistic doesn’t help either. I’ll sign the petition…

@Mano_Biletsky_Open_M …If it makes you feel better, OK. But to me, doing something would be more like exploring the alternatives—which is what I’ve been doing.

I subscribed to r/3Dprinting on reddit and followed the #3dprinting and 3D Printing tags on my pluspora account on diaspora. No surprise that having one subreddit is more cohesive than whatever tags someone happens to type on a post. Additionally, moderation in diaspora would be by opening a new pod with rules and admins to moderate content on that pod, not by hashtag. I am also now on mastodon, but I don’t see any way to really assemble a community there, and that plus a 500-character limit for “toots” sounds like a non-starter for the kind of community that has built here.

So the subreddit experience is the closest thing I’ve seen to the social experience I’ve had in this community.

@ThantiK — I know you wanted to be a mod, but if I were a mod of any community, I’d want to see someone participate in the community and build reputation there before inviting them to be another mod (maybe you did already, I don’t know). Also or alternatively, you could start a new subreddit with a different focus than r/3Dprinting — vaguely like r/Machining + r/Welding + various others are complementary to r/Skookums — it’s just that to attract attention and participation you would have to articulate how it’s different in a way that attracts the rest of us refugees. (That suggestion is worth what you paid for it, blah blah blah.)