Echoes of Flavio's Ghost Dreaming

I must be one of the few people still using Google Plus. There are a few peeps there that are not on FB or LJ/DW; I also follow a few communities (mostly on classical guitar, science-fiction, pop science… I’m predictable like that. One feed I read is that of NASA. It is nearly always interesting but I have to refrain from reading the comments. Why does NASA seem to get more than the usual share of crackpots, conspiracy theorists and just plain loonies? One interface detail I definitely don’t like about G+ is the way it shows a comment at a time, then the next one, in succession. This draws your eyes in and makes it difficult, at least for me, to avoid looking at the wacko comments by said crackpots, conspiracy theorists and loonies. There still are people around that believe that ‘all of it’ (space exploration, modern science, etc) is a hoax made up by the System to keep them subjugated. No idea how that is supposed to work but TBH I can’t be all that bothered to find out how a mind like that works.

Amongst several interesting feeds I follow there, one that stands out is Open Culture (they also have a web site here -just in case :)

Google plus seemed like a good idea: at the least, some balance to the omnipoly (yes, I know that's not a word) by Facebook and its manners. Unfortunately, it's turning out to be not much better than FB in several respects -I don't like the 'suggestions', some random stranger's posts suddenly appearing in my timeline because G+ 'thought' I might like them. The insistence on pushing me to add/invite my entire address book (because my friends need spam from me, of course). The whole 'nym wars thing didn't bother me much and didn't affect me personally but it wasn't a good sign. And of course it is incomplete. Picasa and Google calendars don't replace the photo and event functionality in FB -especially when there are only a handful of the people you know in it. But most of all, their policies don't seem to be that much better than Mr Zuckerberg's.

I'm not going to close my account any time soon, it is useful and allows me to keep in contact with some interesting people (and groups of people) I do not communicate with elsewhere and I like some of the ideas in its design, but it's not going to replace FB any time soon. Shame -I do believe Facebook needs competition.