Scripting News
Scripting News, the weblog started in 1997 that bootstrapped the blogging revolution...
You know what fresco painting is?
Basically the artist spreads plaster on a wall and then paints quickly. Whatever is there when the plaster dries is what you see. That's what blogging is like. And that's why you can get in so much trouble with what you blog!
For example, I just posted something on Facebook that I think bears repeating. I haven't done any studies, I've just used a couple of products, and have some experience to report. Fanboys of the platform that I think is stagnant are likely to say I haven't done my homework, or I don't know what their experience is, and damn straight, that's totally true. But I'm doing a fresco here, not the Mona Lisa. I'm writing a little blog post, not Ulysses or Catcher in the Rye. I'm sure as hell not writing the Constitution.
I'm sure all you say is true, I don't make software for any of these platforms. The cool thing Google did was with those cards, they spy on you and figure out what you're up to then show you facts that relate to what you're doing. Proactive searches. It's great and totally fucked up at the same time. And it has nothing to do with developers. Just saying as a user, they're keeping me interested. Even though I know I've made a deal with the devil.
Maybe you'll get an idea from this fresco-style writing. Or maybe it's worthless.
No matter to me, it's just my blog.
I've been fairly active on Twitter over the last few weeks, and that means generally there's a bunch of stuff in my Connect tab. But over the last few days it's really been slowing down. To the point where now there hasn't been anything new posted to that tab in 9 hours. That's remarkable!
Now that could mean that in the last 9 hours:
1. Everyone is busy, no meetings, dull conferences.
2. No one is saying anything to me.
3. No one is trying to spam me.
4. No one is doing social media marketing.
5. Everyone is using iOS and the tweet function in v7 is broken.
6. There's a technical problem at TwitterCo.
7. Or...?
I often wonder if Twitter does what Facebook does, and tries to keep the flow down by only showing people "interesting" posts, so even if you follow someone maybe you're not seeing everything they post?
If they deployed such a system, I imagine they'd do it quietly. And it would be felt this way. The Connect tab becomes a ghost town. Tumbleweed. Crickets.
According to Tad Suiter: Problem might be that the "Connect" tab now initially takes you to "Mentions," rather than "Interactions."
Yup, that was it. When I switched it over, a bunch more stuff was revealed.
Here's a screen shot with a pointer to the thing you have to change to get back the old behavior.
Another example of a software company fixing something that wasn't broken.
It's even worse than it appears. © 1997-2013 Scripting News, Inc.