People like Facebook because when they post something there, they get responses from people they care about.

Another thing: When I post a picture on Facebook, it looks magnificent. Far better than it used to look on Flickr, which was pretty good, at one time. These days Flickr is an embarrassment. The only reason I post pictures there at all is because it's hooked into my archival system.

Anyway, what this tells me is that Team Blogosphere has to deliver great people to our blogs, people with ideas, and people who are sympathetic, not the usual trolls who pick at every scab they can find. I'm fairly optimistic about this because I get great engagement at Scripting News, most of the time, and the trolls don't bother because they know I delete their turds without a second thought.

The answer to having a great web outside of Facebook, to accumulate knowledge that works for all of us, for a long time to come depends not only on getting Google on our side again, but also in taking matters into our own hands, and solving problems instead of arguing about stuff.

I'm going to keep learning why people like Facebook, to build our to-do list and then start asking people for ideas and help.