I'm now running a "one strike and you're out" policy on social networks. Here's some things that will result in an instant Un-friend, Un-circle, Block. Invite me to Branchout, farmville or anything similar on Facebook. Post kitty animated gifs. Spam my chat and Skype. Do just one stupid thing and you're gone.
I'm a little more lenient on the next level but it's time to clear that up as well. Re-Sharing more than you post and especially, repeated re-sharing of Scoble posts. Do you really think that your followers aren't already following Scoble? Especially if you are in the Tech industry. Then there's trolling with hard line (US) right wing or religious views. You're welcome but I'm not interested.46-71 Trinity Rd, Ware, Hertfordshire SG12 7
I think those are valuable.
I do think the warning you've given is probably the best way to keep your circles sane.
Damn. That's another 15 minutes wasted! ;)
[1] https://plus.google.com/103363186582409589918/posts/hFtJqpQokKX
[2] https://plus.google.com/111091089527727420853/posts/HKcsYKSN27A
But perhaps I'm just being harsh here. The flow of a story from original to influencer and down through ever smaller bubbles of followers is just a reflection of many other media.
It's just that I personally don't want to follow people who post a lot of links but don't add any value.
I'm also curious about the social conventions that are building up about reciprocal following. You follow me so it's polite to follow back? And it's an insult to not follow you or to stop following you?
As Catch Friday mentioned, replying is spam to those somebody doesn't know!
It might also be because I share it to add my point of view based on the fact what I found in there - that is where in blogging the link comes in handy, which does not work here.
(I do add as well where I got it from because if I shared roberts link to your post, robert vanishes. )
Is the current system a good solution? No and they should have taken a clue on how twitter and facebook does this. It does take up too much space and it does not give you the chance to say "already seen this and muted it". Lot's of work to do.
edit: well played :P
This is not really about me, but more that Plus makes it quite hard at the moment to quickly see what a person is about. The quick follow popups show a face and a name but an awful lot of people have nothing in their Intro, so that's all you get. Actually trying to go further and see what they're really about takes quite a bit of effort.
[1]FWIW https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#buzz/search/author%3Ajulian.bond+OR+commenter%3Ajulian.bond
I like the idea of there being some basic stats on our Profile pages [1]. Among other things, that would help minions like me distinguish those 'celebrity' tech commentators that genuinely engage with their audience (that's why I like +Robert Scoble) from those who crow about G+ being great for engagement, and then don't engage.
[1] https://plus.google.com/103363186582409589918/posts/aDoTkQLxr1Z
That's a classic! And that's right at the heart of my comment above of the social etiquette involved in asymmetric follows like the Plus and Twitter model as opposed to the symmetric friend model of Facebook and Linkedin.
+Julian Bond said "I'm also curious about the social conventions that are building up about reciprocal following. You follow me so it's polite to follow back? And it's an insult to not follow you or to stop following you?"
Curious, no. Annoyed, yes. I haven't yet found it on G+ but that expectation is rife on Twitter (in the desperation to have the highest number of followers). I don't consider myself particularly egotistical, but I don't follow-back unless the follower actually makes an effort to engage with me (at least in a non-abusive manner).
On Facebook that behaviour mainly manifests in younger members, as if the number of 'friends' you have makes you more popular (it doesn't). Not sure of the demographic of the behaviour on Twitter, but the behaviour is certainly entrenched.
However, what I think Google+ allows that something like Twitter doesn't is the ability to add value & context. I couldn't do that on Twitter without frying my "grammar maven" nerves as I edited vowels out of headlines. Now, I have the nearly unlimited ability to say "hey, go read this link and here's why it's fantastic" (or, go read this link, but here's why I think this person is off base.)
What would be AWESOME is if the folks from Google would find a way to aggregate those and put them all together. If several of the people I follow share the same Robert Scoble link, they should be collapsed together instead of showing up in my stream multiple times.
1) Make an effort to provide content of your own, writing, pictures, whatever. Give something of yourself. I have to say I'm not doing as much of that as I might, just yet...
2) Share what you are passionate about. Be selective about what you want to pass on. And don't try too hard to be competitive about what you reshare, 'Hey look, I follow this guy, aren't I cool?'.
This post was brought to my attention by, guess who, Robert Scoble.