Re: We need a more UI-friendly group

I am not saying "Let's wrap up our business here and do our stuff on Facebook" so that a hypothetical "modern" teenager will find it more familiar. 
 
In terms of neutrality and the spirit of open, nothing beats IRC and emails, especially when you're not using Google and whatever but your custom email with a not-for-profit email client. 
 
There's no way I'm against communicating on these platforms or in favour of picking a proprietary platform which is heavily regulated, biased, makes a helltonne of money each second, and might infringe privacy. And cannot be indexed.
 
What I'm saying is this: instead of a casual group that I can make out of interest for discussing WPD-related work, we collectively make a casual (and of course, unofficial) Facebook group and test for a month or so. 
 
That's my proposal. A lot of you might not be having a Facebook account. And no matter how easy to set up, Facebook is, well, a fancy and solely-for-profit internet service. Not even a service but an excuse to ignore the real world. But I've seen work accelerate like hell when an informal group, like a Facebook group, yes which is highly regulated, not open, and just too fancy, is used instead of other formal and more efficient services because of its increase in activation energy and reaction points (chemistry concepts). 
 It will be solely informal. But if I create such a group, you can be sure that it'll die in a day. If we all collectively show (not fake) enthusiasm and crete a group for beta testing, then you'll see for yourself what I mean. Given that we get that many members. 
 
I don't want to end up again in how is Facebook>emails or how emails>Facebook. Emails are our best bet because we aim on communication and not how much PHP our communication has. Plus, emails are proven tools of stable discussion. No one knows when Facebook will shut down, crash, start charging money, spam our monitors with ads and whatever. 

I just want you all to try wholeheartedly just once. 
 
I also understand that most of us are not ready for a heads-on collision with a highly complicated and chaotic "social" entity with so much sophistication and entropy. But only if we stop being lazy, Facebook can seem lightweight, smooth, and we can be totally insulated from outside world too.

[P.S. Talking of fancy communities, I think Google+ Communities, without any hangout crap, are much, much better than Facebook groups. Plus, everybody who has a GMail account already has a Google+ account. Google also seems less aggressive in forcing business down its users throats than Facebook. But my good experience is limited to a Facebook group.]

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</Abhimanyu>



---- On Sat, 13 Dec 2014 11:21:17 -0800 Jeffrey Walton<noloader@gmail.com> wrote ---- 

>> Well, all things you've mentioned can be counter-argued or criticised. So, 
>> kindly read along. 
>> 
>> Facebook archives will also be permanently available. 
>> ... 
 
Additionally, some folks don't participate in the social networking 
experiments. I would not want to join <favorite network here> to hunt 
down topics or comment on occasion. 
 
The social networking experiments don't have the best track record of 
honoring users privacy (if there is such a thing when you join). The 
best defense is to not join in the first place. Cf., 
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-08/01/facebook-class-action-lawsuit 
(and others).