

“Closed” vs. “Open” Social Networking And How It Applies To Path and Instagram - andre3k1
http://andre.io/post/2069852697/closed-vs-open-social-networking-and-how-it

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cloudwalking
I think it's more appropriate to think of Instagram as similar to Twitter
rather than MySpace. And once you do, the analogy breaks down.

Path is great for super personal stuff, and the 50 user limit is good for
that. Instagram is more like Twitter, where you can take _interesting_ photos
and anybody can follow you.

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andre3k1
I was actually going to include a reference to Twitter in the original post,
but I edited it out of the final draft. Here's what I had written up:

 _> Twitter isn’t social networking, Twitter is blogging. Therefore, the
“closed” social networking argument does not apply.

>With blogging you wish to share everything you can with the rest of the
world. The same can be said for Twitter. The Twitterverse, like the
blogosphere, is a place to go and get educated. In these two scenarios, an
“open” system trumps any and all closed-systems.

>Remember, a social network provides no real value other than fulfilling a
social need. The blogosphere and the Twitterverse provide much more._

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uast23
All the Social networking sites eventually start being used as marketing
platform by the people. Take facebook for example; things are no more
constrained to being social there, people find gratification when more and
more people are friends with them and interact with them. I know a lot of
people who have more than 3000 friends on their FB profile. Now, is there
anyway to actually be friends with 3000+ people in reality. IMHO no. People do
this either to promote their blog or product. FB pages might be an argument
for this, but that does not stop marketeers from being friends with Random
people.

As far as privacy goes, I ll just repeat the cliche = "don't share something
in public which might hurt you later"

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trotsky
Given how much baggage the words "closed" and "open" have in software
development, I'm not sure it's wise to use them as this article does - as
stand ins for "public" and "private".

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andre3k1
Thanks for the feedback. You make a valid point. Have taken your reply into
consideration and changed out the words "closed" and "open" for "private" and
"public".

Unfortunately, the title on HN cannot be changed.

