
Circles Fatigue: The Dark Side Of Google+ - mjfern
http://www.fastcompany.com/1767807/running-in-circles-on-google?partner=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+fastcompany/headlines+(Fast+Company+Headlines)
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jhdavids8
Wow, what a silly attempt to criticize G+ for a brilliant and yet optional
feature. He complains about having to manage too many circles. Ok...so group
everyone in one circle, simple enough eh? You don't have to classify your
contacts, you can simply put them in an "All" circle. Plus, are you saying
it's easier to manage all your friends as individuals like you have to on FB?
At least Google provides a way of classifying your friends, better than no way
at all. Having too many Circles is the user's fault, and yet in the end, it
doesn't even matter since you can easily treat all your contacts as one
Circle.

If Google+ does not end up succeeding, it will not be because people get
"Circles Fatigue". Sad attempt to be overly critical here.

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p3rs3us
Precisely! When i read this article my first reaction was 'what the hell!'. Be
it any social network, you will have to spend quite some time to getting used
to and then trying to make the most out of it. Like in case of twitter, it
took me quite some time to arrange my contacts in lists, and same goes for
yahoo messenger (when i used it!). Simply critisizing the product on the basis
of something which is quite efficient and noteworthy is sad.

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pak
How did this guy ever organize his buddy list when he used AIM or whatever?
It's painful for a day, but it's not like people move between groups very
often, and unless you are a celebrity it's an infrequent task after the
initial setup. Plus, they've made the UI for it slippery smooth (kudos to
Google+ for the effort there).

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drjones78
He is right, in that circles do take a little more thought... probably a
little more than social network users are used too. There's a little bit of
strategy involved in arranging circles usefully.

I'm not quite so sure that people realize circles are mostly a tool for
sorting people (and not content) and controlling your broadcasts out, and less
for sorting incoming broadcasts by topic. Seems like a lot of people just have
awry expectations with the concept of circles.

Most people will probably have a few redo's on their circle arrangements in
their future, as they start to grasp how they actually function. Some people
might get frustrated and even quit.

Definitely not tired of it though... though I do wonder what its like for a
famous person who gets thousands of followers - that might get a little old.

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dfxm12
I agree it's cute when you first crack this open to think that you have to
have a 1:1 mapping between your circles on G+ and what you considers your
"real life" circles to be, however this isn't the case.

You just need to break down your circles to be based on the audience for what
you share, sometimes this is as easy as "social" and "professional". Everyone
lives their lives differently though.

"circles are ... less for sorting incoming broadcasts by topic" I disagree
with this because streams are linked to circles, so you can easily create a
circle for people you follow (like Twitter). You may not want to add these
people to your "broadcast" circles.

p.s.: You aren't obligated to put people who follow you into a circle. Famous
people probably ignore these requests (again, like Twitter).

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ehutch79
From the article """ It's overwhelming. Perhaps I'm slightly OCD, but even the
process of creating a group name has become a hassle. I had friends from "Fast
Company" and then friends from "FastCompany.com;" roommates from "6E" (my
apartment number) and roommates from college; and even a group called "Top
Gun," whose purpose I struggle to remember. Several of my Circles had just one
"friend." A "Circle" of one might sound a little zen, but it mostly just
sounds sad. After a while, I simply gave up. """

YOu can't blame google when you start creating groups for individuals. You can
limit anything to an individual just like you would to a circle, so there's no
real point to that.

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Kique
I've experienced this "circle fatigue", but it's mainly because the service is
new and I'm adding people to my circles on a daily basis as they get invited
so it gets kind of irritating having to think which circle 10 people fit in
everyday. Once more people come on I don't think it'll be much of an issue? I
get like one FB friend request a week so if G+ is similar and I have to put
someone into a circle once a week I don't think it's an issue.

Also, if someone doesn't like using the circles then what is stopping them
from just putting everyone in one circle?

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wccrawford
I think people are putting way too much time and effort into circles.

If you have something you want to share with a select group of people (who
have a shared interest, obviously) then make a Circle for them and share it.

Other than that, don't fret about it.

I have a few very broad Circles that I initially classify people into (they
usually only get put in 1 Circle) and that's been good enough so far.

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Groxx
It's still early. Google tends to roll out only mostly-baked things for the
first edition, and then APIs to let you do what you want. While it's a little
rough now, I fully expect it to get more polish in time.

I, for one, look forward to the API the most. Specialized tools for
specialized uses - you can't please everyone with a single web interface. See
also: tweetdeck.

