

Google+ Circles Not Compatible with Asymmetric Follower Model - elo
http://oleb.net/blog/2011/07/thoughts-on-google-plus-vs-twitter/

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pvarangot

      > That is, if you follow me at all. Because until I place you 
      > in a Circle of mine, my stream looks empty to you, much like 
      > the timeline of a Twitter user who has protected their 
      > tweets. Why would you even want to follow me, not knowing 
      > what to expect?
    

I beleive the author is sort of complaining about Google+ not working for
self-promotion... I beleive this is actually a feature in a social network.
What I don't like in Twitter is that lots of people are trying to be
interesting in what 140 characters they write to get more followers, and care
a lot about how the streak of their last 10 or so tweets "look". I believe the
way Twitter works and the way it markets itself encourages this behaviour.

As a non-famous non-wanting-fame person I want to use social networks to keep
in touch with people that I already know, and to get timely updates or
insightful comments from sources that have already earned my respect.

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tomkarlo
Can't make everyone happy. Google is offering some limited mechanisms for
controlling what you see (by assigning people you follow to circles) and who
you speak to (by sending some posts to specific circles.) The OP wants to have
the ability to let readers filter posts based on which circle the poster sent
them to (i.e. subscribe to his tech posts or his german posts, or both.) I
understand why that's valuable but I don't think he realizes that's probably a
corner case.

It's also not clear why Twitter doesn't suffer from the same problem; he's
saying he compensates by having multiple Twitter accounts, but that seems like
a workaround rather than a feature.

Implementing what the OP suggests would likely increase the complexity of the
Circles system a great deal while not adding a ton of value for most users;
this is a classic case of what you can't design based on the most extreme
needs of users without compromising your base usability.

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wccrawford
He's wrong.

It was designed to protect privacy, and the Asymmetric Follower Model is the
opposite of that.

However, if you make your posts public, JUST LIKE TWITTER, everyone can see
your posts. Just like Twitter.

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Mathnerd314
You just need a "tagging" or "category" feature.

