mewe

Sun Sets on Google Plus

Posted on by VA3DBJ

On February 1st, I received the official email from Google, that Google Plus will be turned off on April 2nd. I have been messing around with a couple of replacements, of sorts, and have been hanging out at the MeWe and Pluspora sites.

They have pretty much replace both Google+ and Facebook. MeWe has been my tech related replacement and Pluspora, for my photography. Below are my links and a short copy of the Google notice on Google+.

https://www.mewe.com/i/va3dbj
https://pluspora.com/people/c67b3320b1310136206800505608f9fe

In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and provide next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.

On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content, just make sure to do so before April. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.

The process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive will take a few months, and content may remain through this time. For example, users may still see parts of their Google+ account via activity log and some consumer Google+ content may remain visible to G Suite users until consumer Google+ is deleted.

As early as February 4th, you will no longer be able to create new Google+ profiles, pages, communities or events.

See the full FAQ for more details and updates leading up to the shutdown.


Facebook – I Quit

Posted on by VA3DBJ

Well after some thought, I shutdown my Facebook page.  There were a few reasons why I did, but the main reason was the invasion of privacy.  It wasn’t the increased BS, the fake news and the political crap, it ended up being that Facebook was monitoring my private text messages with my family and friends.

When I first joined, the conditions you had to agree too to install the app was very basic, kind’a, but it didn’t monitor your private messages. But along the way, they added the ability to monitor private messages, but did not notify you as such.  Only if you deleted the app and reinstalled, or re-read the conditions, would you have known.

Either way, I felt, that not having the option to turn off specific access to a service or app on my phone, was a little too much, after all these years.

Taking a few weeks and actually paid attention to what I was reading and seeing what interaction I was having with my family and friends, I decided that it was time.

I had investigated other social platforms that allowed me to carry on my photography, communications and computing hobbies and found a couple of new ones that focused on security and minimal amount of personal information that is handed over.

Pluspora, a side group, or pod, of diaspora* software. A group that focus’s on 3 main ideas. Decentralised servers, the freedom to post what you want and how much of you you want to release and privacy.  You own your data.

Another platform that has a mantra of “No Ads. No Spyware. No BS.” is MeWe.  MeWe has the Google+ feel to it, and that is why a lot of people have been migrating to it, since the Google+ shutdown was announced.

Both platforms are working hard on getting the former Google Plusers and attracting Facebook users to convert over.  I am now using Pluspora and Twitter as my main platforms, with MeWe and Tumblr as my home away from home sites. You can follow me at: