The number one thing to realize is: this is not a technical problem. It's a marketing, political, and social problem.
Facebook and Twitter have vast numbers of users who are not at all technical. How you reach people like that and get them to join is your problem, and it has nothing to do with deep understanding of the technology.
Same thing with Google Reader, too.
If you want to "take on Facebook or Twitter", you will fail. But if you just want to create a community of people, you absolutely can outcompete those companies in that niche, because Facebook and Twitter traded in quality for scale.
Indeed. I really preferred Google+ to any of it's competitors. The circles idea just makes a lot of sense. Most other social media ignores the fact that people in your social circles might have different interests. People interested in programming languages might not be interested in baking and vice versa. Why spam all baking followers with your latest programming language realization?
plus made you define your social circles as literal "circles", that's not the MySpace top 8, or Seinfeld speed dial.
plus might have just been the right tech for the wrong model.
Throwing sheep is an idiom I'm unfamiliar with and urban dictionary isn't helping (https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=throw%20a%20...) what does it mean in this context?
I liked the idea of circles. It solves the problem of having to create multiple accounts (one for work, one for friends, one for parents, etc) that a lot of people were doing on facebook/insta so that they didn't have to self-censor as much. People don't always want to broadcast a night of drugs and drinking to your employer or your Mom but still want to send photos of your wild night out to your friends.
He likely meant "throwing shade."
is it similar to "being pwned"?