markkat

It's an argument that changed my thinking on this. Wine tasting and critique is not only about what's in the wine, it's also about what tasting the wine enables us to do.

In a phrase, wine is liquid metaphor.

We need to fund the process first. Then people, then results.

Absolutely. That's the dishonest part about this conversation. G+ and FB make more money if you use your real name. Asking whether they are right or wrong about identity is allowing them to keep the conversation one step away from where it should be. G+ and FB use you real name. Fine. Here's the conversations that need to follow: 1) To what extent can they leverage that for profit? 2) Is this leading us to an internet that is non-anonymous by default, and do we want that?

Poole is right, but he's really just talking strategy. I do agree that G+ and FB are creating a vacuum to be filled with anonymous social services.

IMHO, this is not only going to change the nature of Google, but in the end, it will change their definition of innovation. -When every product is wrapped in social, it changes what every product can be.

My thinking on Hubski has been guided by the idea that groups should form and dissolve as people wish, and that Hubski become a multitude of overlapping and ever-changing groups. As user following-relationships are color-coded (http://hubski.com/about), you tend to build a familiarity with a number of people that are connected with you this way.

IMO it's not just content that should be the result of choice, but also how familiar you want to get with members of the community. I'm currently doing more work to this end.

In a nutshell, I feel effort is best spent enabling users to build and break boundaries and groups as they are wont to. -It's not as important that you behave as I would like you to, if I can easily avoid you.

i.e. Some legislators write a law, then pass it to a panel of judges, the judges attach a note indicating what they determined the purpose of the law was, and then the law went on for a vote. The opinion wouldn't have any legal effect, but it might provide for a bit more honesty.

Taking my own advice... One of the things that brings people to http://hubski.com (a social aggregation site) is original content. I like to write, and I found that when I wrote on hubski, that content brought quite a bit of traffic. If you are creating in the social space, IMHO you need to think of your site as a restaurant. Above everything else, you need to have quality food. You can get tons of traffic, but if you don't have quality food, people won't come back. It's easier said than done, but I found that contributing my own original content seemed to provide a value that few other things did. I've come to the opinion that quality is everything. The little things count. Be tough with yourself, and listen to criticism.

Ask yourself: "Do I like my app? and What don't I like about my app?" everyday. If you love your app, it will be infinitely easier for you to promote. Make sure you love your app before you start putting serious resources into promoting it. If you love your app, traffic to your site will likely be more effective.

BTW, this post is at #3 samrat. This would be a very good time to tell us what your app is! :)

EDIT: Another thing to try: To get some objective feedback on first impressions, you might want to try stumbleupon. People can vote on your site when they stumble it, and you can look at the average score of your site. IMO I don't think that SU is an effective way to advertise, but that does provide a measure for first impressions. If your score is low, you know you need to work on your landing page.

Unfortunately, I don't think there is a one-size-fits all solution. You might cover a college campus in stickers, pair up with a local organization to use you app at a function, visit businesses and pitch it, hound tech bloggers, etc.

Do you have a web app? If you do, this would have been a nice opportunity. Tell us what it is, and ask for advice on how you might promote this specific kind of web app.

Best of luck, and congratulations.

That may be true. I have a good middle class friend that move from the US to Norway for higher taxes but great social programs. If you can handle the winter, not a bad deal. He loves it. Interesting that the citizenship decision might be moving closer to something like the job search.

Agreed. But there is what should be done, and what is done. I don't think this is anyway admirable, or of any benefit to society, (it's basically taking wealth harvested within a system out of that system) but I do see that it might be a possible solution for a perceived problem that exists for very wealthy individuals.

I took your words to heart, cut out some functional fluff, simplified terminology, and focused on hubski's UX. It seems to be having a positive effect. We now have what I like to call a decentralized social aggregator: A vote shares a story with your followers. Popular posts propagate across the community, rather than rise up a shared page. It makes sense.

Still work to be done, but your feedback was valuable. It really pushed me to rethink and focus. Thanks!

It's useful as a Q&A, but I don't see it as a social network. Quora does seem better than Yahoo Answers though.