G+ shutting down; where to go now?
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/10/26
Take out your data!
Before doing anything else: take out your data, especially the G+ data at takeout.google.com/settings/takeout, then download at takeout.google.com/settings/takeout/downloads:
- [WayBack] A Preliminary Data Takeout Advisory Google offers a quite good service for retrieving your data from Google. Make use of it. https://takeout.google.c… – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+
- [WayBack] A Preliminary Data Takeout Advisory Google offers a quite good service for retrieving your data from Google. Make use of it. https://takeout.google.c… – Edward Morbius – Google+
- takeout.google.com
- Search Results – Google+: from:”edward morbius” google data takeout jq
- [WayBack] A quick tip for those of you intending to do a backup of your G+ postings (or a transfer to some other media which offers such an option). If you have … – George Vorillas – Google+
- Takeout will fail often: [WayBack] I want to get a head start on archiving my G+ posts, and do it ofte… (via [WayBack] And this is why I’m encouraging people to get on their Google Data Takeout NOW!!! There will be problems. The screenshot here shows a failed attempt a… – Edward Morbius – Google+)
- [WayBack] …not sure if anyone else has given out this info, but in the following link, which outlines using Google Takeout for downloads, step 2 outlines the sp… – Pat Johnston – Google+
- [WayBack] Takeout was fine but how do I import the data into hubzilla or friendica? – j hohn – Google+
- [WayBack] Takeout – G+ Circles Beware. The current data from this takeout option is more or less the same in all 3 formats (CSV, HTML, VCard). First Name Last … – Julian Bond – Google+
TL;DR:
- export JSON, not HTML
- export often to get a feel for wat works fails
- download what works over time, then post-process it
- remember a download might be available only a week or so
- data is incomplete
- many platforms cannot (yet?) import G+ JSON
Think about a Google exit strategy
An excellent post on this is [WayBack] The Google Exit Strategy – alexreusch which I found via:
- [WayBack] The Google Exit Strategy #googleplus #google #social This post represents the first step in the execution of the Google Exit Strategy and is a reaction… – Alex Reusch – Google+
- [WayBack] Alternatives to Google Products (Complete List) | Restore Privacy
It looks like having a blog with a commenting system is not such a bad starting point at all…
Moving from G+
I have no really good idea where to go from G+. The sunset feels a lot like Google Reader, after which I switched to Feedly, which works pretty well, Wave and Inbox.
There is a [WayBack] Petition · Google, Inc: Don’t Shut Down Google Plus · Change.org, but if memory serves well, that did not help much for the other discontinued products.
So before in 9 months G+ ends up in Category:Discontinued Google services – Wikipedia, I am contemplating about alternatives.
Suddenly very relevant is the 2014 comic [WayBack] xkcd 1361: Google Announcement / [WayBack] 1361: Google Announcement – explain xkcd on the right (via [WayBack] XKCD 1361 – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+).
You can register your migration at the [WayBack] Google Plus Migration Directory Form form which will end up in [WayBack] Google Plus Migration Directory (Responses) – Google Sheets (via [WayBack] I made a form that will generate a spreadsheet with anyone’s information and destinations. Email field was added so you could edit your responses, but t… – John Lewis – Google+)
Your email will not end up in the migration directory, see [WayBack] Does Google collect survey participant’s email address? – Google Product Forums
What next?
I might just scale down to interactions at my blog wiert.me, meaning I will be far less active.
Some links suggesting alternatives are below.
Things I will not go to (though I do have accounts for them) as primary form of interaction:
- Facebook (privacy second)
- Twitter, Mastodon, Diaspora (hard/impossible to moderate)
- Self hosting (no thanks GDPR)
- Minds (too much blockchain crap)
- Dreamwidth (no 2FA)
Things I might try:
- Discourse
- Friendica
- Hubzilla
- Pluspora
- MeWe (though public posts are only visible when logged in, so not indexed in search engines, and a startup backed up by venture capital might not be a smart idea)
- Open-Book
Need to further read these:
- [WayBack] Wohin nun, wo Google plus schließen wird? Nun, noch ist Zeit. Sunset ist Ende August 2019, also in nicht ganz einem Jahr. Wohin nicht? Facebook LOL. … – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+
- [WayBack] Die ursprüngliche Aufgabe von Google plus war zweifach: Einmal war die ursprüngliche Idee von Google plus, das zu sein, was jetzt https://myaccount.go… – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+
- [WayBack] Adieu, Google+. Der Reiz von Google+ liegt in dem, was es nicht ist. Es ist kein Facebook, wo Inhalte allenfalls emotional diskutiert werden können un… – Jürgen Christoffel – Google+
- [WayBack1/WayBack2] Google is sunsetting Google+ by August 2019. “sunsetting” – clarification: “no fucks were given about current users” Edit: Sticky while the shock facto… – Lars Fosdal – Google+
- [WayBack] Discourse – Civilized Discussion Discourse is modern forum software for your community. Use it as a mailing list, discussion forum, long-form chat room, and more!
- [WayBack] New VSoft Forums
- [WayBack1/WayBack2] #AfterGooglePlus I honestly don’t understand why so many plussers consider #MeWe. It’s proprietary, centralised and thus exactly what we should NOT sup… – Jan Wildeboer – Google+
- Create accounts on whatever mastodon and diaspora instance you like (I’m using pluspora and my own mastodon instance, many use fosstodon.org).In your diaspora settings you can connect to twitter (under services).That allows you to click the twitter symbol when composing a post and it’ll be posted to twitter. That’s step 1.Now. At crossposter.masto.donte.com.br – Mastodon Twitter Crossposter you can setup the Mastodon to twitter bridge. Simply authorise twitter and mastodon and configure what gets send where.
- [WayBack] I must admit that #Mastodon is starting to grow on me. The iOS app (Amaroq) is not perfect, but definitely #GoodEnough. (Thanks, +Wolfgang Stief – I’v… – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+
- [WayBack] I’ve just moved my #Mastodon presence to my own little instance. Find me on social.wildeboer.net as jwildeboer :) #AfterGooglePlus – Jan Wildeboer – Google+
- [WayBack] Perhaps of interest to those evaluating MeWe as a possible new home in a post-G+ world… MeWe, it turns out, cannot possibly function as anyone’s cent… – Stephan Beal – Google+
- Finding your way around the MeWe app is hard, especially since many notifications are by default turned on. [WayBack] So far I have looked at Mastodon, MeWe and Pluspora. None has all the features I liked about G+. I think I’ll just stay on for a while and check again l… – Thomas Mueller (dummzeuch) – Google+
- [WayBack] For those of you going over to pluspora, you can use this mobile app. Just put in pluspora.com for the pod domain. – Jürgen Christoffel – Google+
- [WayBack] Diaspora Native WebApp – Apps on Google Play
- [WayBack] New contacts added to non-public Aspect/s (a.k.a Circles) on diaspora* will not see previous posts for the chosen Aspect/s…. – Jeremy Morrow – Google+
- [WayBack] Yes, Diaspora has Atom feeds (like RSS) Tag “.atom” to the end of the username, as in: https://joindiaspora.com/public/dredmorbius.atom – Di Cleverly – Google+
- [WayBack] Chronological Streams One of the nice things about Diaspora (I’m on pluspora.com BTW) is that you get chronological streams. That’s what I missed here … – Jürgen Christoffel – Google+
- List of social networking websites – Wikipedia
- [WayBack] Where You Can Find Me After Google+ (and Why) A Survival Guide for Connecting with Me After the Pluspocalypse Check Back Regularly for Updates Rather t… – Eli Fennell – Google+
- [WayBack] This blog entry is a comparative review of MeWe vs. pluspora. Apparently, both social network services have their pros and cons, and currently, neither… – Benjamin Russell – Google+
- Plexodus Wiki
- [WayBack] Directories and Forwarding Information – PlexodusWiki via[WayBack] Does it make sense to compile a list of “notable names” from G+, and if so, there’s that tiny itty bitty question … … who should it include? Off t… – Edward Morbius – Google+
- [WayBack] FAQ – PlexodusWiki via[WayBack] PlexodusWiki FAQ For all your Qs and As. As with other Wiki pages, this is preliminary, but should address a few questions. Contributions (questions … – Edward Morbius – Google+
- Diaspora/Pluspora:
- [WayBack] The Migration Plan TGIF! This has been a very crazy week, full of mixed emotions. Even though we knew the day would come that the platform would close,… – Di Cleverly – Google+
- [WayBack] Diaspora is going to need more pods Based on +Di Cleverly and +David Thiery’s experience and estimates, Pluspora is not going to be sufficient or susta… – Edward Morbius – Google+
- [Archive.is] MAKING TEST POSTS A very good idea when new, non techy like me, AND publishing PUBLIC (viewable by all/most pods). Pluspora has a handy Preview capabil… – Di Cleverly – Google+
- Friendica
- [WayBack] GitHub – solid/solid-takeout-import: Import your Google Takeout (etc) data into your solid pod so you can keep it and use it with Solid apps
- [WayBack] I’m working on a spreadsheet of alternatives to G+. It will be open to all members of this group. I could use some input: what features do we care about… – Peter Maranci – Google+
- [WayBack] MeWe road map, sort of. Posted by Deb_C on MeWe. This is from the Great G+ RPG Exodus Group. It was originally shared by Jacob Hurst. I’m grateful for… – Lars Fosdal – Google+
- [WayBack] Google+ is being deprecated and turned off. This is a community for leaders who want to talk about creating a mass migration to another platform, how t… – John Lewis – Google+ via [WayBack] MASS MIGRATION FROM GOOGLE+ I’ve just learned that Google+ is scheduled for a slow death and to be turned off. I think this was likely to come eventual… – Kristian Köhntopp – Google+
- [WayBack] Google+ Mass Migration – Google+: You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
- [WayBack] DON’T SHUT GOOGLE+ petition – E. Krieger (Luna Fantasma) – Google+
- [WayBack] Google says it will maintain an enterprise version. Would it be possible for various “enterprises” to create a federated version of g+? – Kent Crispin – Google+
- [WayBack] So, I wrote up some stuff about Facebook alternatives earlier this year, and it pretty much applies to G+ alternatives too. – mathew – Google+
- [WayBack] Communities. That’s what I really liked. Circles a close second. When I got the news, I revisited Facebook. Now I have to go wash my computer to get … – Dennis Beaman – Google+
- [WayBack] With the imminent shut down of Google+, there are lots of people looking to migrate their data. If Inrupt made that easy, you would be heroes to a lot o… – Edward Morbius – Google+
- [WayBack] This one is scheduled to launch in March 2019… Sounds good in theory, I’ll be monitoring its development – Nenad Knežević – Google+
- [WayBack] This is a PINNED list of alternatives. Format: Name of service. Link to “about” page. Ads/Subscription/Open Source/etc One sentence summary of why it… – John Lewis – Google+
- [WayBack] Hey everyone, my name is Mark Weinstein. I am the founder of MeWe. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, (inventor of the Web) is an important MeWe Advisor. MeWe is so… – Mark Weinstein – Google+
- [WayBack] google-takeout-2011-7 Get your data on your own computer. – John Lewis – Google+
- [WayBack] Google+ Mass Migration – Google+: You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.
- [WayBack] opt-in versus opt-out I’ve been thinking about the default settings I would like to setup for my Friendica node before I open it for registrations. One thing that bugs me to … – Shelenn Ayres – Google+
- [WayBack] Uche’s Cat – mintaka@www.gshift.cf: Hubzilla Installation on AWS (Single Instance, Free Tier)
- [WayBack] Edit: “Since Dreamwidth is built on a legacy code base that has been around for almost two decades, adding support for newer web technologies is no easy… – Lars Fosdal – Google+
Lars Fosdal:
This was part of the response to my request for two-factor authentication / Open Connect support:
“Since Dreamwidth is built on a legacy code base that has been around for almost two decades, adding support for newer web technologies is no easy task, and most of our site development is volunteer-driven.”- [WayBack] Dreamwidth Studios
- [WayBack] Deleted Account: larsfosdal: The platform is outdated, development ability is limited, and it lacks a number modern features.
- [WayBack] What are the extra services available?
- [WayBack] Guiding Principles
- [WayBack] Open Source
–jeroen
[WayBack] Join me at MeWe – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+ 
Leave a Reply