Link to this post: https://plus.google.com/107459220492917008623/posts/4hghPuiFNTP
Link to this post: https://plus.google.com/107459220492917008623/posts/4hghPuiFNTP
Circle Management II: Identifying Who to Uncircle
A few days ago I described the Uncircle Inactives app, which helps you identify accounts which may have been added via a circle share, but are no longer active on Google+. Another way to clear up more circle space is via the Uncircle Uncirclers app for Chrome which has been out for nearly two months. There may be some significant pros and cons to consider before using it:
Pros of facilitated uncircling:
- If you have a lot of circle contacts you follow, it cleans out a lot of circle space fast!
- A person can only keep up with about 150 people in their lives, so even the 5000 circle limit gives us way, way more people than we can reasonably interact with.
- Not circling you can feel like rejection, so it can feel satisfying to axe them back.
- The app lets you go through people and choose who to uncircle, so you can clear up space selectively
Then again... who circled you back isn't necessarily a valid measure of who you should circle (or uncircle). So that leads us to the other side of the coin... disadvantages to using this app carelessly:
Cons of mass uncircling:
- Many of the people who didn't circle you back have simply circled close to 5000 contacts, and can't circle everyone back. You can't make assumptions as to why (not accurately anyway).
- You circle people to follow, not to follow you, so the concept of using circling you as a test for your circling back has the whole process backwards.
- Axing active and competent content creators may dumb down the stream of posts you see (I use others' posts for inspiration, ideas and learning, so cutting too deep with uncircles might ultimately stunt my knowledge and creativity).
- They may actually have you circled after all! Yes, the app can only see the circle contacts which people choose to show publicly. You may delete people who have you circled. If they run the app and do the same thing, they may uncircle you... and a healthy two-way connection has been lost.
- While some people have tried to create the impression that interaction only consists of conversations, content curation and publishing is an integral part of the interaction within the community:
"Participation between users is predicted by social motivations, such as maintaining connectivity, and sense of belonging; while participation directed to the whole community is predicted by the individual need of providing information which is centered on informative content and not social interaction."
Motivations to Participate in Online Communities
https://www.msu.edu/~lampecli/papers/pap1604_lampe.pdf
At the end of the day it's your call. I ran the app out of curiosity, found a lot of people I added through circle adds, but whose names I didn't recognize (either through the quality of their posts or interaction with mine) even after six months on the site, so it seemed like a "no loss" situation to free up those spaces for new adds to my circles. I did keep nearly everyone who I recognized. So while I've seen some negative reviews of this app and I recognize a lot of potential for overkill in uncircling, after being up against the 5000 circle contact limit for many months myself I definitely found it very useful for identifying the best prospects for people I wasn't interacting with, either on a content enjoyment or social basis.
Along with running the Uncircle Inactives app, I was able to free up over 1600 of my 5000 contact limit, which gave me enough space to add the latest updates to the Thomas Hawk, Jarek Klimek and Johan Peijnenburg photographer circles, Robert Scoble journalist/blogger and photographer circles, Fraser Cain science circle, a small night photographer circle by Brad Goldpaint and another small circle of friendly photographers by pio dal cin. If the 5000 contact will remain in place, it's great that Chrome apps can facilitate circle management on Google+.
Here's a link to get the app, if you'd like to try it:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fnckobddbbbgfabnhogmncmghngohflh
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fnckobddbbbgfabnhogmncmghngohflh
Circle Management II: Identifying Who to Uncircle
A few days ago I described the Uncircle Inactives app, which helps you identify accounts which may have been added via a circle share, but are no longer active on Google+. Another way to clear up more circle space is via the Uncircle Uncirclers app for Chrome which has been out for nearly two months. There may be some significant pros and cons to consider before using it:
Pros of facilitated uncircling:
- If you have a lot of circle contacts you follow, it cleans out a lot of circle space fast!
- A person can only keep up with about 150 people in their lives, so even the 5000 circle limit gives us way, way more people than we can reasonably interact with.
- Not circling you can feel like rejection, so it can feel satisfying to axe them back.
- The app lets you go through people and choose who to uncircle, so you can clear up space selectively
Then again... who circled you back isn't necessarily a valid measure of who you should circle (or uncircle). So that leads us to the other side of the coin... disadvantages to using this app carelessly:
Cons of mass uncircling:
- Many of the people who didn't circle you back have simply circled close to 5000 contacts, and can't circle everyone back. You can't make assumptions as to why (not accurately anyway).
- You circle people to follow, not to follow you, so the concept of using circling you as a test for your circling back has the whole process backwards.
- Axing active and competent content creators may dumb down the stream of posts you see (I use others' posts for inspiration, ideas and learning, so cutting too deep with uncircles might ultimately stunt my knowledge and creativity).
- They may actually have you circled after all! Yes, the app can only see the circle contacts which people choose to show publicly. You may delete people who have you circled. If they run the app and do the same thing, they may uncircle you... and a healthy two-way connection has been lost.
- While some people have tried to create the impression that interaction only consists of conversations, content curation and publishing is an integral part of the interaction within the community:
"Participation between users is predicted by social motivations, such as maintaining connectivity, and sense of belonging; while participation directed to the whole community is predicted by the individual need of providing information which is centered on informative content and not social interaction."
Motivations to Participate in Online Communities
https://www.msu.edu/~lampecli/papers/pap1604_lampe.pdf
At the end of the day it's your call. I ran the app out of curiosity, found a lot of people I added through circle adds, but whose names I didn't recognize (either through the quality of their posts or interaction with mine) even after six months on the site, so it seemed like a "no loss" situation to free up those spaces for new adds to my circles. I did keep nearly everyone who I recognized. So while I've seen some negative reviews of this app and I recognize a lot of potential for overkill in uncircling, after being up against the 5000 circle contact limit for many months myself I definitely found it very useful for identifying the best prospects for people I wasn't interacting with, either on a content enjoyment or social basis.
Along with running the Uncircle Inactives app, I was able to free up over 1600 of my 5000 contact limit, which gave me enough space to add the latest updates to the Thomas Hawk, Jarek Klimek and Johan Peijnenburg photographer circles, Robert Scoble journalist/blogger and photographer circles, Fraser Cain science circle, a small night photographer circle by Brad Goldpaint and another small circle of friendly photographers by pio dal cin. If the 5000 contact will remain in place, it's great that Chrome apps can facilitate circle management on Google+.
Here's a link to get the app, if you'd like to try it:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fnckobddbbbgfabnhogmncmghngohflh
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/fnckobddbbbgfabnhogmncmghngohflh
Thanks for the share and a great post !!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review Jeffrey Sullivan!
ReplyDeleteI prefer to un circle inactive people, i agree that the point of circling people isn't to have them circle you back so not sure this app gets it.
ReplyDeleteI don't uncircle people for merely being inactive, as I realize they may be busy with work or other things in life.
ReplyDeleteI do un-circle for posts that are reminiscent of facebook, or posts documenting a meal at a fastfood restaurant or starbucks, constant inanity or base-ness.
I must admit uncircling people only for the sheer fact that they didn't cicrcle me back is against the core foundation of G+, which made me join it in the first place... I'd rather deserve and earn my place by what I do and post...
ReplyDeleteBy inactive I mean those who have never ever posted or even filled out their about page, someone taking a break from posting doesn't bother me. But i also dislike those types of post you mentioned Lisa Borel
ReplyDeleteIt does come in handy..I have used this several times and I always find 5-10 that no longer even have a profile! :)
ReplyDeleteDavid Razloga Yes, that's why I wrote a long review, discussing the tradeoffs including the ones you mention, instead of simply recommending the app. Unfortunately your assumption that people were added by being interesting falls apart when we import circle shares. We run across the 5000 limit way too fast, and someone has to go (or you can add no one new, reducing the value of Google+ and discriminating against new arrivals). This narrows the list to consider down, so you can work on prioritization. Not for the point of reciprocal deletions (I give many reasons why that's misguided), but to enable an increased focus on quality of who you circle, whatever that may mean to each individual person (content, social interaction, whatever).
ReplyDeleteLisa Borel "posts documenting a meal at a fastfood restaurant"...
ReplyDeleteLol, with you on that one. The app which enables uncircling "Inactive" people lets you define what time period that represents. I figured anyone who hadn't contributed anything since September 1, during most of the life of Google+, had arrived and tried it out, but weren't coming back anytime soon. They were people recommended to me in circle shares, and will probably come right back in that way.
It's really hard to convince people that lack of circling, or even uncircling, is NOT rejection. My circles select the stream of posts I view are from people posting at any given moment... someone who has been absent 5+ months simply has no reason to be on that list (and take up 5-10% of my available selection for that stream).
Circle sharing has done some good to me to be fair, but like you say Jeffrey Sullivan, plucking out and picking people truly worthy following can be a massive task... And there will always be those who get offended for not being circled back, but I'm not sure I'll miss them... ;)
ReplyDeleteTomasz Szulczewski "I must admit uncircling people only for the sheer fact that they didn't circle me back is against the core foundation of G+..."
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
And by the same token, keeping people who came in on an imported circle share, but who we don't recall ever encountering, and NOT connecting with others on Google+ because of a total lack of circle maintenance (simply due to the 5000 limit) also goes against the core foundation of Google+. Freeing up some space, somehow, is a quest for raising the quality of our interactions (social and content), supporting use of Google+ features in the most productive way.
I know this may generate a lot of fear among people afraid to lose contacts (I stand to lose a lot too if such an app is used carelessly), but if people use this app carefully, few truly productive connections should be lost, and we should gain productive ones as people who might truly value our posts have space to add us. So there should be no net loss to the G+ environment, but connections can be optimized for relevance and improved across the board. making it better for all.
The perfect extension for the ones who have not understood what G+ is about. If you want to force the people who you have circled to circle you back, G+ is not for you. Got to Facebook.
ReplyDeleteNo number is too many if they are divided up into well managed circles, i've read some great circle management tips from people on here that have helped with that....
ReplyDeleteWell said Jeffrey Sullivan and actually I do use this app. I've been using it since November I think, but just like you suggested earlier, my criteria also tend to be a bit more complicated...
ReplyDeleteMaintaining circles, as I've said before, can become a massive task and every little help counts! ;-)
Dave Jacobs I'd rather err on the side of having too many contacts instead of too few, but the 5000 circle contact limit puts a practical limit on how open we can be to more incoming posts. Then the challenge becomes optimization, circle management to keep in touch with the most relevant people. I certainly wouldn't want to start with people who DO find my posts interesting. If part of our participation on Google+ includes remaining open to finding new sources of inspiration and making new friends, we have to make some choices at some point about where that new space in our circles will come from.
ReplyDeleteHey, I could lose contacts as a result of this app as the people who circle me outnumber the ones I can circle back by 8:1, but hopefully I'm adding enough value through the quality of my unique contents, links to my blog posts and discussion of the techniques behind my images, circle shares to help people increase their enjoyment of the platform, and informative posts like this one which might help people manage their time here efficiently. If I'm not a good fit for some people, without being able to circle them back, they're clearly not my target audience, so it wasn't a good fit anyway and I wish them well finding what they do want on G+.
People often say they would rather have 500 close contacts than 500,000 with little or no good fit... let's see how many of those people practice what they preach and share this app to enable others to prioritize the 5000 contact space to optimize the G+ experience.
VÃktor Bautista i Roca "The perfect extension for the ones who have not understood what G+ is about."
ReplyDeleteI know what you're saying, and I agree there may be some misguided uses. That's why the list of potential negative consequences of this app is longer than the list of positives.
But staying stuck against the 5000 person limit for many months also leaves a lot of the potential of Google+ untapped. If we did not occasionally free up some space, we would not be remaining open to finding new sources of inspiration (content) and making new friends. People who could add you won't, simply because they don't take the time to manage their existing contacts. De facto deletion by inaction and a lack of circle management is no better than deletion for uncircling.
Just because the app could be used carelessly does not mean that it is not useful in ways entirely consistent with what Google+ is about. In fact, rather than pretending that it doesn't exist, a discussion of the tradeoffs might be helpful to reduce the occurrence of heavy-handed use of such tools, while opening up space for productive connections to be made.
Dave Jacobs That's a great point... there are infinite ways to participate in and contribute to an online community, none inherently superior to the rest (anyone trying to promote only one way probably has an agenda to promote).
ReplyDelete"One clear design recommendation is that sites based on user interactions need to support those multiple anticipated uses, and not presuppose they will know all uses at the onset."
Motivations to Participate in Online Communities
https://www.msu.edu/~lampecli/papers/pap1604_lampe.pdf
I saw some posts on this tool, saw the controversy, but recognized some potential for some benefits as well, so I gave it a try. Overall my connections in the community didn't go down, they simply on average became more relevant, and I'm now exposed to new posts from new people. Overall I think it's a net positive for the community, for the quality of content coming to me after using it, and probably long term for my social interaction and for my potential to make new friends.
I tend to circle people whose pictures I appreciate (Maybe not all of the one shared circle that I have added but then I want to be a part of that one). It doesn't surprise me in the least that most of them don't want to circle me, why should they. I am trying to learn from them, they have nothing to learn from me.
ReplyDeleteWhy do people give a shit if someone has not added you back?
ReplyDeleteJack Hurley Not everyone does, nor is there any implication that they should.
ReplyDeleteThe context was people up against the 5000 contact limit (not applicable to you with 731), wanting to clear up some space to check out new circles or update new versions of old ones... who are they least likely to have established a relationship with... the people who have circled them?
The Uncircle Uncirclers tool is included in the Circloscope tool, which now has a lot more features:
ReplyDeletehttps://plus.google.com/109096245971703802400/posts/6Jgnbws3h4c