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The Ultimate Counter to the Exposure Pitch
There are a decent number of stories going around the Internet, many of them recent, about how artists should push back on being asked to work for free. Let me state up front that I agree with this position to the tune of about 80%.
Posted in Best Practices
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He Knows, You Know...
Donald Rumsfeld was the United States Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President Bush. He is known for many things, but will always be remembered for his statement of an old truism, as quoted -
Posted in Best Practices
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Match.com's Fake Problem
Match.com has a fake problem. That is, they have a problem with fake accounts and there is a clear reason why they have, for years, refused to do a single thing about it.
Posted in ChrisSplaining
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It's time to nuke password security questions
I'll come right out and say it - password security questions are not only insecure, they're a blatant security hole. They're worse than not being there at all, and for any of a number of reasons.
Posted in ChrisSplaining
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I'm just here so I don't get fined...

Moviepass: I'm in if my wife says it's okay...

Bit.Parts

MoviePass (https://www.moviepass.com/) is making some news today. In a nutshell, pay a flat monthly fee and you can see a movie a day. Of course nobody's going to do that in the real world, but as noted by TechCrunch:

By subscribing to the company’s service, moviegoers can watch one movie a day — up to 30 movies in a month. While few movie buffs have the time to watch a movie a day, the service, which clocks in at roughly $30 a month, is a pretty great deal for even the casual fan. In New York, tickets are about $15, so after two trips to the movies in a month, the subscription would pay for itself.

That works for me. I don't live in a $15 zone, but three movies a month would break this even for me at the quoted price of $35/month.

The only problem, I think, is that I'd hit a movie every weekend if I could - I find them great entertainment; a good way to relax the brain for a couple hours - but my family doesn't enjoy them quite as much as I do. I think a movie-a-month is about my wife's speed. So that's the only reason I'm not buying right now.

Now if they also could do a flat fee on the terribly overpriced popcorn and dessicated hot dogs, I'd jump.

Tags:
entertainment business models

My prediction (getting it down now)

ChrisSplaining

I think the higher-ups at Facebook are just now realizing that they're facing their first real crisis. Diaspora likely gave them about a half-day of indigestion and then some good laughs. But Ello is the real deal when it comes to a threat.

That said, I predict it will not succeed as a Facebook replacement. Indeed, their founder insists that it's not intended to be such. Is that hipsterism? Probably. But he's probably also right. While they're getting 30k+ signups per hour, people are going to react like they did to Google+ - that is, they'll sign up, play a little, find that it has nothing that Facebook doesn't already have, and usage will drop off. Ello has significantly fewer features that people want. If Google+ didn't get traction, Ello won't, either.

Yes, people want to migrate from Facebook because of their policies, but this threat is likely going to be the catalyst that forces Facebook to back down on the real name issue.

For this reason, I think Facebook will weather this storm.

http://betabeat.com/2014/09/ellos-traffic-deluge-almost-caused-a-total-new-user-freeze-out-crisis-averted/

Now... want to know the issue that Ello could press that just might win it for them? Your feed. You don't want "top stories," you want everything, in order, without someone telling you what they think is relevant. You want to see it all and make that decision for yourself. That's Ello's concept of Friends/Noise and it makes sense. It's the one thing that Facebook won't back down about, and Ello could press this point.

Then again, Google+ didn't win that argument with "Circles." So maybe that won't work after all. But I think Circles were before the relevance issue came to a head.

Time will tell. But at least I'm on record so I can say I called it ;)

Tags:
social ello facebook

The move to SSL

I'm a Developer

Some of you (okay, two of you) may have noticed that this blog is now 100% on SSL. If you try to get to any page here normally, you will find that you're redirected to the HTTPS version of the page.

No, this doesn't mean I'll be adding e-commerce any time soon (well, if the logo that my incredibly talented friend Shawn is working on for me is a hit, maybe I'll offer t-shirts :-)). What it means is that web sites being secure simply as a matter of course resonates with me. There's no compelling reason for this site to be SSL, but there's no reason not to.

And with Google's announcement that SSL sites will get more search engine love, there's a benefit. Google's plan is clear - offer some value for web site owners to go SSL and it will become more comfortable for everyone. Enacting social and technical change through positive reinforcement. I can get behind that.

Changing to HTTPS means a lot of the previous likes and shares won't track, but that's okay. With good change sometimes comes a little pain.

Tags:
Administrivia

Ello? Ello? Anyone There?

ChrisSplaining

As will happen once or twice a year, we have a new social site that many are prematurely calling the death of Facebook. And as happens even more rarely, it appears to be getting traction towards overcoming the network effect. For those unaware, the "network effect," simply put, states that nobody will use a thing until enough people are using a thing. To overcome this seemingly catch-22 circumstance, you need a degree of interest and virality in a short period of time. It doesn't matter how good something is, if it relies on a critical mass of users, you'll have most people standing around waiting to see if anyone else jumps first, and nobody jumps.

In the case of a very few sites, if you get enough people to jump at the same time, you overcome the initial barrier. Chemistry geeks can consider this the activation energy threshold. Physics geeks can consider this the coefficient of static friction.

LiveJournal did it. Heck, Facebook did it to MySpace.

And yes, there are "tricks" to help. Artificial scarcity, for example - you need an invite to join, and you can ask for one, but you'll have to wait. Never mind that once you're in, you get 10 invites. The laws of simple math will make it clear that getting an invite from a friend should be no problem at all if you're even remotely connected. And this makes total sense to the site's owners, as it biases new signups to people who are connected. Using an invite code also gives you an initial social graph connection (to the person who invited you), thus bootstrapping the graph of the site.

In short, Ello is doing everything right.

And it may or may not matter, because once you overcome the network effect barrier, you still need to keep the users. Just ask Google+. That said, Wil Wheaton is already there. Consider that the low-threshold gating function: his presence doesn't make the site, but his absence would be a statement.

So, for right now, Ello is clean, crisp, simple, and pretty-much no better than a somewhat expanded Twitter feed. Friends/Noise has an appeal, but it's pretty basic. Many people want basic, but many more have come to rely on features that Facebook provides. Ello needs to find a way to provide these features, but in a non-cluttering way.

And, of course, the policy - transparency. You own your content. There's no curation and filtering happening. And, in an interesting (and dare I say refreshing) twist, everything is public. Anyone can follow anyone else, and all of your posts are public. It's wide open, and intended to be so from the start.

Some people have a problem with that. This morning, a friend of mine had a post on Ello, "Dear @person, please unfollow me, I only want friends here." Now perhaps @person will comply, but @person is under no mandate to do so. There's nothing my friend can do. Again, there are no private posts on your feed.

From last April: http://betabeat.com/2014/04/would-you-like-your-social-network-to-share-your-content-or-just-monetize-the-bejeesus-out-of-it/

The open question now is what Ello does with the current rush of early adopters. Will they roll out features that everyone wants and loves and maintain the elegant simplicity? Will they stick to their philosophical guns and will the fickle crowd agree? Will there be an initial rush, only to have the novelty wear off like Google+? Only time will tell. I'm keen to wait, watch, and see.

So I'm @dogberry over on Ello. Feel free to follow me.

Tags:
social web

I Am Spartacus!

Bit.Parts

When I order coffee in the morning, the place is usually packed, and the odds of there being another order for "Chris" are pretty decent. So when they ask my name, I say, "Spartacus."

Every now and again, when my order is called, I'm not the only one who stands up and says, in a loud and clear voice, "I Am Spartacus!"

It sets the tone for a great day ;)

Anyone else have any usual morning silliness?

Tags:
humor nerdlife
       
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