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Yesterday Google updated what is going on with the end of G+ and this afternoon, G+ pages started showing a yellow banner labeled: “Your Google+ account is going away on April 2, 2019. Learn more.“

I’m saddened by this. They come out and finally state it plainly that all of G+ will be gone. I and others were hoping that they’d just make G+ a read-only archive, like they did when they saved Usenet from the great bitbucket in the sky.

Even though I was a gmail user from the early days of the original beta, I didn’t get onto G+ immediately, but once I learned all the cool information your could find and the interaction one could have with all the other bloggers adn content producers on G+ I was hooked.

I am saddened that some of my favorite interactions and discussions on G+ will be lost.

This has caused me to be more regular in blog posting, adn I have plans to do more.

I’m sick of Google giving us something cool, not building or managing it well, then taking it away. If G+ made the kind of money YouTube makes it would be here as long as Google.

I just recently found a cool browser add on for sending website information to Google Keep. I guess I need to send all that data to a google doc and download it.

I’m a technophile and I will continue to use technology. I’m not jumping into anymore cool betas from Google or anyone else for that matter. I plan to find the tools that will let me do what I need to do online and stick with them.

I bought the G+ Exporter program for $20 and have backed up most of the communities I am a member of. It isn’t current as Google started the cat and mouse of blocking them. I did download the Holmes Basic community and made it available to Zach of Zenopus Archives. I’ll do the same for any other G+ Community I’m a member of.

I used it to pull down my own online groups for my old Metamorphosis Alpha campaign, and my AD&D game on Roll20, and the Wed Night AD&D Game and Sunday morning AD&D game.

G+ had some very nice features, it’s a shame Google didn’t do social networking well and lied to themselves as much or more as they lied to others.

There are lots of efforts to keep gamers in touch. Some went to FB, others to Discord, some to various other federated platforms, and a bunch went to MeWe. I’m getting tired of how busy MeWe the MeWe page is. I’m active on Twitter, Discord, MeWe, and a bit on FB, and now I’m trying to do more with Reddit.

I know that whatever I do, I need to keep my content under my control as much as possible, I need to do the backups, and I need to promote my content to the places of my choice. I’m still posting on G+. I originally said that I’d be posting til the lights go out. I’m not so sure now, but there are a few still on G+ also posting, so I guess I’ll keep it up. I’m about ready to pare back what I’m involved in on MeWe and reduce the number of Discord servers I’m on. I even have an unused Discord for my Patrons.

I need more focus to produce content and make it look presentable.

G+ was fun while it lasted, in spite of the occasionaly dumpster fire. Nothing shuts up the idiots, so block and ignore made my G+ feed pleasant. I pro-actively blocked those people on MeWe.

If anything changes about my online interactions, I’ll be sure to get the word out.

Google’s January 30th Update

Shutting down Google+ for consumer (personal) accounts on April 2, 2019
January 30, 2019

In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019 due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations. We want to thank you for being part of Google+ and provide next steps, including how to download your photos and other content.

On April 2nd, your Google+ account and any Google+ pages you created will be shut down and we will begin deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts. Photos and videos from Google+ in your Album Archive and your Google+ pages will also be deleted. You can download and save your content, just make sure to do so before April. Note that photos and videos backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted.

The process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts, Google+ Pages, and Album Archive will take a few months, and content may remain through this time. For example, users may still see parts of their Google+ account via activity log and some consumer Google+ content may remain visible to G Suite users until consumer Google+ is deleted.

You can read the full statement here:

https://support.google.com/plus/answer/9195133?hl=en&authuser=0