Comments on: Social Software Needs More Context

By: AdamD

AdamD — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:22:21 +0000

Great point about Netflix, Eli! I have the same issue. It really should be a feature of the site itself. Like Bill says, it isn't that hard to add a notes field. As Bill also alludes to, figuring out the user experience when everything has a notes field is another issue.

By: Eli Tucker

Eli Tucker — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:41:48 +0000

Adam, I have the same problem. Although not a social network, I often want to remember why a movie is in my Netflix queue. I created a greasemonkey script to add a link to a pbwiki page where I can add information about a movie. I suppose a similar script could be made for Google Reader, but it would only be as good as as my habit of filling in the information. Software could help (browser plugins, etc), but it seems like it would need to be very customized for each tool. If you find such a tool, let me know!

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:47:48 +0000

I don’t have an answer Adam but I love this question. I’ve run into the same issue w/ Google reader and haphazardly rename blogs to include the author’s name. It’s not very satisfying.

OTOH as a developer it’s so easy to add a notes or description field to absolutely everything huh. Maybe more apps (and more of us app developers) should add more notes fields to more stuff.

OTOH that doesn’t sound all that enlightened or sustainable does it. Feh.

By: AdamD

AdamD — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 02:50:06 +0000

I love the "it doesn't matter" approach. Very simple! That's sort of similar to how I've heard Marshall Kirkpatrick describe how he handles following a lot of people on Twitter and reading a whole bunch of RSS feeds. Basically, appreciate the signal and ignore the noise. That's very zen and I'm all for deciding a problem isn't a problem, but... sometimes I want that context. Maybe I wouldn't use it often, but we need to find ways to add it in.

By: Andy Idsinga

Andy Idsinga — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:14:37 +0000

Great questions. I’ve been thinking about similar things, for instance: how does someone handle following 15000 people on twitter? What is the quality of the connection to these people? I still don’t quite understand it – but I’m not at all criticizing it either!

One of the things I really like about following many people on twitter, who I don’t at all know, is the rich mix of personalities and information that pops out of it all. Its as if there is a sort of mind expanding element, a sort of “getting out of group think” that is so refreshing.

So, what I’m getting at, is that I find my self thinking: it doesn’t matter why I started following XYZ or starting reading XYZ’s blog – it only matters what I think of their current content. And whenever I see something interesting I have a means to easily share it with others.

yo ho ho!
Andy