[thr717272]

Ironically, for me it was probably when they shut down Google+ that I finally changed my views on Google.

For me Google+ was a lot like HN:

Peaceful, quiet and beautiful and lots Open Source content and smart people.

I still look once or twice a year but it seems everyone who are into building social media wants to copy not only the very limited functionality of Twitter, down to its dumb limitations, but also its UX and aestheti.

The exceptions I am aware of are Hubzilla (which lools seriously interesting but just confuses me and has no obvious way to enter - and yes, I can create my own instance but I cannot find anyone else), Diaspora (which I think copies Facebook and which is also confusing) and MeWe (which superficially look like Google+ but insist on repeating Googles mistake WRT real name policy).

[saurik]

Yeah: they essentially deleted the early Android community and all of the knowledge and history that was built up around it, because all of those people were organized on Google+. And I think it is also important to note that shutting down that particular service felt like a particularly frustrating insult given how they had essentially rammed it down everyone's throats and forced it to get integrated into every single Google product in confusing and sometimes horrifying ways... and then it failed anyway.

[dredmorbius]

There were over 8 million Google+ Communities formed. Roughly 10,000 of those had > 10k members, based on my own analysis of a data extract of these:

<https://social.antefriguserat.de/index.php/Migrating_Google%...>

The absolute obliteration of online groups was inexcusable, most especially as there were not provisions made for exporting or supporting contact, and in fact active obstruction of attempts to the same.

[jemmyw]

I also liked Google+ it was where I could manage my tech social stuff without participating in the madness that Facebook was becoming.

[modo_mario]

The trickle in invitation system with which they made it public was such a glaringly obvious mistake it still makes me mad. So many people I knew had accounts there but stopped using it because their friends weren't there or by the time they could join their friends had already left because in turn their friends weren't there.

[thr717272]

That, on top of branding it with the same name as the hated login system that[1] hamfistedly joined peoples accounts across vwry different contexts.

[1]: or so I heard, I wasn't affected, I postponed that part again and again until that part ended up being very smooth for me