[mark_l_watson]

I reading the comments here it seems like a lot of people don't use a basic G+ technique: don't view All Circles at once unless you really want to spend a while (like 5 or 10 minutes) browsing everyone you follow.

For example, I have circles for Java, Clojure, AI, Ruby, Semantic Web, etc., etc., and near the top of the screen I'll switch from All Circles to just AI, for example.

Also: the red notification number in the upper right corner: I usually ignore this and look at them all just once a day.

I don't treat G+ as stuff that I have to read. If I read useful and/or fun information that is fine, but I don't get concerned about missing something.

[jamesbritt]

There's an excellent chrome extension that allowed one to check off specific circles to view as a group. Rather than have to view one circle, then the next circle, then the next, I could view multiple circles at the same time.

What this really meant was that I could get an "All" view that excluded those circles holding people I'm only sporadically interested in, without having to play with the circle frequency slider thing.

This new g+ design obliterates that plugin. The inability to view sets of circles is a major failing of the UI.

[tomkarlo]

"What this really meant was that I could get an "All" view that excluded those circles holding people I'm only sporadically interested in, without having to play with the circle frequency slider thing."

So you're complaining that you can't get a filtered stream of posts without having to use the feature for filtering your stream? It's not like you have to do it more than once per circle you want to exclude.

[jamesbritt]

So you're complaining that you can't get a filtered stream of posts without having to use the feature for filtering your stream?

No, I'm not.

It's not like you have to do it more than once per circle you want to exclude.

I have, say, a dozen circles. Can you tell me how I can quickly choose to view a stream that consists of all of the content from only a subset of those circles? Then quickly choose a different subset of circles? Or view a stream of all content except those in the PostTooMnayPictures circle?

I know of no way to do any kind of circle grouping/ungrouping, but if it's there I'd love to know about it.

The plus/minus extension allowed this by turning the list of circles into a multi-select checklist. Two seconds to change to any subset of circles to view.

Edit: It looks like the +/- developer is planning on updating his extension to work with the new layout

https://plus.google.com/117134788479394921938/posts

I'm thinking the other layout issues (too much whitespace, useless menu-y cruft) can be fixed with greasemonkey.

[tomkarlo]

Sorry - thought you wanted to produce set subsets of your stream rather than an arbitrary selection at any time. I agree that would be better served by checkboxes, but I'd argue it's not a common case and probably got sacrificed in the name of simplicity. Most users probably use the "All Circles" stream all the time.