I doubt if many of you ever used Google+, it doesn’t seem that many people did. Having said that they did have half a billion regular users so it is a sign of the times when I can use ‘not many people’ when referring to half a billion.
Anyway, from an RPG perspective it was actually quite active with indie game developers and minority games. There were/are 18 Rolemaster related communities (groups) on Google+ of which I was a rather inactive member of about six of them.
So Google has announced the winding down of Google+ and its eventual closure in 2019.
There is another social network that has been waiting in the wings and now is welcoming the RPG community from Google+ and that is mewe.
They have a dedicated group called The Great G+ RPG Exodus and that is what the point of this post is all about. If you never bothered with G+ then it may be worth taking a look at the new mewe RPG groups. If you were a user then you should be able to hook up with your previous contacts if the exodus gains enough momentum.
MeWe is not without controversy. It is very pro free speech and as such has, in the past, welcomed some alt-right groups. On the other hand it is ultra pro-privacy. It has a promise of no ads and no tracking. It intends to make its money from offering premium services. You can read about their ethics and business model on their FAQ.
I have joined mewe and created a Rolemaster group. If you want to join the network then you can connect with me or just join the group.
mewe.com/i/peter.rudin-burgess
If it all works out for them then great, if it withers away and dies like so many upstart social networks then too be honest I would not lose any sleep over it.
RPG Geek seems to want to try and get some of the exodus from Google+, although the general opinion is that the UI isn’t user friendly enough to attract new users easily.
For a general purpose social network half a billion free users isca help of a kickstart.
I think geek could struggle as the strength of G+ was that it brought all the developers and nerds together from all walks of life. If you wanted to write an rpg about airline pilots you could find all those flight simulator geeks in a G+ group and just ask your questions.
G+ and RPGGeek were completely different.
I’m not really a big user of any social network frankly. I used a tool on a credit score site once and it said my Facebook profile was probably fake!
I don’t think RPG Geek as-is currently has the tools to build the same type of communities people apparently liked on Google+.
I have a facebook account and a twitter account. I was forced into Facebook as my business uses Facebook advertising and you cannot access the billing without an active account.
My twitter account exists only for this blog. We have just under 1200 twitter followers.
I wish you could just have a business account on Facebook. All my social media accounts exist to basically post links to my stuff. I realised I’m just not that interested in reading what other people are doing! Certainly not in posting anything remotely personal myself.