Contemplations: Unofficial Identi.ca Group Etiquette

Well, here goes my first attempt to create a blog post intended for starting a conversation…

As I’m sure most users have noticed, the Open Source microblogging site Identi.ca underwent a major revamp on 23rd January. In addition to having a very cool new “Web 2.0″ visual theme, the groups feature was added. As the name implies, this feature allows users to join groups based upon interest, location etc.

Like so many other things, I believe this great feature has one potential downside. Just as one can follow too many people, and therefore become overwhelmed by information overload, it is also quite possible to have groups that fail to serve any real purpose, due to the high level of traffic.

I think part of the issue is due to how easy it can be to confuse groups with hashtags. They are quite similar, aside from the fact that when a message is sent to a group, it is seen by every member. Some people might think that some sort of control mechanism must be built in to regulate group usage behavior, but I am of the opinion that enforcement should be avoided whenever possible.

There are all sorts of unofficial, unenforced rules that govern society, more commonly known as etiquette. With that in mind, what do you think would be some good unofficial guidelines for the group feature? Feel free to comment below, and/or post your ideas. If you do post, please use the #etiquette tag.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 8:30 pm and is filed under Technology. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

3 comments

  1. Eythian
    25 January, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    As an example, I think this should be a group on identi.ca called ‘!etiquette’, as its purpose is to discuss something.

    As I see it, tags are like reference markers. “How to upgrade #Wine in #Ubuntu” is a good use of tags, whereas “Should I upgrade !Wine in !Ubuntu?” is a good use of groups. One is intended to be a discussion, the other isn’t.

  2. Fabian Neumann
    25 January, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    Normal tags are useful to put a dent/tweet into a context:

    - “Just finished setting up my new laptop. #t61 #ubuntu #intrepid”

    Group “tags” (aka !foobar) are useful to mark a message as “probably only interesting for people in this group” or to drive a (short, as we aren’t on IRC here) conversion in the group “channel”:

    - “Anybody know how to set up wifi on a #t61? !ubuntu”
    - “congrats on the new release !ubuntu”

    my 2ct

  3. Douglass Clem
    25 January, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    I think the following question would serve best as a guide:

    Do a majority of people in this group want to hear about this?

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