A lot of bloggers and former bloggers in the gaming hobby are lamenting Google’s decommissioning of G+. I am glad to see it go.

It was designed so that you could curate which people you allowed into your discussions and that was what some people liked about it. I get it, you could prevent the crazy people and the assholes from ruining the party. That can be nice but I think it was one of the specific design features that killed it. There were other problems, but that was the primary one.

The gaming blogger network, in particular the network of OSR bloggers were a great example of why that social site didn’t have the user base that Facebook or Instagram does. Because you could be very picky about what you shared with whom or who could participate in your conversations, a social dynamic akin to the middle school lunchroom developed.

A lot of bloggers stopped blogging all together. Anything they wrote went on G+ and you couldn’t see it unless you were in the right circle. Instead of a pay wall there was a social wall.

If you weren’t part of the cool kids club then you couldn’t see what was being discussed. It would have been fine if it was public with limitations on who could participate. That way the lurkers could see the conversation and get some benefit from what was being discussed even if they weren’t allowed to comment.

Occasionally, a blogger would bring a nugget back to their blog and write something like, “Over on G+ such and such posted about this thing,” and if you weren’t in that person’s circles you couldn’t see the original context of the discussion. You had to rely on their interpretation of what was being said.

It also made it feel like you weren’t part of the network anymore if you weren’t in the blogger’s G+ circle.

What that led to was cliques in which certain opinions or ideas were attacked and ultimately shut out of the conversations.

If you didn’t toe the line, you weren’t allowed in the club. At least with blogging or Twitter, its out in the open. If I don’t agree with someone’s take on a topic, I can read their blog and then express my thoughts in the comments or my own blog.

There is an open exchange of ideas, or vitriol as the case may be. It’s out here. Anyone can see it and anyone can participate one way or another. This seems like a much healthier and effective way for ideas to be debated, considered and spread.

Good riddance.