Is This The Beginning Of The End For Identica?

Times they are a changing, for Identica this seems very apt. They've seen a lot of users move to Google+ because the posting style suits them better. They've upgraded the UI to include new features and a new look but the combined effect hasn't been good. It's been downright frustrating for many of us.

There are things you can't do, things you can and things you shouldn't do to address these threats to your userbase. The posting style of Google+ is different, some people prefer it. This isn't a problem, it's just choice. Some people would prefer Identica if it was reliable, Google has always been reliable for the most part. Some people don't want to use Google+ or Facebook for any number of reasons, mostly around privacy concerns. These are people who want to stay with Identica, these people should be treasured; instead they get shafted.

When your client misdirects replies or DMs, or even loses them altogether it's not good. When your client throws up odd errors and either doesn't post or posts some but not others it's not good. When your client doesn't even manage to log in it's not good. When your timeline seems to be unchanged for hours at a time, is Identica slow or down? Or has the client frozen or crashed? How much of that do people put up with before finally abandoning Identica in favour of something else? These are loyal users who want to stay with Identica but got pissed off to the point that they now move away.

When the polls spam the groups with replies by default it's not good. This has either been addressed, or the service has been down that often that I have missed that flood. When people who flood groups with flamebait get their nick silenced, create a new nick and continue to post flamebait into the same groups, well, that's spammer tactics. When the user has their nick unsilenced by the admins to continue flooding the groups with unwanted flamebait, that's the Identica admins taking a dump in those groups. It seems with the new Identica, the default option is that anything that floods groups is a good and welcome thing, no matter what the users in those groups prefer.

This is how the loyal userbase is rewarded, with unbelievable levels of slowness and downtime, interspersed with group flooding and reactivated accounts of people who do nothing but flamebait. Well, thanks a fucking lot. Loyalty really isn't worth much these days.

I clung onto Firefox for a long time, as I saw people abandon it in droves for Chrome and Chromium. I have moved to Chromium myself as a default browser. Identica feels a bit like that, where most users have left because of the group flooding and unreliability. I'm thinking this is the beginning of the end for Identica. It's a shame because it seems largely self inflicted.