Experiences with identi.ca

I'm using Identi.ca (an open source social networking and micro-blogging service) now in addition to Twitter.

• This page started as experience report after ca. 5 days (begin of January 2011, [1]) of working with identi.ca (software version: StatusNet 0.9.6) + posting 80 notices.
  • Keep in mind: I use twitter for longer + this may influence me :-(
  • Seems I looked today more on the negative part :-( Tomorrow or so: I look on the positive things. Promise!
• I'll keep adding more to it, since I will use identi.ca
• I'm collecting Identi.ca figures to convince you to also use identi.ca :-)

Some advantages identi.ca has (over twitter)

• Creative Commons (CC) by licence possible
  • that means for you: it's easier to reuse content

• better display of replies (example: identi.ca, click hell at twitter: [2])
  • question to myself: why do twitter users do not miss such a feature? it's pretty cool. One can do with users pretty much anything as long as one distracts them? ("magic tricks").
• sending the msgs (called dents on identi.ca) from identi.ca to twitter is possible
  • very practical since you acclimatize in the transition period without losing contacts so much (at twitter)
  • identi.ca has in general less users than twitter (at least from my contacts)
• groups
• Friend of a friend (FOAF): machine-readable modelling of social networks

intermezzo (aka it took me 10.5 months to use identi.ca as a real user)

• It took me 10.5 months to really use the account
  • I registered the identi.ca account already on 14.02.2010, but started really on: 30.12.2010
    • (this does not count, since afaik that user had just an account at identi.ca + so only possibility was by using identi.ca)
• Question to myself: why did it take so long? Will come back in a few days with an answer (internal/external factors)

• I think identi.ca itself I got to know due to Leigh + James
  • Interesting here: James does not use identi.ca anymore since more than a year + Leigh used it some 2 weeks ago
  • but: both use twitter: Leigh, James
• Why did I register actually at identi.ca?
  • mainly because I like services which promote usage of open licences
  • perhaps also hamster mentality? if I do not secure the name, it's gone :-(
    • (Really would be cool to have to register only once in your life at one place and use that ID forever - everywhere)
    • (Yes, I'm normally Big Brother fan, but let's be honest: it has also advantages.)
    • (Probably I'll strike the last 3 sentences with global/forever-openid tomorrow :-) )

experience after 5 days of usage (where I sent about 80 notices)

time loss

importing of contacts not easy

• There was no good import function (e.g. from twitter) available: I had to search contacts myself at identi.ca mostly
  • there is some invite functionality offered, but in these times I'd expect it more fancy/automatically (e.g. a la linkedin/xing - who knows what they do with the automatic import, but that is another story)

website slow

• identi.ca seemed/seems slower: [3]
  • can also be due to the methods I use (mostly access over browser), there is surely a client available which does it better (whatever better is :-) ), will have to look for some later
    • I striked above, because I use(d) at the same time twitter + I expect identi.ca to be similar speed (even if it is an unreasable request perhaps? don't know how much budget is available)
    • when I started: identi.ca had about 333000 registered accounts
      • right now (2011 Jan 5) the welcomebot has 337000 registered accounts
• Alexa tells (2011 Jan 7): Average Load Time for Identi.ca: Very Slow (4.494 Seconds), 92% of sites are faster. Note: Slow sites may be penalized by search engines.

reposting twitter content uncomfortable

• I have to copy + paste to identi.ca -> perhaps I'll write a tool which can do this ;-)
• why do I retweet to identi.ca?
  • I want the content also to be there + findable
    • who knows perhaps the lack of content is a demotivator for some to join identi.ca?
  • Some tweets are not "good" in the way they are presented: tag sign missing or similar stuff -> so this makes them less integrated in searches -> hope this small contribution helps people
• actually: due to twitter not using Creative Commons licence: this is not allowed :-(
  • only way: asking all people whose tweet I want to retweet, if they want to relicence their content

not fast viewable: notices and prio groups/users

• my most wished users/groups are not fast accessible
  • at my page I'd like to show the contacts or groups I prefer right at begin (at the moment they are shown after time of addition)
  • over time one gets many contacts + groups (56 I have now, but I was in the last 2 days actually interested in only 5 + these I can partly only reach when I open my groups)
• limited display of entries per page
  • I can not set somewhere (e.g. settings or page where I go through my archive): "display me all" (or x of) my dents
    • As new user I was forced to click always "before/after"-buttons (I have to wait for the loading of the wished page :-( )
      • there is also offered RSS feeds at bottom of page, question is: if a new user will see this fast + use that right at first time experience

problems when same accounts don't exist at identi.ca AND twitter

referencing to msgs of other service not possible

• when a identi.ca user doesn't have a twitter account: twitter readers do not get the context when reading the msg there
• when a contact just has a twitter account:
  • I reply mostly there when I chat-on-the-fly: because otherwise the context gets lost
  • about these tweets and dents:
    • I want to see how the situation evolves since I'm not able to reply in context from identi.ca on tweets.
      • assumption (2011 Jan 9): due to having more/other contacts at twitter + not being able to reference from identi.ca: I guess there will be always additional activity on twitter

date + time (CET)	identi.ca						twitter								comment
	subscriptions	subscribers	groups	notices, dents	daily average	replies	tweets	following	followers	mentions (misleading value)	appearing on lists	how many tweets were not sent over identi.ca?	identi.ca: subscribers per subscriptions	twitter: followers per following
2010 Feb 14				0
2010 Dec 7, 21:45:30				1
2011 Jan 5, 13:07				80
2011 Jan 8				162			470
2011 Jan 9, 01:21	70	16	68	167	1	23	477	207	89	71	7	2	0.23	0.43
2011 Jan 10, 10:42	72	18	69	196	1		506	209	91		7
2011 Jan 12, 17:52	75	21	84	223	1		546	210	94			13	0.28	0.45
2011, Jan 15, 05:01	78	24	89	244	1		572	215	97		7	5	0.31	0.45

since I can not have same username: msgs to me are adressed to someone else

identi.ca does not allow certain chars like _ in the user name :-(

• so I have different user names: on twitter (Erkan_Yilmaz) + identi.ca (erkanyilmaz)
  • when someone replies to me on identica another user at twitter gets the messages adressed to me
  • not so much problematic for me, since I want to use identi.ca more and a present to that user is also cool: probably some services will rate his account higher :-)
• bug report here

"what I didn't see/get right at begin" or aka "took longer"

groups

• yes, I know what groups are, but I was not interested at begin much in them
  • question to myself: was I distracted by the other issues (mainly slowness of website)?
• but later of course subscribed: [4]
• after creating this group: I didn't get a notice that someone subscribed

profile settings

• I didn't change much the "Profile settings" at begin
  • a preview functionality would have been nice

popular notes

• discovered popular notices only today (after adding info to a bug report with similar topic which triggered me to search for this)
  • was I interested too much in own account + explored identi.ca (the more general) later only?

FOAF

• How I found my foaf file: [5]
  • I guess I saw Tim Berners-Lee at featured users

Thoughts (or: why I will use identi.ca anyways)

I think if the CC licence would not be, I'd have stopped using identi.ca.

• This also means if twitter implements CC, that will perhaps lead to users leaving identi.ca

But the licence is a very strong argument for me. So:

• since I'm motivated: trying to make also other Wikiversity users attentive: Identi.ca
  • a quest why some people did not use (anymore) identi.ca: [6]
    • Cormac, response
    • apergos
    • others did not reply yet
• I also try to help and do not just consume: [7] (the more attention a bug gets, the better: [8]).

Feedback by others

Feedback while trying to find from my contacts some who (do not) use identica + their experiences:

• one guy (he wants to stay anonymous + he does not use identi.ca at all) wanted the option to delete account with all data

toDO

status for this section: to be integrated above

What I'd like besides all above

• a tool to visualize things at identi.ca more

other things

• I wonder what happens, when twitter is offline + the dents from identi.ca can not be sent there. Will this be retried by identi.ca server or I lost my chance or I have to post it again?
• redirect for group tag doesn't work in notice, but the redirect for the group url works
  • example: the url identi.ca/group/language is redirected to identi.ca/group/translation, but when I used !language in this notice there is no clickable link for !language
  • expectation was: that this works
  • reason: why this would be good: the term language fits in the context of the notice better than translation
• added today (2011-Jan-5) OpenID
• related to above?
  • why is "!microblogging" not clickable here, though the group exists?
  • simple: just add gmail profile (visit the link + copy final url) in your identi.ca settings
• contact's name exists in lowercase, my dent to him included some capital letters in his name (due to copy+paste from twitter): his name is not clickable :-( does he see then the msg at all?
• for some messages (e.g. when sending to the spam group) the sending of that msg to twitter could be disabled on the fly?

See also

• Wikipedia: Comparison of micro-blogging services
• Status.net (the software which runs identi.ca)
• Blog:Observations/blog post frequency (2007-2011)