Drive to #ISTE2014 – Day 2
One of the TWIT podcasts we listened to today considered the unintended and intended negative consequences of the big tech companies.
Somewhere in the conversation, the recent challenges of metafilter came up. This site might be described as a group with a reputation for serious content. Representatives of the site noted a recent precipitous drop in hits that threatened ad revenue ans reached the conclusion that some change in the Google search algorithm was likely the cause. Somehow, they speculated that Google was interpreting their site as a link farm.
I wonder. If you examine Metafilter and listen to the video on the About page, you learn that the site started as a group blog. The group surfaced common interests and shared around these interests. An important component was the back and forth in the discussion following posts. This community mentality reminds me of old school BBSs.
I think it is the discussion process that has become less popular. It is hard to say if it is a lack of interest or too much spam that has created this situation. Collectively, we are missing out on much of the learning potential.
