Alright gents, since some folks appear to be unaware of why we are doing tis and what Google+ really is, allow me to explain.
Yes Google+ is a Social network, not entirely unlike Facebook. However there are some MAJOR differences between the two. While facebook is purely and only a social network, Google+ acts like a hub for all interconnected Google products (and to a degree, Android products as well). This is an important distinction because most of us use various different Google products, such as YouTube, Google Search, Google Docs and Picasa, to name a few. So how does that benefit you and SCWF?
In several ways:
1. Google Search Plus Your World: This is a new feature which Google has instituted, where they have added samples of Google+ results as possible replies to google searches. These answers usually come out on the side of your searches if you are logged in. By Opening a G+ page, SCWF is able to feed it's content directly into those G+ results, allowing the forum to come up near or at the top of search results. This has the benefit of not only helping members here as well as othr G+ users, but also of directing new members to SCWF, thus allowing the forum to grow and bringing new people into our hobby.
2. a G+ page is a perfect place to allow us to recycle interesting old threads and archival materials. What we do is bring it up as a comment on G+ and add a link to it. G+ in turn, will add a brief summary of the thread and link it's location here on SCWF, where members can learn about things they might not have been aware of or be exposed to great material that they didn't know about.
3. A G+ page allows us to take advantage of interconnected services. For example, if you use an Android device (and to some degree if you use an IOS device), you are able to use a dedicated G+ application to keep track of a dedicated feed on G+. That's good as it prevents you from having to log into the forum to look. You are able to take pictures with your camera and have them automatically sync in your Google+ account or Picassa. Right from within those services, you are able to edit those pictures and share them, say for example, here as deep links. If a group of us are working on a research project where we have multiple editors and people providing information, we can all work together directly on Google Docs and share that info live with each other and the forum right through Google Docs. There are lots of other scenarios of course, but another one that I like is that G+, unlike Facebook, is very subject specific, so you tend to find that much of the folks that hang out there have more clearly defined interests and are there to pursue them, as opposed to catch up with pre-school friends they haven't seen in 50years.
4. Hangouts. For me, one of the best features of G+, which I hope we can take advantage of is the Hangouts feature. Hangouts is G+'s built in chat feature. yes I know we had a chat feature here and go rid of it for lack of use. How does this differ you ask? Well it differs in that not only can you use Hangouts to type with people, but you can use it to videoconference. Unlike most video chat services that are only one on one, G+ allows up to 10 people to talk to each other live at the same time (everybody sees everybody). To make it even cooler, this feature works on every kind of device (computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones), regardless of brand, so for example our resident watchmaker can schedule a hangout during his lunch hour to answer questions pertaining to a particular tricky repair. Lets say its a pretty day so he walks out to the park and takes his smartphone with him. through his G+ app, he logs into G+ hangouts and is joined by 9 others in video conference from all around the world. he is now able to talk to all of you and handle his class.
5 Lastly there is theissue of advertising. If folks are complaining about adds, then they've obviously not used G+. Unlike Facebook, G+ is largely Add free (just like SCWF). I'm not saying that it will remain that way, but if adds come, they will be like they are in all Google products: tiny, on the periphery and non invasive. As for the fear of Google using your info to target you, well yes, they will, but they already do that. What the are not doing is selling your info to third parties. instead they are using it to target advertising within their own products and making more accurate suggestions in searches. That's a big difference from other sites (don't take my word on it, go read the newest version of their privacy policy).
In conclusion, this is a feature that we hope will be good for the forum. We hope this allows the forum to expand; we hope that this allows our members to have better tools available to them to enjoy their forum. We hope that this allows our members to better interact with each other. Lastly we hope this exposes SCWF to new readers who might be interested in Watch collecting and care to come visit our little corner of the web. That said, the feature is not forced on anyone. you can choose to use it or not. We hope that you do and are able to take advantage of all it has to offer, but if you choose not to, the good old SCWF will continue to remain usable in the same manner it always has.
I hope that answers any questions you might have had. Let me know if you have any more.
