"What is in A Word?" wrote Will Evans

Yesterday, Will Evans posted "an article", not a post, mind you, that generated almost two hundred comments.  Near the end of the comments for "UX of Social Media Sites", Will posed this question:  What is in a word?  Then he went on in his eloquent way to explain this question.  I thought while reading it...now this is good, really good...and yet it may not be read by the many that visited and commented yesterday and so tonight I give you Will's words.

"What is in a word? Ask yourself the semantic difference between "Sharing a Post" and "Publishing an Article." It's actually for more important that you think. While gather has always been open, insofar as you could write anything you want, from what you ate for breakfast to the first chapter of a book, but from a cognitive linguistics perspective, by simple naming the task one thing or another, you are influencing the expectations of quality. Publishing an article implies sitting down and thinking, writing, editing. Serious stuff. Is it no wonder that so many artists, writers, and poets flocked to Gather. The semantic switch to sharing a post telegraphs what kinds of interactions Gather wants to promote. As Chris so presciently stated - this represents the Facebookification of Gather that has been happening over the past year.
Let me be clear - Facebook is hugely popular. Based on the 1.6% investment MS made into it, that represents a valuation of $15Billion dollars. Is it worth it? Read Web 2.0 Strategy by Amy Shuen, and she would argue that it is, based on the "new economics" of user generated value streams. We have heard this snake oil before - about 8 years ago. Gather was fundamentally different. It was targeted at educated, thoughtful people wishing to created quality user generated content. Quality is the point. That was the motivation behind ratings, comments, and points. Didn't quite work out that way, but the idea was that the highest quality content would sift to the top based on the wisdom of crowds. The labeling of the task flow - Publishing An Article reinforced this expectations of quality. No such expectation exists on Facebook. It was created for a very different objective. In the most simple form, a facebook in college is for hooking up, or to get a little background information about the hot guy/girl you met at the party last night. It was never built for writers, artists, people with political ideas, health ideas, recipes. It was never meant as a platform for user generated content of quality - citizen journalist as outline in the book We The Media. Facebook is about having fun, poking people, stalking people, checking up on your ex, getting laid, and the terminology of task flows and features on Facebook reinforce this.
As Gather becomes more like Facebook, that is the direction the writing will take, as well as the interactions amoung community members. Words matter.
The problem is that there is already one Facebook. There is no room for two. If this redesign was based on ethnographic research, contextual inquiry, technographic research and user profiling as well; I seriously doubt the fundamental move towards Facebook would have happened. This is called "Valuation Envy" and I suspect that investors in Gather are looking for the Gather Goose to finally lay an golden egg. I will tell you now that this goose is laying an egg alright, and this thing smells like sulfer.
Remember - trying to be more like Facebook will never make Gather's valuation equal to Facebook. It will succeed, however, of alienating the incredibly loyal user base gather currently has.

Further, Facebook has yet to make any money. Investors and analysts, business gurus and pundits are still scratching their heads trying to figure out how to monetize the value of Facebook's user base.

Back to the issue at hand - semantics. Writers, thinkers, poets, artists, political pundits, health experts, NPR-listening folks - don't want to "Share a Post." It's demeaning. It cheapens the act of creation. "Sharing a Post," implies that no creative act occurs. It is merely "found art," as in, I found something, and am now sharing it.

Publishing an article, is a wholly different act. It's serious, even when it's not.

Gather has a made another choice in the types of members, the types of connections, and the types of user generated content they was to encourage. The switch from publishing an article to sharing a post is just one small semantic cue as to what Gather wants, and how Gather want to position itself is the incredibly competitive social networking space."

I would urge all Gatherites to read Will's article in its entirety as well as the comments and make your voice heard.