Less than four Google+ circles? You're doing it wrong.

My first ever bloggpost. Well, not really, but the first one on this blog; it is about Google+ circles and why you shouldn’t spam.

I’ll start with a very personal list. It’s a list of most of my circles and what will follow is an explanation on why I have them all:
Friends
Acquaintances
Family
Relatives
[My company]
[My hiring agency]
Games
Guild Wars
[My Guild Wars guild]

First, friends and acquaintances. On Facebook everyone is your friend; your uncle, your first grade teacher, your high school class representative and your friend’s stepdaughter. These are people I do care for if they get married, divorce, have kids, move cross nations and have their x0th birthday. I don’t care if their now 2 year old son just said his first swear, I don’t care if they had an excellent glass of wine and I don’t care that they like this new song by Justin Bieber (seriously, I DON’T!). But this isn’t me being a jerk, I’m pretty sure they don’t give a rats that my dogs just played in the rain or that I really love this new song by some obscure Swedish reggae group.

Family and relatives. To some, the entire clan is bound tighter than an 19th century corset, to most people, family are the only relatives you can spend more than 4 hours on a wedding every 3 years with. So why should I spam great great aunt Hilda with tips on what’s showing at the cinema right now?

Company and hiring agency. This is a somewhat special deal for me, but to most people it’s important that what you share with your coworkers should stay with your coworkers. If you have friend-stuff to share with them, add them to the friend circle as well.

And lastly, it’s my hobby. Well, the hobby I share with other people at least. And the reason I have three circles, where many participants share all three, is that not all of the members in all of the circles are interested in all of the comments. Some are my gaming buddies that like games in general. Some are like me, deeply invested in Guild Wars, but they have no reason to see what I share with my guild in ways of rosters and lazy dogs.

In conclusion: Use circles, and use them a lot. And if you have people you are in doubt of what circle they fit, add them to several. Together we can stop the annoying spam that was the main problem with Facebook and get a clean, glorious world where we don’t have to see burping babies from people we don’t know or have to read that our old gym teacher just had a coffee and donut.