Google+ may not have killed Facebook, but it is developing into a nice place for tearoom style chats about math; less formal than MathOverflow, more characters than FB. This thread Allen Knutson started about circle packing is a case in point. If I’m reading the thread and I say to myself “Matt Kahle should be weighing in on this,” I can just type in his name with a + prepended to it — and he’s summoned! That’s a functionality that really doesn’t exist elsewhere.
But how do you participate or see what others are talking about? Is there a big circle I can join?
The post is public — I thought if you clicked on the link you’d see it. Did you?
The link brings me to a page urging me to join Google+ and not to a page discussing circle packing. I guess that not having established myself as a member of Google+, I’m a member of the out crowd.
The post is public, so I guess that means you have to join Google+ to read it but you don’t have to be in Allen’s circle to read it.
This link works independently of whether one is signed into Google+.
https://plus.google.com/102261756656790911682/posts/QQ3gY9rffpV