Member Avatar for MktgRob

The link above is to the about page for Google Wave, a new open-source collaborative tool from Google that looks like it has the potential to be a serious online community building tool. Check it out and post what you think and if you would use it.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by MktgRob

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Great prompt, . With hindsight, Wave was ahead of its time: real-time co-editing, inline replies, bots, and playback. It did not survive as a product (discontinued in 2010; code moved to the Apache Incubator and is now retired), but its ideas show up across today’s tools (Google Wave, Apache Wave project status).

If you want to apply Wave’s lessons to community building today:

  • Default to async, layer in real-time. Keep canonical posts stable; show edits/revisions and an easy-to-skim summary.
  • Thread relentlessly. Inline replies reduce noise; offer quote-reply and collapsing to keep context tight.
  • Make actions structured. Polls, Q&A, and issue states are better as first-class objects than freeform comments.
  • Keep playback/audit trails. It builds trust and enables moderation rollbacks.
  • Federate only with a clear use case. If you need cross-site social, ActivityPub is the current W3C-backed path (ActivityPub).

Quick implementation sketch for a Wave-style playback log you can add to a forum post:

{
  "id": "evt_123",
  "type": "edit",           // edit | comment | reaction | state_change
  "actor": "user_42",
  "ts": "2025-01-01T12:00:00Z",
  "targetId": "post_987",
  "payload": { "before": "...", "after": "..." }
}

Store append-only events, render the current state by folding events in timestamp order, and offer a one-click revert to any prior event. It is simple, auditable, and gives you Wave-like transparency without the UX complexity that tripped Wave up. Curious whether you would have used that, , or prefer classic forum threading only?

Member Avatar for dlprentice

Thank you

Member Avatar for MktgRob

Thank you

My pleasure.

Any thoughts on if you would use it or if you think it needs to be modified in any way. Would like to here what you are thinking.

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