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Comment by Mz | Hacker News Reader

How is Klout long dead? I opened an account today. So, genuinely confused. Please enlighten me.

Thanks.

Perhaps I should ask whether you think that horsecarts are long-dead as a mode of transportation. They're still legal, and one can still purchase horses, carts, tack, etc. But no more than a handful of people use them on any given day. To me, they're long-dead: still historically instructive, but not economically relevant. Klout is in the same bucket.

Thank you. That's a helpful reply.

However, I gave up my car years ago and mostly walk everywhere. I occasionally take public transit. Also, I cannot find a supporting article, but my understanding is that horse and cart are still used to help harvest maple sugar because heavy vehicles like modern trucks would crush the tree roots and thereby damage or kill the trees.

So, Klout is dead. Long live Klout.

I shall see if it does any good for me.

At least horsecarts had their day, and took millions of people for a ride to their destination.

Klout tried to take people for a ride, but nobody would hitch their wagon to them, because it was horse shit.

Would you consider Myspace to be dead?

Many people would, and the same applies to Klout.

I never really got into Myspace. That answer sounds to me vaguely like "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

So, still in service. It is just passe and not the new kid in town.

(This is an honest attempt to parse your meaning. I swear, it is not dismissive snark. Thank you for responding to my "dumb" question.)

It's much more than that. "No one goes there any more; it's too crowded" implies that the place is so successful that tastemakers look elsewhere, while they're still in fact booked solid every single night. Klout, MySpace, and horsecarts are no longer used by any significant fraction of the population (if they ever were). Of the three, MySpace is actually the most relevant; it's found a modestly sizeable niche (bands). Klout's relevance is at best an order of magnitude smaller and probably much less than that. Horsecarts are still popular among the Amish, Mennonites, and similar sects but in most of the world are no longer used by anyone and have become totally irrelevant. Just like Klout. In neither case is there some sort of anti-popularity bias going on. They're just plain dead outside of a very tiny nostalgic fan base.

No one ever took klout scores seriously. It took many for a ride and unfortunately even Hootsuite fell for the ruse. It was always gamed.

I am not expecting anyone to take my klout score seriously. There is more to the service than that. I am going to give it a whirl and see if there is any value in it for me.

Thanks!

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