One of the things I am missing from the forum days is topic discovery. Every time I come to branch I see the same few topics in my Inbox. I know there is other stuff going on that I might want to follow and read, but I can't discover it right now.

I'm sure this is on the feature list, but I figured I'd mention it.

I tried to invite Josh Miller, but for whatever reason I can't unless I send him a public tweet. I don't want to do that. If he's a branch user, I should be able to just invite him, shouldn't I?

Yeah, close to the top of the feature list is how to surface branches to people, and a way to show interest in people or topics.

The early days are easy when everyone is only a few degrees away, but as the site grows we want it to still give you interesting branches.

When Digg and Reddit first started all the content on the homepage was great since it was all the tech people I wanted to read about posting things, but once you escape the tech crowd things quickly go downhill.

Reddit solved this with subreddits, and I think Digg never solved that problem (or maybe they did, but I had already left so it didn't matter).

> If he's a branch user, I should be able to just invite him, shouldn't I?

@Josh, what do you think?

You could start by simply showing me all the branches started by people I follow? That's most of what I care about in the beginning, since those would be branches that I would most likely also be able to successfully request to join (because the people know me).

Oh, one nice side effect of topic discovery is that I want other people to be aware of my discussions. Getting mindshare in front of like-minded interesting people is a reason why I would participate in such a forum - to look cool, smart, interesting, and get attention of people that matter.

What do you think about asymmetrical follow models in general?

I think they are mostly good, but a big problem I have is curating them. It's a lot of work to keep lists current with what I'm currently interested in.

For instance, I used to take lots of pics and still follow many photographers on twitter, but lately haven't been taking pictures so am less interested in their posts.

Thanks for the feedback, Octavian!

When we launch (t-minus three weeks), your inbox will feature an assortment of branches for you to browse and view. Our next priority is to make topic (and branch) discovery more advanced and tailored by topic and person.

With regards to invitations, I don't think you should be able to invite me just because I'm a branch user. One of the things that sets us apart is that you talk with people you trust on branch – and that works both ways. John Doe may want to talk to Mark Zuckerberg but Mark Zuckerberg probably doesn't want to talk to John Doe.

With "Ask to Join" and Plus Ones for participants, I think it'll be easier to talk to people you should (look what happened here, for example).

Thoughts?

I can see the spammy side, but I'm not sure I agree.

Twitter doesn't stop me from mentioning @dickc and asking him stuff. That doesn't mean he'll pay attention to me or that he'll answer, but I can reach out to him anyways.

So maybe something similar could happen here, where I could try to grab your attention, but somehow make it easy for you to ignore that? Not email you unless we're friends, or friends-of-friends?

Yes, I like the one degree of separation idea.

"Octavian Costache (trusted by Geoff Stearns) invited you to his Branch"

Also, Facebook Messages does this with their "Other" inbox.

But I will say, yes, Twitter let's you twee at Dick Costolo but we want to set ourselves apart from other platforms on the web – not mimic them.

One of the main reasons I want to be here (right now, as I understand branch) is to get exposure and an image in front of other people. How do I build that? On twitter I do that by getting followers.

If here I am restricted to only my friends, they already know me, I already have an image formed in their heads... how do I get the feeling that my participation here exposes me to new people that would think I'm cool/smart?

Great point. I'm really interested in creating communities on Branch (a la Subreddits or forums). I completely agree, if you want to talk solely to your friends you can elsewhere.

See Geoff's branch from yesterday: branch.com – it epitomizes how I envision it working. You invite a few people and it organically grows on its own, out of your network.

To explain where I'm coming from, I see twitter and facebook as mindshare machines. By participating, I get a few seconds of mindshare every day in the minds of business connections (on twitter) and friends (on fb). This allows me to build a line in their minds and shape my image.

If you look at Branch this way, in which people's minds does Branch allow me to grab mindshare? What is my motivation for posting here? How can I make sure that it's not only my friends (I already do that on FB)?

Of course, this is purely personal subjective feedback. :-) You guys might have different ideas and maybe I don't understand Branch the way you guys do.

Topic discovery typically involves search. I'm curious as to why search is (as of yet) missing from Branch. It seems hard to find specific topics and instead feels like the world's largest watercooler. Is search something that has been deliberately omitted in favor of discovery and serendipity, and to encourage interaction rather than lurking?