Let's clarify, a lot of FFers don't like FB for some *very specific* reasons: it's slow, it's clunky, the UI is horrible, the apps are nightmares to deal with, the privacy settings are a crock and more convoluted than my house's mortgages documents, plus the ever questionable use of your copyrighted materials in their ads. But other than all those things, FB is great =/ - FFing Enigma

for my self I think that they miss the opportunity to get a better deal :) that all:) - abdellah

You hit the nail on the head. Hopefully what we see of this mashup is something more like FriendFace and less like FaceFeed. - Rob McNair-Huff

LMAO @ Tina :D that comment is win. - vijay

Preach it Tina! - Alex Scrivener

I always forget that one jcunwired, mainly because I don't actually participate on FB. I don't participate there because it's ugly as homemade sin and slower than running in a stream of molasses. - FFing Enigma

I can't argue with anything you said! - Jeff P. Henderson

BTW: I am one of the whiners. I don't like Facebook either. I, too, want to take my marbles and go home. But I'm also saying: if I were FriendFeed, I probably would have done this deal. And if I were Facebook, I *surely* would have done this deal. We have to see all sides. - Anthony Citrano

Well, I guess out best hope is the FriendFeedization of Facebook, versus the Facebookification of FriendFeed. - phil baumann

I am on FriendFeed because I don't like Facebook (or Twitter). If I wanted to be active on Facebook, I'd already be active on Facebook... But I'm not... I prefer FriendFeed... and the idea of being "forced" to use Facebook instead makes me sick. I will just quit if that's the only option. :( - Lindsay

I think we do, Anthony. At least, most of us do. I'm proud and happy for the FF staff for the sale, I just dislike where the check came from. And I kinda wish the announcement had been handled differently, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms. - FFing Enigma

But Lindsay, was it that you never expected the company to be sold or you expected them to stay independent forever and try to find a profit model (about which I can almost hear the alternate-reality whining.) This word "betrayal" is being thrown around. I'm wondering what you betrayees would have had them do (or what your expectations were.) - Anthony Citrano

I saw FriendFeed as becoming it's own platform... it was well on it's way and had lots of potential for growth and expansion. There are innovations in its search, many people had already expressed interest in paying for "Pro features" if they were offered, and they had already received enough funding to keep them afloat for several years... I know the money was too tempting, and I don't begrudge the devs for taking it, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed and apprehensive about losing something that has become a pretty big part of my social life. In the early stages I had pretty high hopes: http://macrolinz.com/macroli... - Lindsay

I have a preconception that it's hard to find new people on Facebook - after all, it was built for old people, as in: relatives, old school chums et al. My daughter pointed out that if you spend time on Group and fan pages, you can have FF-like discussions and meet new people that way, although I really like hovering over people to get a sense of who they are while i'm reading their comments. (I'm leaving aside FB as a marketing tool for the moment.) Second, with my favorite tennis pro running around playing Mafia Wars, it hardly seems like the place to discover the new and geeky. Finally, FF to me has come to be about the friends more than the feed. Granted, I have a touch of my father in me - he thinks someone who merely knows his name is a close friend, but where exactly on FB would we bond with a total stranger because the first post we happened to see was about a migraine? Or bread pudding? Especially when supposedly we were on the site for another reason? To me that's why this is FRIENDfeed. - Mary B, VALUE author

I hear you Lindsay and am off to read your article now. I share your assessment that it could probably have done reasonably well within that model. Although it (the product or the codebase) never would have seen mass acceptance, I don't think. - Anthony Citrano

what Lindsay said - vijay from email

FriendFeedization of Facebook will probably help. It needs some work, though! - Tim Tyler

@Tina and jcunwired: Just to clarify, Facebook censors *some* content. Evidently breastfeeding mothers are *bad, bad, bad*, but Holocaust deniers are A-OK. As for me, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach for now. I'm not happy about the merge, but done is done. - vicster

@jcunwired: I don't use FB so I can't comment of their censoring of content over and above what's already publicly known. But current FF is not without censorship either, and of almost worse –self-administered– kind. Giving every Tim, Jane and Harry ability to delete and block access to others' comments in their threads inevitably leads to abuse. At least moderators of large fora (or sites such as FB) have rule books, and are somewhat accountable within their own organizations for their doings. Also, they learn to be maximally tolerant even in contentious cases - or they'd have too much to do. But here there is no such thing... so anybody losing an argument always can block or even delete the opponent's all future access to all of his words. If that's not a Petri dish for intellectual fascism, then apparently I don't know what fascism is. Also see: http://friendfeed.com/ianf... - ianf ⌘

So delighted to see so many saying FB is slow and clunky! I see so many "social media mavens" raving about it & how useful it is. It takes me forever to do 2 things on there! Useful? I am always left with a sense of tremendous time wasted. No useful... Who knows what the merger will bring? A whole new yet to exist option might show up. Zuckerberg wants to grow FB to really be the dominant untouchable leader in SM & he realizes he can't alienate legions of potential users and win here. He's becoming smarter, more customer-centric IMO. - Amy Flynn

Amy, that's because anybody calling herself (or allowing to be called) "a social media maven," expert, or, worse, "a pundit," by definition isn't. It's like wearing a badge of a "Wannabe Professional." - ianf ⌘

Along with what Tina mentioned, FB is where I have to hangout (work) and FF is my neighborhood pub. - Robert Miller

for me, FriendFeed is all about data and content, and FB is all about people. I don't foresee FB changing its model at this point, so I see the end of FF as the most likely result. - tim

@tim: sadly I agree with you. I'm still trying to get my head around what a "good" integration/merge will look like. - Anthony Citrano