My Twitter follower growth has been slowing down http://twittercounter.com/Scoblei... . I'm seeing geek engagement on Twitter going down. How about you?
Robert: Quite a few of my follower's are bots and spammers, too.
- wiredgnome
Well you keep sending us here, to lovely friendfeed land
- Mark
I added 40 quality followers yesterday on twitter with 1 good blog..maybe you are just up against your max addressable market Robert, law of big numbers..
- James Watters
Twitter seems to be over-run by spambots and phony profiles
- Wayne Schulz
That's because you don't use Twitter Scoble lol...
- Colin
Colin: that's not true. I'm on Twitter all the time!
- Robert Scoble
My Twitter follower growth is the same as ever: zero.
- DGentry
I think it's simple. The whole Idea of following back to be polite is losing popularity. Therefore the churn is slowing for many.
- Dj Skunk Diesel
Lol, nah, I have to come to FriendFeed to get your attention, so I don't reply to you on Twitter, and others probably do the same.
- Colin
I'd rather ad 1 VP of biz dev, than 1k randoms
- James Watters
I don't even know what my Twitter following is, I've never looked. It's not something I'm remotely interested in.
- Gilbert Harding
James, so the interesting thing is: is Twitter's growth slowing down? (I don't think so). So, the geek world on Twitter is mattering less and less as mainstream shows up.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I'd agree, and I think your point is interesting. Its like blogs, when the polticos took over the momentum from the geeks :(
- James Watters
Twitter and FF are amazing if you want to listen...
- James Watters
Maybe they are going back to blogging. Or are on vacation.
- Robert Scoble
look at the trending topics today on twitter - unfort. mainstream entertainment. what a change from a year ago. yes the conversation is now wide - but seems just a shift of medium for fluff. not watching as closely as you are but happy with my monitored subjects of interest - still discovering BIG voices everyday. ff rocks the conversation though!
- michael sean wright
I lost 8% of my followers and about the same number I was following in one day (day before today) on Twitter.. I can't believe all these were bots and I am now "cured" of bots..
- Anindya Chatterjee
Hi Josh, yes really. I get emails every day announcing new followers but I just delete them. I only follow people who are personally recommended to me and who I find interesting. I never look at my profile to see my stats. If people find my inane comments and occasional newsy bits and bobs entertaining, fine. But how many of them are there? No idea.
- Gilbert Harding
Hey did anyone hear that Yahoo is getting a new homepage? I can't wait....
- James Watters
My engagment is about the same on Twitter, seeing as that I still have friends that won't get/don't have/don't want a Friendfeed account.
- John Fox
I think it's picking up here though.
- Steve Rubel
James, the new page is up already.. right now in "trial" on Yahoo US page
- Anindya Chatterjee
OMG its so cool! yahoo is so relevant!
- James Watters
If I was better versed in the virtues of Friendfeed, I'd do an article about it. But I'm really not the person to "sell it".
- John Fox
Josh: yes that whole thing was an inside joke to an earlier FF RS has about Yahoo's new home page..I'm just being silly...see ya'll around..
- James Watters
I'm converted this time - 1st time round, I didn't get it, but some friends still only Twitter
- Nicholas Paul Gordon
from iPhone
Josh, there seem to be a lot of obsessives on here and Twitter.
- Gilbert Harding
Anyone here amazing at App engine btw?
- James Watters
i did spring cleaning in my twitter account today as well. it's about quality not quantity, robert. the true geeks are staying with you
- jeanette okwu
I think It's to Twitter's benefit if the stop the spammers. Not a bad service but with all the spam it makes it less enjoyable.
- wiredgnome
Am I wrong? When Twitter took away the option of following @replies, it made it a lot more difficult to find new people who extend out from your network. If you look at the traffic charts (Alexa, Scoble's, etc.), the slowdown started right about at that time. While Twitter execs say that only a fraction of people opted for that function, it really looks like a lot more than coincidence to me that follower growth declines started then.
- Ed Moltzen
Robert: Maybe. But Twitter is a type of blog, It's a micro-blog.
- wiredgnome
I have never re-followed people out of courtesy. I look at what they're saying if they follow me, but I don't follow if it doesn't look interesting. That's why I have about 7K Twitter followers and am following less than 500, I guess.
- Trent Hamm
Definitely the engagement is dropping, I've noticed. But I think spam is a big contributor to the problem.
- wiredgnome
Come to think of it, I've never understood the philosophy of the courtesy re-follow. It seems dishonest to me - once you reach a certain point, you can't follow the thousands and thousands of conversations around you. Following someone else feels like a promise you can't keep. Why do this at all?
- Trent Hamm
Trent: you can't DM me unless I follow you. Since I require having DMs with a wide variety of people for my business, I have to follow everyone who follows me.
- Robert Scoble
I have noticed it too. It is sometimes hard to get around "brain fart" type of tweets that are on the surge...lowering the geek factor
- Ghada
Mark: that's cause aplusk is on the suggested follower list. He won't earn those followers, he's being gifted them by Twitter.
- Robert Scoble
Robert in my opinion Twitter had 2-3 weeks that followers went down and much porn as well , in the last week or so the positive count is back
- Johni Fisher
In Europe, we call these kinds of slowdowns "holidays".
- Bernie Goldbach
Well, I'm personally happy to see geek engagement go down. That means more geek for me. Most of those nitwits don't even know what the hell is even going on and just RT guys like you to ride the wave of the Scoblenami. I always used to get scolded for @ing zaibatsu, 0boy, and the_gman when I was just a peasant w/ 300ish followers who hadn't tweeted a word in 6 months. The whole "get...
more...
- Sheree Motiska
Twitter just got rid of bot accounts your followers went down! Thats Twitter's epidemic problems!
- polou/indigo_bow
Effectivement, c'est de la folie, cette migration collective ! J'ai beaucoup apprécié votre article, qui met en valeur (enfin) les vertus de friendfeed. Je me demande si les bibliothécaires "hybrides" vont migrer aussi facilement : beaucoup sont vraiment accros à twitter ;-)
- Nadine Pestourie
j'ai envie de dire, c'est pas trop tot...
- Gabriel
Pas trop tôt, peut-être. Mais, j'aimerais ajouter "svp, pas trop vite".
- Zackatoustra
@Dave : merci :D La lumière du jour était fort intéressante hier…
- Lyonel Kaufmann
Wow! Vraiment incroyable cette route. C'est dans quelle région le Pont du Diable?
- Benoit Descary
♥ Très belles tes photos... au fait, comment as-tu fait pour que ce soit tes photos qui apparaissent, moi c'est le flux des photos favorites qui sont publiées, pas les miennes :(
- Yola - Wubitt
@BenoîtDescary: c'est sur la route du col du Gothard, avant Andermatt qui est le plateau qui précède Hospenthal. A Hospenthal soit tu débutes la montée du col du Gothard (direction Tessin?, soit celle du col de la Furka (direction Valais). A Andermatt, il y a aussi le début du col de l'Oberalp qui conduit dans les Grisons.
- Lyonel Kaufmann
@Wubitt: aucune idée. D'ailleurs j'ai un problème parce que toutes les photos publiées ici ne concernent pas le Pont du Diable, mais d'autres lieux que j'ai photographiés hier et que j'ai publiées sur Flickr. Et d'autres n'ont pas été publiées ici.
- Lyonel Kaufmann
A noter que les indications Google Maps que j'ai introduites dans iPhoto n'ont pas été répercutées sur Flickr (dont la localisation du Pont du Diable pour Benoît… :-(
- Lyonel Kaufmann
I'm lovin' Seesmic web! Can't wait for the iPhone edition.
- wiredgnome
Maybe it's just not being used to it, but what, specifically, completely rocks about it? It just seems OK to me.
- Bryan Person
the ability to track searches in different columns all from a web ui
- Steve Rubel
from email
Bryan: I agree,I will give it another look but I'd still rather have the Tweetdeck footprint, the UI is cleaner
- Lou Paglia
I've been thinking of checking it out alongside tweetdeck but I'm just too tired to learn something new, or something.
- anna sauce
Seesmic Web as *web interface* for Twitter does rock. The fact you don't have to install Adobe AIR and another app on top of that rocks. It's become my default Twitter client when I'm not at my PC. IMO there's still a lot that can be done on it to improve it. I made some recs here on FF: http://ff.im/5wQLv
- Bryan Zirkel
Agree - seesmic web is amazing! I'd never have though of it. But I would like it to support multiple twitter accounts as well like seesmic desktop. But I do use it all the time.
- DC Crowley
You can now disable comments on your FriendFeed entries using the "Edit" menu. When you disable comments, all existing comments will remain, but no new comments will be allowed.
You can use the feature to stop conversations that are getting out of hand, or to post entries for which you don't want any discussion. Likes will continue to be allowed when comments are disabled.
- Bret Taylor
Chris: yeah, like when you're trying to use the first few comments for your own commentary. It looks like you can. Eeeeeeeeee!
- Mark Trapp
I think it helps those people who feel they are being made fun of in their posts.
- Zulema ⋅ spicy cocoa tart
Mark: yep, re-enabling involves just clicking a link
- Bret Taylor
+1 Gunny. It seems like an interesting and somewhat useful idea on it's own, but I can see many applications for it that aren't exactly in the interests of everyone, or even specific people, for what it's worth...
- Tyson Key
Sweet, thanks Bret. One bug I'm noticing is that if I disable comments on my own feed (that is, from http://friendfeed.com/itafroma), my picture shows up next to the entry and doesn't go away until I refresh.
- Mark Trapp
Bret, it looks like right now it doesn't show that comments are disabled until a user tries to comment, then it errors and says that comments are disabled. Not sure if that is widespread or if I just had a weird interaction.
- joey
Of course, the existing moderation options were already a double-edged sword. "Sticky" posts in rooms seems like a good extension to this, on the flip-side, though.
- Tyson Key
I can see the use for this, but that doesn't mean I like it.
- Shawn Kirsch
Actually, it may be displaying properly for me now. EDIT: I see, it just isn't updated in realtime ;)
- joey
While I welcome this addition to the many useful features on FF, I do feel that you should see all comments on a subject, as this enriches our experience.
- Kevin J Hatton
Scoble got thousands of people to join Friendfeed! How about a little love for the big guy!
- Mark
I see the main use for such a feature as being a way to post 'announcement' or 'stick post' entries but we'd really need the comment box back with the share box and the option to disable comments from there, i.e. before it's posted.
- Kol Tregaskes
You know you have influence when a company will modify their product to get you to use it again ;)
- Mark
Bret: the error message you get if you try to comment on a comment blocked post takes you to the generic FAQ page - perhaps it should go to something specific explaining the blocked comments feature.
- Mike Bracco
feature request: i want FF to flow in a <marquee> format instead of a stream! (kidding)
- sean percival
Is this an attempt to make FriendFeed more like a blogging platform? It sort of feels that way to me.
- Mitch
@scoble I'm trying to think of a feature from me- but I can't!
- Phill Price
Agree with Mike, that could do with fixing, Bret. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Bret or anyone: Where can you find a list of people you've blocked?
- Myrna
Myrna - Ssshhh - don't speak of such a thing... blocking is an unforgivable sin here!
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
But you know on twitter or fb you can unblock. Someone that I didn't know came on a great discussion about kabbalah and said F**k kabbalah so I blocked him.
- Myrna
Jannnifer: I TOTALLY disagree with you. Blocking on FriendFeed is a very important thing to do to keep your view clear of jerks, spammers, and other people you just don't want interacting with your content. I don't let jerks into my living room and the block feature is how I keep my online living room clean, too.
- Robert Scoble
LOOOOL you better watch out if FF grows too fast, we're gonna be using the block button a LOT
- Myrna
Robert, did you see why I blocked this character. Jerimiah probably would have blocked him from using FF.
- Myrna
@Kol - Looks like FFBlockr is broken/down at the moment...
- Tyson Key
I guess I can see the need for this in some respects, but doubt I'd ever use it. The same way I feel about Blocking......someone would have to be really destructive to get me to do that. I just hope we don't end up with more and more "tools" that stop the natural flow and interaction on FF.
- Bonnie Foster
So Bonnie, would you block a FF stranger who came onto a discussion and said F**k the subject or your discussion?
- Myrna
Bret: I think this feature should let the entry owner to be able to comment without having to re-enable comments (and shutting them down again after that)
- alieb
Myrna....not unless he/she was such a pest that they did this kind of thing all the time.....kept making negative comments, or tried to continually start something. If it was someone who just happened to pop in and make their comment I would chalk it up to them being a jerk, having a bad day, I don't know, maybe just hating that subject. People just aren't going to always agree with everything you say. :)
- Bonnie Foster
Scoble and Krynsky are right, options to turn off comments after 30 days, and a dislike option are needed. Dislikes should be capped at 5 a day though.
- Shawn Kirsch
from BuddyFeed
Bonnie, you mean if I came on one of your threads and just dumped a FU, you would just brush it off? It's negative energy. I don't know about you but I try to keep things positive. Btw, you can disagree and stay positive.
- Myrna
Myrna..not disagreeing that it isn't negative energy, and yes, you can disagree with someone and stay positive. Would I do it, of course not....but everyone is different, and some people are jerks. One FU however, would not crush me, or for that matter, destroy my thread if everyone else was commenting with a positive attitude.
- Bonnie Foster
Just been reading about this over on Techcrunch. Sounds a reasonable idea, although it will be interesting to see how it works out in practice
- George Hall (Australia)
Ok I understand the need to stopping comment when the Mob starts forming, you know the tar and feather, pitchfork and everything, that makes some sense. What I don't understand is why you would post an entry if you didn't want any discussion. If you don't want it discussed then don't post it.
- Kim Landwehr
I am a group admin, I post the room guidelines in a thread and close the comments so that I can stick the thread url in the group description and new users will be able to read a short and to the point list instead of a 150+ comments thread. Sounds good, Kim?
- alieb
Ok, alieb that makes sense I was thinking more of a regular post, wasn't thinking of a room guideline situation.
- Kim Landwehr
You're welcom Myrna, i remembered a thread from a while ago with that link in it and just did a few searches until i found it - i can't find anywhere on the help/faq the friendfeed.com/settings/modifications (for your history of subscriptions and blocks as well) also i can't find the imaginary friends feature linked anywhere in the help/faq either (/settings/imaginary) -- private groups...
more...
- Chris Heath
Kim, also - if we had this feature back in march scoble wouldn't have had to butcher his post to stop people from trying to enter a contest that was long over http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... - also this helps with spam as a popular post can be preserved without having to be attended to to fight of spammers who would try to latch to a popular search result
- Chris Heath
Bret, I like the timed idea some, but having the owner always able to comment seems right.
- Chris Heath
Robert, I don't see 'blocking' to be important but then I don't have jerks even trying to get into my living room so have no need. ;-) Been here well over a year and yet to block anyone. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Tyson, darn. Sorry I didn't check it before posting.
- Kol Tregaskes
Keep it comin' Bret. Someone ... PLEASE write a Friendfeed guide before I have to ?! (Although ... I'm still lost in the halls looking for what used to be rooms ?! :)
- Charlie Anzman
I believe they call those Groups now, unless they're renamed in a future iteration.
- Tyson Key
Can we get a feature added to the hide interface to 'Hide all entire with comments disabled'? If you don't want me on your thread, I may not want you in my stream. This is a place of discussion, not a bull horn :)
- Johnny
from iPhone
This is a great idea Johnny and it adds a balance to the whole situation. People who just want to use FF to promote themselves with no discussion could be easily hidden from view this way.
- G Dub of the Carolinas
well then you might as well block them, right?
- Chris Heath
@Johnny Worthington, I am totally right there with ya on that one. Why bother reading something on FF that I can't respond to? Isn't FF for conversation?
- (dot)lizard kelly
But Chris, they may still comment here and may comment on my stuff. Because they don't want interaction on their posts doesn't mean I should rule out the possibility of having interactions with them all together. It's about the scalple, not the sword :)
- Johnny
from iPhone
Arrington won't have to see it on his account everytime he logs in now
- Mark
Because he secretly loves getting attention. Not many people know this about him.
- Mitch
I like this ability, but agree with Johnny W on what he says on not wanting to read what he cannot respond to.
- Rick Cogley
I get your point Johnny, i was kind of joking, but also kinda serious.
- Chris Heath
Robert Scoble: Oh No! I was was being sarcastic and kidding with Myrna about blocking being an unforgivable sin!! I agree 100% with what you said above -----> "Blocking on FriendFeed is a very important thing to do to keep your view clear of jerks, spammers, and other people you just don't want interacting with your content. I don't let jerks into my living room and the block feature is...
more...
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Thanks. I can't imagine ever using it, but thanks all the same.
- Steven Perez
Gosh, I hope Robert Scoble will be able to see my last comment since this thread is so long!
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Interesting, but what about a 'Generate Comments' option for those us that are, shall we say, boring and get little to no activity and want to seem like they are interesting people too. ;->
- Grant Bierman
I fear that this addition will pave the way for more one way transmission. Friendfeed is about sharing and interaction. I might actually have to start using the block funtionality if I start seeing rant or mlm posts.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
If you want to hide comment disabled posts preemptively and user scripts are an option for you, take a look at this script update I released tonight: (only affects you, and only in effect while running the script) http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Micah
thanks - to "enable" comments, there is a direct link - to disable... it is necessary to click Edit and select the option... Why? a different design?
- Kishore Balakrishnan
Kishore, having 'enable' as a direct link serves as a visual reminder that you've disabled comments on that item. Plus you wouldn't want 'disable' to be a direct link, as you might click it by accident.
- FFing Enigma
@Matthew - You can disable it, if you're the owner of the post, and at present, it's possible for users to edit their comments after comment freezing, as it's implemented now.
- Tyson Key
A surprisingly controversial move. Good addition, but I can't find myself ever using it.
- Pete D
from iPhone
this feature seems in accordance with existing moderation options available to post owners
- Mike Chelen
Matt, the code lazyrww works right now. I want to get more.
- Louis Gray
Just looked down, thanks guys and sorry. :)
- Matt Ruiz
hmm, since you recommend it so highly...i'll give it a day or two
- Zee.
Starting to use Seesmic Web more as well. Love that's available via the web now. I'm looking forward to the day I have no client apps.
- Hutch Carpenter
I wish Seesmic Web had some of the same features HootSuite has (or vice versa)
- Rob Williams
Do you use a desktop client for email?
- Kevin Fox
from iPhone
I do, Kevin. I still use Mail.app and haven't yet converted over to GMail.
- Louis Gray
google reader over feedly? blasphemy
- Zach Landes
Chris, re: Lazyfeed, I think you have to move the tags, and the individual articles, that represent what you're most interested in, over to the left by using "add". I still haven't figured it out yet, but I'm intrigued.
- Laura Norvig
Zach, tell Edwin to make Feedly for Safari, and we will talk.
- Louis Gray
i can live in one tab - louisgray.com
- Allen Stern
Lazyfeed will never be a tool I find useful. If I want to explore a topic I'll turn to a search engine. I'm not interested in tracking tags.
- Mitch
okay, someone says they can do something on 4 tabs and i think of LSD. i obviously need an intervention.
- Joe The Sausage
Allen, I salute you. But you will get very bored over time.
- Louis Gray
what's lazyfeed? they are so lasy that they forget an introduction to their product? better tool than ff on conversation?
- xia
Louis: I see no tab for Gmail. Hmmm. Friendfeed takes care of your messages? Virtual assistant? Office factotum? Hard as I try, I can't run away from my Gmail. I need intervention, too?
- jan geronimo
Jan, I continue to use Apple Mail for my e-mail. Haven't fully switched over to GMail yet.
- Louis Gray
This promotional code has expired.. another one, guys? ;-)) I'm in a hurry to try this one.. can change my online life
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
I need to try LazyFeed again, I didn't think much of it. What did I miss?
- Kol Tregaskes
seesmic web is great, but I wish it had the same keyboard shortcuts as google reader. j and k for example...
- perry whitecage
glad to hear we became one of your tabs, that's a huge responsibility! please keep suggestions of improvements coming my way!
- Loic Le Meur
Ah but someday we can all once again live in OneTab (Note: I own OneTab.com that is conceptually being wireframed right now).
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
I am down to 3 tabs at the moment: Feedly, Peoplebrowsr and Friendfeed. (I prefer Feedly to Google Reader and Peoplebrowsr to Seesmic Web.)
- Sean McBride
are you still using Toluu? I'm thinking through maximizing RSS stuff... yahoo pipes, Google reader, and then there's toluu - lazyfeed - feedly. hm... options. any suggestions?
- Courtney Engle
Louis, when you get another invite I want to try out LazyFeed now that I'm settled.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, I just wrote them again, saying: "Feed us. I am lazy. Put the invites in my mouth." And Bwana, what topics did you have? Mine is constantly moving.
- Louis Gray
Thanks Louis - now I can't figure out how to add topics. Any suggestions?
- Jesse Stay
@jessie - there should be an add site button near the top/middle of the page, I added FF, my blog and twitter, started getting stuff related to things I am interested in line the perpetual rumors of an apple mediapad/tablet.
- Dan owns Comicsforge.com
Dan, yes, I've done that, but it says I still need to add topics.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, add your blog and Twitter. At the top it says Enter a Word of Interest. Put anything in there. Google, Twitter, FriendFeed, RSS...
- Louis Gray
Then that spawns stories. Click any topic and get related topics, and you can add those. It's very fluid.
- Louis Gray
awesome Louis, thanks! That one got me in :)
- Tim Hoeck
Wow, thanks, Louis. I added a couple of science and medicine blogs and now have a bunch of really good stuff I hadn't seen before based on the related content. In hog heaven :-)
- Sally Church
Oooh it works really well if your Delicious tags are focused around an area eg science or cancer or tech, very good indeed... this is better than a static RSS reader which relies only on the blogs you import
- Sally Church
I like Lazyfeed a lot at first glance. It certainly demonstrates the power and usefulness of tags and semantic markup.
- Sean McBride
Louis, do you not have any privacy concerns about using Google Reader and gmail? Why not support independent options? Now if only we could get FriendFeed to use tags. I don't understand why any Social Networking site would not use them so they can then display related content. Trying out LazyFeed. Thanks for the invite.
- Internet Strategist
Any more LazyFeed invitations up for grabs, out of curiosity?
- Tyson Key
I do not have any privacy concerns about Google Reader or GMail. Why would I? And what do you see as a better "independent" option to either of those?
- Louis Gray
i would like to see a video tutorial by you to learn how to live in those 4 tabs.
- Jason Pollock
i don't *get* lazyfeed. I have to enter my blogs by hand if I want to have them listed? It can only search a few services? Louis, explain or link me to somewhere you've described how you use it!
- Zach Landes
One point about Lazyfeed: apparently one can't perform any operations on news items (other than reading them). No sharing, emailing, tagging, marking as liked, etc. Right?
- Sean McBride
In case anyone was wondering, the #meganfox promotional code is no longer valid.
- Jeff Brown
La Chaux-de-Fonds et du Locle (NE) sont désormais inscrites au Patrimoine mondial de l’humanité. Le Comité du patrimoine de l’Unesco a accepté samedi à Séville la proposition de l’Office fédéral de la culture. On oublie trop souvent le rôle fondamental de la Suisse urbaine et cette inscription tombe à point nommé pour le rappeler.
- Lyonel Kaufmann