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Adam Christie › Comments
Top 10 Tips for Getting Attention on Flickr, All Fresh and New for 2008 - http://thomashawk.com/2008...
Alex Williams, Dennis Goedegebuure, Benjamin Golub and 112 other people liked this
Good article. I guess you've got to work smart to get noticed on Flickr.
- Adam Christie
Very good advice, Thomas. A comment on no. 6 ("Groups"): I remember Flickr staff mentioning that not only photos that are in too many groups (more than 10-15, as a rule of thumb) get penalties for their Explore rating. Allegedly, this is also true for photos that are in the *wrong* groups, specifically the ubiquitous "post 1, comment x" groups. So not all photo critique groups might be good when you want to get your pictures into Explore.
- Ole Begemann
Ole, I hadn't heard that certain groups penalized photos but have seen Flickr staff in the past mention that posting your photo to too many groups will reduce it's visibility with their algorithm.
- Thomas Hawk
Re: no. 5 ("Explore"): more criteria that seem to influence whether a photo makes it to Explore: the presence of EXIF data, geotags, title, description has a positive influence; faves and comments from people who are not among your contacts seem to count more than from contacts; faves and comments from popular photographers count more than those from nobodys; a photo that gets 2 or 3 faves within minutes after uploading is more likely to make Explore than one that gets faved 15 times within 24 hours.
- Ole Begemann
Thomas, I'll try to find a reference for this.
- Ole Begemann
Good point on EXIF data Ole, yes, photos in Explore are required to have EXIF data. My own guess as to why this is is that if a photo has EXIF data it is more likely to be your own photo vs. something you simply ripped from the web. Not foolproof of course but I'd guess that this policy is in part due to a desire to increase the authenticity of the photos promoted on Explore.
- Thomas Hawk
If you look at the photos in Explore, the only "Leave a comment" groups that I see with any regularity are TWTME and 1-2-3 groups... what makes them special I'm not sure, other than they're amongst the largest groups in general. But you see very few of those award groups or "leave x comments" groups in the photos in Explore, so I suspect that Flickr must be penalizing them.
- Eric P
Thomas, that's a great refresher on the original article. Some great tips.
- Tom Quinn
And Thomas, throwing reciprocation in as a "bonus"? It should have been #1 or #2. The vast, vast, vast majority of comments and faves that I receive are from people whose stream I previously visited. The only real exception to that is when a photo is high in Explore, which results in a torrent of views/comments/faves from strangers.
- Eric P
Yep Eric. Reciprocation is very high. Bonus tip might not be the best place for it. It's very important. Faving back when people fave your work, commenting back. Adding people back as mutual contacts, etc. All encourage activity on your photostream.
- Thomas Hawk
Eric, participation groups don't penalize your photo from Explore best I can tell. This photo http://www.flickr.com/photos... from a few weeks ago was in the Deleteme Uncensored critique group and was #3 on Explore as well.
- Thomas Hawk
In fact just searching flickr for the save10 tag from the DMU critique group along with "explore" brings up a number of photos: http://www.flickr.com/search...
- Thomas Hawk
Good post, *IF* getting attention is important to you, as opposed to using it as a vehicle to just share photos with people
- Eric Rice
After I read your original article on Flickr popularity a while back, I began reciprocating every comment received. That worked very well.
- Tom Harrison
Eric, true. Some people have no interest in their photos receiving attention. I do think that the majority of people posting on Flickr though do appreciate when their photos receive some attention. Lots of people do not though. I have friends that only publish private photos that their friends can see and opt out of every public aspect of Flickr. I think these people though are the exception rather than the norm and think that Caterina's quote is pretty typical of the most active users on the site.
- Thomas Hawk
Thanks for digging my article Aaron! :) http://digg.com/arts_cu...
- Thomas Hawk
Alright, I found something. Flickr staff member acknowledged almost 2 years ago that "groups that force people to comment/fave on certain photos with no choice" do in fact hurt your Explore chances. Also, "weight of comments and favorites from contacts is quite low in interestingness calculation." (http://www.flickr.com/groups...). A very old post and the algorithm has changed since then but we can probably say that the gist of it is still true.
- Ole Begemann
interesting Ole. I hadn't seen that. I think it would be difficult for Flickr to manually track every group that encourages tags and comments as participation. Per the links above though, photos in DMU have definitely made it into Explore anyways.
- Thomas Hawk
Yeah, I have no idea how they maintain a list of the "bad" groups. Further below, SilentObserver mentions his business is writing algorithms to filter them out automatically, though.
- Ole Begemann
Here's another good summary of nearly everything the community knows about the Explore algorithm: http://www.flickr.com/groups...
- Ole Begemann
Here is an example of tagging. I did not know this woman was a celebrity until after got this shot. It appears on the first page of the image search engines and it has received over 12,000 views. http://flickr.com/photos...
- Russellreno
So far I got 3 (!) photos into explore. Their common factor? They all were faved by you (TH) soon after I posted theim.
- Guillaume Lemoine
Flickr used to say "who" faves your shots was a part of the Explore algorithm. It wouldn't surprise me if the algorithm weights faves by different people from the Flickr community differently. For instance, Pro accounts where people actually have paid for the service might be weighted higher than non-Pro accounts. More active users might carry more weight with their faves then less active users. Just speculating on this part.
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas - I don't think that participation in all groups gets a penalty, just that there are some groups that are penalized as far as Explore is concerned. I simply don't see Explore photos in "Post 1, Comment X" groups - so either there's no explore-worthy photos in those groups (not likely IMHO), or Flickr is penalizing the photos in those groups.
- Eric P
such a great post Thomas, thanks for writing it
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
As a note to certain groups penalizing your photos...I had a photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos...) that went to explore spot 150 or so. After, I added it to a few groups to see if I could bump it higher. It had the opposite affect and immediately dropped off. I can't say which group exactly did it or if it was the number of groups I submitted to, but adding to groups definitely does come with some sort of penalty.
- Justin Korn
If you use FeedBurner, you can splice your Flickr photos into your blog feed. I have it splice my last two photos and I find those have at least 5x the number of views as the ones that aren't in my spliced feed.
- Mike Hussein Cohen
Awesome post Thomas. I signed up for Flickr a couple of years ago, but only started using it more regularly after the purchase of a digital SLR camera - so this post is particularly relevant to me. I am still patiently waiting for that first comment/favourite on one of my photos to truly experience the emotions as described by Caterina Fake.
- Jeff Smith
Thanks for this post, Thomas. Great tips!
- Eric Johnson
Great article Thomas... I was also wondering about what my friend calls 'Shooting for the 75'. That is, a great majority of people only ever see a 75 x 75px thumbnail of your photo. When he processes, he always does a square crop to test how it looks in the frame. Would you like to see proportional thumbnails as an option?
- Johnny Worthington
I actually really like the square thumbnails. Heck I really like the square crop period. I think I'm cropping more and more of my photos 4x4 these days. Maybe it's just that I've always loved medium format photography so much, not sure why I'm so drawn to the square crop right now though. I much prefer Flickr's square thumbnails actually. Still would love to see larger sizes on FF like SmugMug's thumbnails.
- Thomas Hawk
you're right though. Frequently it's the thumbnail that draws people into a photo. A good looking thumbnail is more likely to be selected by viewers for clicking through to full size viewing, commenting, faving, etc.
- Thomas Hawk
One of my very first Flickr experiences was someone in a critique group cutting me down for a square crop. It was a rose in a perfect spiral petal pattern, could only be cropped square as far as I was concerned. LOL...I didn't change it either.
- Karoli
Haha, that's funny Karoli. so much of the criticism in critique groups on Flickr is so lame. You should have seen the deleteme critique group ravage a Henry Cartier Bresson photograph who is probably considered by most photo historians as the greatest photographer who ever lived. Read some of these comments on this photo for a laugh: http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Thomas Hawk
I used to work to get photos into explore. I think I probably take better pictures now, but I don't have the time at the moment to put in the work. Lots of community building and commenting went into the mix. I confess, there's a real rush to hitting the front page. I had three in the top 10, and it was a lot of fun.
- Karoli
I have been doing a lot of panoramic shots over the past year and I have started to play around with vertical cropping. Taking a portrait photo and cropping a really tight vertical crop: http://www.flickr.com/photos... It's all about how the picture looks to you in the end. Square, circle or hexagon, it's about the sensory reaction :) (and now I'm going to square crop for this week just to try it out, thanks guys)
- Johnny Worthington
Thomas, those comments are a hoot! I met some nice people in some of the critique groups, but it didn't take me long to know the critiques weren't helping. I do love Flickr's community...even if I haven't spent a lot of time in it lately.
- Karoli
yeah, the attention from Explore can be fun. But I'm pretty unimpressed with a lot of the photos there. I think Flickr could do a much better job with that algorithm. I do find filtering explore just by my contacts though produces more consistently interesting photographs for me. I use this script to do just that: http://www.drewmyersphoto.net/flickr_...
- Thomas Hawk
Agree on the photo quality on Explore. Seems like a lot of the same sort of gimmicky stuff lands there. Looking forward to trying the script.
- Karoli
Thanks for the article, that opened my eyes up a lot
- Alex Carpenter
Hey Karoli, here's you and your daughter by the way. I uploaded this to Zooomr a while back when I was taking a break from Flickr but uploaded it tonight on Flickr. Great fun on that photowalk. http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Thomas Hawk
Hey, cool! Thanks for the pointer. It was a great photowalk, would love to do another sometime soon!
- Karoli
Here is one more way to get attention: Comment on this post with a link to one of your photos. I received a hit today from the comment about. http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Russellreno
Good stuff. Worked for me: http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Demetri Mouratis
when dwarf parties go bad - http://frinko.com/when-dw...
Pete Delucchi and Duncan Riley liked this
man, wtf? :O
- Mladen Srdić
Ja cu kao Mladen, sa malom razlikom... WT jebeni F?!?!?!?! :D :D
- Hrvoje Martincic
Bas tako :D
- Mladen Srdić
WTF?
- Duncan Riley
WTF @ Duncan's 'like'! Please don't put this on the Inquisitr. I will unsubscribe. :p
- Mona Nomura
won't play for me.
- mjc
I think the guy who decides to piss on everyone is the bollox. Carry on!
- Adam Christie
What. the. Hell?? The creepy little laugh is in my head.
- Yolanda
I think Mona N is a Dwarf she is just hiding behind a Sexy pic! LMAO
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Mona, I won't :-) but it's hard to know whether to like something or not when it deserves a mark more than a comment. We need a look vote not a like :-)
- Duncan Riley
Duncan LOL: Noted ;)
- Mona Nomura
brick on the gas pedal, steering wheel pulled all the way left and tied with a rope.
- Jason Carreira
No shelter for those that stay in New Orleans as Gustav approaches - http://www.nydailynews.com/news...
Carlos Ayala and edythe liked this
"Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the Superdome will be locked. Those who stay will be on their own. New forecasts Friday made it increasingly clear that New Orleans will get some kind of hit — direct or indirect — by early next week. That raised the likelihood people would have to flee, and the city suggested a full-scale evacuation call could come as soon as Sunday."
- RAPatton
from Bookmarklet
It's going to happen faster than that. Storm bands will begin arriving in New Orleans Sunday night.
- Chris Baskind
That's pretty grim news. I hope the levees hold this time.
- Adam Christie
Big Country – In a Big Country - http://www.last.fm/music...
RAPatton, Pete Delucchi, Bill Sodeman and 8 other people liked this
It takes skill to make a guitar sound like a bagpipe.
- Ontario Emperor
from fftogo
"Stay a--liiiiiiive"
- Josh Haley
this song makes me want to go pheasant hunting
- Cee Bee
LOVE.
- Bren -- Making Contact
Love it, one of my favourite bands.
- Adam Christie
How does a after school blog writing workshop for kids sound? Has anyone started or held a "KidCamp" teaching them social media?
sanki, Jay Cuthrell, Bora Zivkovic and Sprague D liked this
Do kids need to be taught about social media?
- Tad
Kids should know how to apply general topic research methods and cross vetting of sources (news, wiki, search, blog, .edu repos)
- Jay Cuthrell
Sounds like a great idea. Could help guide them to quality resources online and even introduce them to the basics of journalism as a profession.
- Sprague D
I would say in this day of fake, malicious Myspace pages and cyberbullying, I think an early start to online ettiquette and using public online communications for good instead of evil might be a great way to go.
- Helen Sventitsky
Jay that would be awesome if only kids were taught basic reasoning skills in school instead of blind obedience to authority.
- Tad
Wayne, a list of places where kids can publish online as well as training resources: http://www.noodletools.com/debbie...
- Sprague D
Tad - Reason 101 would be an interesting workshop
- Jay Cuthrell
Wayne, Kidcamp sounds like awesome idea!
- Todd Jordan
hey sorry guys, i'm on twitter having this conversation, will follow the tweets
- Wayne Sutton
For what age group?
- sanki
Kids should be out riding bikes and climbing trees. Instead they are sitting getting fat in front of computers using Bebo and Myspace. I don't think it's something that needs encouragement.
- Adam Christie
Please recommend a book. Any topic, ficton or nonfiction. Something that really matters to you.
Pete Delucchi, Dobromir Hadzhiev, Bryan Landers and 20 other people liked this
Alchemist http://bit.ly/3kykoE (normally motivational books = common sense + zzzzz. but Alchemist, the exception)
- Mona Nomura
I'm not reading enough. This is going to help me build a reading list.
- Chris Baskind
C.S. Lewis's "the Four Loves."
- Mark Trapp
Oooooh! "Medici Money: Banking, Metaphysics, and Art in Fifteenth-Century Florence" is fun to read.
- idnan
The Wheel of Time, I'll never get tired of it :)
- Rahul Das
The Brand Gap - http://books.google.ca/books...
- Andrew Smith
The Farther Reaches of Human Nature - A. H. Maslow
- Kevin Bondelli
Just finished "The brief wondrous life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz. It was quite an experience.
- Jorge Escobar
Motoring with Mohammed - Eric Hansen. Travel writer who is always a fun read.
- Dave Martin
These are great. Please add more as you think of them. For the purpose of this little personal project, I'm only going to read book recommended to me -- nothing I find by myself.
- Chris Baskind
Chris it depend where your interest lies. How can you say recommend a book? Do you like Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment? Stephen Crane Red badge of courage? Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Catch -22, Kurt Vonnegut...Blah, Blah!
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Extremely Loud and incredibly Close by Jonathan Saffron Foer
- George Smith
OK let me throw in some fluff: any janet evanovich stephanie plum book.
- R. Ferguson
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - fast read, very well written and affecting...
- Ňicķ
Toni Morrison's Paradise
- R. Ferguson
"Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco,
- George The Writer
i second bjorn tipling's pick. Angle of Repose, Wallace Stegner. Blankets, Craig Thompson.
- edythe
Igor: the request isn't truly random -- our mutual association with FF and the way we follow each other here is likely to mean a lot of what people suggest will, indeed, interest me.
- Chris Baskind
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" (http://www.amazon.com/Short-H...)
- cmiper
Bob Sutton's "No Asshole Rule"
- imabonehead
I read Dibs in Search of Self (Readers Digest Condensed Version) when I was a kid.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
Deep Economy by Bill McKibben - quick read
- Meryn Stol
The Elusive Quest for Growth - William Easterly. This is a great book on the topic if Economic growth and incentives and what we need to do to help developing nations. I wrote my thesis on the topic after reading this book.
- Frankie Warren
Deep Simplicity - John Gribbin
- Dave Martin
Of something I've recently read, Berlin (or depending on country, the title might be The Fall of Berlin) Antony Beevor.
- Duncan Riley
Magician by Raymond E Feist is one of my all time favorites
- John Duff
Just one? Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut.
- AJ Kohn
The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- Jason Toney
The Key Above The Door by Maurice Walsh - It's old (and probably only available 2nd hand) but I love it.
- Adam Christie
The Wisdom Of Florence Scovel Shinn
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
I have to echo Mona because I am quite the lemming. No really, "The Alchemist" is a book that speaks to me on a very profound level. I don't like to talk about "touching my soul" because frankly, that sort of talk makes me blush, but in this case, it is very true.
- Anna Haro
Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson. A Canadian humourist does a travel memoire definately awesome.
- Keke
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby
- carlotta fancypants
If you want to gain a completely new understanding of human personality and why people do what they do, read Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson. And then read the Illuminatus Trilogy by the same to blow your mind. Then read Schrodinger's Cat by R.A.W. again to put it all back together (albeit in a pretty different configuration).
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
'A Prayer for Owen Meany' by John Irving.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Reading "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins was like having a curtain drawn open in my brain. Otherwise, what Lindsay said.
- Tad
+1 Akiva, that's a good one.
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall.
- Carlos Ayala
I always recommend Colin Harrison -- fantastic storyteller, great writer, usually some kind of taut and tragic tale set in modern New York.
- Eric Berlin
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. 11 Minutes by Paolo Coehlo, and I second the Illuminatus trilogy and Focault's Pendulum.
- Helen Sventitsky
...And would add that The Havana Room is a good place to start
- Eric Berlin
To Kill a Mockingbord or The Lord of the Rings
- Douglas E. Welch
from twhirl
One of my favorite books of all time: Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- Justin Korn
The Third Wave - Alvin Toffler, one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th cent. Book could have been written yesterday.
- Keith - @tsudo
I'm going to 2nd (or is it 3rd now?) Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel. A wonderful book, where you can lose yourself in a world of footnootes. Can take a bit to get into it though.
- David Adam
Invisible Cities - Italo calvino.
- Parth Awasthi
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- John Duff
Uncommon Places, Stephen Shore
- Thomas Hawk
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.
- Ole Begemann
Bill Bryson's Thuderbolt Kid is a cracking!
- Chris Nixon
I also love The Alchemist and Prayer for Owen Meany. My unique recommendations are the two books by the Arbinger Institute, Leadership & Self-Deception and Anatomy of Peace. Much food for thought.
- asiriusgeek
Two that have stuck with me are A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber for non-fiction and and Fifth Business by Robertson Davies for a novel.
- Ryan
The Integral Trees
- raphaeL
Bumping this. Thanks for all the great recommendations. I have about half of them in my new Goodreads account, and will get the others over the weekend. First book is on the way, "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell."
- Chris Baskind
just getting into Cockroach by Rawi Hage -- it's pretty amazing.
- Trent Olson
Reading James Frey - Bright Shiny Morning - raw realism
- Arjan Writes
nice recommendations!
- Hayk H.
Hailstones blasted man off toilet | Crazy, Weird And Funny Place - http://eatmypotato.com/index...
John Samuelson, Baard @ Pixum, Mitchell Tsai and 12 other people liked this
Somebody's gotta use that in a wierd horror movie.
- Adam Christie
it would come across as totally unrealistic and bogus in that movie.
- Alexander Kucera
Alexander, got to say that the toilet ice looks legit to me.
- Duncan Riley
we had those in 2003 over here. sky's got balls!
- Frank Jonen
from Alert Thingy
"OMG, what did you eat, dude?!"
- Jemm
Totally weird is the world, more than fiction could ever describe.
- Daniel Schildt
Woah!
- Mitchell Tsai
Blimey.
- John Samuelson
holy shit
- Noah David Simon
What Happened To Your Twitter Followers? http://www.neilshearing.com/2008...
I lost a bunch, and thought they'd been clearing out spammy followers, but it appears it might just be another glitch.
- Adam Christie
How American is Budweiser? - http://www.zooomr.com/photos...
Brian, Anna Haro, Trevor Carpenter and 5 other people liked this
A few years back I found this advertisement for Budweiser above a men's urinal at Sea World in San Diego. The advertisement tried to play on some sort of patriotism of Budweiser vs. Miller Beer which is owned by South African based South African Breweries. Interestingly enough, it looks now like Bud will soon be taken over by Belgian based InBev, So I guess maybe they are not as American as they thought they were in the first place.
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
Personally I've always preferred Pabst over Bud anyways... as far as cheapo American Beer goes. ;)
- Thomas Hawk
Sam Adams. How much more American can you get?
- Aaron Schaub
David Lynch thanks you for that Thomas...
- Tad
I always appreciated their recognition of the troops, but I wonder if that will change now.
- Michelle Martinez
This is getting some rather big play here in StL.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
inBev is a sharp company. Bud will do will do well under its ownership.
- Chris Baskind
Tad, David Lynch or more accurately Frank Booth is probably the one most responsible for getting me to drink Pabst in the first place. I was a very impressionable high school senior when Blue Velvet came out in 1986.
- Thomas Hawk
Never really liked Sam Adams. I like a lot of the Mexican beers though. Just bought a case of Mexican beer sampler thingy from Costco today. Think I'll go open me up one of those right now actually. :)
- Thomas Hawk
Proof that I drink Pabst by the way: http://www.flickr.com/photos...
- Thomas Hawk
When I lived in Janesville, WI there was a Pabst brewery pretty close by. Super fresh Pabst is actually not too horrible.
- Tad
I guess Bud will have to downplay that whole "Miller is anti-American because they are owned by mean South Africans" thingy going forward though huh?
- Thomas Hawk
This is the natural result of the US trade deficit. Businesses all over the world have an increasing pile of US dollars, and the US doesn't actually export much that the rest of the world wants. So the inevitable consequences are that foreigners are going to want to buy businesses and properties in the US.
- Owen Byrne
I agree, JMS. Unfortunately for me, my quest for beer snobbery is derailed by my lack of income.
- Michelle Martinez
Owen -"So the inevitable consequences are that foreigners are going to want to buy businesses and properties in the US" -NO the inevitable is that the US have a stupid gov. Imagine giving port controls over to Dubai Management ?? Whoever had that brilliant idea of outsourcing port management , needs to be shot !!
- Peter Dawson
I agree w/ JMS. Genuine American beer comes from a small business, crafted by real hard working men and women.
- Trevor Carpenter
If it starts tasting like Chimay there won't be complaints http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008...
- Jacob
Thomas, just a point of trivia, but most Mexican beers are based on Austrian lager recipes. Back in the day, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico originally hailed from Austria. When he took the Mexican throne, the European beer culture followed him. Corona, Dos Equis, and Sol beer are all based on those lagers. Technically, so is Budweiser, but enough beer-geekery. I'm getting thirsty and its a Monday morning.
- Aaron Schaub
Since they took the name from the Czech company Budweiser Budvar anyway, I guess it's not too American. http://www.budvar.cz/en...
- Adam Christie
Apart from Sam Adams and other micro brews I can't say US beer is anything to write home about
- Andy Davies
Foo Fighters Wembley Stadium gigs going out tomorrow night on MSN. I was there, it will be worth watching! http://msninconcert.msn.com/music...
Welcome to FriendFeed Adam!
- Mitchell Tsai
Thanks. It's seems like a fantastic service
- Adam Christie
Welcome Twitterers! Here, let us show you around FriendFeed's cool features...
Geoff Brown, Brian Roy, Tyson Key and 70 other people liked this
Check out the search engine. It's like Summize, except it searches ALL data types, not just Twitter messages.
- Robert Scoble
Click on the "me" tab. That shows YOU what YOU posted. But then click on the "comments" and "like" links over on the right. That shows you what you commented on, or liked. Well, unless you're looking at the me tab on MY account!
- Robert Scoble
what are the best apps? just installed MySocial 24x7 the FF3 sidebar, also playing aroung with Feedalizr and Alert Thingy
- Tomas Nihlen
Don't miss the "Show best of." These will show you the most popular FF items of the day, week, or month. Great way to get up to speed on what gets discussed here (and to find some new people to subscribe to).
- Robert Scoble
only thing is: (and like to emphasize that: I simply miss Twitter!) Come to think of it; can we, as long as Twitter's down, do a Miss Twitter Election?
- Adri Munier
One day you like Twitter, the other day you hate it huh? ;-)
- Rutger Blom
Comment often. Like often. These are signals to other people that you found an item engaging and important. Soon you'll find that we're also engaging on YOUR items.
- Robert Scoble
Make sure you add all your feeds. Flickr photos. Upcoming events. Twitter (so we'll know when it's back up and be able to discuss your best tweets). Your Digg and Del.icio.us accounts. And lots more. The more you put into FriendFeed the more people will engage with you.
- Robert Scoble
Is this planned maintenance or more of the same? I am trying to come up with reasons why FF should continue to take second place and I still can't work it out. What am I missing? Twitter's simplicity? I just don't see Twitter as an effective conversation tool. It seems more appropriate as a one way communication tool.
- Paul Jacobson
from twhirl
Don't miss the "more" menu under each cluster. It does a lot. It also lets you delete comments if you start a cluster, link to a cluster, and, well, more.
- Robert Scoble
Click the icons off to the left. Click a Flickr one, for instance, and you'll see all the Flickr photos from everyone you're following. Hint: if you want to see ALL Flickr photos from EVERYONE, click on the "everyone" tab first, then click the icons.
- Robert Scoble
I've been resistant to this. I like the simplicity of twitter. However, I also like being on a network that actually works, so maybe it's time to go ff full time.
- Adam Christie
This is a good, short intro for FF newbies. Wish someone had posted a similar note when I first joined. FF is a bit murkier than Twitter for new users. I also found http://frienderati.alltop.com/ to be very helpful.
- sage brennan
When you get tired of seeing a particular FriendFeed item, just click "hide." Don't worry, that just hides it from your view. You can see hidden items at the bottom of the page.
- Robert Scoble
The squeaky friends get the grease ;-)
- Paul Short
Click on "Friend Settings." There's some cool stuff in there. This is where you can see who is subscribed to you, who you are subscribed to, some cool stats (useful after you like and comment on a bunch of stuff to learn who you like the best) and some ways to find new friends to subscribe to. Just don't subscribe to that Scoble guy, he's very noisy!
- Robert Scoble
Can we all just leave Twitter?
- Anthony Onumonu
Once in a while you'll see a jerk in here. Here's how to deal with them: visit their page, then at the top you'll see a link titled "Block." Don't be afraid to block jerks. That helps keep the community clean of drama for everyone. Heck, don't be afraid to block me if you don't want to see me anymore. You define yourself by who you follow and who you allow into your life. One thing: you can still see people you blocked in the "Everyone" tab. They will still show up in searches you do there.
- Robert Scoble
Feel free to use the hide button as you read items, even if it is a topic your interested in. Don't worry, if more conversation occurs on the topic, it will pop back up in your feed again. I like to use this to "clear" the screen, so it isn't so cluttered and I am not re-reading something I have already seen.
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
I like Twitter and will go back as soon as it's up. I used to look at it as FriendFeed vs. Twitter. It's not. They both work great together. FriendFeed is much nicer place to have a conversation.
- Robert Scoble
The best thing I ever did was to add a few greasemonkey plugins like the one that removes viewed links and filter by service. It's OK now.
- Calley Nye
FriendFeed's worst attribute is that it rewards people who visit often. Click "F5" to refresh your browser's page. This is especially important if you're following lots of people, or are watching the "Everyone" page (it changes every few seconds).
- Robert Scoble
Is someone posting too much information? You can "filter" content by service for a user, or by a service for all users. Click the hide button, then click 'See options for hiding other items like this'
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
Do a search under the Everyone tab for your city name to find FFs and topics from your local area. This ain't just a San Fran Soical party!
- Johnny Worthington
I agree with Robert - FriendFeed has almost become the "home" page in my browser. Invariably it's sat in my browser most of the day... sure, it could be improved (grouping of contacts into channels), but it's very, very good...
- Jonathan Beckett
If you have one of those newfangled iPhones, check out http://www.friendfeed.com/iphone
- Robert Scoble
Oh one more thing....what's the deal with rooms? Do you have to make your own or can you find existing ones?
- Calley Nye
@scoble but doesnt FF refresh automatically? whats the interval on the auto refresh?
- Sebastian Keil
Even if you don't have an iPhone (I have a KU990), try fftogo.com. It works on most java enabled phone browsers and is a great way to fill in time when in lines
- Johnny Worthington
Friendfeed defaults to showing not only the content of those who you are subscribed to, but items that were found interesting by your friends by other people. This is called 'Friend of a Friend' - If you would rather not see these entries, click 'Hide' on one of them, then use 'See more options for hiding items like this' - there will be an option to hide items from Friends of your Friend.
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
Sebastian: FF does refresh automatically, but not fast enough for me. So I manually refresh it every few seconds.
- Robert Scoble
Calley: I'm subscribed to a bunch of rooms (mostly cause people invite me in). They haven't become very useful to me yet, although I'm noticing a few are getting more active lately. You can see the ones I'm subscribed to by visiting my FF at http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... and clicking over on the right side.
- Robert Scoble
FF is more than a aggrigator site, it's the true social. Just don't find links and publish photos, discuss them and share in the collective power of community.
- Johnny Worthington
@Calley Nye (siliconcalley): You can make your own rooms if you want, or you can join others. Currently, its not immediately apparent where to find existing rooms, but there is a number of sites that have friendfeed room listings. You can also search google with something like: twitter site:friendfeed.com/rooms - I also recommend joining this room: http://friendfeed.com/rooms...
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
if Twitter was micro-blogging, would FF be classed as macro-blogging?
- Johnny Worthington
@scobleizer Terrific overview/ welcome message regarding FriendFeed, is it possible to move this into it's own room? You are imparting some great information here, don't want to see it turn to vapor.
- michael sean wright
I call FF "The Consolidator" ..
- LPH™ and his dog P™
So basically you have to know the cool people to get invited to the dance. I like it...
- Calley Nye
Welcome everyone! Robert pretty much summed it up beautifully. I bring a little Gizmodo-ness into a more Engadget-esque Friend Feed ;) I'm Mona, nice to meet you all! This link will take you to the bookmarklet, which enables sharing links, images, and videos. It goes right on your browser toolbar. Extremely useful :) : http://friendfeed.com/share...
- Mona Nomura
Confused? Ask questions. Very few of us bite. Welcome.
- Chris Baskind
This script allows to tweak FF refresh rate. The minimum is every 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/35Eyvs
- Nir Ben Yona
Here's a place to discuss Best Practice and Ethics as it relates to FriendFeed- http://friendfeed.com/rooms...
- michael sean wright
Use the recommend and subscribe to as many people as you want. The more people you subscribe then the greater the diversity of conversations.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
OMG, i didn't know there's a Scoble script allowing FF users to add Scobleizer in a tab on FriendFeed. http://bit.ly/dRo2L
- Nir Ben Yona
There's a script for everything...
- Calley Nye
A big +1 for Mona's link to the bookmarklet, that's a really sticky way of getting involved with FF - share stuff, then share again, then share some more!
- Iain Baker
The reason I'm actually using FriendFeed right now (besides because Twitter is down) is that I was researching for a post. A really cool tool called Moopz - just posted http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
- Calley Nye
Whoa please don't tell me this conversation ended because Twitter went back up. LOL
- Calley Nye
...I think it was because you said you're only using FF since Twitter is down ;) -but on a serious note, after a certain number of comments the post no longer gets 'bumped' so I don't think people are aware there are new comments added on the thread
- Mona Nomura
Robert, have you tried this? http://flickr.com/photos... Better features for Twitter. (not by Twitter)
- Orli Yakuel
Excellent tutorial!
- Mitchell Tsai
It's not Twitter or FF. Things like Twitter Bar feed into FF so it's all good :0)
- Glenna
Letting Technology Do Your Work to Capture Fast Moving Images - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
I may have to resort to the Phototrap to get a decent photo of my 4 year old. He's always moving at speed and you can never predict where he's going to be when the shutter is released.
- Adam Christie
I don't read Techmeme. Never have. There: I've said it. Let the unfollowings commence.
Bryan Landers, Soulhuntre, Franklin Pettit and 17 other people liked this
I've never looked at the site and have no idea why people keep mentioning it
- Adam Turetzky
I have only heard of Techmeme recently.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
if you're happy with your news sources it's all fine then
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
I have different opnions on these "meme" subjects... :)
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
Agreed, I've maybe been to the site twice.
- Eric Florenzano
@bjorn: Here we are! :) This is why I humbly think that the user's interests should be considered in the center of every system. Popularity alone is easily corrupted and will be corrupting the value of things
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
One way to find out what people are talking about is to watch FF, Twitter, and so on. That's the real buzz.
- Chris Baskind
That makes 2 of us. I looked at it once and moved on.
- Lucretia Pruitt
Not sure what techmeme is, but between popurls, some news feeds and a set of international RL friends the important suff is covered.
- sergiooo
Ditto.
- AJ Kohn
You're crazy! I'd love to see an eco-meme. That way we know who's getting to the news first ...
- Preston Koerner
Techmeme is a decent resource for people who use it because it works in a similar way that Friendfeed does. It allows you to follow the exploits of those who you find interesting. If you don't follow the Techmeme set in general, you'll find it completely uninteresting. Sort of like a Soap Opera tabloid.
- Steve Spalding
What's Techmeme?
- Helen Sventitsky
This afternoon I got a haircut, bought some new shorts at Target, & now I'm grilling sausages & chicken for this week's dinners.
- josh neff, geek at large
With the feeds I have in gReader, it would be redundant for me to read.
- Vince DeGeorge
I've never seen Techmeme, nor have I even heard anyone mention it until this thread. Whatever it is, it's probably an abomination. I'm feeling a little queasy even writing about it, frankly.
- Gabe Rivera
I've never read it either. Doubt I'll start anytime soon.
- Akiva Moskovitz
I didn't think it was a tool for the masses: it's a way for people in tech to identify how stories progress through the internets. That is, if you wanted to have maximal impact in a PR or marketing push, you ought to try for x, y, and z blog to cover you rather than hitting them all, because if you do, all the other blogs will cover you anyway. Was it intended as a real news source?
- Mark Trapp
I only tend to visit it on the rare occasion that I've ended up on it. Then I find that it's somewhat interesting. But it's not my "go-to" source in the mornings. Don't expect to be either. It's over-rated.
- David Cohn
I don't need some automated system to tell me what's good. This is why we have FriendFeed—I have my FRIENDS tell me what's good! :)
- James Mowery
I agree, James. I just commented on another discussion that I don't understand these "lists." Why do I need a list compiled by another person or service to tell me who I need to follow and read? It contributes to the sheep mentality that dominates the blogosphere and I hate to see that happen here. A person's comments are not valid or worth reading just because another self-righteous person told me so. A person's comments are worth reading because others find them interesting.
- Trish R
@Trish, I agree. FriendFeed = Techmeme killer. ;) Nah, I kid, I kid.
- James Mowery
Techmeme, Digg, Reddit, Google News, and all these other meme-tracking sites have only the most limited of utility. They're based on what's popular, what's popular can always be gamed, and there's an echo chamber effect when people will jump on a bandwagon just for the attention. (That said, I've unsubscribed from just about every tech blog because they only ever talk about what's on Techmeme anyway, and rarely ever add anything besides a headline to the "discussion").
- Eric P
Google News is not a meme tracker.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Yeah, it was funny to see Gabe show up. :-)
- Chris Baskind
I don't read it either. Not enough hours in the day
- Adam Christie
I don't know what it is.
- Sarah
Croissant Wrist Rest: The Bakery of Ergonomics » Coolest Gadgets - http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/2008071...
Yolanda, embee, Akiva Moskovitz and 15 other people liked this
ok what happens when it turns green? do i get a new one? ;o)
- Susan Beebe
what about fingerprints from the butter? can i sue them if my machinery craps out?
- Mona Nomura
Useless, I'm sure -- but cool. I want the matching espresso cup mouse. In fact, what I want is a week in France.
- Chris Baskind
Happy Bastille Day by the way
- Andrew Dobrow
This is an appropriate Bastille Day link. :-)
- Chris Baskind
I find a cornish pasty works just fine, croissants get a bit too squished
- Adam Christie
If you have a blog post that clearly outperforms all other posts (more than double the traffic in my case) do you capitalize on it by writing more posts on the same topic?
Dane morgan, Ange Recchia/angesbiz, Joey Lo and 13 other people liked this
For me, it depends on why it got the traffic. If because of Digg, Slashdot, etc. No. If because I see tons of "thanks for writing this" reader comments, Yes.
- Kevin C. Tofel
It's more of search traffic from google, the comments are present, but not overwhelmingly more than other posts (my blog is less than two months old) but people are searching this topic more than the others I posted. Thanks for the comment.
- Keith Bloemendaal
If people are searching about this topic using a variety of different search key phrases then it's worth adding more content in the form of additional posts. If it's all on one specific search phrase then that's good too, because you may be able to spin off a whole new blog just about that phrase.
- Andy Roberts
Thanks Andy, they are using a variety of search terms.
- Keith Bloemendaal
like others - for me it depends on the source of traffic. If it's Search traffic, I do a couple of things: 1. optimize the page so it ranks even better. This involves some on page optimization as well as linking to it from other relevant pagses on the blog. 2. write related posts (usually not on exactly the same topic but on related ones that either extend the post, find a similar topic etc.
- Darren Rowse
any posts about how to optimize a poplar post or page?
- Miguel Wickert- Pineiro
will write something on that Miguel - keep tuned into ProBlogger
- Darren Rowse
A related technical question: how to approximate/relate bandwidth to #visitors. Limits of virtual compared to dedicated. Host reliability, etc.
- phil baumann
That's an easy one. YES! Expand on the topic any way you can. Ask for user experiences, turn it into a detailed series, do polls, how-tos, tweaking, etc. And don't blow the whole was at once. Space it out. Do other stories in between to keep the site from becoming just about that topic, which (like anything else) could become a past fad at any point and no longer relevant.
- Ernie Oporto
I've been wondering about this very issue myself. How far do you go to capitalize on a great post.
- Todd
it's important to do at least some analysis as to why it was so popular and performed so well. Sometimes the content had little to do with it.
- Allen Stern
Thanks for all the responses, my blog is a niche that I have not found many other blogs to look to for topic help, and I am having a new wordpress site built by iBusinessLogic.com (Scott Pooler) and am working on some ideas for two more sites. This post in question has now quadrupled the traffic on any other post I have written, so I will be working on expanding the topic in the near future.
- Keith Bloemendaal
I have a couple of posts getting traffic because they were linked from another site. I also just noticed I'm getting a small amount of google traffic. I would definitely like to see a strategy to capitalize on this situation.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
I ended up creating two separate series on the blog based on the post's success. It allowed me to expand and use other networks to grow the audience even more.
- Andre Natta
awesome, thanks Darren! I'm looking forward to it. :)
- Miguel Wickert- Pineiro
Yep. In fact I did so earlier today after looking at analytics and saw organic traffic coming in from a certain post.
- Brian Weaver
@Keith I think that if the first doubling does not push you to expand on the post, the continous grow is a clear sign that it has to do with the content, and not just "lucked out on digg".
- Roland Hesz
It would make sense, but I'm guilty of not capitalising on it and just letting that one post bring in the traffic
- Adam Christie
I write my blog for me, there are subjects that get more attention but I am not going to sell out what I enjoy doing!
- Joe Dawson
@ Joe Dawson I write my blog for consumers, and if they are searching heavily on a subject, why not give them what they are looking for at my blog, especially if it has to do with my niche (which happens to be very small), so if trying to give them what they are looking for, while at the same time attracting more readers, then OK, I will sell out as you put it. My blog is not monetized though, so I get no money for it, I write on it for free, I would think selling out would have some monetary benefit to me.
- Keith Bloemendaal
it all depends. tempting to cash in on popularity but if you're not passionate about it, others can tell &blogging becomes a dreadful chore.
- Jane Chin, Ph.D.
I would certainly add in a few links to other relevant posts, or perhaps add a little note suggesting that readers might like to sign up to the RSS feed or newsletter. Realistically these posts often attract transient traffic but some of that can be translated into regular readers for sure!
- Winston
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