I love that Bret, Paul, and Kevin checked in. They probably are looking at their screens and asking "what do we do now?" how about ship some new features before Facebook overlords take you off to do bigger things?
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I feel sorry for all you addicts. My use of it is purely social.
- Bruce Lewis
I do like FF and use it almost every day. Wouldn't it be great if FB either left it alone so we can continue to use it as "professionals," or somehow incorporate it into a more "mature" version of FB that didn't have all the annoying, time-wasting apps, games, etc. I'd much prefer a totally customizable FF "wall."
- Cathryn Hrudicka
I think FFundercats HO!!!!! would have worked but I'm here anyways.
- Jimminy
Actively fighting addiction to anything on a daily basis, but I'm still a FriendFeed fan! (I'd have been here sooner but I've been staring at Phoebe Cates pics for longer than I realized.)
- Mark "DerBingle" J
Thank you Robert Scoble to be here. :) BTW is this looks interesting for FF replacement? : http://streamy.com/ ? May be... I'll try it to see. :)
- Claude LaFrenière
Why should I? Whats in it for me? You doing some sort of survey of people to send out the police to do a "Safety Check" on when the site is shutdown?
- CW™
here. anecdote: a friend of mine just signed up for FF this evening. apparently the FriendFeed hype of the last 24 hours pushed him over the top. leaves me wondering whether FF has actually gained users today?it would be a crafty way of marketing the service. I'll wake up tomorrow to discover that there was a problem with the paperwork and the FriendFeed team have had a change of heart.
- JSLeFanu
from BuddyFeed
Count me in even though I was just starting to get hooked. I guess it's time to find a rehab and get all sobered up until the next relapse with some other new addiction. Isn't life grand?
- Usman Bashir
oh hey, look, the added an "add comment" link to the end of the comment list. Huzzah!
- Brett Kelly
from iPhone
++Jay. I was going to do the same thing yesterday but I didn't want to pay the money.
- David Cook
David -- this was a $9.95 session but you can get them for $7.95 and there are also 25% off coupons if you do online check-in prior to your Delta flight. That's an incentive for folks to use that service and offload kiosk use at the terminals. Very savvy marketing by the folks at GoGo and Delta combined.
- Jay Cuthrell
well, it's 12:12 a.m. and I'm perusing FF from my iPhone via BuddyFeed before turning in. so yeah, I guess I count. "Here!" (raises hand)
- Don Faulkner
from BuddyFeed
I recommend FF to some of my clients, and there are some companies and nonprofits with presences here—not like Twitter, but I'll be curious how that will be affected when FB takes over more. Most have FB fan pages, groups and/or causes, too.
- Cathryn Hrudicka
Yeah, me too. I just saw the request to have a comment link at the bottom of the comments from one of your friends just yesterday and here it is. I'd say they are listening. Thanks FF.
- Keith Rowland
И так чятег, пока Скобл не поговорит с нами представителями СовиетФрендфидика, все мои записи теперь можно читать в этом тредике. Пользуясь случае передаю Парню Бухайту и его команде большой привет, в связи с тем что [He can has sleep naw].
- ideali
превед кетаец! давай сегодня сделаем тебя счастливым!
- Махатма Бугоганди
точно! поэт, пародист, переводчик. известный блоггер.
- Махатма Бугоганди
я вчера был в издательстве, с меня сведения об авторе просят. давайте, говорят, напишем, где учился, что генеральный директор. и что известный блоггер.
- Махатма Бугоганди
а можно получить профессию известного блоггера? какие экзамены сдавать надо? какую специализацию лучше выбрать - микроблоггинг или аудиоподкастинг?
- Махатма Бугоганди
Один чувак пришол в чятег и говорит я известный блоггер кто тут тру на первый второй рассчитайсь. А ему говорят чувак у тебя сертификат есть что ты известный блоггер? Вот иди Зайке экзамен сдай потом приходи. А Зайка стоит такой с топором и улыбается. Щас думает счастливым его сделаю.
- Махатма Бугоганди
Я потерял интерес в данный момент. Я буду скрывать, как и любой другой. Это хромой, что вы захватили этот. Пивные правила. Спокойной ночи. :-)
- Matthew Horton
More than a friend of FriendFeed, was starting to use it as a full lifestreaming platform and loved it. It's made a whole lot of other sites make sense.
- achean
Hi, I'm Bette... I don't know if I'm an addict, but I can't stay away... I keep checking, just to see if something's new... and I cry if I get no responses to a post. Is that addictive behavior? :D
- Bette Cooper
Yup, I have blocked all the impersonators now. You will still see them, but I don't see them and they no longer can comment on any of my items.
- Robert Scoble
@scobleizer As far as I can see you have blocked not only the impersonators (who renamed themselves back the moment they found out you have a problem with this) but most of the folks who chatted there.
- Махатма Бугоганди
@meatreach yes, see next thread. Scobble becomes anti-Russian.
- Never Impersonate You
Maxatma: well, that's just too bad. I speak English. Sorry. People who don't speak English really don't have any business commenting on one of my items, except in rare cases.
- Robert Scoble
Why you, Robert Scoble, don't block users from Spain or Italy? China or arabic countries? Those users that comments on non-English languages?
- Never Impersonate You
@Robert, in fact they do speak English. But they also do make fun of Friendfeed and everything that's going on there. You can block them or take part in this fun. ;)
- Махатма Бугоганди
I prefer FF over twitter and facebook, but all my friends are on twitter and/or facebook. Maybe facebook will get it right this time now that it has acquired FF. If they simplify it a bit more without removing functionality. Then I would spend a bit more time on FB. Lets hope all goes well with the merger. If not I'm jumping ship and going over to Google Wave. oh wait, I'm going to go with Google Wave regardless! ;-)
- Captain Jack
Bu arada Russian friends Turkiye'ye selamlar gonderiyor.
- ideali
@scobleizer i can speak english and i beg you to remove bann from all russian friendfeeders, because we are all from it-community, working in internet companies and we came with peace, you asked for feedback from friendfeed addicts — we show you how really it is being frf addicts, we change names, we chat, we making things that are not serious. Why so serious? Unlock people, they are not bots, they just playing the game of real addicts and have fun. Common.
- ideali
shaun: I started this post to demonstrate that a lot of us are still here and aren't likely to leave. At least not quickly. So, life goes on after FriendFeed gets acquired by Facebook. Point proved.
- Robert Scoble
Robert He says ; Our Russian friends say to hello to Turkey
- Osman Üngür
ideali: have them send email to scobleizer@gmail.com and I'll unblock anyone who says they weren't impersonating me.
- Robert Scoble
Hector: good morning! I need coffee.
- Robert Scoble
@robert yes they (we will) stay here, I think tat the migration process will take time and after reading @Paul Bucheit, I think that what we all are trying to get even if we don't say it explicitly is to preserve a kind of intimacy (beeing a part of the Huge faceBook community) don't mean that FF community will preserve their intimacy, why should a community be a plan one, (let imagine a community as a set of sub-community) that all.
- abdellah
Wow!! So many likes and comments; is it a record Rob?
- Er-fun
@scobleizer thank you, for understanding. be cool, guys we just want have fun here a little. Take care.
- ideali
@Robert RE "I have enough noise in my life. I don't need to have more" - isn't it a lot of noise having 26K subscriptions and 46K subscribers on your frf account? I'm kind of surprised - you create a community that large around yourself, yet when you see a new and unusual activity you just block it right away.
- Махатма Бугоганди
@Robert, patience? Who's talking about patience? It's about curiosity, not patience. When something strange and unusual happens around you, you can either try to stop it or try to see what it can develop into. You choose to stop - and it stopped. Well, not stopped - just moved to some other place. And do you really know what it was and what it was about to bring you?
- Махатма Бугоганди
I'm here all the way from South Africa! I dig this service and I'm not quite ready to give it up. Regardless of the news about the acquisition, this remains an awesome service.
- Paul Jacobson
I'm new to ff but find more valuable information here than anywhere else!
- Janet Crance
I don't know how I rate my addiction relative to others, but I shared Hitler's reaction upon hearing the acquisition news (despite happiness for Paul and Bret)
- Chris Duffy
I'm sure this is part of Scoble's plot to poll all the people who really read his posts, and unfollow the rest. So I raise my hand.
- Shivanand Velmurugan
Just a wannabe. Not an addict (yet).
- Carole Hicks
It might also be a way for me to filter down my "following" count (diff (my followers, scoble)) are the only people I really need to follow. Those that scoble follows, I can safely unfollow and use Scoble as my social media filter :)
- Shivanand Velmurugan
pardon the arrogance but it really sucks this great forum of sharing will turn into a myspace humdrum. Now I have to find another SM where first adopters and well informed techies won't haft to compete with general "noise"
- earl wallace
Well, here's a comment I can later delete and rob the owner of 1500!
- Matthew DeVries
I just mention the 1500 mark since it was such an iconic query to see... that and the 500 Likes club of FF posts. It's pretty exclusive stuff... but it's also sobering to note that the subject matter required to get to these levels isn't always a uniform mix of cares/concerns.
- Jay Cuthrell
When I heard the FaceBook news, I tried to quit FriendFeed and I couldn't... I'M HOOKED
- The Web's Wendell Wittler
i clicked the "1488 more comments" and my computer nearly exploded. and yes, i am using an amiga 500.
- jack
Now that I have instructions (thanks LouisGray) and figured out my Bookmarklet! I am LOVING the ease of use! addict - not quite...
- Robyn Hawk
Actually, I lied. I am not a die-hard friendfeed fan. I desperately want to be but have just not been able to get into a good "feeding" rhythm. Maybe I need to add some more friends
- Anant Gairola
I don't need to be addict. I'm just here, everyday, absorbing so many geeky info :D There's no place like FF
- Lysender
I'm still with ya, Robert. Whatever FB paid for FF, it wasn't enough!
- Donald C. Lindsay
New here, but learning. Tips for best use?
- Barbara Langham
@bdlangam From my perspective the #1 tip in this category is: Explore and define "best use" for yourself. Despite potential "finishing" impression of some productive consolidations in this collective-collaborative cognition space, the emergent #cognosphere is still WAY too nascent to assert anything other than initial impressions. March to the beat of your own drum; build your own...
more...
- michael silverton
yeah sorry, late. was at Shambhala Music Festival, I know tardy, sorry...
- sofarsoShawn
I'm getting hooked, still figuring it all out
- Michele McGraw
I think I do. Not enough contacts to make a impression.
- Michael Schlag
The engineering geniuses at Google figured out that cleaning all the grime off of solar panels makes them work better. http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009...
Maybe they saw Ed Begley Jr wash his solar panels.
- Bob Gannon
from iPhone
Another genious quote from the article: "the more energy our panels produce, the sooner we'll be paid back by our solar investment". But to give them a little credit, all solar panels i've seen advertised were advertised as maintenance-free.
- Tom Ribbens
Carol cleaning closets, taking a carload to Goodwill, party planning, party shopping, Kimberton Fair. All-in-all a full day. Hope to feel like we accomplished something at the end of it all.
My analysis of where FriendFeed has gone wrong. Keep in mind that FriendFeed is growing faster than many blogs are, and is outpacing TechMeme, for instance.
- Robert Scoble
Someone said they can't believe FriendFeed isn't gaining momentum. It is, but not at the same rate Facebook and Twitter are.
- Robert Scoble
I don't think FriendFeed can compete with Facebook. I don't think it should, they're different tools.
- Glenn Slaven
friendfeed is not so easy for most people to "use" or view, I think twitter is the easiest, facebook is good for people who like it.. I 'use" friendfeed to post things that go to twitter and facebook but I do not come here a lot to read posts. After reading a page of posts and comments I have had enough, it is like reading 15+ blogs with comments, a little too bulky?
- David Gross
8-10% of ALL techmeme posts are from TechCrunch why such a high rate?
- Benjamin Taylor
Why compare? I like FF for what it is. I don't want it to be in the same convo as Twitter and FB. It has nicely defined user base, a distinct design and functionality and has 2 great uses: conversation and self-aggregation
- Dave Ferrick
"The search industry has a dirty secret: 99% of people don’t click on advanced search, yet FriendFeed requires you to click on that button to use it in any useful way." You're right, but I find it interesting that FriendFeed's advanced search is the only advanced search I use. Maybe FriendFeed is a tool for the more advanced social networkers? Maybe it's not for everyone.
- Kevin Gamble
I think FF is hesitant to make it a full-blown Twitter client because that would import all the spam.
- Peter Warnock
In terms of FriendFeed it's a fantastic tool for setting up a "lifestream" feed to your blog. really simple way to own your social media without plugins
- Benjamin Taylor
do they have an iPhone app ? are they "mobile" ?
- Alex
Robert, FriendFeed will catch on...in 2010
- Benjamin Taylor
Compete can't measure everything. For example, they think fftogo.com had 320 visits last month.
- Bruce Lewis
They can just make a really good FriendFeed client. What we are doing right now is the hidden power of FriendFeed. Allowing people to continue the conversation beyond the original post.
- Dave Mora
I find this a hilarious slap in the face for you Scoble, but honestly, FriendFeed does not have the simplicity of Twitter to be quite honest, and I have a much higher chance of using Twitter with a third party app than this. Still, it's all about if you're friends or people you want to watch are on here, and for me, they aren't,
- Chris
Seconding alex's question. I would use a FF iPhone app in a heartbeat
- Tristan Walker
from iPhone
I mainly use friendfeed to post to it for people who like to read (bookmarklet and other stuff) and so friendfeed can post to twitter and facebook. I would like if it posted to myspace too :o)
- David Gross
Dave has a great point, it's FF provides a deeper layer of the conversation
- Benjamin Taylor
Robert, the list is backwards... it should be API, Mobile, monetization, etc..
- Alberto Saavedra
I can believe it. For the average joe twitter is easy and straightforward to get started. FF, not so much. You have a lot of credentials to input for your various services and the UI is like a corn maze even to some of my more techie friends. Also, having an established crowed never hurt. I appreciate FF and really see it's power, but most people do not and aren't willing to learn.
- John Reynolds
They need SMS before an iPhone app - most of the nation still does not have internet on their cell phone
- Jesse Stay
Alberto: it's 4 a.m. here in London and the list is in no particular order, just straight off the top of my head.
- Robert Scoble
friendfeed is NOT mobile unless you are on an iphone..
- David Gross
FF tripped these past two months because of a lack of iphone apps, lack of a good SUL, lack of a good intro for new members, lack of comments happening for new members. While FF has moved forward on some fronts - they still need better integration into blogs then we'll see a better uptake.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
John, exactly! The only thing I truly use this for is the occasional conversation bit and tying last.fm to my Twitter account.
- Chris
SMS can't be the answer right away, particularly when the major value add for FF is in the threaded conversation.
- Tristan Walker
from iPhone
jesse: SMS=money. plus, how effective do you think FF could be via sms?
- John Reynolds
Tristan - FriendFeed will never go to the masses if they don't have SMS support
- Jesse Stay
even if we forget the thought of monetization - my idea about creating a whitelabel ff to replace forums would drastically increase the usage and the understanding of the service - http://www.centernetworks.com/friendf... - ff has to get out from under the early adopter rock - without going down the exact same path as twitter - my suggestion does exactly that.
- Allen Stern
@LPH o rly? so it is not so easy to make it mobile..
- David Gross
John, as effective as Twitter. Most remote people can't access it via the internet, but they can via SMS. Twitter is making SMS work - FriendFeed can as well.
- Jesse Stay
I agree Jesse, but what does that product look like? How does one keep up with the 'conversation' and stay relevant
- Tristan Walker
from iPhone
Tristan, the same way they're doing the IM link above
- Jesse Stay
i disagree with the sms talk - all it would do is help the current users use it more - that's worthless for ff now - sorry jesse don't hate me :)
- Allen Stern
sms would not work, even email does not work and I get that on my phone.. there is too much of it..
- David Gross
Allen, I think it would get new users. Many users use Twitter mostly through SMS - it's what made Twitter appealing for me. It's why I used Twitter in South Dakota and Minnesota and Wyoming and not FriendFeed.
- Jesse Stay
SMS is not the future people. The future lies in ubiquitous data connectivity from all mobile devices with a growing amount of the market shifting towards more flexible touch screen interfaces and the iphone the leader of that market, the iphone is a perfect platform to put focus.
- John Reynolds
I like what Posterous is doing in terms of post methods
- Benjamin Taylor
Twitter hit a major booster rocket with the Hudson and iran and prop 8 - coupled with CNN shitting the bed. Now that dictators know about twitter, they're derailing it ahead of incursions. We've not heard thing 1 out of china on the uiger uprising. Never tracked. Ff should fill that gap. We need to strat crawling the boards for blow by blow uigerstan massacre stories. Boom, ff is the bees knees
- Matthew DeVries
from fftogo
It's just not inviting. A fraction too complicated. I signed up but really haven't used it since but I'm active on twitter because it's simple and I can do it with 1% of my brain. FF doesn't give me that and yet I know why it is technically a 'better' more advanced system than Twitter
- philhenley
I have to clean up my gmail before I go mobile because on my phone this conversation will be multiple messages even though in gmail it is one conversation lol
- David Gross
jesse - as robert noted - most people using twitter have no reason to be on ff - my sister is one of them - she has no need to aggregate a bunch of services - so sms won't "move" or "add" new users from twitter. my discussion board idea would.
- Allen Stern
The current FriendFeed audience is anti-SMS though. You guys will never be for it, but mark my words - the audience FriendFeed does want that will bring in the masses will come when they enable SMS
- Jesse Stay
David - the iphone apps are not quite good enough and the mobile interface on the iphone is worthless if the subscriptions are too high.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Allen, FriendFeed needs a simpler layer, and I think SMS is part of that. People don't have to use the whole thing, or even know it exists. They need a simple way to post statuses from anywhere they belong. So long as we're comparing them to Twitter, they have to do what Twitter does. Otherwise, why are we comparing them to Twitter at all?
- Jesse Stay
allen, I am on twitter and I love FF, I read blogs in google reader and any blog I share is posted to twitter through ff, I can favorite a youtube video from their mobile site and it is also posted on twitter through ff
- David Gross
Frankly, Jesse, the last thing I want is my phone beeping at me 100 times a minute. Do you realize how many SMS messages you would get from just THIS entry?
- Tommy Keene
Jesse I'm a big big fan of SMS..I use it for Twitter all the time...but I could not imagine using SMS for a conversation like this. Sms does the job when it comes to status updates and notifications. No brainer
- Tristan Walker
from iPhone
In terms of the gains at twitter and Facebook, flat isn't bad. Although a few percentage points would have been nice.
- Michael Fidler
and actually, just making those links on the right anything but bog standard would really help FF look less like a beta product. It always feels to me like it's half finished
- philhenley
Tommy, that's what preferences and options are for
- Jesse Stay
Friendfeed missed the 'boom' that Iran and MJ brought to twitter and FB. The only rason I can think of it, it was easier for people to join convos about those topics in twitter and fb than 'find' them in friendfeed. FF is still growing so nothing to be worried about. it will grow in its own pace as it has been doing.
- Freddie Benjamin
jesse - come to nyc - we will go to times square and ask how many people use sms or want to signup for ff to handle their sms and aggregate all their social services - you can even wear your social median shirt!
- Allen Stern
Tommy, and frankly, the power of Twitter SMS aren't the status updates I receive - it's the ability to post SMS updates
- Jesse Stay
My bad Robert, thought the numbers were priority. Jesse, unfortunately FriendFeed currently is perceived as a web app while twitter is kind of device agnostic
- Alberto Saavedra
I don't want to micro-manage my 100s of subscriptions
- Tommy Keene
I think Twitter and FriendFeed should just join forces and create a super social site: Fritter!
- Shawn Hickman
Allen, only if you come to South Dakota and Wyoming and Minnesota with me to ask the same questions
- Jesse Stay
Comment Control.. Cleaner interface (I never liked the redesign) ... and Media coverage :)
- Tim Hoeck
Alberto, and that is unfortunate - it's why, so long as we're comparing it to Twitter, it will never have the numbers Twitter has
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, so then post to twitter. And it gets put into your ff automatically. What's the problem?
- Tommy Keene
jesse: ill mark your words, but i think they are wrong. the audience they want now, is anyone who will come. twitter is already going to get those people due to its popularity and simplicity. In a few years the majority of the audience will have moved to smart phones with broadband connections and advanced touch UI's. There needs to be an iphone app. NOW.
- John Reynolds
Tommy, the problem is Twitter still gets that traffic
- Jesse Stay
as I watch this thread I wonder.. why can't I "pop-out" a thread and watch it, like a chat room.. hard to follow a conversation..
- Tim Hoeck
tim - if you click on the time, you get a dedicated page - but i agree with you - a "control center" would be nice
- Allen Stern
how about a mobile website before you make iphone app? is it so hard to make Like and Comment links that work in Opera Mobile or IE Mobile?
- David Gross
Can anyone imagine trying to take part in this conversation effectively via SMS? I can't. This much data needs a well designed UI and smart, easy to use filtering and notification tools.
- John Reynolds
It was SMS that enabled me to be the first report on the GreenPeace protest at Mount Rushmore - there was no internet there. It is those interesting Tweets that make Twitter interesting and appealing. It's the information, real-time content, and capability to post anywhere, any time that makes Twitter appealing. I can't necessarily do that everywhere with FriendFeed. It will never compete with Twitter in that regard.
- Jesse Stay
Information is flowing away and not stocked. This is the main problem. Solution is in applications as you said. Friendfeed should create a great developer community to spread their APIs. They need an another funding for developer contests. Or just one acquiring may solve this motivation problem of developers, like Twitter's Summize sourcing.
- Erhan Erdogan
ahh.. thanks Allen.. guess that is one of those "usability" things :)
- Tim Hoeck
I would not use ff in sms.. too many messages to go through, I would be way behind on my reading, it would be worse than my email..
- David Gross
thanks michael - i truly believe that it would open ff past the geekcore that it sits with now - sadly none of ff management has ever replied or commented on any of my ideas for them
- Allen Stern
tim - i only learned that last week - i agree why there isnt a button is beyond me
- Allen Stern
(Just got done reading the article and I can come right to the sidebar to comment on it. I love that.) I'm glad the growth is slow. Maybe the FriendFeed team isn't, but I love hanging out here and I don't think it would be the same if it was being hyped up as much as other services.
- Mitch
And now - we can see the next challenge faced by FF. The majority of FF entries have a short life - the flip of the page - unless others see the thread and "like" or comment. If the entry is missed then there is no power to the entry (and no immediate gratification for the person). Next, there are multiple entries of the same topics. On Twitter, this is partially solved by retweets - but "top" FFeeders don't really re-share other people's entries - thus "killing off the young."
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Keep in mind my comments are only in regards to FriendFeed being able to "compete" with Twitter. Otherwise Twitter is not competition. FriendFeed needs to figure out who they are and who they are competing with. I have no clue based on what you guys are saying.
- Jesse Stay
There are other uses for FF we for example are using it as CRM with the secret mail it work perfectly ,as well I recommended some time ago to let other sites when they register their users to make an automatic parallel user here in FF ,for example a newspaper that has his social activity can make all his users FF users ,its a small API but an important one
- Johni Fisher
Twitter is popular because, honestly, most people only want to hear themselves speak, and don't care that much about what everyone else thinks. However, there will always be those of us who like reading what other people think.
- Curt
agree jesse - i dont think they know who they are yet either - i'd like to see them move AWAY from twitter comparisons as it's just not a battle worth fighting at this time. it's time for ff to get some marketing staff
- Allen Stern
exactly curt - it's about people thinking they are a celeb.
- Allen Stern
I do not know how many people actually have the time for all this anyway, I been watching this conversation for a bit but it is past bedtime.. good night everybody :o)
- David Gross
take the experience out of the browser. i think a robust desktop app would gain FF a few more super dorky users, but wouldn't help them grow at the rate facebook and twitter are.
- Jim Halligan @jim
Jesse: Friendfeed will compete with Google Wave or Google Search. Not Twitter or Facebook.
- Erhan Erdogan
Allen, agreed as well - so long as they want to be Twitter they need SMS. If they don't want to be Twitter they need to distinguish exactly what they are. No one knows right now.
- Jesse Stay
Twitter has won their territory, FriendFeed needs to NOT be twitter, and find their "zone".
- Tim Hoeck
Basically friendfeed has built an incredible communications platform that can be utilized in many different environments. The corporate market holds huge potential. White labeling friendfeed just makes sense.
- Michael Fidler
And now another challenge to FF is shown in these comments. People start talking to each other - and when not noticed they either keep trying to "join" the conversation or just remove themselves from the conversation. Finally, someone who just discovers this is NOT going to be interested in reading everyone's comments - thus lowering a person's interest.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
Erhan which one - those are two entirely different products right now.
- Jesse Stay
Does FF have any recmmendation systems? With conversations like this I'd imagine that to be a killer opportunity
- Tristan Walker
from iPhone
If they want to be search, search needs to be front and center, like Google
- Jesse Stay
i have to go to sleep im sorry but i still don't think sms will change that graph that thomas hawk posted. and not to harp on my idea but if they did start with the forum idea - think about how massive their real-time search index would be.... ponder that one - too many companies forget how much more is out there... it makes me very frustrated - ok be well everyone
- Allen Stern
If they want to be like Google Wave, the private messaging has to be front and center, and they need to be more open
- Jesse Stay
"real time" overload this thread is a prime example
- Benjamin Taylor
I just read Scobleizer's blog post. What's this about Facebook cloning FriendFeed? Did Facebook enhance "Like" to where I see non-friends' items on Facebook that my friends Like? Does Facebook have "Hide other items like this one" now? Last I saw, Facebook only had flimsy imitations of FriendFeed's functionality.
- Bruce Lewis
except, the UI is not like a chat room... hard to follow.
- Tim Hoeck
LPH, exactly right about the size. You can't have a conversation with a zillion people at once. Smaller groups are more effective, and that's why Facebook is popular, you control who you talk to...
- Curt
Jesse: This data will be valuable than Google's crawled index. They must use this value. But I ve no idea which one they choose.
- Erhan Erdogan
Allen there are so many more people that can post content to FriendFeed (vs the other Social Networks in the graph) once they open up SMS. Much more content will go directly to FriendFeed, and not their "competition" (if that graph is really who they're trying to compete with - I don't think it is)
- Jesse Stay
But you can update ff with text messages I thought. By updating twitter and feeding twitter. By updating fb and feeding fb. By updating wordpress and feeding wordpress. I thought that is what made ff powerful. Ff's original sin was obscuring and hiding the fact that it's made of feeds. Favicons for the fed services would help that.
- Matthew DeVries
from fftogo
Content *can* already go from SMS to FF... through Twitter.. I don't see the point.
- Tim Hoeck
LPH, Curt: isn't that exactly what Google Wave will do? Have the ability to branch off?
- Jim Halligan @jim
Benjamin: It's really hard to find the "comment" link when talking like in mIRC. : ) What is the problem. A "comment" link in the last comment's right may be useful.
- Erhan Erdogan
just give us a good old fashion frame so we can scroll :)
- Tim Hoeck
What brought people to Twitter were the "tornado" and "earthquake" and "fire" posts. It made Twitter interesting and brought even more people to Twitter. The iPhone wasn't out then - how do you think people were posting those emergency Tweets at that time (and even now)? The media caught that and before we knew it even Oprah was talking about it. SMS is the root of what has made Twitter successful, even if the majority of users don't use it all the time. The "interesting" Tweets all come from SMS.
- Jesse Stay
Perhaps every Friendfeed fan should take it upon themselves to introduce one new person to it. #Mentor
- David Damore
23 m istanbul :D HAHA good nights! ; )
- Erhan Erdogan
Bruce I think that FaceBook has other bug as well ,when you send a request to B a friend with someone even with out his approval you are getting at your wall his posts or part of them for sure
- Johni Fisher
this is what i mean by taking the experience out of the browser. at least for me, chrome cannot handle this thread right now.
- Jim Halligan @jim
Not being supported by developers is a big downside for friendfeed, The problem is there is little room for a ff client to add value like they do for twitter.
- Alistair (alpinefolk)
Facebook is confusing to me.. too much going on in their UI. Twitter is ridiculous to carry on a conversation. FF is for me. Just clean up the UI, and make things easier to manage. And word to the wise.. when I start getting "Which character from HBO's True Blood are you?" requests, I'm outta here!
- Tim Hoeck
What's really interesting is that these 3 products are entirely different products that I think should be competing on entirely different turfs. The blogosphere for some reason wants them all to compete.
- Jesse Stay
Forums, IRC, and Newsgroups all co-existed (and still do).. what's the difference? They all have their niche.
- Tim Hoeck
I am learning about Friendfeed now, but feel Twitter has elements of Google, linkedin and real time convos, that Friendfeed does not make as easy or intuitive. But friendfeed offers full convo tracking. To me, it seems like merger mania on the horizon. Question: Who buys who?
- Alan W Silberberg
like Robert said in his blog, friendfeed is newer than either fb or twitter and is in similar place as when they were same age.. to me it seems like friendfeed can be like twitter when nobody comments or the page is full of tweets or it can look more like facebook when people post pictures and stories and leave comments.. It is like a mesh of facebook without the nasty apps and twitter...
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- David Gross
Frankly, I'd love to see one company own all three - I think it would make a really valuable product, and I think all 3 would still co-exist
- Jesse Stay
Any "popular" alternative to Friedfeed? - People just don't get it. ( I use it )
- FranK
Ff does need a better mobile app. However there is no reason for it to compete with Twitter, they have different uses
- Kim Landwehr
from iPhone
This thread has me excited for the embargoed story Scoblizer dropped hints about. I think this is the typical right before big story provacative thread that robert starts, which the embargo'd announcement answers the question of.
- Matthew DeVries
from fftogo
Jesse, I think that sounds good, all 3 together in harmony.. and I have introduced my twitter and facebook friends to http://ff.im/1hqgl :o) #hive
- David Gross
Not 100% off topic since it was mentioned can someone tell me why 8-10% of ALL posts on Techmeme are from TechCrunch?
- Benjamin Taylor
Benjamin, others have their theories, but my view: TechCrunch also breaks 8-10% (or more) of all tech news stories. They're simply the first to the stories.
- Jesse Stay
Benjamin: TechCrunch covers more tech industry news and gets linked to by more influential bloggers than any other site. Before TechCrunch deleted its account here, it was my #1 most "liked" FriendFeed account, too.
- Robert Scoble
FranK: Facebook is the popular alternative to FriendFeed.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, I think it's a different tool than FriendFeed. It's more for managing relationships. FriendFeed is more about information and aggregation.
- Jesse Stay
Yes Jesse, the 3 are entirely different and FF's perceived focus is realtime conversations but the service is not ready to scale (the value) yet, this conversation is an example... everyone should have the ability to create different threads in their own view and aggregate them (personalize) as preferred. But web development is not there yet, what FriendFeed needs is more developers excited.
- Alberto Saavedra
Less is more. FF seems to be too much for the average non-techy user. Twitter is about as basic as you can get. Although ff is a great app, I find myself here rarely.
- Tomy Thomson
Does anyone have an opinion on how FriendFeed might deal with Google Wave as a competitor? I see these two services being very similar, closer than Twitter & FF. Robert, I see how you use FF bring people from Twitter over here to discuss topics. Do you see yourself using Wave in a similar fashion, and what do you think the adoption rate will be like?
- Jim Halligan @jim
Jim, I have not even had a chance to see what google wave is all about, just waiting for them to spring it on me..
- David Gross
from email
Jim: I'm with David. Don't know enough yet about Wave. When they get it to me we'll check it out quickly.
- Robert Scoble
wave might be a good thing, I DO use gmail.. maybe google will buy friendfeed? lol
- David Gross
from email
Robert, if you ever want to try it I have a test account I can let you play with any time.
- Jesse Stay
Wave is more a competition with Gmail than it is FriendFeed, unless there's something they have yet to release or announce that utilizes the Wave protocol
- Jesse Stay
Wave is a technology. If it's good, FriendFeed will use it, possibly better than anyone else does.
- Bruce Lewis
Thanks. I believe that if they do end up competing, as much as I love FriendFeed- I think they might be in trouble because Google will be able to back the real-time search technology and they may also have a way to monetize the Waves from day one.
- Jim Halligan @jim
Jim, I think Google would be better off just buying FriendFeed and integrating the Google technology with what FriendFeed already has. I think Paul and crew have carefully poised themselves this way.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, do you think the former googlers want to be acquired by Google? Paul B has talked about wanting to structure a company in a new, more sustainable way. Would he be happy back in Google's structure again?
- Bruce Lewis
Bruce, I don't know Paul, but I'm willing to bet if the offer was right he wouldn't turn Google down.
- Jesse Stay
Another option would be to sell to Microsoft or Yahoo, of course.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: Paul wouldn't sell. Doesn't need to. And if he did the offer would be so wacky and based on the numbers FriendFeed isn't going to get a wacky bid this year.
- Robert Scoble
FB should pay FF to be an incubator, like Fedora and Redhat Enterprise.
- Peter Warnock
I'm sticking to my guns on this one. I think they'll sell this year or next.
- Jesse Stay
I did see a feature in Google wave which might help here. They have a real-time grammar/spelling correction system, which was included from the start. It was included to to make the platform as comfortable to use as possible hopefully to appeal to a larger audience. Some people type slow or make grammatical mistakes; I'm the king of them. Personally, I would love anything that would help in this area.
- Michael Fidler
Jessie, I could completely see Google buying friendfeed. It seems to me that's been a possible exit stategy from the start.
- Michael Fidler
Sounds like a wild prediction Michael, or are there some clues/hints that I'm oblivious to?
- Mitch
Mitch, it's total conjecture on my part. It's just a theory, nothing more. I can see it as an exit strategy, but whether it was preconceived is nothing more than speculation. There isn't any bad blood between them that you know of, is there?
- Michael Fidler
Curt's comment above: "Twitter is popular because, honestly, most people only want to hear themselves speak..." Good point. Of course there's a degree of that everywhere including FF, but the inherent length limit on a twitter is enough insulation for most users that, when faced with a call to debate, are comfortable with 1) Shooting out a curt, cryptic one-liner or 2) Not responding at all. The rich communication environment on FriendFeed makes not backing up what you bring to the party glaringly obvious.
- Micah Wittman
Allen, your whitebox idea deserves more consideration, discussion and air time than it's currently getting. I would love to see forum software replaced or morphed by the power of the FF technology. I think one hesitation (at least for now) may be the worry of siphoning off too many staff resources to deal with the hosting/dev infrastructure + licensing deal issues that go with the territory. Regardless, we need more analysis on this, people!
- Micah Wittman
I had no clue what I was signing up for when I signed up for friend feed. I thought it was just another social networking platform (e.g. same as facebook / twitter). It needs to be more obvious that friend feed can consolidate TONS of social networking tools and improve them.
- duskstriker
Good post with a lot of interesting observations. The one point I would push back on is the API: friendfeed has by far the best designed API - way better than facebook and twitter. The reason there are less applications on friendfeed is not because of the API but I think because they have not reached their critical mass yet. I personally think that this whole social networking/messaging...
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- Edwin Khodabakchian
Agree,Friendfeed is kind of noisy,many people like me doesn't use that as often as we used to.
- Steve Chou
I think a good name could make a difference. Friendfeed, friendfood, friendfodder !!!???
- Nitin Nanivadekar
FF is doing just fine... It's a very, very powerful product as it is now. Yea it has many imperfections... So feedback is great, but also give it some time, and it will become better and better (it has been that way thus far), and will rock the world. Also, remember that slower growth may be a blessing for a product, too.
- Onur Kabadayi
FriendFeed seems to be an important web application and, in hindsight, may turn out to be the ground breaker in a new class of applications. However, it is horrendously difficult to understand. Even as a reasonably technical user, the presentation of configuration information about what is input, what is output, what is connected to what, etc. is appalling. "My kingdom for a diagram!"
- John W Lewis
As a developer that creates a lot of mashups etc, I disagree about the api, the problem with the api is not the api it's a case of what to do with it. The data that comes out of FF is much more complex than fb and twitter. I am working on something which should solve some of your issues and show it off. Lack of hype is also why there are not many apps.
- Darren Stuart
Great article, Robert Scoble. Love your ruthless intellectual honesty in identifying some problems with a service you have heavily evangelized. It would be easy to address these issues, but I am beginning to think that FF management has a much different take on the noise problem than many of us (including Tim O'Reilly).
- Sean McBride
I agree with Onur Kabadayi.. Robert says it in his post as well. Twitter's growth in the first two years was similar. Plus, given the fact that it is a more complicated tool, it will take some more time for management to get some "First Things to Do Now that you are on FriendFeed" kind of documentation, and for the users to really grasp all that can be done w/ Friendfeed and why it is better (the differentiation). Sean McBride, could you expand on "a much different take" when it comes to noise.?
- John Serra
John: FF has a "much different take" on noise: some of us have been complaining quite loudly about the noise issue for over a year now, with no feedback from FF or moves from FF to address the problem. Perhaps this is a matter of individual aesthetics; perhaps Paul, Bret and the FF crew enjoy a large sprawling rambling chaotic canvas and don't see the world through the same eyes as Tim O'Reilly, Mitch Kapor, Tim Bray, etc. Twitter is growing much faster than Friendfeed because of its minimalism and brevity.
- Sean McBride
Twitter is being blocked by China Government, evildoing!
- Motor Industry
Exactly why I asked Sean.. I like the fact that there is noise, and I like the fact that I get to filter out what I don't want to see.. Yes, we could argue that the ability to filter should be better, or more explicit, but I believe we are still at an early stage of development for this tool.. So, yes, I believe it is only for early adapting power users (sorry for the generalization) at...
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- John Serra
FF does so much more for my work and my engagement with my professional community than twitter or FB have ever been able to. :) Thanks for the interesting post!
- Allyson Lister
Friendfeed is a major player in real time search and it never sucks like Twitter( Its always down)
- Michael_techie
Why? FriendFeed is a place for the more geeky type, and mostly all geeks already have a Friendfeed account. Friendfeed is for people who are in social media, who have many accounts on everything, like I do. Frienfeed isn't growing because it serves a different purpose, to connect the sites that connect us.
- Zachary TG
I still feel like I am not being understood by many on the noise issue. I just clicked on my Peoplebrowsr tab and was able to scan *twenty* new mostly high-value Twitter posts from high-quality news feeds, many of which do not post directly to Friendfeed. I clicked back to my Friendfeed page, and am able to see only *two* primary posts. So: Twitter via Peoplepbrowsr usually offers a 10...
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- Sean McBride
I think FF is missing a huge opportunity to engage the Flickr community -- a large and established group of people and a community where FF could be a natural tool. 1. FF needs to allow you to import all of your Flickr contacts into FF matching up actual accounts where possible and creating an option for imaginary friends for the rest (to be replaced by actual accounts when others...
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- Thomas Hawk
Thomas - best thought of the whole damn thread
- Matthew DeVries
Long-term, I think that FF can also expand in the direction of aggregating real-time sensor data like pachube (http://www.pachube.com/). As wireless smart-meters invade our homes, every one of us will have at least a few sensor data streams that can be fed to FF for commenting, analysis, mashing, etc. Making effective real-time search over that data torrent is the only thing that can...
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- Vlado Handziski
I'll second that. Brilliant idea Thomas!
- Michael Fidler
Ironically, one of FriendFeed's problems is that its web experience is simply too good. Twitter's sucked (and still does), so it was the third-party developers who jumped in and as you said, are driving Twitter's growth.
- Aviv
I'm not going to lie, I don't want more people to join friend feed, they are ready ruined twitter. Well, maybe not ruined, but the value is a bit polluted by the bots and many self interested people
- Robert D. Fraser
Aviv, got to disagree with you about FriendFeed's web experience. A discussion like this one, with above a hundred comments, just turns "discussion" into the worst kind of flat-forum experience. It becomes impossible to find who's responding to who, because it isn't threaded (and you can't collapse responses). It's like an unthreaded Slashdot - simply unreadable.
- Ian Betteridge
Ian: funny, I read every unreadable comment here.
- Robert Scoble
Me too! This kind of thread is totally readable.
- Jim Connolly
Ian, I agree with you on that, but other than that issue (seen most frequently at Scoble's threads, of course) you have to agree that the early adopter crowd really adores the slick UI that the FF team got us used to. Among those early adopters are also potential third-party developers who have absolutely no incentive to compete with FF on delivering better UI experience, especially...
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- Aviv
And since you mentioned flat-forum experience - that's another problem FF faces; It evolved into a forum-like experience. A real-time one, but still a forum experience. And we all know mainstream doesn't care much about message boards unless they're troubleshooting some Windows printer driver. I'm guessing that for most "normal" users, keeping up with what goes on on FF is fun for the...
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- Aviv
The deer in the headlights reaction by some as to not getting likes and comments (or to the desired degree) doesn't seem much different than case of dreamers who think moving to Hollywood or Nashville automatically means you'll get noticed. It's an opportunity.
- Micah Wittman
Micah, that's not the same at all. I think that for some people, myself included, FF is just not as useful as it once was. 6 months ago I'd get some reactions to threads like http://friendfeed.com/aviv... and http://friendfeed.com/aviv.... Granted I don't have the network that...
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- Aviv
Aviv - you 're thinking/acting in single stream. Things only get burried if you have bad searches, bad lists, and bad groups. Real Time is infinitely more useful and I'm far less likely to miss things now because of the greatly improved saved search abilities and group making.
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, I'm not talking about my own management of the FF stream. That I do well. What I find troubling is that so many don't, and as a result entries go unnoticed quite often. IMHO this will be most difficult for new users to comprehend and will be the biggest contributor to them not coming back.
- Aviv
I guess I'm not seeing that. Participation on my content took off hardcore since Real Time. My FFHolic numbers have been insane. And my feed is not full of what this audience would consider useful or informative content, or even remotely connected to the field that 90% of you are in. Yet I am getting satisfactory traffic and engagement. So I find it hard to believe that someone who is...
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- Matthew DeVries
Aviv, thanks for clarifying. If your network puts you in a List, problem solved - but you already knew that. So the point you made was a lot of other people aren't leveraging lists and searches. So I'm thinking out loud with you here: what's the remedy? Maybe an algorithm that automatically puts what appears to be your core network into a List, and then flags you that there's unread activity going on in that List. I'm speaking in broad terms, but what do you think?
- Micah Wittman
lol Matthew. Self fulfilling prophecy, right, that's probably it. Or not: I took a look at your feed and it reminds me a lot of Digg. So I'm not at all surprised that you're seeing increased engagement. But in any case, I don't see the increased engagement you're talking about. Your content gets at best 4 Likes. I guess you don't know what I'm talking about really.
- Aviv
Wow Aviv. Just go on the meta attack. Wanna talk about my mom too while you're at it? The irony of calling me Digg-ish.
- Matthew DeVries
Really, the place you should be is Building43, and from your feed it's obvious you just want a tech group, talking tech things, with tech cred. You're right Ff is not for you.
- Matthew DeVries
*rolls eyes* he really did just flame my feed...... Do we even do that here?
- Matthew DeVries
I'm sure you won't be around much either, as soon as FlickChart implements forums.
- Aviv
Notice I haven't flamed you yet. It's just you deciding you're going to kick me in the dick for no reason at all.
- Matthew DeVries
Move on man. Your feed really does look like Digg, so admit it and let's move on. :)
- Aviv
So that's what you want out of this? People to get into old school flame wars?
- Matthew DeVries
I mean, I don't know why you suddenly decided you hated me, and felt the need to break down my feed and judge it against they beauty of yours. Sorry for what ever it is I did to you. I don't think it warranted your needless rudeness.
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, come on, are you serious? Can you not tell when someone is being sarcastic?
- Aviv
I'm fine if you want to mod it out Robert (though I know you don't believe in that, and I'm not going to Chris White up your joint)
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, I was just pointing out that your feed probably sees more engagement because Digg-like threads on FF bubble to the top more often than "serious" threads (actually I should say entries, because they rarely get the chance to become threads;) Scoble even says so in his post. I'm sorry if you feel that I attacked you personally, as that was far from my intention.
- Aviv
The UI is my biggest gripe. Face it FF is geared towards techie users I don't know if that was the plan. I don't see how FF could bring in regular users unless they have something like Facebook apps.
- sarvesh
I don't buy the API argument, it is the best of all the social networks. I developed the FriendDeck client using it, it is very very very clean for an API. As for clients, there is my FriendDeck app, it was way ahead of Tweetdeck for some features (web and desktop client with shared settings)
- Paul Kinlan
Seriously, I will lead the development of a Friendfeed client if anyone wants, take my FriendDeck brand and grow it make it better.
- Paul Kinlan
Jumping in a little late, but I have to say that I would be a much more active user on FF if the mobile site was functional on my BB. FF2GO just doesn't cut it since I can't change my settings or anything. I'm just not sitting at my desk or in front of a laptop all that often, but I always have my BB on me.
- Matt Thompson
FF2GO rocks as far as web based things go, but Tim Hoeck is working on what is looking like a really great Moble App for friendfeed. http://friendfeed.com/andfeed There is the room for it
- Matthew DeVries
Paul, the thing is, there's no need for such a client. Web experience is too good to encourage others to develop alternatives.
- Aviv
Aviv: I don't buy that in the slightest, there is a lot of need, multiple columns, sub feed/list filtering, user discovery, verticals (video only feeds, picture columns etc - like amplifeeder http://paul.kinlan.me as an example), there are lots of things that a good client will do to enhance Friendfeed.
- Paul Kinlan
Perhaps, but Twitter was ugly and near useless from day one, so the incentive (and need) for third-party developers was more obvious. It's also hard for a single third-party developer to enhance a service that updates its UI and functionality every other day. While the FF team is definitely doing a great job at that, it's much easier to develop on top of Twitter when you know it takes them 2 months just to charge the color of a link.
- Aviv
interesting. I've avoided subscribing to you but maybe that's what I need to fully appreciate FriendFeed (my interest had been waning) :)
- Paul Whitaker
@paul Nah, don't subscribe to Scoble (sorry Robert), I did for a while but it leads to information overload. Instead subscribe to a few people who do subscribe to him and you see the best bits as they 'like' and 'comment' on them. That said, this is redundant advice as you saw this post that way anyway I presume... and for me, thats the power of FF.
- James Macgill
Aviv: I defiantly agree that friendfeed has an awesome service and it works on many levels better than twitter does and they are very responsive and proactive to change. The biggest thing about a desktop client is a desktop client, you would be suprised how many people's workflow require a desktop app started from the start menu (I don't personally understand it but the demand is massive)
- Paul Kinlan
James: I don't mind seeing roberts posts at all, however the best bit of friendfeed for me are lists (i.e, lists of people I really follow etc), my discussions and the Best Of Day.
- Paul Kinlan
Amazing to see Facebook items with 100,000 likes and 10,000 comments. Would the FF interface be at all workable with so much activity? It's already hard to find anything beyond the top layer of most popular stuff unless you spend a huge amount of time managing hand-made lists. Not scalable. I might be able to sort 1,000 people into lists by hand, but 100,000. Whoa. I need some help from...
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- Mitchell Tsai
Ahh, nothing like the insiders vs. the masses. I like comparing things to cars... Volvos might be pretty solid cars, yet do people go "OMG I sooooo want a Volvo!"? Fellow geeks, please learn the tradegy of the commons. Just cuz it's good, doesn't mean people want it.
- Eric Rice
FF targets the wrong users! For some reason, I just find it hard to believe FF does not target publishers large and small in some ways, newspapers going out of business, it has very advanced feature set, however it wrongly serves the wrong audiences in many ways and should exit to target media companies, bloggers, newspapers, publishers and other groups. It's not built for the gossipy myspace crowd, it is targeted towards the wrong group adaptation in my opinion.
- Jonathan Fleming
Good. The fact that everybody isn't using FF is the only reason I still use it, unlike FB and Twitter. Morons haven't taken over yet.
- Lo
A mobile app for the iPhone would get me spend more time on FriendFeed
- Bob Gannon
There are myriad of ways that Friendfeed can contribute to bottom lines i.e. monetisation. Smarties could be using Friendfeed for serious tribe building which is sales funnel basics, a private group for Brand Monitoring/Listening will reveal opportunities for the savvy, heck one could even use a private group as a continuity product. I could go on but Im sure you get the idea. If people can't see monetary value and other forms of currency in Friendfeed then, it might be worth a deeper look
- Deano @ Byron New Media
I guess new users get invited to facebook, come to twitter and but mature users move to friendfeed.
- Rohit
Friendfeed is the clear winner, in terms of who (whom!?) I'm interested in engaging with.
- Hamilton Wallace
FF has many solid features, but it's not yet at critical mass to make it all work.
- Rod
I love FF's features but, and I think this is the biggest problem you've hit on, the interface really needs work, it has no real connection to what your average user plays with online. The themes are pretty useless right now, what really needs to be done is moving some of the elements around. I still think that moving elements to the right of the content was a mistake and the loss of the pop-up window that was real-time in the old interface has really cut down my FF use.
- Aram Zucker-Scharff
Here's an important factor some have eluded to. The FF web interface. It's one of the only web interfaces I actually go to. This and feedly are at the top. I use air apps for twitter, yammer and interact through other sites via email (only go there when I get an email.) the web interface (commenting) may need work, but it is a web interface that works.
- SolidSmack
I stuck to my guns. The acquirer was wrong in this case, but I was right that FriendFeed would be acquired by someone (see my response to Bruce Lewis above, and where Robert said I was wrong).
- Jesse Stay
"Paul wouldn't sell. Doesn't need to. And if he did the offer would be so wacky and based on the numbers FriendFeed isn't going to get a wacky bid this year. - Robert Scoble <--- I wish he had been right.
- Rochelle
"First off I have to say that I really love the concept behind FriendFeed. Having a place where a user can aggregate all of the content they consume from a host of other sites is quite functional. Plus, with the integration of a Social Network, users get to see content that their friends/connections find valuable and interesting. This provides a tremendous value since users can search for content that they friends find relevant and not have some arbitrary search engine tell us what they think is relevant. This also provides an amazing opportunity in the search arena that could potentially provide competition to sites like Digg, or even Google for that matter.Yet, there is one major flaw to FriendFeed that prevents me from really using the site to it’s fullest potential, User Interface is inaccessible. When I scroll through all of the posts in FriendFeed everything blends together. It’s a huge challenge to sort through the variety of posts and determine who the message if from and what the message is actually saying."
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
Depends on what you're into. FriendFeed's where I go for tech discussion. But my social life is all on Facebook.
- LANjackal
Agree, FB is for 'poking', scrabble games and high school chums, FriendFeed is for sharing, finding interesting stuff and discussion.
- Kol Tregaskes
this Chris Rogers prefers friendfeed :)
- Chris Rogers
Hehe, Chris. Nearly the same name ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
FWIW I actually use FriendFeed a LOT more than I use Facebook. The former is open 24/7 in Firefox on my PC
- LANjackal
from IM
IN THAT MOMENT FACEBOOK FOR ME IS FACEBLOOD! THE DISABLE MY ACCOUNT Because I repeat some vídos of Iranian Contacts. Faceblood consider That as SPAM!!
- Dputamadre
24/7!? Wow, even I don't use FF that much. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Yep, it's always open in a protected tab (using Tab Kit). I'm that addicted :P
- LANjackal
from IM
I'm waiting for an answer of Facebook for 24 hours ... the DON'T HEALP U! THE DON'T SAY NOTING.
- Dputamadre
U MUST HAVE CAREFULL FACEBOOK CAN DESTROY A LIFE TIME WORK JUST BECAUSE IT IS IN THAT WAY!
- Dputamadre
SO DON'T USE FACEBOOK FOR IMPORTANT THINGS. IS A VERY DANGER SUPPORT!
- Dputamadre
what's with the caps dude? chill out
- LANjackal
from IM
I only use FB because friends and family are there.....no one else is interested in technology except myself, which is why I'm the only one on FF....but I much prefer FF. I find out so much from FF and thoroughly enjoy the discussions. To me, FB is just frivolous, fun stuff.
- Bonnie Foster
Bonnie, yep the discussions are better on FF. FB doesn't really have that.
- Kol Tregaskes
Gotta love the IM integration on FF too, I can respond to stuff instantly without having to actually be on the webpage
- LANjackal
from IM
Yeah, not used it much but IM to FF works really well.
- Kol Tregaskes
FB is good for IM though. I have FB on Digsby and though I rarely use IM in general others have IMed me through FB. But FB IMs are private of course.
- Kol Tregaskes
Well yeah, but IM in FB is *actual* IM, whereas IM on FF is just a frontend for discussion on the site itself. Anyway that's semantics, you're right
- LANjackal
from IM
LAN, true yep. Now FF IM would be cool for DMing people. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
More people read my updates on facebook then anywhere else. Engagement is highest for me there, so far. Relatively new to ff though.
- Bill Kinney
from iPod
Ah, quite the opposite for me but both get the same updates. On FB I only have 500 contacts, though, whereas FF I have 2000 + FOAF + re-shares + etc + etc. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
@Kol that's actually possible already. If you set your IM notifications to notify you whenever someone responds to a thread you've posted/commented on, then EVERY thread - including DMs - becomes in IM convo
- LANjackal
from IM
Like some of the other people that commented, I use Facebook for my on-line scrabble games and I use Friendfeed for my news and discussions.
- Bob Gannon
LAN, hmm, maybe I'll turn on IMs for DMs and see how that goes. Ta. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Yep + Gchat in Digsby = Win. You'll love it
- LANjackal
from IM
Definitely dark. I gravitate to black... I try other backgrounds but in the end I switch back... Here's my color scheme and layout: www.fossilhuntress.blogspot.com
- Fossil Huntress
Depends on the design, but if readability is important, it should be dark serif text on light background. Reverse type is a bitch for extended reading.
- LogEx
Only 7% don't care? I would have thought 97% don't.
- Will Higgins™
It's web 2.0; why can't people give their users a choice?
- Michael W. May
I generally prefer lighter motifs...they seem "cleaner" and seem to make me feel like the author is more savvy and informed. I don't know why, but it just does for me.
- Carlton Hackett
I like the look of dark but it's not readable for many, so light is my choice.
- Karoli
Definitely depends on the content. My faboo mama blog will look dumb in black. So do food blogs. Photog blogs in white get ignored by me. Any blog with a orange, green or red background get put on my block list. I prefer black, white, dark blue or dark brown.
- Admiral Anika
I prefer dark but I often wonder what my readers prefer. Perhaps I should ask them.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
Your readers, anyone's readers, prefer something easy to read.
- Francine Hardaway
Dark backgrounds with light Text are easier on the eye's and reduce eye strain.
- Aaron Fischer
Dark backgrounds with light text can produce less eye strain for those with slightly less than perfect vision. I am one I those people.
- Dean Clark
I suspect that a lot of (not all) people who complain about light backgrounds have their monitor brightness turned up too high. Contrast should be high, but default brightness of TVs and monitors is too high.
- LogEx
Many, yes, but that's all the more reason for pure white to die a quick and painful death ;)
- Michael W. May
Dark backgrounds with white text are not only less readable for me (and I'm only mildly nearsighted) and give me eye strain. They also can create a sort of strobe effect that triggers migranes. Seriously. I simply won't read a blogspot blog that's done in a reverse light-on-dark scheme.
- nadezhda
I much prefer light text on dark backgrounds. I find it easier on the eyes, and the web is not paper. I don't find it terribly important though thanks to Compiz's Negative plugin that lets me invert colours.
- Tanath
THIS CONTEST IS OVER. THE MONEY HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN AWAY. I'm giving away $4,500 of my money. The contest will be here in friendfeed between now and Tuesday afternoon. Ends 3 p.m. Austin, Texas Time. Winner will be picked live on http://www.ustream.tv/studio at 4 p.m. Austin Time. Two ways to win: First way to win ($1,000). Leave a comment here. We'll pick one winner out of a hat randomly. Second way to win (Two prizes of $1,750 each). Leave a comment about how you will use the money (use only one comment here). I'll pick my favorite two messages and announce a winner on Tuesday afternoon. Good luck!
- Robert Scoble
Lets be honest- there are few people who literally put their money where their mouth is. Mr. Scoble you continue to impress me. And I have said this before the contest.
- Alyx
I declare myself ineligible for the first way to win :)
- Douglas Gourlay
Do you have to be an American? Cause I could use a new laptop :) Plus the USD>AUD exchange rate is pretty good at the moment ($1000 USD = $1500 AUD)
- Bryce Roney
OK, I'm changing my comment to go for one of the $1750 prizes. I will offer to donate all of it to a mutually acceptable charity in exchange for an appearance with you and Steve on the Gillmor Gang. If Jason can buy his way onto Twitter, maybe I can buy my way onto the Gillmor Gang!
- Kent
Are you still going to the XMPP meetup on tuesday?
- J Allen
I would use the money to 1. Donate and support our local Milwaukee tech community (events like web414.com, BarCampMilwaukee.com, and Bucketworks.org) and 2. purchase some more tech items (i.e. mac mini, video camera, webcam) to enhance and encourage more interaction with development and the tech community.
- Sam Dodge
$1000 for a random comment. I suspect we'll have a record number of comments. But what kind of hat will you be pulling the name out of? Austin Cowboy hat?
- Andrew Leyden
well, this is one way to get me to actually use my friend feed account =)
- Travis
I'm echoing the earlier comments, free money + your reach = most commented thread.
- Steven Cains
I could use it. Ill be out of a job in 2 weeks.
- Armando
Second way to win (Two prizes of $1,750 each). Leave a comment about how you will use the money (use only one comment here). I'll pick my favorite two messages and announce a winner on Tuesday afternoon. Good luck!
- Robert Scoble
Isn't this a nice way to test how scalable Friendfeed entries really are? :-)
- Yuval Atzmon
Will use it to buy Arrington a hairpiece after the TIME article.
- Mike
Please, no, you're better than Ben Stein (although that's not saying much) Are you trying for the most comments ever on a Friendfeed post? Because I can certainly see that coming.
- The Web's Wendell Wittler
Nicholas - would like to work with you at Rackspace, was a senior systems design engineer for Sony Broadband SW Development + Broadcast Integration Division(s) SW Systems Integration and testing, also senior technical project manager on Google's infrastructure upgrade + Verizon's FIOS fiber-to-the-premises nationwide. I also spent ten years in post-production in hollywood as a senior tech support engineer / consultant to the stars. I like bad food, long hours and the warm glow from completing projects.
- Nicholas Chase
Hmmm, how do you post a comment on FF...??? :-)
- I Spy
I would use the money, to help buy a mac for the family. We are in need of a new one, and right now our current one (a powerbook) is starting to die out. I already have some money saved up, but not enough. Thanks for doing this Robert! :)
- Techno Todd
thanks for making friendfeed notifier go insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane
- Caio
I'll use the money to buy a laptop for my soon-to-college daughter, as well as to fund her scholarship searches& college visits this summer. She's leaning towards working in special education, continuing the volunteering she's done with her high school's Options Program (http://www.paulvi.net/academi...).
- Craig Eddy
My friend (14) and I (15) are working on a subscription web service that we want to launch this summer and some additional runway and start-up capital would really be helpful. We do have some experience with this stuff -- we did iJailBreak (www.ijailbreak.com) a year or so ago and had millions of hits and a million downloads and a lot of coverage (Gizmodo, TUAW, Digg front page multiple times).
- Ben Feldman
if i didnt know you, i would have un-friended you for a post like that. "i'm giving away money. details to come." Congrats on the new gig!
- fansnap
If I win, I'll spend it all on ale and whores. I'm in need of both.
- Onur Cengiz
$1,750? Ok, I'll give the half of it to a charity, that is: $875 — and the other half will be my contest's gift. My contest? The one who donates the most to that charity wins those $875. And yes, I'm serious :)
- directeur
I don't know about the tax consequences. I'll try to find out. Basically this money is money Cisco paid to me and I'm just shipping it back out. So, this money will be counted pre-tax, I'm sure, and you'll probably need to pay tax on it.
- Robert Scoble
First comment: Hope my comment gets chosen!
- Kevin Poirier
you can give away money in this economic times? ;)
- Simon
I'd be using the money to finance my freelance work and get a half-way decent video camera. I'm working with a friend of mine on tooloftheday.de (nothing to see there yet) to produce videos of popular tools, tips, tricks, howtos, etc...
- Holger Eilhard
Throwing my piece of paper into the hat. Crossing my fingers!
- Troy Malone
man, my feed is going crazy... stop it guys :)
- Ingo Di Bella
OK Robert, I'll bite and leave a comment here.
- Herne
Second comment...I will use the money to buy as many clever domain names that I can in hope that one day, when you are creating your "next big thing" that you will have to purchase the domain name from me realizing that you had in fact, through me, had purchased these domain names in the first place.
- Kevin Poirier
If I win: I will use the money to lend out some of it on Kiva.org, give my brother (12 years old) his own domain/hosting so he could start a wp-blog there and maybe buy Spotify premium =)
- Anton Johansson
I would buy a new macbook pro with it. I have the old one, and Was hoping to buy the current one. I would then give the old one to my brother and I would use the new one! :)
- TheHenry
I would use it for the prizes I'm giving out daily on my twitter game @I_spy_treasure. Robert, you can win it back... (and so can anyone else...)
- I Spy
I will use part 2 to donate to Kiva.org and match it with Cisco's matching gifts program
- Douglas Gourlay
I would donate it to my homeless shelters.
- imabonehead
I'm giving my winnings to congress to spend wisely : )
- Joseph
Congratulations to both you and Rocky on the new jobs.
- Ron Schott
Count me in! Could use the extra $$ to buy a mac and see what all the hype is about.
- Tim
I would create a company called One Laser Per Child.
- Lasse Johnsen
This is my comment. I would use the extra $1750 to pay for me and Lindsay's trip to Gnomedex this year. It would probably be enough for us to come up and stay a few extra days in Seattle.
- Internet's Tad
That'd put a dent in my taxes. Ugh, freelancing has its pains.
- Andrew
Is there a third way to win? I'd use the money to offset part of the costs of moving to Portland in the spring. Moving from New York with next to no connections to see what it's like living on the west coast for a while.
- Mark Trapp
Sadly, I'd use most of the money to pay bills, but in the spirit of ff, I'd take a smaller portion of it to play a similar game on my ff.
- Randall Rodakowski
What I'd do with $1000? Get them converted to Euros :) Would most likely be spend on "offline" needs, like a new bathroom
- dieck
I suppose spending it on crack and hookers wouldn't win the prize, would it?
- Ian Betteridge
Interesting; I'd give a bit more than the the money to an unemployed friend for necessities(car repair, rent, food, getting back her phone with Nana Lemon singing Nena's famous anti-balloon protest song) in cash and perhaps a small gift
- RAPatton
I would use the money to go biking in Tibet and give everything that's left to the Tibetians.
- Henrik Johansson
Robert why are you giving away money - not that I am complaining- but curious! :)
- Susan Beebe
I'd spend mine on women, booze and a Mac.
- Ed Hudson
I'd use it to stretch the time I can work for equity-only before our startup gets funded! (Why doesn't federal stimulus money go to something like this which actually creates jobs and innovation instead of banks and auto companies?)
- Dale Larson
I will use the money to go PyCon, learn new skills, network, mention how generous Robert Scoble is, and do a sprint to improve FriendFeed PyAPI--which, by the way, you should use to select the random winners from this thread. https://launchpad.net/friendf... Thanks in advance.
- Chris Lasher
Clever way to show the power of friendfeed!
- Emee Pumarega
For $1750: I would pay a portion of my wife's college tuition, buy my daughter a netbook, and my son a practice guitar amp.
- Mattb4rd
Great idea! Count me in. I think you should give your money away monthly.
- Grace Ciccone
I'm Here. Wow. I''ve thrown the laptop up on a 56" JVC LCD HD. Convergence! Just watched you on the Gillmor Gang. Feels like TV to me. It's great. Something's definitely happening.
- Stephen Pickering
I'd spend the money on a new display, I really need one
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Not my first comment on a Scoble posting here, but first with a potential payoff.
- Tom Landini
I'm in. How I will use the money? will buy server for XdbE project
- Elmira Gazizova
With $1,000 I could buy all 57 Used & new "Naked Conversations" books from Amazon and still have enough to buy bottle service at the club.
- Andy Fields
would like to be able to try new technologies while still being a student and on a student's income = ($0)
- Shane Grant
Cool, count me in :-) I would use the money by buying 2 HTC Fuzes for me and my love.
- Sarah Peterman
Count me in! (for the first way I guess :P).
- Mauro Borione
What can I do to get your $$$ Robert? How about a virtual dance from my dogs?
- Jeff
get Diabla my pit bull puppy hip surgery sooner rather than later
- shayne catrett
I would use the money to help fund a small-scale electronics lab, which has been a dream of mine for some time. It would serve as the perfect place to plot and create the robotic army that will eventually take over the world! Also it would teach me lots that would make me very attractive to an employer, or capable of creating a business of my own.
- Daniel Bruce
It would be hard for me to decide how to spend the money. There is so much, yet so little, being given. Because I'm a crazy Linux-lover, I think I should take the selfless route and donate at least part of the money to various Linux/open-source programming projects. Though, I would have to be careful to make sure that the money is not wasted in the style that Jeff Atwood describes (http://www.codinghorror.com/blog...).
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
<cold><oddsized><red>here's my comment</red></oddsized></cold>. I've made my comment colored and differently shaped because supposedly those will get drawn before all the other regular looking comments. It's cold too because that's how the Knicks got Ewing first in the draft.
- Todd Hoff
Well, I need a new kidney, and there just happens to be one available on Ebay for $1000. (The previous portion of this comment is an utter lie; both my kidneys are doing fine, I am gainfully employed, do not need the money as much as so many on this thread, but Mastercard would really love to have it.) Congrats and good luck with the new venture, Robert.
- Phil Essing
Hey as long as were giving away money - count me in ;)
- Rob Jones
sweet, a thousands eh? converted to $ JMD that's 90k, groceries for 2 months:P
- Gordon Swaby
i'd like to thank my good friends olasofia and tav for mentioning this opportunity to win $1000 randomly, and if gratitude to one's friends isn't enough, how about this: i will give the $1750 for the best answer to this question: now that there are 100,000 people paying attention, what single action can we all do next tuesday that has the greatest social impact globally?
- happyseaurchin
For either amount, I would look to pay down some of my pressing debts and apply the rest towards a rainy-day fund. The 10% paycut I took three months ago has not helped things.
- JA Castillo
I'm on spring break now and my school was nice enough to lend me a Canon 20D (a little old, but I'm still glad to have borrowed it). Usually, only people who are part of the after school photography club can take it out, and seeing that I'm not, I was quite lucky. They gave me a 28-135mm lens, which looked ok to me. It was the last lens they had available, so it was take it or leave it....
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- Michael Forian
hmmm just leave a comment for a $1,000 dollars, not sure what to say...
- Kevin Tunis
$1750 for a cheeky mobile app, any more would be telling
- Yant
I'm here. pick me :) How would I use? I'll buy a netbook and some books.
- Dogan Tuncer
Testing the mix, testing, testing, one two, one two, - is this thing on?
- Martha
I would use the money to do what I do with all of my money...support my wife through graduate school :p. Thanks for the opportunity, Robert.
- Neal Jansons
Give it to Michael Forian! He seems so well-meaning!
- RexEveryhting
Awesome. With $1,000, I'd use 50% to buy shares of F, GM, BAC, etc... and we'll have even more money to hand out. With the other 50%, we could also make 20 $25 loans at a Stanford MBA microfinance project, so the money recycles and has more impac (and have FFers decide which projects to support). Gumball Capital http://news.newamericamedia.org/news... or Kiva.org http://kiva.org Ideally we could even start a fund to support out-of-work FF'ers.
- Mitchell Tsai
@scobleizer - please give me your money. if you do i will use it wisely to help pay for a macbook & if i get more than the random $1000 prize i will use it in a philanthropic manner
- Chris Heath
I'm probably use the money for a new bed for son, and upgrade Shelly's computer
- jamar78
I'd have to use it all to put toward the $1,900 deposit due next month for the Friends school for which we got an acceptance letter, on behalf of our 10 yo, earlier today since my partner's reaction was that all I needed to do was to go out and get a job Monday! We've tried public schs (& their lotteries) in Boston & DC and have come to this... If that wasn't pressing, I'd use it to put...
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- Angela E. Taylor
updated to say - please give the money to someone in need. If I were to have the money to give away, my choice would be to http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com.
- BEX
Wait, in this economy, you giving away money?!
- Adi Rabinovich
So...dear! Did you sign the cheque? Yes? Now send it to me! LOL
- Lora Lufark
It would be really cool if this money went to a charity in need, in increasingly tough times.
- jjprojects
I'd use it to buy myself some time to finish a volunteer project I'm doing for my alma mater - making a website that is an archaeological cataloger and academic discussion space all in one.
- Joey Brunelle
posting comment. crossing fingers. knocking on wood for good measure.
- Anita
I'd use the money as a donation for my favorite charity, www.4everhomes.org, helping orphans and foster children get adopted.
- Lynn Owens
I will use the cash to invest in a MacBook for my wife so she can be mobile and still do her school work and finish that degree finally!!!
- Geek Cowboy
Well after the football team I support (Nottingham Forest) lost 5 -0 today I would spend the money on buying myselft a place in the squad. I can't be any worse than the current goalkeeper
- Paul Bainbridge
Putting my entry in the hat. Hope this is truly random because I don't have anything interesting to add! :)
- Matt Baron
With $1750 I'd buy Canon PowerShot SX1IS 10 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 20x Wide Angle Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.8-inch LCD @ $600, a 2nd Gen Drobo populated with four 1TB Western Digital Green Drives @ $849 via TwipPhoto and a GigaPan Epic 100 as soon as its available (probably about $500). All of this will support my GigaPanning habit: http://www.gigapan.org/viewPro...
- Ron Schott
James (imabonehead) & Robert, $13,000/yr is allowed by gift tax limits,... so no tax if it's from Robert's personal money.
- Mitchell Tsai
I would use the $1750 to pay for the laptop that my daughter wants for her 11th birthday at the end of the month. She will be entering Jr. high next year and could use a faster more up to date computer than the 5+ year old hand me down desktop PC running Win2000 that she is presently using.
- Jeff P. Henderson
I'll use it to buy 2 new monitors. 1 for tweetdeck and 1 for Alert thingy
- Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)
Hi Robert. A noble venture to be sure. We would put the gift to use saving our art studio. The after effects of dealing with the Basin Complex Wildfire that burned Big Sur have left us in a precarious postiion. Truth be told, we'd rather have a big commission than the gift. Work is always better on so many levels. Perhaps we can bootstrap ourselves back to where we were and afford to offer the same gift to others in need one day not too far off--Pay it forward. Best wishes on Building 43 & thanks.
- B.E. (BJ) Johnson
me I'd take my wife out to dinner and then seriously consider buying a MacBook Pro :)
- Steven Hodson
I'm in for the $1,000 random drawing (because my $1750 answer would not be memorable - pay my bills).
- Laura Norvig
Give half to charity, then spend the other half on upgrading my skills (educational resources)
- Mo Kargas
I just caught up with what the other money is for. If it was awarded to me I would use it to help a couple I know get started in Aikido. Their kids are in our kid's class, and they had been trying to find the finances to join for almost a year and had just figured out how to start and then the husband got laid off... They're having a hard time making ends meet and I know that they would...
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- Lindsay
What a cool contest, Robert. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
- Glen Mistletoe
I'll donate the entire $1,750 to Phoenix Children's Hospital if I win. Same goes for the $1,000 if I win that one.
- Aviv
paypal address to follow ...... :) Good luck with the new gig Robert
- Charlie Anzman
With $1750 I would help that YouTube girl scout girl, Wild Freeborn, reach her goal of selling 12,000 boxes to send her whole scout troop to camp. Got to give the girl some credit for thinking outside of the box.
- Tyler Brownfield
_/\_ Namaste (greetings) from India. This is simply awesome Robert. Would be great to win a cool 1000 USD. That's a lot of money in India. ;-)
- Shinil Payamal
Here's my comment. I would use the money to fight against DRM
- Marcos Marado
from fftogo
My mother has been an avid Obama supporter doing a great deal of volunteer work before & after the election. She recently lost her job & wants to start something new. She will need an audience. Robert, I'd love to use your money to hire YOU to coach her on how to do that most effectively.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
If this comment gets chosen at random, I hereby refuse the money (always test the exception conditions of any algorithm). If I win one of the other chunks, I commit to donate the money to @eff (EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation - the leading civil liberties group defending your rights in the digital world).
- LogEx
I would find 17 worthy people under the age of 16, who are helping their community through volunteerism or have started businesses and give them $100 each to help them reach their goals. IMO, helping young people is the most noble thing those of us above the age of 40 can do. And I'd spend $50 on take-out dinner with my wife.
- Scott Duffy
You win if you're last on the thread, Alex ;)
- Josh Haley
here and ready to spend the money for new ipod touch :)
- Nahnu
If I win the prize money will go on my school fees and the rest will help me to buy a netbook with a full-size Scoble sticker :D you crazy!
- İbrahim Uzun [ j ]
Money would help so much you have no idea. :)
- courto
I'll use the money to send 2 teachers in my school district (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools) to a technology conference somewhere to learn about Web 2.0 technologies.
- Tim Cooper
If I win I'll use the money to buy a copy of Autodesk Maya 2009 Complete. Then build cool things. Thanks for the chance Robert.
- Andrew Smith
How will I use the money? With pleasure, thank you Robert.
- Tomi Itkonen
I will use the money to start my non profit and purchase educational/tech material for my son's school. Warm thanks Robert.
- Yanik Falardeau
And as for what I would do, I'd build a new desktop pc (and switching my current one over to act as my media/web pc), buy a true dSLR and donate some to charity. And if there is any left over, pay back some minor 'loans', which I guess I really should do first...
- Grant Bierman
Hi! İ m not speak english so not comment writing :D(ingilizce bu kadarmı berbat olur ya:II) Thx You Robert.
- Mehmet Alp
Hey Robert, If I were to win the money would go to a project myself and a few other early stage entrepreneurs are starting to help get people who have lost their jobs back to work in the startup community. I know it wouldn't go very far but it'd get it kicked off. Otherwise just give us some help (which would be better anyway) and give the money to the guys who have to pay school fees or rent or buy food for their families. Their need is greater. anton@udoogoo.com if anyones interested in helping
- Anton Mannering
Why am I giving away the money? Because last week we did a job for Cisco where they paid us to do some videos. I am giving away my cut because what Cisco is doing is important to pay attention to without you worrying about whether I am paid off to say so. Also, I'm very fortunate to be in the position where I can do it. I thought about paying Jason Calacanis to buy some of his tweets, but thought that money could help someone out of work more.
- Robert Scoble
I think you should give it all to Jason ;o)
- Ken Morley
I would use one of the $1,750 prizes this way. I'm currently photographing people that ask me for money. I give them $2 for their portrait. Instead of the two dollars. I will use the the money to add $50 to each $2 (total = $52) to the next 35 people that I photograph as part of this project. After I photograph them for the $2 I will give them the extra $50 and tell them that it is from Robert Scoble and will document each person's story, photo and reaction in a blog post.
- Thomas Hawk
i'd like to thank my mother, my father and all the people who helped me win this :p
- Sofia Bustamante
I couldn't tell you what I would do with $1750, but I do know I would give some away to good causes like my underfunded state school or the public school drama and music programs, and I would probably keep a little to save or update my home technology.
- Steve Lowe
This is my first comment : Gods of Randomness, choose me !
- Alemsah Ozturk
how many others have signed up for Friendfeed to try and win $1000? Scoble, you should be a Friendfeed spokesman... :)
- chelle
Best of luck with the new gig! Have fun at SXSW!
- Trevor Little
I wonder how many new FF accounts this thread has been responsible for? Many first-time posters here.
- Ken Morley
This is my second comment: I will gonna put your $1.750 to eBay tagged as “Robert Scoble's first FriendFeed Competition money“ and I'm gonna wait & see what happens :)
- Alemsah Ozturk
why not publish this on an indian and a turkish newspaper? this will def drive this post to records easily... and i am sure, i'll get the macbook pro this week with scoble's sponsorship... maybe i'll brand-name its alu-case with a thanksgiving note to scoble and his sponsor... time to start coding on textmate...
- Progresif Cem Gencer
My niece in Mexico is on a partial sports scholarship at the university she attends. She's been supported by her mother who worked at a liquor store to help pay my niece's way. My niece's mom recently lost her job and fears she cannot financially support her daughter's education. $1,750 would pay for six months of university studies. If I were to win, that's where it would go. Good luck everyone.
- Andrew
Thanks for the opportunity Robert. Good luck on your new gig!
- andy
What would I do with the money? Well I'd put some towards my debt and paying my Mum's house bills. But I think my family could do with a nice break or trip away somewhere - my Mum hasn't really gone out since the death of my Dad last January! Time away from the house would do her the World of good right now.
- Kol Tregaskes
Hi Robert; good luck at Rackspace! My $1,750 would go toward my Rackspace bill of course (well, that would cover it for a few months)!
- Binyamin Bauman
My second comment (for the 1K). This would go to the same niece...it's 3 more months of school.
- Andrew
i dont want it... { reverse psychology }
- Cem Öztürk
My wife has put up with a lot of sacrifice as I've worked on http://ourdoings.com/ and money's been tight so I haven't been able to make up for what she's done. I'd use the money to take her somewhere special, and of course I'd share a picture/map of where we went here on FriendFeed.
- Bruce Lewis
Oh for peats sake, it should at least be easier than winning the lotto. I'm in.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
I'll comment and be random...it's a good day to be giving away $$$ :) I would use any money won here to help my friends who are in such horrible need right now. (the story is on the blog and all over my FF stream). I may be unemployed, but I have a roof over my head, food on the table and can make some $$ freelancing. My friends are hanging on by less than a thread, already stretched way too far.
- Karoli
Hey man, I love money. Also, I have no job. Also, I will say some incitement here: LEO LAPORTE IS AN ALIEN
- Mike Nayyar
Make me your AIG! On the cheap no less.
- Tracy Viselli
Since my wife (school teacher) got laid off from her district on Friday, I'd use the $1,750 for tuition to help her get a Special Education certification, since districts are still hiring Special Ed. teachers. In turn, her continuing work will help pay for my son's tuition when he starts college in the Fall. My son wants to eventually become a lawyer so that he can influence policies that would ensure that people get a good education.
- Glen Mistletoe
Sounds like a plan. Let's see if FF has scalability issues with their comments.
- Michel Goldstein
This is my first year of trying to "make it" on my own, with a camera and no "real" job. Just trying to scrape by ... to be perfectly honest I'll use the money to help pay off some debt that I have acquired since I started, which has definitely been causing me headaches and frustration. My husband has been a gem, paying the majority of the bills since I make very little, and I want to be closer to breaking even with my debt so I can start to help him out. :)
- Nicole Young
Hope the hat is a big one, this thread is getting pretty full. :-) How the money would be spent? Pay off some student loan debt and put a chunk in our 5 year olds savings account...he (as well as his entire generation) is going to need it by the time he's an adult.
- cmiper
Wow! I've outgrown my entry camera and this price is just what I need to be able to fulfill my dream; a Nikon D300! Please make my dream come true, Robert!
- Graphfruit
Hit me, Fortuna. Papa needs a new MacBook.
- Will Parker
robert are you a photographer - Dixon Hamby
- Dixon Hamby
Geez, it's 2:10 am here in Berlin and you start just another interesting stunt. I will take the 1.750 US and pay a programmer to finish our "Virtual intelligent chatbot" project which offers affordable AI Avatars with personality for all kinds of virtual worlds like Second Life, Gaia, the web, Opensim etc. They'll be our 24/7 virtual workforce and a way to create immortal interactive portraits
- Gaby K. Slezák
I like this idea. I'm talking with some friends this evening about how they'd each allocate $1750 if they were given this much money today to do anything with--most would share with friends and acquaintances that are going through tough tmes. One would help a friend who just closed down his company and is in need of dental work. Another would help co-workers whose hours have been cut...
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- Loren Heiny
i will love you forever. and evah evah. money would be spent on a nice camera (i'm studying photography) and supplies. working with a 5 year old p&s is getting tiring. :)
- shannon
How can anyone NOT click 'like' or comment? I definitely 'pLike' (the p is silent - btw) this thread. :-D
- Sean Hanna
a stunt? sure, but I could use an extra $1k. count me in, scoble
- Seth Long
If I win the $1750 it will be applied to my son's tuition as he starts college this fall.
- Jess Gibson
Is this stimulus money??? If so I'll use it to build infrastructure. There's a giant pot hole in our alley. I'll buy bags of cement and repair it myself. The neighbors will love me.
- Greg
Wow, I'll take some money - I need hard drives for my Drobo. Seriously, I need to start up an emergency savings account.
- Bryan Villarin
A chance to get paid to comment? Love it!
- Ginger Kenney
First, here is the comment. Second, I would use $1,750 to travel back home to Russia where I have not been in five years with my toddler son so my grandmother who is very ill in her old age could see her only great grandson (who's 19 months old) before she goes, and so I could take a one dream portrait of them together. She's been a big influence in my life, and this would be the way to make the portrait and their meeting possible.
- Ivan Makarov
Could really use some money to help plant some seeds for the future
- Leonard Nelson
I'll buy an Iphone and with the rest put in my IRA to reduce my tax bill. Hey, helping economy and investing in business. Not bad.
- Stephen Pickering
This is my lucky day, an email today said I won the UK lottery.
- Bob Gannon
I'm going to buy half a Canon 5D Mark II. Or pay my bills.
- Andrew Trinh
If i win, i triple win , because i live in a third world country (Argentina) and for every dolar y get $3,60 on our local currency, which is a good ammount of money here, for example, i could eat for 1 year or more :D
- Ignacio Guerra
Ok. I would donate my winnings to the Bernie Madoff Defense Fund!@#$%^
- bcultral
I have dreadful luck when it comes to these kinds of things but I could really use this money. I have no car & desperately need to buy one.
- Mattie Kenny
from fftogo
Cool. And speaking of cool, PlanetHeidi.com is very cool.
- dunsany
between building a new house, a new baby and a new job, I am sure I can put it to go use, btw congrats Robert on your new venture, I shall be keeping an eye on it.
- Shane Wolsey
Cobble Sorter (anagram of Robert Scoble) = my random comment for the first part of the draw.
- Daniel Rowley
Wow, there's like a lot of comments here! Great idea for publicity, Robert. Carry on...
- Kevin Trotman
Watching Robert on Ustream right now.
- John Rubier
Thanks for sharing the wealth in more than one way
- Matt Penning
I could have an actual vacation and pay down some more debt.
- Todd Tripp
$1000 is mine! please? thanks Robert
- planetMitch
1. my comment for 1k, 2. $1750 would be split into 3 gifts of $250 a piece to encourage the best new open source projects, and the other 1000 I would invest and reinvest in http://kiva.org , selecting entrepreneurs in third world countries to invest several microloans in. Its' a gift that, over time, can be reinvested over and over to benefit many!
- David Silvernail
Take my hardworking wife on an overdue vacation - she supports me thru the IT bubbles. Thx hun!
- mal
Probably will give it back to you, winning could be cool enough
- Burcu Sarar
I'll take it if your giving....it will go towards the camera fund!
- Noelle Bell
I would use it to promote my tiny little super niche social news site http://HeavyAsHell.com The campaign would involve helping bands go DIY and avoid evil record companies.
- MarkCarras
What kind of sick social experiment is this? :)
- Oren Shomron
mmmmm, austin. i miss Trudy's, El Mercado, Magnolia, Wanfu, Kerbey, Chuys, Fonda San Miguel, Dog & Duck, Thundercloud, Waterloo, Amy's, Little City, Hut's, Green Mesquite. aw heck and Taco Cabana and Whataburger too! if i win, i'll spend it all on restaurants in Austin!
- poxaV
You can't win unless you play! Ok, I better start praying now.... :-P
- Brian
My father-in-law is laid off and his unemployment eligibility runs out in about 4 weeks. No place around here is hiring, and $1,750 would be the equivalent of extending his unemployment benefits another 5 weeks. Thanks for the chance, Robert.
- Civisi
Hello, giving away your money randomly? I can comment for that. Best of luck to all!
- Ronald Paul Corbin
Will you next tell us its limited only to Americans? I hate contests on the Internet, or anything on the Internet, that says "limited to the USA". The Internet is borderless... so should its contests and prizes
- Colin Charles
from twhirl
Thanks. I would use the $1750 to help my grandparents. My grandfather is 73 and my grandmother is 72. They just lost their 15 year home to foreclosure and are pretty much starting over with not a whole lot of time left. They are both on fixed income of SS and are now renting a house and trying to survive with the help of friends and family. When he as younger and had more money he was always the first one there to offer money to friends or family to help, even if it meant he went without something.
- Jonathan Gotcher
Robert please consider partnering with (Facebook) Seattle's Seeds of Compassion 2.0: The Compassionate Action Network (Twitter: @SeedsCAN) -- this organization is building a supra global network of "Compassionate Action Networks" (a bunch of ex McCaw, Softies and CISCO) -- currently in the throws of leveraging Social Media and Seattle's creative communities (music, tech, film). Last...
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- dakini_3
I wanna buy a jet ski, that's my MONEY!
- sofarsoShawn
If I won, the money would go into putting insulation in my daughter's room & closet. Any leftovers would help buy a gas stove & fridge. :D
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
My, there has been some very good comments about what people would do... And some very needy people out there.
- Grant Bierman
Like most, it would be an unemplyment extension for me. As mine ran out, no jobs in the area, and times are tough. But hey, BUCK UP not DOWN! the only obstacles that exist are in your mind.
- Ronald Paul Corbin
Crazy! Hope you are enjoying SXSW! I'm in Austin but can't attend it.
- Head Ov Metal
I'll put some of the $$$ into donorschoose.org for some local classroom requests and the rest to fix up my car.
- Pete Delucchi
I would take the $1750 and go and get myself a root canal, so I could finally get out of pain. And if there was any left, I'd donate it at www.kiva.org
- Bec Rowe @d0tski
Alright, I'm a sucker for free money so here goes... $1750 would be enough for me to buy an oven, sod my yard, and still be able to donate half to a charity.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Wow! Count me in! Sure could use that money to attend JavaOne this June.
- Rom Feria
$1750: Others need the money more than me, I'm sure of that. But ... that said I'd give $500 to a local library or literacy charity. $500 toward my home down payment fund. $150 to a kidney charity (my daughter only has one kidney). $100 for flowers for the wife. $100 for a bike for my daughter. $200 for a brake job. $200 to send at-risk kids to a Giants game.
- AJ Kohn
I would pay off our one remaining credit card and put some portion toward a down payment on a new car. In fact, I'd probably give a slice to the EFF as well. I haven't given to them regularly since my last layoff.
- ha3rvey, not a sweetheart
why would you do that? It's a sort of social experiment?
- Niki Costantini
Will invest the money in my new unique microblogging startup :)
- X-Man
I wonder how many comments in this thread are their first on FF. Well I'm in. If I won money, some will go into savings and some will go to my favorite charities: Autism Speaks and Atlanta Boxer Rescue.
- Carmen
yay first comment ever, though I suppose I should be commenting more
- Wang Yip
Wow, a lot of people commented just while I was writing my own! For me, half the money would be for savings and health insurance while I'm still trying to get a job (recently graduated). The other half would be for the non-profit arts organization my friends and I just founded in our hometown, which has no supportive creative outlets for its youth. The money would help produce the tri-high school theatre competition we are currently planning and hope to put on soon. Great offer, Robert.
- Kelly
For $1750 I'll either blow it on more photo or computer equipment. Or sock it away in my kid's college fund since it'll probably cost more than half the organs in my body to pay for by the time he's of age. It's a tough choice.
- ronin
A percentage would undoubtedly go toward the health care fund, unfortunately. I'd allocate some for art and film supplies and give away the remainder. I've seen several comments here mentioning worthy projects and needs that are certainly deserving of attention and support. Thanks for sharing, Robert!
- Chris Weige
Circuit City lay off would use on BILLS, BILLS, and oh yeah BILLS
- Ron
Wow. This is kinda cool. If I were to win anything at all from this, I would ask that the money be instead given to fellow FF'er Anika Malone because it breaks my heart that her and her family are having to go without hot water, a dryer, their stove...due to their gas being turned off. Hard times have struck too many good people right now. :(
- tinypants - Hagitha of FF
400+ comments...wow! Guess 1000 bucks is motivation. I'd put the cash toward my photography efforts or go the boring route and invest it for now.
- Justin Korn
Why would you do that? Anyway, here's my comment.
- Saner Apaydın
The pure capitalist social media business model: simply pay users to come.
- Michael Krigsman
If I won the non-random cash prize, I'd use it for expenses while I was off work, recovering from my (upcoming) third brain surgery.
- Abbie Kendall
I would love to use the money to stimulate the economy by purchasing a new hot water heater. Our current one is in need of being replaced.
- Vaughn
Cool, this would help me stimulate the economy while I wait for my California state tax return.
- Stephen Ip
Question: Is it one comment per way to win or one comment in general? I've made one comment above that says how I'd spend the money. Now I'll just be random: PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASHER
- Bryce Roney
Okay, I'll play. I would return your money to you with a "let's do something better than this" remark. I would then ask you to actually read (reread?) the email I sent you about helping me get in contact with NPO's re: starting an OLPC-esque SMS-device project for said devices to be delivered in care packages around the world (via Red Cross, etcetera, etcetera) so that the poverty stricken and people in disasters could actually communicate with the world in real time.
- trench
I am making this comment as the IT/Communications Director of FHL International, Inc.http://fhlinternational.org I want to feed babies of poor working and nonworking single mothers. I want to change the oil in their cars when they can't afford it or know how to. I want to feed their children good wholesome food. I want to give the refugees and the lost some hope for another day. If we spend it carefully and wisely we can make it stretch to cover a 3-4 outreaches and give you a write up.
- Melanie Reed
random random random. macro lens, macro lens, macro lens.
- Andrea Ewald
I would probably also tell you (via your infamous digits) why facebook sucks, why friendfeed pretty-much sucks, and why Twitter sucked but no longer sucks. And then I'd educate you on why we - yes, you and I (and Thomas?) - need to visit Turkey ( http://is.gd/7yQr ) and discuss these things further. Yes, k... logging back out now. Thanks. Make coat not war.
- trench
@Robert as the IT/Communications Director, I would invite you to one of our events to cover it, put you on one of our videos and underscore the digital divide and what we can do about it. I would invite you to our UB cafe for the best pancakes in the world and have you look over our IT training provided by the IndyChristianGeeks in Indianapolis, Indiana and meet Dr. Thomas Ho, former...
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- Melanie Reed
hah!! most no of comments on FF so far I guess....
- Satya
Would love some money of course! I plan on using at least 3/4 of it to fund a new project I'm working on involving the iPhone and a web service. It would most likely go directly toward the cost of the project (registration fees, hosting fees, learning materials, etc.)
- Brandon Titus
I'd use the money to get a new iPod Touch and maybe pay the rest to my medical bills. :P
- Mol, Santa Claws
As far as how I would spend $1750: I'd love to say that I'm going to donate it all to a worthy cause like the EFF or the local mission, but I know I'll be selfish and just end up spending it in a blaze of glory at Fry's or during the next Woot-off. No point in trying to kid anyone here.
- Michael Molinar
from twhirl
Aargh too many comments to read them all
- dK
from Nambu
I would spend all the money for entertainment :)
- Sinem Co
$1,750 or $1,000? In any case it would be a good stimuli to open a startup in Belarus
- Aliaksandr
Wow, popular contest! I would use part of it to buy the Rosetta Stone package to help me learn French. I'm taking time off between my undergrad and graduate degree, and I figure learning a foreign language would be a great use of my time. I would use the rest to help pay rent when I get my own place, I'm going to be a Congressional Staffer in D.C. and the living is expensive while the pay sucks! Thanks Robert.
- Keenan
If i get the $1,750, i'd give the money as $100x10 and $50x15 AdWords Coupons to the people who searched for the website/blog on pageboss.com for promote their projects like sponsored by Scobleizer.. And if Scob gives me $1,000, i'd spend all of them with my sweetheart Sinem :D
- N.Onur ATAHAN
I would use the money to buy a laptop for my wife, a Kindle for myself and one year worth of school for two children that we know and support in Nepal :)
- Sam Grover
1 Timothy 6:10: "For the love of money is the root of all evil." If that's the case Scoble bring on the EVIL! WHOOOOOO YEAAAAAHHAHH EVIL!!!
- sofarsoShawn
I will by my wife a flight home so she can go and see her parents who she misses lots. Which means i'll have sole access to my (our) laptop instead of having to share it. I could just use the money to buy a new laptop but then i wouldn't get teh good sofa and control of the remote as well!
- Jamie Vidamour
Let's see if I'm still the unlucky guy I used to be
- Boubacar Balde
from twhirl
I could be homeless soon, lost my job due to the economy, and getting unemployment that just doesnt cut it, I could really use the money to pay my rent, bills and feed my kitties, contact me via email Kyle.M.Weller+scoble@gmail.com or you could just hire me and I'll help you in any way possible, check my blogs, I could be useful. And I would return the favor 10 fold if I can, matter fact I'll search for 2 other people to help and blog about it/take photo's
- Kyle Weller
I would keep half of $1750 and give the other half to the author of the comment I liked most, but only if he/she promises to do exactly the same.
- stark
I`ll use 1000$ of the 1750$ to buy a lot of comments on FriendFeed :)
- Vlad
I thought these kind of things happened only countries like mine which the goverment tries to build a begging culture just to keep the hope alive and dependent to the authority at the same time. Each reply begging for money is adding another brick on the wall of shame. And Bob, couldn't you find another way to publicize this?
- M. Serdar Kuzuloglu
If I win I will invest it back for advertising! Just say my name 3 times on twitter like "Candyman".
- Los Angeles Dj
So what would I do with the money? Half of it would go to the good cause. I want to create value for people and who other than the less fortunate, handicapped and so on deserve this? Right. The other would go to a business I'm building. One for the people, on that will change our lives fundamentally and is here to stay.
- Kris
If I dont win this, i'll be happy to donate my time blogging or helping someone in any way right now, im jobless in Phoenix Arizona, I could do yard work or hook up pc's/fix pc's or help you with your website if I can
- Kyle Weller
I'd invest half of it in Google Stocks, then the rest I would pay my rent, get kittie food, and try and advertise www.phoenixstickers.com with adsense so my girlfriend makes some money with it, its new and not very popular right now ;\
- Kyle Weller
Here is my comment : the best way to talk about something is to let people talk about, and 4500$ is a pretty advertising investment. but it is really interesting :) now the question is ; is there any way to gauge the effectiveness of word of mouth? good luck.
- abdellah
Mmm....are u crazy Rob? :) Ok! I wanna a netbook give to me only 300$ ;)
- Dario Salvelli
I'd give the money to Comic Relief (http://www.rednoseday.com/) to buy 250 mosquito nets for Africa. Two hundred and fifty saved lives? Bargain.
- Robin Stacey
you are so generous robin you deserve to win :)
- abdellah
I don't need this money :) Because I'm still working. But you can donate to a charity organization if I win.
- Süleyman Sönmez
I will spend the money attending game design workshops in when in San Francisco, to improve my theory about the use of game design techniques in social web applications (playfuldesign.org).
- Kurai (ff)
@abdellah Hehe. Anything that stops someone from dying of Malaria is all right by me. Besides, it's simple economics. With $1750, no matter how I invest it, I can't do more that what 250 people could do with the rest of their lives.
- Robin Stacey
you are right, so let resume (generous, logic, awesome, and with a sens of humor), let ask the question differently Robin : who has no reason to win the money win the money ;) (it seams that all have at least one reason) human are really amazing creature. (ps: me too)
- abdellah
I agree, I'd buy a jet ski and have so much kick ass fun!
- sofarsoShawn
great idea, Robert! hope i'll win it.. i'll pay for my flight ticket, so i can finaly see you:)
- Martin
Dear Robert, sağa sola para saçmak yerine gidip bi türkçe kursuna kaydolsanda türkçe öğrensen olmazmı? Hem bu yorumu anlardın bak ne güzel. Paran çoksa işe yarar bişeyler yap canım.
- Ahmet Karaca
I'll take "I'm a Nigerian Prince" for $1000, Alex, err, Robert.!
- Kevin Leroux
I have some debts.... and I have 11 sons... 34 grandchildren... 22 dogs... 16 cats... and I am a liar... a neeedy liar :-(((((((:-D).... GIVE ME CASHSHSHSHSHSSH... Ah... Goodmorning Mr Scoble
- Daniel
I'd invest the money to my wife's startup that she starts next month. She'll be working around social media, blogs, photography etc. :)
- Jemm
if i win i will spend it for go usa this summer. absolutely i'll visit you also :)
- haluk
whee! I'd use it to open my deli :) I see free lunches in your future *laughing* hell, I'd even dedicate a booth to you.. with a cool plaque and everything!
- russa
This is going to be the longest thread ever
- Manuela
I hope the money goes to someone that really needs it
- Kyle Weller
Love to know your motivation for doing this Robert. Social experiment? See what people will do for money? You have a financial backing in Friendfeed & are aiming to stimulate usage? Either way, if I win, please donate the money to your favourite charity
- Lindsay Davies
if I win I'll make a gift to my girlfriend
- Ciccsoft
I would give it to a friend who is unemployed; buy a new computer, smart shirt and tie, give him his dignity & confidence back. It saddens me to see so many friends hurting right now.
- Sally Church
I'll use the money by not using it (well, except for that 4pt escape clause written down below in the yet-to-be written contract between me and Mr. Scoble about the prize)
- Daniele V.
This is the FriendFeed equivalent to leftover pizza in the breakroom. I could certainly use some $ right now.
- Phillip
I'd prefer *earning* that money rather than just typing in something non-sense to anyone besides me... (please exclude my comment from the lottery)
- Kaan Ertürk
if I win I'll make a gift to Lehman Brothers
- azael ماسيمو
I'd rather type in nonsense, can I have Kaan's spot?
- sofarsoShawn
awesome robert!! are you part of pres obama's stimulus package? LOL! hope i win the random $1000 contest =)
- Melissa Solito
So. this is my comment: I would use the money to buy a ticket to fly over to meet you and discuss if I could support you as some kind of correspondent over here in Europe (I'm in Germany).
- Till
In regards to the second prize, I'd like to use the money to buy my brother and sister their first macs. I grew up on encyclopedia britannica CDs on Windows 95, they deserve Wikipedia on a Mac.
- Armin Talic
@danslarue, "free money" these two word combined are more powerful then a TNT, if you can conceive or even think a second about a concept of "free money" then implicitly agree with the concept of "free work" and beside voluntary work they call it salvation .
- abdellah
I would use the $1750 in part to purchase some equipment for the part time photography business (about $500). The rest would go to 2 friends who are hurting right now with Flagler County, FL's unemployment rate at just over 14%.
- Jay Caruso
strange that no one, think to reverse the money to the 43 startup!! boys oh boys buy some action some part of this 43 startup may be it will be worth million :)
- abdellah
At first i thought i'd start a similar thread and give the money i win :-) but, here's the truth... I'd use the money to pay the next month of dev, working with a partner on our hope to be successful web service. I'm jobless 9 months now, 3 months since we started pushing the idea forward, all done @ home. Will use the most to pay my bills, with the rest i'll buy dinner for some of the homeless people i usually ignore.
- Majento
With this money, I am plannig to start a new company that develops social media applications. So if I win, I can give a job to you :))
- Aydın Kayacık
the entire amount of money will be used to help the local communities in eastern congo and sustain conservation of the virunga national park in congo. if you prefere, you can do it right away without giving me the money, visit www.gorilla.cd/blog for a one-time donation / all donation are tracked and transparent :)
- giulio
Brilliant idea and very noble of you, Scoble! (Sorry...I should leave the humor to my husband, who does a much better job!) LOL! I would use all the money to buy as many Radio Flyer kids wagons and send them out free to those that win a contest similar to this one! (I get them wholesale because I am an authorized dealer, so that would stretch the budget a bit more).
- Pat Graham Block
I'd spend the money for future trips: I have ever wanted to see the milky way from the earth or see the Northern lights. But maybe, I could put the money aside and spend it for a parabolic flight when I have enough money (that's another lifelong dream). I would also love to go on safari in Africa and see all the amazing animals in the savanna. But maybe I should rent a car and feel the American dream at Route 66? Ah Robert, your money lottery helped my thinking about all my dreams again. Thanks! :)
- Timo Heuer
I would use part of the money to donate to some podcasters or webcomic artists who are selling things on their website, like T-shirts, mugs and stuff like that. And buy a couple of domain names. Things I already do when tax return time comes, only this time more.
- Derek Coward
Each post you make will promote this thread more and more thus decreasing the expected value, with this rate a post made a few hours from now will probably have an expected value of a few cents. This will be a very nice data .
- Tuna
I would spend the money of webhosting running free-of-charge computing services for open drug development (using open source utilities), such as used in Open Notebook Science and sorts.
- Egon Willighagen
I think we will use the money to develop a desktop application for facebook very simple, actually, but that still does not exist in optimal form. I thought with a friend, but, since we are both students, we need a bit of $ $ $ to get technical advice from someone for some parts that relate to writing code (I study Marketing, and my friend is the final year of a degree in computer engineering).
- Tiziano Tassi
Okey I give in. Scoble, finally you made me signup for friendfeed
- shafiu
i'm in. also if this a psyco socialexperiment...
- FedericaB.
hahah interesting to see anyways .. how many comments on the one thread
- Terry O'Fee
Alright. This is my first entry. Chances are that I won't win....but it is exciting waiting to see if you do. :-)
- Thebluestbutterfly
1) I'll spend the money to end my fear for airplane: so I can travel again. 2) i will organize a free public movie show here in Milano, all people sits in the night to watch the screen in the spring air
- FedericaB.
@FedericaBellag, interesting :) and what if it is just a plain and simple contest? it may be more "word of mouth advertising" tracking experiment then psyco social one. (love the smile face)
- abdellah
I will use the money for paying up my college fees and taking up a course related to VOIP. People like Craig and Vincent of Grandcentral (which I use for 3 years almost), pat Phelan and more VOIP experts keep pushing me to do something great in that area. Also, great its open to any1 iin the world. Most competitions are US ONLY, which is something I HATE BIG TIME. I m in India Mr....
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- Hardeep Singh Dang
@samuel, no the question is are FF team ready to pay $1000 for any on who join!!!
- abdellah
@abdellah ok, let's be tracked then! that's my face at the office ;-)
- FedericaB.
I will save the money. I'm an italian student studying abroad (Master in Digital Library), and those money could just be useful. They could be also a way to go in Jerusalem, following my girlfriend. Anyway, goo viral Scoble ;-)
- Aubrey McFato
I bet half of the money, the prize goes to the 1000th commenter.
- funkyboy
from Posty
notice : the headline is "win my money" not "take my money", so we have to make effort, it is not a "free money" it is a make effort and win, so remember it is not "take my money" :)
- abdellah
It's so hard to see whole of the comments. 620 including me now. :)
- Meriç Dağlı
I would get an iron if I have been searching some water in the desert and I would be the ass part of the Voltran, when we have been arising it.... bacause I am so unfortunate
- Lokman Köroğlu
you wanna DDoS FriendFeed :). I will use the money for a ff-contest when i pay people for the best comment. obviusly you can partecipate and win back your money. :P
- enzo zadrima
I'll donate some charities with 750$ of it. Buy a macbook with 999$ it, and set up a " First commenters win the buck. " contest via friendfeed. :)
- Meriç Dağlı
It shouldn't be about the money? What kind of game is it? We still need to wait Is it somehow related to SXSW?
- Aziz
Hi, with that sum I would probably take a chance to stop and take time to smell the roses, at least for a while.
- ziomau
nice way to see if there's a limit on the number of comments a ff post could get..
- Nicola Maggi
I could qualify for the $1,000, but not the $1,750 as I have two jobs. The only basis I could see is for a complete donation to an organization helping out of work people. We have a food pantry here in Beverly Mass called Bootstraps and a women's shelter in Gloucester, Mass called Wellspring that both would know just where that money could be best used.
- Martha
I'll be practical when I win the money and invest it in the future....my childrens' education!
- Kevin Dugan
@Eyal no, you can't win a contest even if you give money :) money don't do anything ;)
- abdellah
@nicolas interesting question, and what do you think? does a thread have a comment limit or no? it all depend on the limitation, will this run eternally?no so there is a number of comment that people will post here it is a kind of buzz after the momentum there will be no comment let say there will be 50000 comment, FF are able to store such data.
- abdellah
So being completely unbiased, with little if any interest, if I were Robert Scoble, handsome fella, I'd give the money to whoever stated first they would buy a jet ski due to the fact they are super fun! Oh, who knew, that's me!
- sofarsoShawn
Great...I was juts talking over in TechCrunch that Robert does not need luck in his new venture "Building 43" and not it seems I am the one that needs luck to win the $1000 ....:) Thanks Robert Joao/TechFuga
- TechFuga
Well I started reading this thread, but I got a 1/4 way through & gave up, >650 comments, that's got to be some kind of record. What post does have the highest number of comments?
- Glenn Slaven
Interesting... I guess there's nothing to lose by trying
- Adi Sheleg
Ok, can't hurt to put one's name into the "hat"...p.s. good luck dude on the new gig... will be following closely... thinking cloud myself :)
- Michael Lehman
Commenting away in the Great Scoble Sweepstakes.
- Warner Crocker
With $1750 I would spend half to get to next years SXSW which I am missing this year :-(. and the other half I would spend on sponsoring a deluxe drop in-childcare at the Austin Convention Center for the parent bloggers.
- Emee Pumarega
I'm in too:) I would use the money for keeping an exhibition
- Nia
Comment! This is the Robert Scoble Stimulus Package
- Kreg Steppe
10% to charities of my choice, the rest to pay bills and allow me to keep working in the nonprofit sector. I'm at that level where I still need to do outside consulting to come out ahead at the end of each month, and $1600 would give me 4 months where I wouldn't need to get a consulting gig (yep, the budget is that tight)
- Jeff Stern
The 4 minihawks would like to donate to their california school district to help offset the 1.5mm cutbacks.
- Mrsth
I can upgrade to a macpro by winning :-P
- Richard A.
wow this is the most comments/likes i've seen!
- andy brudtkuhl
If I won either sum of money, I'd probably put it toward buying some camera gear, like a Nikon D90 and another lens. I have a couple family events that I'll be taking pictures at, and it'd be nice to have a D90 for them. :) I could go for a D700, but the D90 has video, so that's why I prefer it right now.
- Cheryl Jones
@Jason H - Whether or not either of us wins Robert's money, I have a timeshare near Disney that I haven't had the opportunity to use in the past few years. If you can get yourself airfare, a rental car and park tickets, I'll be happy to let you use the week, no charge to you. The dates are October 24-31, 2009.
- Sally: gift wrapper
if i win the $1000 or $1750 i would donate it to charity:water or some other water based charity. clean water is the catalyst to healthier and smarter communities
- Damian Holmes
Congratulations to you and Rocky on the new gig.
- Aron Michalski
With $1750 I'd give money to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, to help fund research for a cure and treatments so my mother and others with MS can have an improved quality of life. I'd also give money to the American Diabetes Association to help my father and others living with diabetes. I'd give some to @smallcanbebig to help needy families locally (Boston) and hope to have enough left over to take my son to visit his grandparents in FL. He's 6 mos. and they've only seen him once, at Christmas.
- Sally: gift wrapper
Robert, I want your money. Do I have to work for it?
- Aidha
on that money is the side of the monte man. what's this it :) scoble iki dakka delikanlı ol lan paran fazlaysa git yardım kuruluşlarına, özürlüler, kimsesiz çocuklara ver mngoduum kapitalist pçleri.
- Volkan Yılmaz ٩(●̮̮̃•̃)۶
if you come to shanghai/China, we can have a dinner and go to bar :)
- 赛林(土耳其)
I enter not because I need the money (I'd give it away too) but because me entering slightly reduces all of the rest of your chances to win. MUAHAHAHAHA
- Nate True
My Scoble $1750 stimulus package spending plan: Give my son (the struggling Mac/iphone developer) $1,000 in "angel funding", get a Drobo ($500), and put $250 in my Grandson's (future Mac) savings account.
- Al Degutis
Pick me, pick me, pick me for the $1000 giveaway (if you don't pick me for the $1750 Scoble Stimulus).
- Al Degutis
more people should do this. Many people or businesses could afford to give $1,000
- Lady Lovely Heart
i would donate some of it maybe half to a local worthy charity, the rest would go into a fund that would be used to encourage this type of activity. Conversation building, with the right questions a lot of solutions can be found by crowds
- Tweet Feeds
My intent for the big prize would be to replace windows in my home with energy efficient ones. the ones in the house now are cracked from the house settling. they are the original 1959 windows, and they rattle every time a plane goes over the house. very distracting when we are trying to concentrate or stay warm
- Lady Lovely Heart
Big money. No whammies. STOP. | I would use the winnings towards upgrading my equipment (Mac Pro) since my current setup is pretty bad for video. I would sell my current MBP (2006 First Gen) and use the proceeds towards the new machine. I would pump out twice as much HD content with better equipment. Thanks for all you do Robert..I know whoever wins will make the best out of the cash.
- Bwana ☠
Take my husband to the Grand Canyon for that honeymoon we never had--that's what I'd do with some extra cash.
- joansjewels
I'd buy a laptop so that I don't have to wait for the missus to get off the ruddy computer and let me have my go on it!!!
- Andy
a nice way to test the limits of commenting feature on a bunch of real people just for US$1000.
- 9000
I will use the money to buy $1 stocks in companies that will re-bound or will be more successful in the next 2-5 years due to the ongoing financial crisis. My choice will be guided by those companies that care, share and have flare for others...a community stimulus...hope others will join and build what the "financiers" could not.
- Gordon Montgomery
1. Cool 2. Travel for VC meetings so I can finally provide some solutions for RSS that we argued/discussed 2 years ago (delivery of premium content possibly over open channels)
- Andy Beard
Yo Robert, did you give it away yet? Here's my chance to win! ;^)
- Michael Bailey
@manuela, but personally I want more comment from you.
- abdellah
awesome idea. by the way, how goes life without diet coke?
- tracy
I'd use it to help an independent artist with their career. Rentals for video equip on shows and music videos with stories that would otherwise remain untold.
- Frank Jonen
Woah! So is this part of the Scoble Stimulus plan? Anyways, if by some chance I did win the money I would use either towards moving out of my parents house later this year or put it towards my student loans.
- Mathew™ one of a kind
@Akiva you also deserve to win., I insist please comment this thread please.
- abdellah
If I lay my hands on this prize, I'll spent a night playing blackjack surrounded by hookers. I'd also buy a new Palm that Robert recommended lately and spend the remaining amount for ScienceDirect and Jstore subscriptions.
- Alan Kodzasov
I would use the money to fix the economy.
- Andy Bakun
Andy: you get it right, please fix that economy.
- abdellah
Its enough to buy one toliet seat for the government :)
- Roberto Bonini
Robert could fund nails and shingles for building a small seminar facility in the Adirondack State Park.
- Jeff Archambeault
With $1750 I would buy a lot of toys for the baby we are waiting....
- roberto ferorelli
I count at least 6 references to "donate to kiva.org" so far. Pretty cool. That is what I was going to write, but looks like many other's beat me to it. But hell... If I got it, I would donate to Kiva.org. :) (make it 7 now).
- Shannon Bauman
Nothing special here, just want to pay some outstanding bills and get supplies for my 3mth old =)
- Mat Finch
Quickly put in a reply while thinking about a smug way of spending 1.750...
- Stefan Kolle
Yeah, I think I'll stick with the Kiva donation too. I'm pretty prolific there (a true believer), and have about that amount outstanding in loans, so the chance to double my Kiva loans in one go would be outstanding.
- Stefan Kolle
is this gonna have like 1000+ comments?
- Jorge Murillo
I'm bummed I couldn't get to SXSWi so I came to Robert's ATM machine instead. :)
- Laura Zickus
I'd love to say I'd do something altruistic with the money, but I'd invest it all in my startup (we're doing cool things with information and emotions online). In this economy every little helps :-)
- jennielees
with $1,750, I would I would set up 7 performance art / photoshoots uptown here in Charlotte in the center of Bank Town at lunch time, wordlessly demonstrating some of the problems (as I see them) with our current corporate culture. I have the first one of these ready to go but don't the cash to set up the others (yet). If I only got the free $1000, I would buy some more studio lighting equipment (much to the chagrin of my roomy).
- Shannon J Hager
sure, I'll play. as for how I'd use the money, I'd probably use it to help offset the cost of my lasik surgery.
- chrisofspades
I would use the money to fund my own open source development work (within the php symfony framework) as well as supplement my wife's pending maternity leave. Realtors don't get paid maternity leave... Thanks!
- Jon Issler
I would use the money to assist my parents in their move back home closer to the adult children. They are currently existing on 18k a year, their Medicare and Secondary insurance cost them 10k. It would help buy their medications.
- Janet
I'm sure that there are a lot of deserving people who need this money so best of luck to all. I would give this $ to my mother who had to sell her business after working so hard, cause she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Now she has to work for someone part time cause still sick, husband laid off in Florida, trying to pay off house, med bills, prescrip, barely making it & gov't no help cause not appv'd for Medicare cause married, what? so considering divorce just to afford medical bills & mortgage. - M.E.
- monica Edwards
Here's my comment! I'll take my chances. I'm a poor college grad, I could sure use the cash.
- Jessica
I've blocked u, so if u wanna get back on my list....:)
- Koba Yaschi
This is really good. I'll buy a Nintendo Wii. :) Thx.
- marrup -serkan-
I hope people that REALLY need it win ,,, good luck on the Contest Rob ..
- johnpiercy
This has to be the most commented thread in FriendFeed.
- Nicholas James
Here's the rundown with what I'd do with $1750: I want to do a Power Rangers fan film. No joke. Stop laughing. No really, you can stop now. Power Rangers has been on the air for the past 17 seasons, and it's finally getting canceled. This has inspired me to shoot a film short inspired by the show I grew up with. The $1750 will be invested to bump it up to looking professional. Scoble can be the Executive Producer! Don't pass up on that chance. Ok, you can stop laughing now, lol.
- Lisa J
Tuition for 2010 Iowa Summer Writing Festival courses, at Iowa Writers' Workshop.
- Paola Bonomo
It would go into the funds I am raising to start a new print venture, tbnl, which will publish great, timeless stories (fiction & nonfiction) in a limited edition (subscriber only edition), a print-on-demand edition available for years and a digital ebook reader. Paying writers & artists on an ongoing, fair basis
- Shannon Clark
I'd love to have some Scoble Dollars. They'd help fund my exit from technology to academia.
- Tom Morris
Hi Robert, Congrats on new opportunity with bldg 43 Can I share your money with my 18 month old daughter AKA the Joy transmitter or perhaps I could drop it form the sky with my tandem paraglider over the Microsoft campus...
- John Clifford
It's impossible not to comment - although if it wasn't Scoble saying this, I wouldnt bother to be honest, as I'd suspect a con ...
- Ian
I'd use the money to buy crack. I mean books for children. Oh, wait, it's random...
- Jules Morgan
Wow! I think I would invest them for developing an iPhone application
- Nicholas
Hi Robert, my first comment on friendfeed, I couldn't resist the chance. You do know that Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day - I'll buy you a leprechaun hat from the parade in Dublin to celebrate!
- Niall Sisson
Leaving Comment here. Hope it finds a good home. I would use the money to start a shelter for lost comments.
- Joe K
I'm here! And I'd like to switch from PC to Mac... :D
- Giovy
Hi Robert, this is very generous of you, thank you! I've been unemployed since last April so I could use the money for rent, food, bills, etc. I wish I could buy a nice little netbook with the money but maybe once I'm back on my feet I can make that happen. In the meantime, thanks for being so considerate to your readers! Best of luck with the new venture too.
- Andy
Rackspace customer and big fan... Looking forward to this new venture!
- Charlie Nichols Browning
Surprised you have fallen as low as this Robert. Still, been there and done that before so best of luck and best wishes with Rackspace.
- Paul Fabretti