not sure we were watching the same speech...you're distinctly in the minority on this point. - Jeff De Cagna via Alert Thingy
Agree with Fred. It was a historic moment, but the speech didn't match it. The attacks on McCain reduced it to a campaign speech and it could have been more. - Sprague D
@fredwilson last night I thought it was A+, today B+. No 1 theme to recall today. I remember "enough," ready to fight, and middle ground - Jason Goldberg
It was a powerful speech but lacked a theme and will be low on specific language recall. It framed him as a different type of candidate and a fighter who also wants to find the middle, but not strong on words and message. - Jason Goldberg
It felt like a very pretty package wrapping standard dem product. The question is whether a pretty package will be enough, or do we need to produce some better ideas? - Alex Nesbitt
Here's my broader comment: Last night I thought it was an A+, today I think a B. It was a powerful speech but lacked a theme and will be low on specific language recall. It framed him as a different type of candidate with a uniquely new-American background, and a fighter who also wants to find the middle, but not strong on words and message. One week from now not many folks will recall what he said and be able to repeat any lines from the speech. My recall is more around (1) “enough,” (2) fighter, (3) unique personal story, (4) wants middle ground on social issues. Which is strange actually from the guy who gave us Yes We Can. - Jason Goldberg
I agree with Fred and Jason. It was good, but I expected more. - Clare Dibble
I don't think it was his greatest, but it was pretty darn good. My reaction at the end was "combative" and not by chance - Deepak
I felt the guy, and he knocked that "celebrity thing" out of the park. There were real promises in there, and real differences in approach. But you could say there was no "read my lips"/ "yes we can"/"I have a dream" recall aids. - PaulSweeney via twhirl
Another highlight was the "It has never been about me, it's about You" (which by the way should have been, "It has never been about me, it's about we" -- more memorable and inclusive. - Jason Goldberg
just saw it now online.. it is fine .. his thinking is very far beyond the country, he is going to have some tough years unless he has a lot of patience .... even this thread tells me america is not ready ... judging the surface, unable to see the depth, totally resistant to actually changing anything - Gregory Lent
perhaps the "B+ rating" is in the minority, but it's correct. Only a couple highlights. his inability to connect with average america because of the depth of his vision is a fault of america, not obama. - Taylor Davidson
great discussion here. gotta love FF! i want to go back and read the speech. i particularly liked the part where he dissected the wedge issues like abortion, gay marriage, etc. when he does that kind of thing, i love the guy - Fred Wilson
I am amazed at the success this emotional campaign has had on such brilliant people. The sense of 'awakening back to hope', which the Obama Camp has so effectively instilled is not unusual throughout the years, among a wanting population. But the hyper-cognizant embracing base-building rhetoric as though a TRULY extraordinary thinker was presenting obvious, watershed blueprints, is worrying. § If I asked you Specifically, before Obama, "What would a Real, Life-Changing Candidate sound like?" - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
What would you need to hear to say "This is it!" This is the person who makes real sense! This IS a game-changer!"?? If you remove the emotion that this is obviously your guy, and the stagecraft and brilliant, scientific speechwriters, WHY is this worthy of once in a lifetime enthusiasm and the hope for your children? Please tell me why. - Ed Shaz/NextInstinct
His objective was not to try to create the next I have a dream speech. It was to provide a view of what his adminstration would look like and respond to the foolish attacks of McCain and company. He was not runningn for best speaker of the US, he wins that easily anyday. He was running for President and he needed to remind ppl the Dems are ppl of faith too; they have led and defending this country in times of war; Iraq having billions in the bank while we spend billions in each month is unacceptable. - Ruth Ferguson
I am an average american struggling like a lot of other folk. well maybe I am not average: I do not depend on soundbytes and pretty speeches only to make critical decisions. I have spent the time looking into Obama's policies by listening to his town halls not just his speeches, visiting his website where he outlines his plans. For instance on there, as he did last night, he explains he will pay for his tax cuts for 80% of Americans by clsoing the tax loopholes for corp, particularly those that will turn around and ship jobs out of America. - Ruth Ferguson
IMHO, Obama will have plenty of chances to make great speeches once (if) he becomes the president. Last nights speech may not be as intellectually stimulating as his other speeches like the one on race, but likely it was more effective if the goal is to win the election. It was simpler, had more than usual specific proposal, and responded to several shallow criticisms directed to him at once. - berkay
I thought it was an A+ speech. He clearly communicated that he what the issues at stake are and how he would address them. He also, sent a message in no uncertain terms that he is tough, and that his lack of direct response to McCain's attacks is not to be taken for weakness. - Jawa Buddhavarapu
I agree with you Fred. It was a pedestrian speech delivered by a great orator. If Al Gore had made the same speech it would be described as boring, typical, preaching to the choir, etc. - Cathleen Rittereiser
I'm two days into Friendfeed. A bunch of Finnish Jaiku users moved over to Twitter, Pownce, and Friendfeed when Jaiku is down (they move it to a Google server). Jaiku and Friendfeed can be used for seminar and events reporting. I find quite a few of my FB friends here. Twitter is like talking to the wind on a stormy shoreline. We shout into an open universe. It seems like Friendfeed can lead to a conversation. - Helge V. Keitel
A telex. Or: what are those things called that used to be in newspaper offices, where news from AP, Reuters would spew out continuously??? Whatever that machine/technology, that's sorta it. Except only one-way, like. - john conroy
hamm radio? nahh...it's just friendfeed - timedalkat
actually that is strange francine, you don't have a lot of comments yet you post often and participate as well, again strange - i agree w/ mark though i know i've commented on your posts before - some people hide twitter so that might contribute to it... - mike "glemak" dunn
but another thing if you notice, is that Francine has only linked to FF vis Twitter, she is not participating on ff. so shes pretty much an outsider :(- <EDIT> maybe she thinks that every one also needs to flag reply twitter when commenting too ? I dont !! - Peter Dawson
Hi! I'm nobody! And you are........ :) - Bwana McCall
Hah! I rarely get comments on my own posts...oh...wait...that's a lie... - Rahsheen(isSoAwesome)
I find that liking and commenting seems to happen in bursts. Suddenly, everybody starts thinking how interesting I am. Later, they realize that they were sorely mistaken in thinking that I had any valuable content. But then they find something shiny and forget about it, allowing the cycle to repeat. - possible248
This was such a boring post I almost didn't comment on it. - Cathleen Rittereiser
I've only blocked folk on Twitter when its Twitter spam following me. I hope to never have to block any one on FF so far; it's been a pretty good experience here. - James
yes, I block spammers, trolls, and jerks and their friends who bring those people into my view. It is amazing how fun this makes FF. Choose your friends wisely! - Robert Scoble
Blocked my first Twitterer today, actually. Usually I don't even bother blocking the SPAM accounts, I just don't follow them back. But today I got hit by a SPAMMER who was just @-spamming people. Clever, I suppose. But duly Blocked. - Daniel Smith
I have only blocked one on FF for not being interested in being part of the community and having two-way conversations. Have blocked dozens on Twitter for posting only links and following fewer people than is following them. I also use a three strike rule on people I am following or following me..if they don't reply to my third @reply to one of their tweets they are un-followed. I seem to have a lot of followers who do the same. - Scot Duke
Spammers, trolls, psychos on Twitter... they are becoming rampant. - Jackie
I've blocked for profanity. That's all it takes. We have many words to choose from - choose well. - LPH
Spam.. and trolls, specifically the ones with "troll" in their names. Or perverts. Cannot forget those. - Colby Olson
Not yet. But I am wary of who I subscribe to. - Winston Teo
3 on FriendFeed now. Two for being trolls, and just added one. - David Worrell
people who always are asking questions that really are their job - crowd sourcing their work. people with no work life balance. peeps who pimp their projects to much. people who tweat 20+ times a day that say nothing. people who re-tweet. - mediaeater
Same as many of the others, spammers. I don't have enough followers to really have any trolls to deal with as of yet. - Dean Clark
Just one block and a couple of un-subscribes. Trollish behavior. Some of you are tuff as nails on this one. I tend to give a few warnings first. - Mathew A. Koeneker
People who are too crude (and my bar is pretty high), and people who tweet every 10 minutes, each and every day. - Anthony Stevens
I think I've blocked 3 people. 2 really obvious ones and then one guy who seemed pretty decent, but then posted something unbelievably disgusting in a thread about homosexuality... - Tad - just Tad
Offensive (sexist, racist, hatred inciting) content, trolling, baiting. That said, I've only blocked two people. And very reluctantly. - melmcbride
Haven't blocked anyone on FF although I've hidden a couple of other people's friends. I've only blocked spammers or really strange people on Twitter. - JMS
No, I just unsubscribed. The content became tiresome and sometimes offensive. There was no value in most of it. - Rahsheen(isSoAwesome)
Yes. Trolling, abusive, that sort of thing. Not often, but only where necessary - Duncan Riley
Haven't been using FF enough yet. On Twitter, I block the spammers and the ones that I can't discern any good reason why they need to follow me, other than the fact that they are trying to turn Twitter into MySpace where it's all a popularity contest. - Corinne Litchfield
Yes. Trolls and egotistical guys who waste comcast bandwidth. - Aaron Brazell
I block obvious bots on Twitter. Only one FriendFeed block of someone who wouldn't stop verbally harassing people who responded to my questions / comments. He was nice to me but was poisoning the conversations and making my readers uncomfortable. I tried approaching him directly first but it didn't stop. Felt I had a responsibility to my little FF community. - Jennifer Leggio
Whoa Andrew - bummer. I've had to keep an eye out for co-workers too. My boss hasn't heard of FF until I mentioned it in relation with our corp. Social Media Policy doc. Like Scoble, I block trolls, assholes, jerks and other wackos that feed off that crap. period. If you poop on my FF you will be blocked..no question about it! zero tolerance for that...but VERY happy, open-minded, tech savvy, intellectual, spiritually astute and tolerant otherwise - Susan Beebe
I respect variety of opinions, but I can't stand insults, vain trolls, spams (yes spamming discussions with things totally unrelated to the main subject, i.e. using the discussion as a way to diffuse something instead of really participating and bringing an opinion) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Yes. Two people who kept leaving inappropriate comments and shamelessly plugging their (semi nude) Seesmic videos on my posts =\ - Mona N.
Mona: Block candidates for sure. You can unblock later... peace out! - Susan Beebe
I would never block anyone unless i really have to and i've only denied 1 comment on my blog - Cecil Sandus
Have blocked if somebody has been nasty or stalker-like. Have rarely done it but glad I have when I did - Cathleen Rittereiser
Obvious trolls and people a little too far up on that high horse. Anyone else is not a problem for me. - Evangeline
I'm starting to block more and more poeple don't add to the discussion, but instead take from it. - Jeremiah Owyang
I block those who are advertising something; those peddling sex; those following me for no reason or connected to potential spammers; am not blocking (supposedly) Mid West bored teenagers; fyi I don't automatically follow someone if they're following me - I check them out to see whether I'm interested first! - Justin Guy Souter
like: andrew's blocking his boss comment - lol on that one :) - mike "glemak" dunn
my wife just called me a beast - maybe because I'm eating away my hang over. - Don Martelli via twhirl
hey I thought you said you were starting to work out! :-) - Christine Cavalier
I love that comment by your wife - very webby techie! cool! Ok so what did you do to earn that illustrious title of "fail whale"?!! ha, ha! - Susan Beebe
she saw me Twittering and was joking around. - Robert Scoble
Tell your wife if she calls you a name, she might cause Amazon's storage services to go down. Then, look at your iPhone and say "Honey, look what you did!" - Candace Holly
Which is worse - the fail or the whale? - Steve Rubel
Herschel: I guess you don't use Twitter, huh? I really wish you would do some homework by Googling a term you don't understand first. Nothing personal but I would rather teach a man to fish than give him a fish. Now that the mpral lesson is over the image that comes up when Twitter is down is a whale. The community now uses that as a metaphor for when anything is down. - Robert Scoble
What is the opposite of a fail whale? - Sean Oliver
Well... I don't use Twitter, espcially since FF seems to be better and why would I invest any time on a service that now has a reputation in the industry as be a "fail whale"? - Herschel
I got a coupon for said smoothies this morning. Gave to someone else in the office. I don't need deterrents for weight loss. - Helen Is SOOO Not Of Troy
Really, I think smoothies with caffeine could be the way to go, like espresso banana milkshakes, for instance. - Cathryn Hrudicka
One of the flavors is chocolate banana that might have caffeine in it. - Cathleen Rittereiser
Ok Micheal's made me laugh. Hard. I'm voting for Run DMC, it's like that. OR or...still thinking - Erin Kotecki Vest
I don't think I can use Yes We Can, even though I've endorsed Obama. :) I don't want to lose my conservative friends TOO! :) - Aaron Brazell
In that case Pretenders' Middle Of The Road ;) - Michael W. May
I'm going to go obscure - which means no one else will likely know it "Woman" by Anti-Nowhere League. - Lucretia Pruitt
fyi, wiki on GeekMommy's suggestion: "Their first gig was at the Tunbridge Wells annual carnival, at which they got arrested" lol, now that is authentic punk - Michael W. May
It is Michael - they used to ban the playing of "Woman" in the local clubs here b/c it always turned into a nice friendly riot. The son starts off nice and slow, but well, you know. :) - Lucretia Pruitt
Nice (not really) blanket statement, it's not that black and white. It's really just what people say when they dislike something that's popular. - Sonciary Honnoll
one of my favorite videos by Honda is "Hate Something" (on YouTube) - dave mcclure
Loic, that's so sad! (Is the opposite true, if everyone hates you then you must be a maestro!) - Dave Winer
Loic be nice or I'll block you on Seesmic! LOL - Igor The Troll
Can I assume since I'm seeing Dave Winer in the timeline, etc, that he has unblocked me? Dave? - Aaron Brazell
@davew: Your implication is not logically true :) @loic come on NoiseRiver ;-) We have better than "hate this" - directeur via NoiseRiver
@Aaron Dave says thanks for reminding him :P (*kidding*) - Shey
Boring people don't have enemies. Not all interesting people do, but boring folks never do. If you're lucky tho - your friends like you as much & as passionately as your enemies hate you. - Lucretia Pruitt
Next time someone tries to do a block on me, I will retaliate with DOS denial attack on their server! Block per Block! lmao - Igor The Troll
Loic, Does this mean I have to become the only person that doesn't like you to save you from a life of mediocrity? I love seesmic so much I would do that for you. - Cathleen Rittereiser via NoiseRiver
I'm pretty medicre but my friends have lots of haters. What does that mean? - Robert Scoble
"We are sorting ourselves out by choosing to live with people that we agree with," Bill Clinton quote from today. Is this true of FF community? - Cains
@cains: It's true of every community. The alternative: What, you're going to force me to be with people I DON'T like? Who gave you the power to choose for me? And what about freedom of association in the Constitution? - Alexander Williams via NoiseRiver
This brings to mind a couple versus from R.Kipling: ... If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it... - Franklin Naval
What's wrong with being mediocre? Doesn't mean you can't do extraordinary things. - Jim Kukral via twhirl
It's not possible for everybody to like anyone. If everyone else in the world likes a person, then my husband will hate him/her. - MiniMage
If you always try to get everyone to like you and never say anything that expresses your true feelings for fear that someone might be offended does that mean you hate yourself? - Guilty Party
Part of me really agrees with the quote, but part of me also thinks it's a load of crap. I think that if there's someone everyone likes, that person is probably hiding something or not allowing themself to be fully transparent. For me, I prefer total transparency - I want to know if I'm going to like you or hate you. Any middleground just wastes time and energy. - Sam Dodge
I agree to a point. You have to have an opinion and stick up for that, but you can't just be generally abrasive. - Jeremy Vaught
I was thinking about this some more Loic. I think this statement is bullshit propaganda tripe spouted by people who think being a dick is "interesting". No, it's just you being a dick. Being liked is a good thing. Let's not try to claim that good people are boring as you suggest. - Jim Kukral
Asuming you're good, I think it's easy to be disliked and come across as arogant. It's far harder to be good and liked. - Ben Metcalfe via twhirl
There's no such thing as "everybody." There's nothing wrong with mediocre. Being hated does not mean you are more [interestng, intelligent, creative] etc. Being liked and being mediocre are factors independent of each other. - Roxanne Darling via twhirl
You can be liked by many people, but it is impossible to satisfy everyone. Sometimes you will bump into people that you don't like. I would say "If everybody likes you, you are not honest" - Erno Hannink
yes that is 100% true unless you are an antagonizer. Notice Amanda Chapel is both intelligent and has people listening to her. - Noah David Simon
To be a real jerk in social networking brings people to you. but it makes ur life a nightmare. I would prefer mediocrity - Noah David Simon
in an optimized system (social or economic) mediocrity is healthy =) (retweeting myself here into FF, since FF doesn't pickup the twitter conversation) - Thomas Knoll
I got my twitter account back @NoahDavidSimon and I notice by not being there I still have around 1000 followers. - Noah David Simon
by not tweeting I got a better share of listeners... but not really. I just didn't piss them off yet - Noah David Simon
I would rephrase it : “if you want attention from everyone, you are probably ZERO" or "if you want to be liked (loved) by everyone, you are mediocre" LOLOLOLOL - Lora Lufark
Tires and factories. I know it's not Akron, but when I hear an Ohio city that isn't Cincinnati, Cleveland or Columbus, I think tires and factories. - Chris Reed
I think of Bicycles, actually, since that's what the Wright Brothers did there. - Ivan via fftogo
Wright Bros, then Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. - Ken Sheppardson
Wright Brothers - NEC typewriters - Marianists @ Univ. of Dayton - I-75 - Great minor league baseball - Bob Dylan *always* does concerts there and not in Cincinnati - oh, did I mention it's the town just north of me? - Barbara K. Baker
The "Dayton Hop" this dance that I did in high school that I learned from my friend's brother who went to U of Dayton - Cathleen Rittereiser
I just realized that I have never before consciously thought about Dayt
