Panda's are quite possibly the most absurd looking animal second only to the duck billed platypus. It is for this reason that I <3 dem.
- Geoff Schultz {TF}
Kungfu Panda is showing his sensitive side! :)
- imabonehead
I've noticed lately that some of my uploads to Flickr seem to be desaturating. Anyone know why this might be. It seems to be taking place on and off over the last 4 or 5 months. Some photos are much worse than others. See this example between the same Flickr photo and Zooomr photo to see what I'm talking about. http://www.flickr.com/photos... and http://www.zooomr.com/photos...
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
I've never noticed it but it's really obvious when comparing those 2 URLs. I tend to over saturate anyway so maybe it's a good thing :P (kidding!)
- Benjamin Golub
It seems kind of hit and miss with Flickr lately but it is super annoying. I've actually had to go in and use some of their piknik tools to try and correct it in some cases. Anyone know why this is happening?
- Thomas Hawk
TH: I noticed the same thing and Mathias Pastwa told me it was Safari's fault. I haven't checked in FFox yet, so don't quote me on that!
- Mona Nomura
I just did a quick glance at the 2 photos in Firefox. I am not a photo-guy, but I can definitely see a difference in clarity even with my untrained eyes. My best guess is that Flickr is recompressing images for size purposes, causing the images to look a little "flat".
- Rob Diana
Just read the thread, I'd be interested in a fix or a reason why Flickr does this.
- Kol Tregaskes
My bat-sense says it has something to do with color profiles. Web designers go crazy with this issue. If the photo goes into Photoshop, be sure to set the color profile to sRGB and export from EXPORT TO WEB. Not save as.
- stretta
from twhirl
It's not Flickr; it's your browser. And it is indeed color profiles. Depends on which app you're exporting from but you can easily select profiles in, say, Lightroom (and likewise, the default may cause havoc...)
- Peter Kirn
from twhirl
Peter, if it's the browser then why does it look fine in Zooomr but not flickr?
- Thomas Hawk
As Peter Kirn says one should always make sure that photos destined for the Web are exported in sRGB. Safari does well with other color profiles and I believe the latest version of Firefox addresses the issue, but I think sRGB is still the only safe profile for the Web. That said, the photo in question is sRGB according to its Exif so that should not be the problem. I do agree that in comparing the Flickr and Zooomr versions in Firefox the Flickr version is noticeably more flat.
- Tom Harrison
Maybe flickr is altering color profiles? I've definitely noticed it.
- Jason Wehmhoener
When I first saw this photo (it was smaller) I thought the guy in the orange shirt was Kevin Rose
- Mattb4rd
I noticed that too. Which threw me off, because I spent so much time adjusting them in Lightroom.
- Derrick
It's really annoying. Is Flickr still doing this? :-(
- Kol Tregaskes
Seems to me it's the resizing that's doing it. Resizing the original in CS2 gives an apparent drop in saturation (using any of the algorithms available). Zooomr has a better resizing algorithm than Flickr by the look of it. Has it really got anything to do with profiles? I can't see any evidence of that. Looking forward to a colour gamut expert coming along and explaining it ...
- Matt Jones
I buy my pork related products from sources that aren't horrible. If you buy your meat from Whole Foods, you'll pay more but get much higher quality meat that's nothing like the company profiled. Yes, much of the pork industry is disgusting.
- iTad
Nick, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR POSTING THIS!!!!!
- Anna Haro
I'm not a vegetarian now, but when I lived in rural Missouri I was. Whole Foods cannot be found on every street corner, and not everyone can afford it anyway. What's really sad is that if you're poor in the midwest you're probably eating pork and therefore contributing to massive pig-shit lagoons that are extremely dangerous to your own safety. Vegetarianism is a nutritious and affordable habit we could all learn something from.
- Jason Wehmhoener
i'm hitting the LIKE button very reluctantly. in this case it should be called "DO NOT FORGET"
- sean808080
Luter, the owner of Smithfield, wants to expand in Europe, particularly in Poland and Romania. The bastard! After having killed millions of fish, made countless people sick here in the US, and ruined rivers and watersheds in North Carolina for everybody, now wants to do the same in Europe. And smarmy politicians here in the States have done nothing to stop him -- after getting hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from him, that is. People like this are the real terrorists.
- Raoul Pop
Bacon will destroy the world, but it's oh so good.
- Morton Fox
So has Mona read this? Just wondering... ;-)
- Nicķ
Whoa! this entire article is GROOOOOOOOOSSSSSSS!!! wow. this is ungodly farming folks. this Pig Farming CEO dude's is sick in the head from all those fumes! Vegetarianism has for a long time been proven to be good for you and the environment...this should be on the front page news, but it's not.
- Susan Beebe
Thanks sincerely for the reminder...
- Bill Sodeman
hmmmm... not good for Bacon, but breakfast is still for winners.
- Thomas Hawk
It's why I don't eat meat, thanks for this post. Reblogging.
- Ryan
My pork does not come from these sorts of places. However, I will never buy Smithfield again even in an emergency pinch situation. Thanks for the link.
- ThePicMan
ba-dee ba-dee ba-dee That's yuckie, folks! ...
- Mark Elster
I don't eat much meat at home, but this is certainly going to make me rethink that order of bacon and eggs at a diner.
- Nicholas Molnar
I just emailed Paula Dean the link to this RS article. I am sure she will never see it, but I am sick of her Smithfield commercials on FoodTV.
- ThePicMan
"In an elaborate operation six months in the planning, 1.2 million papers were printed at six different presses and driven to prearranged pickup locations, where thousands of volunteers stood ready to pass them out on the street." - The Yes Men [see full paper here http://nytimes-se.com/ ]
- Andrew Baron
They did it for the lulz, sure. Nothing funnier than your brother coming home in a bodybag, eh? Ah well, if you can't laugh you scream.
- Neal "thePuck" Jansons
This is actually really important to me right now. I just posted .jpgs of text on our biz site and it looks great. I was wondering if .pngs wouldn't be better looking.
- Anika
Is it true that IE *still* doesn't support PNG properly?
- Victor Ganata
I don't know how to make transparent files. When I save my .png they come out with white backgrounds. :(
- Anika
So are they saying that Flickr has it wrong, and that my digital photos should be uploaded to the web as png? They don't really state when one should use jpg and when to use png. And I definitely don't want my photos to look "trashy" as they put it.
- Wizetux
@Victor IE6 doesn't know how to show PNG24 transparency
- Shey
I like how the JPG guy in this comic has compression artifacts. @wizetux JPG was invented to compress photos, so they will look fine, usually. However, JPG doesn't do so well on thinks like text and line art... or anything with really high contrast actually.
- Phil Glockner
author here. glad you guys liked it.. friendfeed just became my new favorite website...@wiztux: jpg is ideal for photos, so no, flickr doesn't have it wrong
- Louis Brandy
Hey Louis, welcome to FF. Looking forward to more of your comics.
- Thomas Hawk
Hi Louis - that was really funny!, thanks!! :)
- Susan Beebe
Shey, I use Photoshop, but I'm not a genius at it. It seems that whenever I make a transparent graphic for the web, and I go to save it, it gives me the 4 options. And then tells me I have to merge everything and next thing you know it's a white background.
- Anika
Louis, Thomas, or anyone - how much larger, on average, is a PNG file vs. a JPG file? My image excursions are primarily limited to BMP and JPG.
- Ontario Emperor
@Anika Use the File --> Save For Web command and be sure the Transparency is checked in the Save for Web dialog box
- Shey
@Anika: Are you using Slices? That's the best way.
- John Wang
@OntarioEmp. It depends entirely on the image content and the file settings. For "computer-generated" things with low numbers of colors (like logos or diagrams) a well optimized PNG is usually smaller (and better-looking) than a JPEG. For anything with alot of color and gradients (like a photo), JPEG is superior and will be many times smaller than a PNG.
- Louis Brandy
@Shey, that's what I do (I think), but I doesn't work for me. I get a white background. @John, I have no idea what Slices is. Is that a program or tool in PS? @Sean, thanks for the tip. I'll look into that.
- Anika
Watched the video and it is fantastic. I hope the guy gets a lot of credit for creating it. But as for the message, I have to base my vote on facts and not hope. It's interesting how he says in the video the George Bush is "shredding and abusing the constitution", which I agree with... But the aura of Obama is apparently so overwhelming, that you fail to see how much he not only...
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- Sam J. West IV
@Sam: Obama does not support the return of the Fairness Doctrine http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article... And I assume your 'communistic ideal' is in response to the change in tax bracket from 36% to 39%? That's still well below what the top bracket was for many MANY years in the US.
- AJ Kohn
@AJ: OK, I made the assumption that when Pelosi gets it passed, that he would sign it. Perhaps not. But that was starting on the small end of the scale. It is clear and on record that Obama believes in "Spreading the wealth". This isn't about taxes. Taxes are for the defense, infrastructure and GENERAL wellbeing of the nation. Not the SPECIFIC handouts to individuals.
- Sam J. West IV
@Sam: Pelosi is off the rails as far as I'm concerned. Not sure what happened when she ascended to the post but it has changed her and not for the good. What specific handouts are you referring to? I'd prefer handouts to individuals rather than the handouts in the form of no-bid contracts to the corporations.
- AJ Kohn
@AJ: I am against no-bid contracts as well. Handouts? Well the most obvious are wellfare and medicaid. But I'm more concerned with the intended increase of 10-15 million more people with a $0.00 tax liability. The number paying no taxes will increase to ~44%. http://bit.ly/opTOp This is really a problem for both candidates but at least McCain knows not to tax the small businesses who create all the jobs during a recession.
- Sam J. West IV
Les banques, les banques How I love les banques! With the cleaver I hack them in two I pull out what's inside And I serve it up fried God, I love little fishes Don't you?
- Josh Haley
"yobosensei. The money is not the issue. I think the $25 account is inconsequential actually compared to the thousands of hours that a person who is as active as Pierre has put into that account. It's too draconian of a response to his private email to Flickr. Pierre should have his account reinstated with an apology from Flickr staff."
- Thomas Hawk
DUGG for staining freedom of choice and expression
- DAVE ID
Personally I wish all of these services had a clear policy of what will get you kicked off, and how they'll handle it. I also wish that they would NEVER delete previous work. They should just lock you out of your account if they don't like you, but leave your work up there (and the work of the community).
- Robert Scoble
This really sucks actually. Pierre complained about their threat to him and they simply deleted him. I've put thousands and thousands of hours into my Flickrstream. It would be devastating if they did this to me. This really was uncalled for. On digg here: http://tinyurl.com/4hmtvz
- Thomas Hawk
Flickr has really went downhill since the Yahoo purchase
- John Duff
that's really sad. Flickr... Where have you gone?
- ※Fu※
I don't agree with Flickr deleting the account but that email he sent was a bit much. That in itself is abuse, albeit to staff not users, and is against the terms of use.
- Andrew Smith
Andrew: I agree with you. If I were at Flickr I would have "fired" Pierre too (locked him out of his account, and told him he's not welcome on Flickr anymore). But I would NOT have deleted his work, or deleted the work of the community that built up around his work.
- Robert Scoble
I'm wondering what it takes until people, and I mean masses, stop using services that have theis kind of (miss-)management. I guess things like these only come up if you know someone like Thomas Hawk, etc. I don't want to know how often and what else goes wrong behind the scenes, but still people keep suing these services. Like Robert said, their power is extreme.
- Holger Eilhard
At the same time, I have to agree with Andrew that his reply was too much. How about asking in a polite way for the actual reasons behind this first and not just screaming out loud like there's no tomorrow?
- Holger Eilhard
The title to your post is a bit misleading. I can see where you are going with Flickr deleting the account for numerous blocks being a bit over the top, but please remember that the people answering these emails are people too, and speaking to them in the way that your friend spoke to them is unacceptable. His account wasn't deleted for cursing, in the text of the email you posted he is being completely abusive. Why would Flickr continue to do business with an obviously abusive user?
- Aaron Krug
Robert Scoble won't even approve comments he doesn't like on his fastcompany.tv site, and I seem to remember when you were all up in arms a little bit ago about being treated disrespectfully at SF MOMA. Why should the folks at Flickr suffer the abuse of this man? Because he is your friend? Your friend should've acted like the adult he wanted to be treated like and I am willing to bet things would've gone very differently.
- Aaron Krug
@cmiper That's just what I told to a friend via twitter: "I'm wondering what else might be behind the story. There's always two sides [of a story]."
- Holger Eilhard
The author of the recent article "Nasty As They Wanna Be" (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin...) tosses around various nonsense such as whether excluding racist activity is discriminatory against racists, and whether banning harassment is harassing the harasser... but you can have your account deleted for using bad words in private? Either Flickr's policies are made of hot air, or there's more to this story. Also, poor choice of words on Pierre's part.
- Tom Harrison
If Pierre was such an active user then he knew of this flaw and was tempting fate and got what he deserved. He used words I won't even say out loud in that email. I find it ironic that his whole point was that it should be ok for others to block him and he wasn't doing anything that was abusive and was completely abusive in doing so.
- Aaron Krug
@Ole: Yip. This black and white behaviour on Flickr's part isn't good. They should be able to lock someone out, but only being able to delete the work of someone forever can't be the right way to handle these kind of things.
- Holger Eilhard
Pierre's response was a bit much. But that's him. He's Pierre. He's well known for who he is by Flickr and their staff. I don't think his response was right. But I think that total account deletion takes it a bit too far. He should have gotten a warning or maybe been locked out of his acct for 24 hours or something. But total account deletion in this case without warning is too far.
- Thomas Hawk
You have to keep in mind that this is not about simply starting over or the $25 for a Pro account. Very active Flickr users put thousands and thousands of hours into their accounts. The punishment doesn't fit the crime in this case. They should reinstate his account.
- Thomas Hawk
Facebook does the same thing for a lot less than swearing at staff.
- Robert Scoble
If there is another side to this story I haven't heard it. I've seen all of the emails involved in today's incident and published the main two relating to the case. If there is more to the story though Flickr is certainly welcome to chime in.
- Thomas Hawk
@aaronkrug2 He might have known. But Flickr only got de-brained recently. I had my brush with Heather too but that was before the Yahoo merger. Have nothing bad to say about her. Outcome was fair. Facebook suspends you as punishment for having too many 'friends' but at least they can open your account again after a grace period or your friends standing up to them.
- Frank Jonen
Thomas. He was responding to a warning, albeit to something different, however it was a warning nonetheless. Why should the Flickr crew believe he would react any differently if they warned him for being abusive? Would that not have elicited an even worse response? You say he was well known and he knew them well, so he knew the stakes. Maybe next time he will act like an adult when he comes across something he doesn't like. And when you say a bit much you are being misleading again. That email was terrible.
- Aaron Krug
What defines a Swear Word? Howard Stern would not last long on Flickr.
- Michael Fidler
It sounds like the only mistake the Flickr crew made was to let this guy go on acting like this for so long and make him think that kind of thing was acceptable in the first place, something they obviously just corrected.
- Aaron Krug
Thomas, you say that Flickr only got de-brained recently, however your description of your friend sounds like he has been acting unacceptably for some time. You say that your experience with the same person was fair and acceptable, do you think it would have been the same way had you chosen to use the language your friend did?
- Aaron Krug
I don't know thomas, with all due respect, i'm not sure what your friend was expecting. it shows very little respect for the flickr rep and also paints a pretty clear picture of why MAYBE this guy has been blocked. i think many reasonable people would have done the same thing. no one needs suffer abuse. I have received many different notices about complaints about my flickr due to my...
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- merkley???
THIS IS STOOOOPID... come'on flickr what gives?!! Go DIGG this story now! http://tinyurl.com/4hmtvz I am sorry folks but i have NO tolerance for small brained BS like this... these companies are way too draconian sometimes... lighten up already!
- Susan Beebe
Thomas, cmiper and merkley are making a lot more sense than you are on this one. No one should be asked to take that kind of abuse at all, and you are asking the Flickr guys to take it and issue a warning? You didn't like being treated rudely at SF MOMA, what about this is different? Your friend should've acted with a lot more maturity than he chose to show
- Aaron Krug
Aaron, I wouldn't use that language with Flickr staff but I guess I don't read the email as badly as you do. I've seen plenty worse in Flickr forums. I think Flickr needs to have thicker skin. I'm not defending his email. I'm just saying that deleting thousands of hours of someone's work is too big of a response for Pierre's typical Pierre hot headedness. And it is total crap to threaten someone with deletion simply because too many people block them. I've had plenty of people block me.
- Thomas Hawk
And we're not talking about AT&T telling you to go to Sprint because they don't like your language. When Pierre's account was deleted he lost *thousands* of hours of work. That's just too big a penalty for that email.
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas, you and I are in complete agreement that it is total crap to have an account deleted just for people blocking you. You and I are in complete agreement there. However where we differ is I answer customer service emails for a living and can tell you that I am a smart, polite, upstanding person who will not be addressed in this manner. Ever. Your only reasoning is that it's 'typical Pierre hotheadedness'. So because he does it all the time it's ok?
- Aaron Krug
Aaron, how is this different than the SFMOMA? I was kicked out of the SFMOMA for doing something completely unoffensive and allowed, the Flickr employee was not. Your analogy doesn't make sense on any level. Too very different situations.
- Thomas Hawk
It sounds like from the other comments as well that it was not just this email, this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. He has been directly abusive on numerous occasions to the very proprietors of the service he claims to value. If he valued it as much as he said he did he would've thought twice before choosing his course of action.
- Aaron Krug
And why was he abusive previously? Because he didn't agree with Flickr policies? Its a big internet, if he didn't like it no one was making him stay. Its not like you can go into McDonald's and speak to them like this because they don't sell Whoppers and then expect them to still serve you. I'm with Flickr all the way on this one.
- Aaron Krug
re @thomashawk "punishment should fit the crime" well, i'm not sure how i'd react because it's never really happened, but if someone went off like that to me in my living room, i think throwing them and all their stuff out on the street would be a fair and expected move. gently guiding him onto a small chair in a corner for a time out might be a little condescending to everyone. you...
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- merkley???
Whether it was the straw that broke the camels back or not I still think that deleting thousands of hours of someone's work forever is not an appropriate response. Maybe lock him out of the account for a cooling off period, sure. Do that a few times and then kick him out of the site. Maybe it's hard to understand because for most people it's just an account whereas for some of us it represents something with far far more of an emotional investment.
- Thomas Hawk
Gotta say I disagree with how Flickr threatened to delete the account because people were blocking him. Without more info, it really doesn't seem like an intelligent reaction. After Pierre's reply, I can't say I blame them for not wanting to deal with him any longer. However, I think locking him out would have been better than deleting his account.
- MiniMage, enterRUPPted
Pierre is a loved character on Flickr despite his hot headedness. He's very ingrained in the community and has been for years. Personally I think many of the characters on Flickr are what makes it interesting. Mr. Chalk, Billy Warhol, there have been plenty of others who have big personalities and take things too far. But Flickr should have more tolerance for their characters before taking such draconian action here. It was a nuclear response and too much for the crime.
- Thomas Hawk
And it is super lame that you can get your account deleted for too many people blocking you, which is the issue that started this all off in the first place.
- Thomas Hawk
it's hard to have pity for a man who burns down his own house, whether he knew the potential of the match he was striking is another story. the bigger shame is when the house was filled with other people's stuff and that all went up in smoke as well -- but even then, disappointment should be pointed at the drunk guy with the gas can and that should be kept to a minimum since it's all backed up www.archive.org -- i'll stop now.
- merkley???
i think blocking just sets off the investigation which in this case was a very short one with considerably strong "craaazay guy" evidence being found in the first interview. -- ok stopping for reals --
- merkley???
More conservative bullshit. Everything has to be clean and tidy and fit in nice little boxes. I thought Fluckr ;) was about promoting creativity, not stifling it. Creativity isn't always PG-13, it comes rated R, and sometimes NC-17. And the beauty of blocking is just like changing the channel and not watching. It's not an attack on the artist, just a way of not watching his work because you chose not to. Isn't choice the foundation of a free society?
- DAVE ID
Whatever happened to all the Data Portability stuff that was all the rage beginning of this year?
- Jesse Stay
I still am in complete agreement that you should not be able to have your account deleted for too many people blocking you. The problem here is, Pierre ruined any point he was trying to make by acting like a foul mouthed child. Thomas when you say the punishment should fit the crime I agree, but the crime here is different than you are claiming. Pierre chose not to act like the adult he was claiming to be, and chose to be completely abusive towards the staff. I can think of no situation where the language
- Aaron Krug
he chose to use would be acceptable. So in response to the way that he acted, not the fact that he had too many people blocking him, they deleted his account. This is something I feel they are well within their rights to do. Pierre was a very active member of the community and had just received a message warning of account deletion, did that not even cross his mind as a possible outcome for his actions? He needs to learn that if you try to bully everyone you meet in life, sometimes you end up losing.
- Aaron Krug
While I don't agree to the email he first received about being deleted because so many people blocked him, his response was way over the top.
- Becca
From NewsGrange: "Yesterday, people posted screenshots of their desktops – the day before – pictures of themselves – tomorrow, it’s going to be a picture of their feet. FriendFeed (or at least the part that I am subscribed to) is becoming a completely self-referential community that creates less and less value for me."
- Louis Gray
from Bookmarklet
Agree? Disagree? Let them know in the comments. (And no, this is not my site or opinion)
- Louis Gray
It's a little harsh, although I do accept that there has been a serious shift with FF. Where as it was once primarily a secondary discussion around posts, today it's a full blown social network in its own right. And I might add, it's a network I'm happy to be part of, and unlike facebook, it's one I'm happy to spend time in
- Duncan Riley
It's impossible to create aggregator that shows exactly the content you want. FF can be fine-tuned with lists and hides to filter, but it can't be perfect, either. I think all the meme's etc bring the community together and makes them more likely to add more useful content, too :)
- Jemm
They should subscribe to fewer people. My tech list doesn't participate in most of the memes and I don't click like on many of them either.
- Robert Scoble
So come on, who's going to start the "Photo of my feet" meme?
- Bec Rowe @d0tski
I think tagging / categorizing would bring more value as I want to add both fun and tech content. Tags would help filtering data for my followers from my end.
- Jemm
use the lists feature, which i find to be a great sorting tool on FF, and adjust your filtering strategy. personally, i don't mind the pictures of people, and their feet... it brings a little bit of humanity to what is an essentially unnatural activity...sitting in front of a computer, that is...
- .LAG liked that
I would have to disagree. Maybe its just the people but I honestly didn't see many post about the list at all. And also, sure there are many useless memes, but I see may great photos, news stories, personal stories, funny things, etc throughout the day. I don't know what Friendfeed your referring to, but its not the one I'm a part of.
- Mathew™ aka Youngblood
if you're only getting your feet wet with Friendfeed and playing around in the home feed, then yeah, I agree it's convoluted (although, personally that works for me). However, with just a little tuning of the rooms and lists, you can avoid most of that stuff, if you really wanted to. For me, I'm only peripherally interested in the tech news, it's everything else that goes on here that really strikes my fancy.
- Pete D
ff key: separate signal from growing noise
- Igor Poltavskiy
I for one appreciate the non-tech posts, just as much as the tech posts. Friendfeed isn't just for discussing OAuth...
- Matt Frog
I agree, this isn't Techfeed or Oneparticularsubjectfeed, this is Friendfeed which means that pretty much anything and everything can be shared. That is why you can connect so many different services to Friendfeed and why you have rooms based on different topics. Yes, there are some instances of noise. But, I must say that even as I've subscribed to more and more people I'm not really encountering any noise. And the only things I find myself hiding are post in languages other then English.
- Mathew™ aka Youngblood
on the topic, i think duncan said it well early in the thread & louis what sort of site have you linked to, its a void except for this mindless "hating" ff now that its diverse post - that's not like you...
- mike "glemak" dunn
I see the point but it's simply a matter of subscribing to the people who interest you/who post articles/shares you are interested in. I don't get it. Doesn't this person know how to do this? Was FF created for tech news only? The name certainly doesn't suggest that. You can share what you like, if the reader doesn't like it then they can unsubscribe or create a friend list tailored to their needs.
- Kol Tregaskes
After joining FF, my activity on all other sites has not slightly decreased, but I am happy with FF cos' now I don't have to login to all those sites just to see what others have posted. I log into them only if I want to post something. Otherwise I carry on discussion only on FF. In simple words, I love FriendFeed!
- kunwar
Mike, I saw the site left a trackback on Robert's list. It does seem to be a bit of a hit and run.
- Louis Gray
Bah, whinging because of FF's increasing variety and diversity - it's still social media, so there will be social aspects. FF's slowly diverging from it's original tech bias, deal. Use the tools provided, block, unsubscribe, or use lists to remove what you don't like or simply be more discerning in subscriptions.
- Mo Kargas
Talk about linkbait... well, he got what he wanted.
- Sprague D
I don't find anything wrong with a random meme when you are still contributing to the tech community. If the early adopters would like a tech list to dabble in information create a room and hang out in it! I happen to like a bit of diversity on FF... it adds to the value for me. Isn't too much of a photo meme the same as me getting pissed off on the 30000 Google Chrome posts? Or the iPhone App posts that litter my home feed? You can get tired of stupid, funny postings. You can get tired of random noise and
- Kyle Lacy
chatter. The last thing you need to do is get tired of FriendFeed. If you are tired of personality and a community of diversity, go quarantine yourself in Strandz. :-) This is what social media is all about. Have a good day everyone!
- Kyle Lacy
Definitely Kyle, once again on the ball mate
- Mo Kargas
Louis, and all, I did stop by and thank the author for sharing his/her opinion. I have no worries with listening to the opinion and am not offended. Robert is fairly accurate in his assessment, as is Mathew (and many others). I have come for conversation on all manner of topics. I am interested in more than simply tech, and I hope that my likes and comments reflect that. I have begun to really enjoy the oddball humor and many interesting recommendations that come from everyone I subscribe to. Keep it up.
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
This happens to every social site - as the community grows, it tends to trend towards the kind of stuff that a large community can agree on, which tends to be funny pictures and dumb memes more than thoughtful commentary. Bolstering the rooms feature for more topical discussion would help greatly with this; in the meantime I'd suggest just culling your friends list.
- Eric P
You can't tell people what to do or share. You can just filter the people you find interesting, and make good use of the rooms and lists features.
- Alejandro
I like friendfeed as it has become. its a community of different people and different ideas. to qoute public enemy "bring the noise!" :)
- (jeff)isageek
This is what turned me off FriendFeed for awhile, and after trying to come back the same thing. I'm not going to call out any names but I got tired of seeing FUNNY PICS and just silly things that isn't new, just midly interesting, and most of it I had seen before on sites like Reddit, Digg, etc. .. My goal of FriendFeed was to be able to connect to people of like-mindedness on things I am interested in. Perhaps it's the people I'm subscribed to but even searches for things I'm interested in don't turn...
- Bartek Ciszkowski
(Continued comment) .. up very intriguing results. I've participated in one or two memes because I was bored but the FriendFeed problem is the same as any social-based network: You have your star players, they get all the attention, they post most of the links, and it becomes centered around them. It's too much effort to block/unsubscribe and filter it all out so now I'm stuck thinking how I can make FriendFeed useful for me.
- Bartek Ciszkowski
I know how you feel.. I can post a link and it'll get ignored. Someone else with a higher profile will post the same thing and it'll generate a load of activity. This is a central problem I notice across the net - it's billed as the great equaliser but it isn't, people don't have a fair shout because of human nature and its tendancy to coaless around "prominent personalities" and cliquish behaviours. I doubt this is a "problem" that can be fixed by technology as it sits much deeper.
- alphaxion
@alphaxion I've had that happen a few times. At first I was kinda miffed that I'd posted something topical and relevant and got no response, and then someone else had posted the same link a couple of hours later and got 30-40 comments. Still, I still post stuff I find interesting, and that I hope others will too. If we don't post links, because we think that it will always only be the high-profilers ones that get read, then it WILL always only be theirs that get read!
- Ian May
Kyle, you said "I don't find anything wrong with a random meme when you are still contributing to the tech community." The problem is when a bunch of people participate in every meme: those people stop functioning productively in the tech community. P.S. I'm glad my month-long curmudgeonry about MemeFeed has finally gotten mainstream!
- Mark Trapp
There's something productive about the contributions of the tech community? News to me - a thousand people going "ZOMG Google Chrome!!!" and "Dude check out my iPhone!" strike me as being about as useful as lolcats but less interesting.
- Eric P
There's a tech community on FriendFeed? Where? I see a lot of talk about Web 2.0 sites and using webapps, but very very little about tech.
- Jason Carreira
@Mark What is a productive tech community?
- Kyle Lacy
@ian I know, I have the same philosophy with everything - I post to my site even though no-one goes to it, I produce podcasts that no-one will see nor hear. I don't care about any lack of traffic, I do it cause I want to. If someone else picks up on it, ok. If I change one persons opinion, fantasic job done. @jason we are there, it's just we don't have many subscribers to hear it ;)
- alphaxion
It was just Sunday night - everyone is more relaxed over the weekend.
- Jesse Stay
Agreed to a certain point. (I still like having fun with you all.) I will do my best to be more informative instead of entertaining. I will go for being 80% informative and 20% entertaining/fun. I don't want to treat FriendFeed like a Face Book or MySpace application or see it become one. I originally came to FF to follow some of the greatest tech minds ever and learn from them. I’m not apologizing for following the meme’s, but I will cut back from some of them.
- David Cook
I still find it to be pretty useful. I don't check it everyday mostly because it requires more time to dig through everything and involve myself in some discussions that interest me. Yes there is a lot of noise but that unless your FOF is completely unmanageable there you can often find some great stuff buried in all that noise.
- Devlin Dunsmore
from twhirl
The problem I'm seeing is that people spend more and more of their time on the silly memes - which I suspect leaves little or no time to read worthy articles that are shared (often by less-popular users), and certainly almost no time to comment on them, especially considering how quickly they get buried by the meme entries. FF will need to overcome this.
- Aviv
The past 2-3 weeks have seen a huge upsurge in FF photo traffic, which is a direct result of the new photo feature being so easy to use now after the recent FF beta went into production (some of us were aware of how to use mail2ff app (which I think FF later acquired). So, I was expecting this increase; however, it certainly went viral when all these "meme" photos popped up. Early on, I suggested a MEME Room to contain all the madness so folks could manage their preferences to opt in/out. Cont'd.......
- Susan Beebe
Cont'd....... Also, I think we're seeing a genuine interest in folks getting to know each other better. This generated the whole photos idea, which seems to have cemented new online friendships and opened the door to a plethora of new "memes" thereafter. I still think we need a "meme room" to filter in/out this new content type. In the end, this all may be just a short-lived trend.
- Susan Beebe
as for the "silly meme" trend on ff, i don't mind them but haven't really participated much (i have very little time) - i have created a specialty list called "high volume" that gets most of these out of my primary feed/lists, it has cut down the noise but i still can go scan through them when time allows - works for me...
- mike "glemak" dunn
Gang, is FriendFeed specifically geared towards tech, or was it simply the early adopters that found and spread the concept of "life streaming"?
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
If Newsgrange doesn't like what the people they follow are posting, they can simply change who they follow. To whine about this is a total waste of their time! Talk about ironic and not having a clue.
- Dread Pirate PJ
I think FriendFeed is becoming more than just a place for tech. Depending on the people you subscribe to, you could have a nature feed, you could have a geeky feed, you could have a tech feed and so on. I think FriendFeed is able to grow along with the diverse users. FriendFeed has the power to become a strong and powerful resource for anyone. Period. Regardless of anything, literally.
- wiredgnome
Mosaic 2.0 alpha 1. One of the guys on my floor in the dorms immediately pointed it to pr0n. Yes, they had pr0n on the Internet in 1994, and not just on Usenet.
- Victor Ganata
for some reason I assumed we meant graphical browser. my first experience on the Internet was through lynx. On Linux. Running on a 486 50 MHz.
- Victor Ganata
Well... my first experience of a non-graphical would have to be when I went to work with my dad who was a managing editor for a newspaper, the original news wire internet was my first real experience.
- Andrew Dobrow
lynx! and i have a very clear recollection of the first time I saw a graphical browser, Mosaic, IMDB. moving stars on a black background, jaw droppingly amazing.
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
First browser = Mosaic via some type of Sun workstation when I was a PhD student in computer science at U of Tennessee.
- Mike Reynolds
lynx ...the text-based browser from u of kansas. i guess gopher does not count...
- kamla bhatt
ah gopher. nope, it was a different protocol, not http. do gopher servers actually still exist?
- Victor Ganata
Milton Friedman would perhaps think along the same lines!
- Hayk
It's only temporary your leading the world. It's soon going to be China's and India's turn. Then we'll all have to look back and see what America gave the world when it was in charge....
- Toby Graham
I noticed something. When I read my feeds on Google Reader, I get smarter. When I read Twitter I learn how boring our lives usually are. When I read FriendFeed I find out how smart you are. All three have their place. :-)
I feel the humor factor shows up better here than Reader and Twitter.
- Scot Duke
Twitter doesn't make me realize how boring our lives are, just that our lives are all very much the same no matter who we are, where we live, and/or what we do. Which is kind of cool to me.
- FFing Enigma
I've abandoned both Google Reader and Twitter.
- Thomas Hawk
LOL. funny but true. i still use all three. but i use FF most of the time and also incorporated it into my blog. to make it look a little smarter :)
- ~C4Chaos
i use the hell of of ff and greader, but they lack the humanity of twitter. i'm an infojunkie, but there has to be more to life online than just data.
- eric mortensen
from twhirl
I find Google Reader the most useful of the three by far. But when I want to discuss something or see what others with like interests are talking about, I find FriendFeed to be the place to go.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Robert, I try to have the same effect from all three :) when i m done with the daily minimum i switch to the second effect and finally third :)
- Hayk
On the consumption end, I agree. On the production end, however, I find that I share more in FriendFeed directly than sharing from GoogleReader (because I can attach pictures to the share in FF -- plus it shows up immediately). That seems to make my FriendFeed feed smarter than my GoogleReader feed. (Doesn't matter that much, tho, as they're combined in the end.)
- Christopher Galtenberg
I have to say that I'm a FF addict like the rest of us, but the past few days I've found it kinda boring and self-serving. Now that's bound to happen, but the chatter seems to have become less interesting of late and more like graffiti IMO. Maybe it's an end of summer thing.
- Jason Goldberg
Well that would be a judgement upon your friends, not the service, nay? :) (update: lol, just saw your friendfeed subscription come thru - the pressure's on!!)
- Christopher Galtenberg
@christopher sorta yes, of course. the question i do have is how much will be graffiti vs. substance? again, i'm an addict, just wondering
- Jason Goldberg
@Jason, it's time out for the Olympics!
- asiriusgeek
@jason we need a friendfeed substance pledge! (actually just a way to mark FF contributions as private graffiti, to use your helpful terminology)
- Christopher Galtenberg
Friendfeed indirectly feeds my google reader - so it makes me smarter too
- George Smith
I have to agree with this one totally Robert. Top 3 in my 'social graph' right now. I do pick up an occasional important passing item from Twitter (when time allows). GReader would be better if more people shared. Friendfeed is providing the best remote networking opportunity I've ever seen (and can be fun too!). All of the other 'new' tools bear watching and are all 'pipes' for those looking to promote themselves, or their products.
- Charlie Anzman
Trying to figure out what Identi.ca makes me. People don't tend to just blabber on identi.ca as much as Twitter. I find there are a lot of really smart developers there, so is it becoming a community for developers then?
- Jesse Stay
Every once in a great while now, when things seem to take a momentary awkward silence on FF, I may poke my head in to twitter or my rss feeds. There's just so much good activity here, it's hard to turn my head away sometimes.
- Pete D
Lovely comment Robert! Had me laughing...
- Mitchell Tsai
Yap, but Twitter also shows how crazy people can be driven ;)
- Martin Gommel
I'm starting to get this. Thanks for the coaching.
- Pete Steege
While Apple never promises your real world experience will be the same (your mileage may vary, depending on network congestion and coverage, for instance) it is sorta misleading, zooming past even our benchmarks, indicating it's at least on Wi-Fi, even though the ad is ostensibly talking about its 3G connection. Like, it would trick my mom, and that's not cool.
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
Misleading advertising from Apple? No couldn't be.
- Brian Sullivan
this is exactly why I decided to stick with my 4GB iPhone first generation. I'll get next year's 3G iPhone once they work out all the wrinkles and it's solar powered ;-)
- C. K. Sample III
from twhirl
As I commented earlier, the employee in question acted outside the rules set by MOMA and took it apon himself to have a person ejected DESPITE other people in the gallery performing the same actions. As "Director of Visitor Relations", you are not some type of low level employee, you are a person who is the public face of an organisation.
- Johnny
I think it's SFist, SF Fist sounds like a completely different site...
- Phill Price
I like that you also mentioned the general harassment photographers are facing everywhere. It concerns me that this is getting to be commonplace in our society.
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thanks Phill, I'll correct that in the post :)
- Thomas Hawk
I am with JMS but would add the photograhy 'IS A CRIME' virus has also infected the UK and France.
- Mel Buckpitt
increasingly I'm hearing stories of harassment in the UK. I think much of the recent harassment in the UK can be directly attributed to a public campaign on the part of the UK's Metropolitan Police to demonize photography. http://thomashawk.com/2008...
- Thomas Hawk
Excellent followup. I can't wait to hear the response to this issue form Simon and the SF MOMA.
- Jeff P. Henderson
powerful, thanks for sharing your experiance
- sean percival
I attended the Ekka this weekend (Queensland, Australia's version of a state fair) with the intention of photographing it. I rang the organisers before hand and they said while it is not allowed, they will not enforce it. The Terms Of Entry signage outside also said photography or video is not allowed. Within 50 meters from the front gate, I counted at least 11 DSLR in use. If these rules are going to be created, they must be enforced or face this type of situation occuring. Luckily, I was not 'Blinted'...
- Johnny
@tv the UK stuff is blown out of proportion and the met only covers London where u shoot daily without harm
- Phill Price
It's nice to read a follow up story after everyones emotions quieted down.
- Bob Gannon
Consider the fact that Thomas did take the time to follow-up. Reading other posts from over the weekend, I really think this got blown way out of proportion. It's almost surreal.
- Charlie Anzman
Not sure what planet I was on yesterday but I completely missed this whole incident till I saw @stevenhodson 's post on it . I have had similar, but not as direct, experiences over the past couple of days...more to say about this on the blog later.
- Karoli
I don't think this is blown out of proportion because too many photographers are experiencing harassment. Seriously people, we need to wake and up and start making some changes before our rights are taken away. I know this many sound extreme, but it all starts with a small act that no one says anything about or objects to.
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JMS... I guess the TWiP guys are gonna sell out of their 'Photography Is Not A Crime' shirts real fast! (I'm still getting a Hey Everybody!)
- Johnny
@Thomas: Thank you for following up (and listening to your wife about the choice of language on your original post). Like Jeff and others, I also wish the museum would respond somehow.
- David Muir
Shakespere does have a way with words, Gregory. I agree. Surely this could have been settled with a nice, civil letter to the management? Sticks and stones, you know?
- Roberto Bonini
gotta forgive him at some point, or you'll be dragging it around the rest of your days. imo.
- Josh Haley
Good post Thomas. I disagree Gregory. Because this incident has already received so much attention it requires clarification. Search google for Simon Blint...
- Rafael Robayna
One of the things that bothers me about this whole affair is just the issue of Googling for Simon Blint. It turns up hundreds of references to Mr. Blint, calling him jerk, asshole and will likely permanently affect his future job prospects, From TH's account (which no doubt is truthful), his actions were objectionable and uncalled for. But Thomas does not have to worry about future job...
more...
- Brian Sullivan
You know, it looks to me like photographing people in public without their consent is actually illegal in Canada - see http://www.stevekwan.com/archive... and http://www.cbc.ca/technol... - due to privacy laws. Clearly unenforceable, and I know it doesn't apply in this case, but it's interesting. I bet European (and UK) laws are similar.
- Owen Byrne
I don't know who's right and who's wrong here, but if I ever see Thomas Hawk in my neighborhood, I am staying the hell out of his way. Seriously, this kind of contretemps scares the shit out of me. I'm a teacher. What if some day one of my students' parents decides to blog about something I innocently said or did in class that happened to piss him off? How long before my home phone and kids' pictures are all over the web? If you think it can't happen to you, well, don't be so sure.
- Nathan Rein
For those awaiting a response from SF MoMA - to my knowledge they haven't issued one yet, but people started posting comments on an unrelated post in the SF MoMA blog. Suzanne from SF MoMA ended up responding, but she said that she didn't know the scope of the complaints and couldn't weigh in, and could everyone please stay on topic? http://blog.sfmoma.org/2008...
- Ontario Emperor
@Owen, As you pointed out, Thomas is in the US where it is Not illegal to take photos of people in public places. Usage of the image is where permission or release comes into play. For non commercial and news related uses permission and releases are generally not required. Of course there is always common courtesy. If someone asks nicely not to be photographed I certainly oblige. Thomas has stated many times that he fallows this mantra also. Of course that was not the case in this instance.
- Jeff P. Henderson
@Jeff, I just brought it up because I take pictures myself, and I am in Canada, and I sometimes feel uncomfortable taking pictures of strangers and posting them on flickr (especially children or teenagers). But I never thought it would be illegal.
- Owen Byrne
Good follow up. People really should be careful how they act in public. You never know who's got a camera. :-)
- Jeremy Brooks
This has been a very interesting event to follow. I would love to hear a reaction from the MOMA to see if they are paying attention.
- Michael
Regarding MOMA's response, the only reactions I've seen were a comment in the MOMA blog and two verbal replies to Mona's post. It sounds like a response is being prepared.
- Ontario Emperor
sometimes I think that the security guards need to pass around headshots of Thomas with a note attatched that says "Leave alone -- will cause bad publicity". The rest of the time, I just figure that they already have been passing around his headshot, which is why he gets stopped much more often than anybody else.
- Wirehead
The reason he gets hassled more than anyone else is that he probably shoots photos more than anyone else. He carries his camera everywhere, so he's bound to run into people who object to it's presents or object to being the subject of his photos. I've seen him shoot and anyone that has knows he gets very focused on what he is doing, almost to the point of possibly not knowing who is around him or what is going on near him.
- Jeff P. Henderson
(cont) What probably happens sometimes is that he will be busy shooting and someone will make an expression or gesture of displeasure to his activities or his presents. He might not even notice. The next thing you know the person gets annoyed and confronts him. I can easily see this scenario happening.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Leather, Have to agree with you on the renegade photography part. This has always rubbed me the wrong way. I think Lane Hartwell gave a comprehensive summary and opinion here. http://photobusinessforum.blogspot.com/2008... But in this case I don't think that was the issue as he was clearly shooting in an area that he was allowed.
- Jeff P. Henderson
I have simple question how or what reasoning can any public figure of an art institute submit that suddenly denies an art patron their art patronage simply because they take photographs? Is there a sing that states "you lose your art patronage rights if you carry anything with a camera lens?" What we had here was miss communication between two art patrons f''ed up by a very naive public rep.
- Fred Grott
The only boob I can see in this picture is wearing a blue shirt and has his arms folded...
- Johnny
And it's a shame this happened. It reflects badly on the museum that there hasn't been a response yet. Your photographs are wonderful and would normally encourage people to visit the museum. But now people have to be paranoid about carrying a camera.
-