The Kid

Awesome! What's the eta? - Scott Schang

yes please add SocialMedian integration to FriendFeed. Thank you - David Ward

puhhhleeeeze. and thank you. - Sarah Vela

That would be cool. :) - Laura

indeed. - idnan

Yes Please! - Ian May

Yeah I just signed up for social median, that would be awesome. - The Kid

Yes please ... it would be an awesome addition. Thx. - Robert Couture

Those options are mostly dealing with the same thing (Atom/RSS feeds). - Tanath

I emailed them too, y'day. - Dileepa Prabhakar

robert ok then lets say this. have an option on a users FF page where they can link to their gmail address. I am kool with that as well. - (jeff)isageek

gmail is fine if you know the email of the person. - AJ Batac

http://friendfeed.com/e/06575c... - AJ Batac

How about the option to have a 'mailme' link that sends a mail from your registered address to theirs. Then again, that would require something akin to a profile... - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

gmail... what's wrong with plain ol' e-mail? - Peter

Peter, because you don't know the email of the person here in FriendFeed - AJ Batac

@Peter: nothing is wrong with plain ol email, but how do I know what your email address is? - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

there is something other then gmail? huh....j/k yes any email could be used. I just use gmail so i just used it as an example. - (jeff)isageek

How do you what someone's gmail address is? How do you know anything? Friendfeed knows, so if there'd be an option to e-mail someone, friendfeed could do it for you. - Peter

@Peter: that's exactly my point. FF knows your email addy, so if you had a profile and had checked a box "yes, ppl can email me", then I could go to your profile and click a 'Mail Peter' link. But alas, there is no profile and no checkbox for you to say ppl can email you. - Stupid Blogger (aka Tina)

Bleh, every service does not need to dup features. If you want DM's like Twitter...well...use Twitter. You should be able to contact someone just fine if necessary by looking at the info on their feed. If not, they probably didn't want to talk to you anyway. - Rahsheen ™

I'm with Scoble. - The Kid

I'm not afraid to be called stupid for this, but I'm not using and I won't use gmail for _private_ communication since I'm concerned for my privacy. - Opensource Obscure

there should be _some_ kind of dm feature here...what is the utility of just randomly stalking people? if you want to make a real connection, there is no system in place for that (to do directly on ff) - Aaron McCullough

I don't have any problem with using GMail for my private communications. If it's THAT private, I don't put it in an email, Period. - Ian May

@Opensource Obscure: There's always GPG/PGP... - Tanath

The answer lies in the MojiPage XMPP bot for FriendFeed (im@mojipage.com), which allows you to direct message a FriendFeed user who is subscribed to you (without you knowing her Jabber ID). Sorry for the self-plug; I can't help it ;-) - Wil via MojiPage

@scoble, I wouldn't call private messaging lame on Twitter. I know you can't use it because you get deluged...but I bet that many average users are using private messaging >30% of the time. Plus really, you can't have twitter without some type of direct messaging or you would be pushing out that much more noise because it would only be replies to all... - Pokai

if the other side does NOT give you their email, that's done on purpose and you do not qualify for communications on the level of trust, by default - stop to be direct marketing arsehole, don't assume people exist to be messaged/mailed unless they publish their mail address (and even then it is still questionable). I wish spammers (upon legitimate court decision of proven guilt in spam) shall be declared outside law protection and everyone might kill them. - silpol

I disagree with silpol on this one. For example, my wife and I often use Twitter Direct messaging, when I am here at the computer, and she is out and about with her cellphone. It's easier to DM from Twitter on a desktop than it is to faff about sending a text on a cellphone, however good the keyboard is. - Ian May

@scoble one problem with your solution what if gmail goes down? Like it did very recently. - Colide81 (James)

where is ff on this..? I don't see what the problem is. let the user check a box on their profile indicating whether or not they would like to allow direct emails, and then create an "email me" link on the users popup profile in ff - JлsonTFleming

I think a profile with some sort of mail me facility is a good idea (just having a profile is good). It seems silly to suggest that we should stick to Gmail , 1 because the whole world doesn't use Gmail and 2, that if you wanted to mail someone you kind of need to know there address. I also think the suggestion of using another service is wrong and that it would be better to keep it in-house. Have it as a feature, set the default to off (i.e. the mail me link on you profile as off)... - Kol Tregaskes

and have the option for FF users to turn it on and thus allow fellow FFers to contact them. - Kol Tregaskes

agree with Robert. the only private messaging system I need is email. - Jon Price

and frf webmail too :) - slsrx

Just about every service that gets imported into FF has some kind of messaging or comment system. Why not use one of those? - Tanath

How about a direct messaging system where DMs get forwarded to one's email account if one chooses to do so? - possible248

I'm all for contacting people in the way preferred by THEM, rather than assuming that one-size-fits-all. BTW, Twitter DMs can be forwarded to eMail and/or SMS, I do both. - Logical Extremes

so do i!!! - Alessandro

Yes, what happened? - Hao Chen

I want it back too... :( - Chris Thomson

It will be down for a little while we fix a small bug. Should be back soon... - Ross Miller

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the update Ross. - Justin Korn

Nice... I thought this was another symptom of Firefox asking to be restarted. Glad it ain't. :) - felix

I Wanna back too !! - Peter Dawson

I am still not seeing timestamp on comment. This sucks -why ? I like to check if its a stale thread or not before replying. It helps when engaging other users in a convo. If I comment on something thats stale, the chances that the user will response is slime. Jus my 2 cents -- (4 the time being !) :)- - Peter Dawson

The small bug comment was a couple of days ago ( though without the feature that is hard to verify ;-)). Maybe the bug was bigger than first thought? - Brian Sullivan

I was just wondering about this too...Ross Miller: Any update?? - Justin Korn

yeah that was pretty sweet. - The Kid

Any news on this timestamp thing? I've been away from FriendFeed for 7 days, and I miss the timestamps on posts. It'd be really nice as I scan old posts to see if the discussions are semi-recent or all from 7 days ago. - Mitchell Tsai

FF people seem to have gone silent -- no posting about anything FF feature/bug related for a long time. Heads down doing stuff or ...? - Brian Sullivan

Reason for the lack of feedback: lack of feedback from FF developers? Possibly. - Sean McBride

I want it back as well! - Ben Parr

Sorry guys... I'm hoping it comes back soon as well! - Ross Miller

Basically it was just too prominent at launch. Hovering over any of the comment brought up the tooltip. Scaling it back to just popping up over the comment bubble is the plan but there's stuff ahead of it on the priority list. In the meantime we just turned it off because it was too distracting. It'll be back soonish. :-) - Kevin Fox

why don't you just keep it on untill you change the way it appears? i liked the way it worked... i didn't find it distracting! - Alessandro

any possibility of when you restore it you do it like fftogo and add it after the user name on the comment? - JTio

The timestamp is back! Just hover over the comment icons. Thanks Ross and Kevin! - Ole Begemann

Yes... The timestamp now hides beneath the comment bubble :-) - Ross Miller

Thank you! - Anne Bouey

1 company can Mr. Troll... and that is the danger of monopoly in tech... - Ⓝ〄ⒶⒽ ⒹⒶⓋⒾⒹ ⓈⒾⓂ〄Ⓝ

Well if you dont own whatever platform it is you want to preach from, its not your decision, its the owners. The point is that, if someone is using the platform to speak about something the owner doesn't want heard and the censor it, then theres the question of "why?". Why would they censor? Because the people bashing them are right? What are they hiding? - The Kid

Can we say Social Media sheep ...BAAAA - Fred Grott

wow. naked conversations, eh? unbelievable - Marcel Weiss

Interesting... - Live4Soccer

And you're surprised? They've been doing this since day one, just like that poseur Huge MacLoud. Spinsters, all. Rock On! - Tree Shapiro

They had to take down the negative comments. They weren't in the script. - Slobokan

@Slobokan There was a script? - J T. Ramsay

Script? Lobotomy in action more like.. - Fred Grott

Re: Script, This tweet says it all http://twitter.com/shelisrael/... - Slobokan

A Scripted conversation, that does say it all - paul mooney

I can't find their comment policy anywhere - just asked both of them where it was. - Matt Craven

Fast Company plays by the rules of synthetic transparency. -

Gotta agree man...just listened to the NPR interview and she boldfaced lied. "black face" and "dreadlock wig"? Since when did Sunglasses and an Under Armor skull cap become "black face" and "dreadlocks"? That's a lie, plain and simple. And the NPR reporter seemed to imply that she had also seen the video and was agreeing with Lynne. Maybe it was offensive or in poor taste to some but the piece on NPR was a hatchet job, no question....I'm a neutral but facts are facts.... - Live4Soccer

Totally - The Kid

Whoever just said that is spot on. Synthetic Transparency is truly opaque! - Andrew Fielding via twhirl

I have responded to this http://friendfeed.com/e/8234be... - Lynne d Johnson

Don't be afraid to "Like" this, I won't be offended. - Shey

lol - Cee Bee

like = 'was shocked by' - Phil Glockner For Hire

this is just sad. Where do people pick up these ideas anyway? - Rahul Das

i was in the room , some really nasty stuff went on , should be some sort of report to Y 'Live made - johnpiercy

I think that it's great that the racist asshats and pot stirrers provoke good conversation among the majority of the rational people that need to discuss these sensitive and painful issues in a meaningful manner. - Mark Forman

It's difficult to even read this stuff. Don't have anything substantial to add...Just wanted to join the chorus of the sane condemning this kind of disgraceful behavior. - Lon Harris via twhirl

Unbelievable. What year is this? - jonn

I want to start a non profit that takes donations and gives the money to hitmen to kill people associated with racist organizations, child molesters, etc. That would be pretty sweet. - The Kid

I had racist slings thrown at me my whole life - from chink, chigger, mutt, gook, etc al. It's sad that people act like that but most of the time it stems from fear - ie: fear of the unknown (because of our still segregated society). - George Smith

And there is nothing that will change these guys' minds. They live their little anonymous lives, fearful of anything that doesn't fit into their little world, creating things to hate so they don't have to look at themselves too much. Ugh. - Hutch Carpenter

Just showing support. We need more buttons than 'like.' - sergiooo

Shey: Thanks for saying that, else I would have been v reluctant to 'like' something I vehemently disagree with - Sally Church

Violence is not helpful, escalating the inflamatory language isn't helpful, it's how ignorant things get said. I agree with Mark F that rational discussion is important but also note that the people who we'd like to behave differently are not rational and aren't interested in discussion. That's why a lot of people dismiss the wackos and try to be good examples. The best way to respond to ignorance(i feel) in the long term is to not prove the stereotypes right. - sergiooo

I got nothing. .... nothing. *disgusted* - Yolanda

A small, heartening counternote: @owillis honors an American hero who gave up his job rather than honor the racist Jesse Helms. http://snurl.com/2w805 - Michael Markman

I would agree that some of the same problems exist in top blogs and top newspapers, there is a check and balance in blogging that works quicker than the newspaper system, but in general, you are spot on. - Andrew Hyde

Agree ... it takes a little more than a couple years to build the empires that have already been build ... probably isn't even possible - Nick O'Neill

Didn't it turn out to be Craigslist that has really hurt mainstream media? At least the newspapers. Also Google's growing dominance in advertising. It's not the journalism that's the issue, it's the revenue. - Todd McKinney

Jeremiah, you're ignoring the fact that many MSM outlets now embrace blogging as well. No one would argue that the two have merged at the top, but it wasn't all in one direction. - Duncan Riley

Thanks Jeremiah, I've been biting my tongue on this for a week or so now (i'm in the old trad media) now it seems like new media is the trad media which is being pushed aside by the new new media. - Jon Dillon

Agree. It seems even The Long Tail is losing some of its punch - http://valleywag.com/5020400/h... - Justin Gibbs

Agree. Just like TV killed cinema and radio, video/DVD killed TV, music downloads killed the music industry, and the internet changes everything. Each of these provides multiple different functions and experiences to different people in a variety of moods, roles and situations. The various markets will all settle to a new, if more transient, level. There will also be a home for pro versus amateur, more generalised versus niche versions. - Ronna Porter

Jeremiah, it's true that top blogs become media properties (albeit very niche ones), while (as Duncan said) MSM has been adopting blogs and other social media tools. So there's been movement both ways. I for one never brought into the 'blogs will kill MSM' hype, that's just nonsense. As everything, media has evolved very quickly with the Internet. So I disagree with you a bit there, because *a lot* has changed. - Richard

It's like how Dave Winer said there's no such thing as a pro-blogger. As far as I can tell the only difference between journalists and bloggers is that journalists are supposed to stick to a code of conduct. - Stuart Maxwell

They do resemble, but that does mean that are alike. For a start, "commenting" has transformed media into a two way conversation. Whereas "new media" vetures like businessspectator.com.au are like the mainstream media (a comment is treated like a letter to the editor, with my comments moderated because I disagreed with arguments) are a joke, other "new media" like Techcrunch and RWW are a whole new ball game with Seesmic and Friend Feed integration alltogether in addition to open commenting. I think blogs biggest impact is on the profession - the speed of blogs is killing the print news industry. If there is any confusion of being alike, it's only because blogs are changing he industry dynamics. - Elias Bizannes

I've said for the past year that it's becoming hard to differentiate "blogs" from other forms of online publishing. We're in big need of a vocabulary overhaul.FWIW, commenting in MSM is rarely two-way communication. It's a way for readers to vent and interact with each other, but MSM publishers and editors rarely get dirt under their fingernails. - Chris Baskind

Totally agree when you look at blogs like Mashable and TC - sometimes it is hard to sort the advertising from the posts. No offense guys - I know you have to make money - but there are more and more "sponsored posts" and "thanks to this weeks sponsors" etc.... - Dave Gray

a few things. first, sample error. mainstream media has maybe tens of thousands of writers creating columns for newspapers, magazines, journals, etc. the blogosphere has tens of millions. the degree of variation within the blogosphere is enormous. have you seen the recipe bloggers? mommy bloggers? and the children of the blog form, the facebooks and myspaces and tumblrs, are further diversifying the very nature of sharing, presented in reverse chronoligical order. now the blogs you may consider popular overall may have elements familiar from msm. but don't let that confuse you. it would be incorrect to consider the .0000001% of the "top blogs" as marking a trend in the blogosphere. you'd no more jump to that conclusion than saying that we can all run/swim/row at olympic speeds or move like jackie chan. - Phil Wolff via Alert Thingy

disagree, my buying practices have definitely changed, I was a two newspaper in the morning and one in the evening guy, I really can't remember the last time I purchased one, I think mainstream media is here to stay but newspapers are definitely on the way out - Patphelan

If what you're saying is true, then does that mean the Long Tail of blogging isn't very fat? That the Short Snout still reigns? You might be right, but I'd like to know how things look like all along the curve, not just a few crowding the small head. Any numbers? - phil baumann

next, blogging is a conversational medium. some journalists get that, some don't, and many msm organizations never will. Reading other blogs, linking to them, listening to comments, leaving comments elsewhere, responding to your commenters: these are signs of 'getting it'. to the extent that you see content that looks like a blog post but lacks any connection to the conversation is a sign of damage. - Phil Wolff via Alert Thingy

agree - sam sethi

Last, I'd like to challenge you to put something that you care about but that's off topic in your blog. a poem that touched you. your cat. an opinion about something outside your stated beat. blogging should be about the blogger, otherwise it is reporting in blogging clothes. blogging is a personal and interpersonal medium, so your blog should have a bit of you within it. it's not just writing in the first person, it's shortening the distance between your heart, your thoughts and the submit button. blog on, Jeremiah. - Phil Wolff via Alert Thingy

It is difficult to move to new modes of discourse. Making them technically feasible doesn't mean they will evolve. It's not just that blogs have replicated msm modes and mannerisms, but those that do not do so - the ones that offer some dislocation, some sense of estrangement, before yielding something special - get less visible as mirroring levels discursive difference. - tom matrullo

Blogs have given the sources a way to communicate directly without going through the media. There are far more sources of news now than there were ten years ago. "Killing" is almost always the wrong metaphor for competition, But our reliance on MSM today is much less than it was in the past. I don't see the "top blogs" as being blogs at all, they are MSM outlets that use the same CMS software as blogs do. That isn't saying much about them, imho.BTW Phil is right too. :-) - Dave Winer

media "killing" media rarely happens. We still have movies (some shot digitally), radio (sometimes streamed), television (sometimes on iPhone) , books (sometimes on Kindle). The universe gets more intricate with old and new media supporting, promoting, commenting, and competing. Movies became fodder for Lux Radio Theatre (which is currently still available by podcast). Ad budgets shift. Revenue streams divert. Physical formats become obsolete, but not the content, the audience or the conversation. - Michael Markman

I think the question misses the point. You're probably right that the "top blogs", whatever they are, resemble mainstream media, but _my_ top blogs give me much more what _I_ want to read than the mainstream media. - Michael C. Harris

They're not blogs anymore ... I counsel a lot of agencies and I'm telling many of them to view the big boys and girls as MS OnlineMedia: http://www.eyeballeconomy.com/... - David Weiner

Been some press lately about newspapers declining readership and predictions of the death of broadcast television. Let's look at some statistics, but IIRC the trend is DOWN. And where are people spending the time they save? blogs and youtube. You do the math. - Indio Apache via twhirl

Um. did the hubbub of blogs killing media end in 2006? As far as I can tell, blogs have never stopped proclaiming the death of traditional media by bloggers. They love to say that all the way up until some paper or magazine buys them. - felix

Is this not just mainstream media switching mediums. What is more interesting is the fringe stuff that would never have been published before. I think that a lot of people are now reading a bit wider range of content. Mainstream media always goes with the lowest common denominator to get maximum audience. - John Cooper

Mainstream media killed by blogs? No. Mainstream media fundamentally changed by blogs? Absolutely. *Every* major media outlet has a significant online presence featuring a large chunk of their content. Nearly all of them have integrated commenting/discussion, and many of them now have "Digg this"/"Share on Facebook"/etc. While it's not entirely a 2-way street w/outlets like CNN or the NYT, they are clearly being dragged toward interacting with their users, rather than simply broadcasting. - Pete Brown

Mainstream is intensifying -- cutting newsroom staff, consolidating newspaper chains, etc. -- in the scramble to keep profit margins up as mass media falls into a gazillion pieces. They are not making enough in the online world to keep the mainstream machinery running, and haven't really figured out the formula for online, social media yet. Blogs are one of the many economic challenges they face, as more and more people defect from mass media, and head for the edge, where we are doing it for ourselves. - Stowe Boyd

Thank you all, I have now collected my thoughts (much based on your comments here) and written this post and pointed back here http://www.web-strategist.com/... - Jeremiah Owyang

if you take the top bloggers/sites, and divide (actual) readership by staff count, it's pretty different from a newspaper... - Bill Seitz

Agree. - Robert Scoble

Agree - Francine Hardaway

Agreed and its entirely changing the business model for news outlets - Robert

Agree - Brian Sullivan

Totally just read this myself. - The Kid

rap: I don't know. kale has a strong taste. but, who knows, maybe it will be yummy. it also takes up more room than other greens, even when cooked down. i guess you could chop it up really fine... - edythe

the Whole Foods sesame kale is wonderful. alas a little more than $1 :-) - Karim

I wouldn't put a lot, and it would be very fine - RAPatton

Going to set the default Flickr privacy to Only Me on Jing Project, so I don't piss anyone off. :) - Hao Chen

Problem is my FF stats have NOT changed on FF in a LONG time?!! so not sure this will work, unless you have another tool to pull this data dynamically. - Susan Beebe

sounds like fun...I was thinking of doing something similar on a weekly or monthly basis...daily is bit extreme, but all the power to you (kind of agree with Czar :)) - Justin Korn

@Susan I don't have this problem. My likes might be small enough in quantity and diverse enough that my stats haven't 'leveled off' yet. Anyone else having that issue, especially the earlier users? - Hao Chen

great idea! - Marco (aureliusmaximus)

I totally want to do this - Shey

Good idea. I'd follow suit but I don't care enough to spend the energy ;) - xero

Hmmm, I'd probably join in on this if I I wasn't sure I'd forget after about day 3 and then be mad at myself for the rest of the month. - Jason Toney

Interesting ideea. I'm waiting for the ppt to see how much time you've wasted doing geek activies. - Alexandru Savu

hahaha - Hao Chen

take a look at my rescuetime :/ http://friendfeed.com/e/4c7638... - Hao Chen

Perhaps we should create a group on Flickr. My plan is to take it every month, though - LouCypher