Heh, they still let Gates talk? Last time he opened up about W7, didn't he say it was happening in 2009? MS must really be worried about Mac switchers to be talking so early about W7 - they're hurting Vista sales by giving folks a reason to wait, but I guess they hope to prevent people from jumping ship altogether. - felix
I jumped ship. Tried Vista. Then gave up on it. - David Risley
David, I think you're missing a change in overall attitude towards how content is valued and contextualized. It's no longer about having awesome content and getting people to visit that awesome content in a specific place where it's easy to monetize that visit, but providing awesome content in a shared ecosystem of ideas. As someone who has been part of the internet culture for some time, you know it's never about beating your way of doing things into people, but seeing how people interact and adapting what you do to that. Everything seems to be trending to things like FriendFeed and Twitter and Disqus, I don't think any amount of saying "it's stupid" is going to change that. Get on board, or be marginalized. - Mark Trapp
I have a story for you Risely on the FP of SheGeeks - Corvida
my concern is trust. i've outsourced comments before, only to have the service shut down, losing all the comments. what does disqus do to assure survival of comments, profiles, and threading post-disqus? - Phil Wolff via Alert Thingy
I just answered David over on his blog. Just to prove I can spread the love around. :-) - Robert Scoble
@Phil Don't know, but for Disqus, the bloggers that are supporting it is enough for me. Blame Steven Hodson for starting it all :) - Corvida
I was using YACCS as far back as 2001, and I just found it annoying to have blog up but comments down. The lack of integration just meant one more thing that could go wrong. It's more complicated today, but heck, my del.icio.us cloud locked up one of my pages a few weeks ago and it took a few hours to figure out what service was trashing me. Call me a simpleton, but there's gotta be another way to add more value to the comment content. - Robyn Miller
@Robert - Automattic with its own version of disqus? That'd be cool. - Hutch Carpenter
Mark: You *completely* missed my point. I agree with you, but your "awesome content" means two things: jack and crap - IF the service it is on goes bye-bye. By splitting your internal comments off from your content, you now have two points of failure. And I'm more worried about Disqus than my own web host - who has a solid reputation. - David Risley
David, what I'm trying to say is that it doesn't matter. For the past week, you've stirred the pot a few times on why a group of people is "stupid" for "fractionalizing" the conversation on to things like Disqus and Friendfeed. It's been reading like "Oh, you don't like this excuse? Here's another gotcha!" What I'm saying is, this is where it's going, regardless of how many times you call it dumb or silly or wrong. Get on board or don't. - Mark Trapp
Mark, all you have to do is look at Phil's comment above to see that what I said IS a possibility. Your blog is an asset and I think it is worth thinking about before giving 100% of your comments to another company. You can say "this is where things are going" all you want, but at the end of the day, bills need to be paid and shit happens. It can happen to Disqus, too. Hopefully not. - David Risley
BTW, I'm not comparing Disqus to FriendFeed. These are different animals. - David Risley
Why I'm using Disqus - 1) Threaded comments. 2) User rankings. 3) Comment moderation is better than WordPress. 3) Cuts down on spam significantly. 4) Sidebar widgets that allowed me to remove several plugins, hence speeding up the blog. As for exporting - Disqus exports to an XML file which doesn't have an importation solution but it's close. The pros outweigh the cons in my mind because of less time spent moderating spammy comments. - Jason Kaneshiro
Believe me, I have much experience moderating spam. I still have Akismet, Spam Karma, a referrer bouncer installed, and still have to daily moderate comments by hand on the posts that do not have disqus installed. I'm tired of spammers and Disqus makes moderation much easier. - Jason Kaneshiro
Where is this grumpiness coming from? The references to snobbery and other words you use here are disappointing. And how does one know if they are on the good side and bad side by your definition? - Louis Gray
what grumpiness .. granted some statements are on the pointed side but I think if you look past them there are some valid points being made - especially if you tie in previous posts along with FF comment streams. - Steven Hodson
Some of the B-List blogs like Louis (if he can really be called B-List anymore) and Tony Hung (I miss him!) are among my favorite blogs. Others ooze with envy towards A-listers seemingly every other post. It will get them some attention for a while, then people mostly ignore them. - Robert Seidman
For what it's worth... I link _a lot_ to other people, both up and down the food chain. Looking at yesterday's discussion, had I been Scoble, the first link would go to David, and the second to FriendFeed. But that's just me. There's no "right way" or "wrong way". - Louis Gray
Gray: Grumpiness? It isn't grumpiness. I was using Scoble's statement to bring up an issue I thought was a worthy topic to conversation. - David Risley
Seidman: Envy has nothing to do with it. AT ALL. Bloggers create conversation. That's all I'm doing. Scoble was just a spark for a post idea. That's all. - David Risley
I mean in regards to phrases like "douchebags", "inbreeding", etc. I think the point could have been made with softer terms. - Louis Gray
Indeed douchebags and inbreeding come up in most conversations where bitter envy doesn't exist. Just because you aren't self-aware of it doesn't mean others can't see it! - Robert Seidman
@Robert - is asking some valid questions or pointing out inconsistancies now considered to be envy if the target of those questions happens to be an A-Lister who thinks that his pull is the same as it was even 6 months ago? - Steven Hodson
Steven, there are many ways to bring up topics of discussion and criticize ideas and people's ideas without seeming bitter. Some people master that, some do not, others do it under the notion that smack-talk generates more traffic. - Robert Seidman
@Robert - maybe David's choice of wording might have been on the blunt side at places in his post(s) but that doesn't change the fact that there are some valid points raised. Has it come to a point that we all have to pussy foot around with our choices of words when we want to express an opinion? Gawd knows I'm might not be the most gentle when making points am I now to guard my wording because someone might consider what I might be talking about as traffic generating smackdown? If this is the case then half of the A-List is just as guilty of this at some point or another as anyone else. - Steven Hodson
No pussyfooting is required, but again just because someone isn't aware they come off envious doesn't mean readers don't perceive it to be so. - Robert Seidman
I assume this is BitchMeme bait? Let's see if Techmeme performs as expected. - ron k jeffries
@ ron k I'm staying well clear of this one - Jason Kaneshiro
Gray: Click the link in the post on new media douchebags. I thought it was funny. Very tounge-in-cheek. If Seidman and Gray don't get that, then they just have a chip on their shoulder. You can't be a blogger and be sensitive. - David Risley
You will also note on my blog (at the top) that I call MYSELF a new media douchebag. So, Gray, step back and look around, man. Respectfully. :) - David Risley
Bitchmeme well played! Who knew I could start one by not linking? Heh! - Robert Scoble
Funny you mispelled Gillmor's name. Who is snobby now? - Robert Scoble
You absolutely CAN be a blogger and be sensitive as MANY have proved, David. I don't really care what you think about me any more than I imagine you care what I think about you, and in that regard I think we're both equally desensitized. My opinion is, all your tongue-in-cheek humor aside is that it's over the top and that you are envious. I completely get that you don't have to give a rat's behind what I think. Respectfully : ) - Robert Seidman
People think too much about the value of links and not enough about the value of their content. I guess you have to ask yourself why you're blogging. Is it because you have something to say, or because you want to play a game of tag and add up a rank score? - William Beem
Scoble: So I did. Funny how many spellings you find online for that guy's name. :) - David Risley
Seidman: If you want to be my shrink, then get in line, dude. - David Risley
@Willam Beem thanks! finally we get back to the crux of things. - Alex von Halem
@Willam Beem thanks! finally we get back to the crux of things. - Alex von Halem
Risely: I don't want to be your anything and William Beem is spot on. - Robert Seidman
Beem: If you read my post, what I'm trying to say is that the link has nothing to do with rank. It has to do with going to the source of a conversation. A cut through the noise. Perhaps this is a little bit of personal journalistic integrity, but if you're going to comment on a person, you link to them. It is what I've always done and that is the issue I tried to bring up. All these calls about my envy and wanting rank...seriously, is this what the blogosphere has evolved into? - David Risley
I gotta unplug for family time with the wife and 4-month old. Actually....pssst...I'm going to go dress up like Scoble. Don't tell anybody. - David Risley
David: I read your post, but I don't understand why you felt it was necessary to link to your blog instead of the conversation? To my perspective, it seemed as though you were more interested in attention (and potential traffic) than how someone continued the conversation. Perhaps you or others have a different perspective. Whether you're envious of anyone else didn't come through to me. However, I did think that you wanted rank. Why else complain that a so-called A-lister didn't link to you? - William Beem
I read your previous post, and there was nothing original about it. The most important thing was the conversation generated here in FriendFeed because of it, that's why I think Robert linking here and not directly to your blog was ok. Besides, there was a link to your blog at the top of the page anyway. - Alejandro S.
Is all a chain process, people see something with many comments here(like this post) and they check out whats all the buzz about. Ultimately your still benefiting from it. - Gadiel Rivera
Jeez. Perhaps I need to draw you guys a diagram. It isn't about my benefit from Scoble. There are bigger fish to fry than worrying about a link from Scoble. I didn't write the post with Scoble in mind (not the first one). You guys are so worried about petty blogger politics that you're missing the larger point. - David Risley
I'm definitely not linking to David Risley ever again. Hah! Slow news day, if my linking behavior gets so many people up in arms. - Robert Scoble
Oh the del.icio.us irony - 'David Risley (friend of Robert Scoble)' - Andy C
Scoble: I find it ironic that you've been called irrelevant and diluted while we're all sitting here talking about you. I am floored with the many different directions FriendFeed takes a blog post - ways I never intended when I wrote the post. - David Risley
He could have linked to a Seagate site. (j/k) Actually, the conversation will fragment whether we like it or not. - Ontario Emperor
Exactly. Those who want control will rarely find what they are looking for. You gain control by giving it away. - Robert Scoble
Scoble, right or wrong is "authentic", Risley, not so much. - Robert Seidman
"Those who want control will rarely find what they are looking for. You gain control by giving it away. " Scoble is right here. When people are proprietary about things, photos, the conversation, comments, it will always backfire. Robert is one of the most popular bloggers out there. It's like karma. - Thomas Hawk
He wanted the Google Juice that comes with a link directly to the post. Me? I didn't want to give it to him. That's the snobbery. - Robert Scoble
Very well said, Thomas. Robert, I like the "No Scoble Google Juice for you!" thinking. - Robert Seidman
Blood and ashes, this is turning into junior high. We have the right to discuss a post wherever we darn well please. If I post to my blog, and find a discussion about that somewhere else, I say "Cool!" not "They really should be discussing it on my site." - Brent Newhall
If we can perfect the technology so that it's easy to find all of these conversations, then most of the objections to conversation fragmentation will go away. - Ontario Emperor
Don't care about the Google juice, Scoble. Just surprised you did. - David Risley
