and I've just unsubscribed and blocked two people who were doing exactly that, one with my content, one with someone else's posts. You can share something and not realize it was there (it happens) but you can see people who do it only to improve FF scores...FF spammers nearly. If you want to share it with your friends and see it, like it - Duncan Riley

Don't agree Duncan. If something is good and you think you have a different set of followers, then that's cool by me imo. I have quite a few dutch followers who might not follow you... - DC Crowley

always seems like there are those that treat the social media as a weird points game (which makes karma points in plurk kinda funny) - anna sauce

@DC If you 'like' it, your followers will see it. There's no need to repost. - Michael C. Harris

I thought through that problem last week and started a room under my own name. I'm using it (among other things) as a holding area for stuff that I want to make sure my wife and/or friends see. My wife in particular is likely to blow off (or even turn off) FOAF posts, so that's the best way for me to go. - Roger Benningfield

DC, as Michael notes, if you like it, it's automatically shared with your followers. There are of course exceptions, and I don't have an issue with you doing this on occasion, but there are ppl on FriendFeed who do little else then repost other people's content shortly after the original is up. I still think it's poor form when done regularly in a spammy sort of way. - Duncan Riley

i'm no expert in ff matters but shouldn't the reshare say where it came from? like a hat tip? - chartreuse

Press embargo is one of those things that turned me off of old news. Social media is about "publish then filter". I simply don't have time to look whether the original author of a blog post already found time to post his link on FF or Twitter or SU etc. before I post the link. But a technical solution to bundle duplicates would be great. - Benedikt Koehler

Good point Michael C. Harris and Duncan about sharing. My problem is I'm in a twitter mindset :) - DC Crowley

"Sharing is one thing, doing this intentionally for attention isn't." – That's true but can you be so sure people are doing this for attention? Perhaps they just want to bookmark stuff on their favorite service. Especially as long as FF doesn't fix the page-11-bug it's not a suitable place for my personal archive of stuff I liked. So I have to bookmark it elsewhere (from where it's fed back into FF). - Ole Begemann

One problem with this is that we see the duplicated content in FriendFeed, but in reality people have different channels / spheres in which they communicate and I think it's natural to want to update all of one's channels with relevant information. Obviously spammers suck, but I don't see someone who posts the same thing to Twitter and FF, for example, as spam. This is partially a FF problem and they should offer a solution to fix it. - Ray Grieselhuber

Don't assume intention when something else is explaining way better. it's ff problem of not connecting the dots. the bookmarklet is promoted heavily and that is what I use the moment I see it. As I do with other services. The difference? The other services catch it. Similar with likes. You do like and comment it on the first time it crosses your radar, at least most of the time. This does only seldom mean encouraging this one person who shared it, but it is about convinience. - Nicole Simon

Ole, to be clear on this, yes. We all repost stuff others have had up, but there were a few people doing it so regularly as to be clearly obvious as to their intent, I not only unsubscribed from them, I blocked them as well. I'm not suggesting that everyone who reposts something is bad...far from it. - Duncan Riley

Nicole, I believe that if the pattern is clear then intent is proved. I'm not talking about 1 or even 6 or even 10 items in a given day, I'm talking about people link whoring for attention lots and lots of content from other people frequently with the only intent to draw attention to themselves. Content that is still in my stream as I see them repost it, even to the point today where with me following 750 ppl the two links were a few items apart on the same screen. - Duncan Riley

True, convenience is a plausible explanation. Does it really matter who posted an interesting story to ff? Does it matter whose post it is, we are commenting? ff is about content and not about names. That's what I especially like about it. - Benedikt Koehler

Nicole, do agree with you that FF needs to connect the dots. My proposal: original provider/ owner gets lead, subsequent shares come in underneath (above likes or with likes, but above comments) nearly Techmeme style. Less noise, better experience. You can still share with friends, but the noise is better managed - Duncan Riley

benedkit two things: when that person could have just as easily hit like and shared it anyway: poor form. When that story is two items down on FriendFeed already and the person is repeating the same pattern over and over again in duplication, poor form. If it's interesting, new, or delivered in genuine good will and sharing, no probs at all. Nothing to do with names, but if all you are doing is ripping other ppls FF entries over and over again, that will only deliver you a bad name. - Duncan Riley

as I mentioned above, I'm not for one minute saying that anyone duplicating an item is somehow doing something bad (the fact FF could better manage these is another issue), I'm simply saying that a very small number of people are reposting items that have just appeared on FF regularly for personal gain. I think it's disappointing, that's all. Sorry some don't agree. - Duncan Riley

Maybe it's also a question of semantics. "Reshare" does sound different than "Like", so that for many users "liking" an entry doesn't feel like sharing, which in fact it is. - Benedikt Koehler

Duncan, when I see good content on FF which makes sense to add to Stumbleupon rather than FF I do so. Would that be the same in your book, because most of the times I do not do like where I saw it originally and I rather submit it to ff. I am asking because it is a similar pattern. And if you talk about the people doing that, why not talk about the 'like' people who have a 'pattern' of only liking things from 'famous' people? :) - Nicole Simon

Also: Sharing something has a different implication than liking. Can you blame people for not liking something which already has a dozen comments because it is not what you want to share? The sysetm allows me to share, why should I like it which by wording is something completly differe? Semantics, I know, but they are important. - Nicole Simon

@Duncan - I mostly disagree with you. You have the right to block anyone you choose. But do NOT judge my stream. If you don't like my stream then mind your own business. The almost techmeme style you propose has been discussed before. Hutch Carpenter wrote a good post discussing this back in April..http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2008... - Franklin Pettit

It's FriendFeed's fault that this is possible. I propose that reposting isn't possible and that Google Reader-, delicious-shares (etc) are shown as "Like"s to the original post from a blog author's profile or at least the first "share", and comments of all kinds as comments - but always to the original post. I'd rather see some kind of simple threaded comments than having the current situation. - sebmos

Ducan, you're right but I blame FriendFeed. They don't make it clear that when you "like" something, it shows in your own feed. So I can totally see how folks will follow a link, like it, and share it. You have to learn FriendFeed best practices as you go, and FriendFeed doesn't do much to help the learning curve. Not fair to punish folks for it. - Judi Sohn

And yes, I agree with you Duncan that FriendFeed should consolidate links in one view, giving users the option to view all comments/likes about a link or just comments/likes from their friends. - Judi Sohn

It's intriguing - I talked about duplication recently in a blog post - http://padajo.wordpress.com/2008... - Friendfeed will fast become a problem child of the internet if aggregation issues are not ironed out - Paul Johnston from twhirl

So we're talking about SPAM and duplication, and you're trying to redirect us to your blog. It fits. - sebmos

This can be a problem. I often see the same content because someone shares it directly, another through Google Reader. I know I often will tag something I find interesting on FF via del.icio.us, which means I create some amount of duplication. I'm not doing this to spam at all, I just like the item and want to refer to it in the future. - AJ Kohn

This needs a technical solution, not a behavior solution. There are many many reasons for the duplication, it isn't just "spam" (though that may be one reason in some cases). - Jason Wehmhoener

Agreed Duncan. Bad form. I do, however, have to resist commenting on my own FriendFeed syndicated items to keep them at the top of the stream longer. I admit it. - Phil G

Lately, if I del.icio.us tag a link I see here, I've been intentionally marking the tagging as private. Then, I go back later and "un-private" it. I'm hoping this cuts down on the duplicates. Am I wasting my time? - Ha3rvey (obviously wrong)

This thread is driving me crazy. FF is NOT Digg and I do not want it to be. My Stream is my Stream. No judging my stream. Do you hear me? DO NOT JUDGE MY STREAM. DO NOT TELL ME WHAT I CAN SHARE. This whole notion is insanity!!! - Franklin Pettit

Re: the duplication of links and consolidating them. See Bret Taylor's post on this: http://tinyurl.com/54mt8g - Hutch Carpenter

Harvey, I think you're wasting your time. I'm certainly not going to go through all that effort out of some misguided sense of etiquette. We need to get behind this proposal from Bret Taylor: http://friendfeed.com/e... - Jason Wehmhoener

Debut back to friendfeed after a slight hiatus, and people are still talking about FF on FF. Nice to see stasis has been maintained. - Anthony

@Franklin Pettit - Nobody tells you what to share, no need to shout like a child! "We" only tell you that if it looks like you share stuff only to get your own stuff commented, you'll get banned, and that generally duplication is a problem. If you had actually _read_ the comments, you would have seen that most people recommend a technical solution and don't agree with Duncan Riley. - sebmos

@sebmos - this is recycled discussion. duplicate links is not a new topic. this has been discussed for months. do you not see how this mentality of trying to enforce what people can do is as bad as Digg. I will shout to be heard. Self-righteousness will not be tolerated by this user. My stream is my stream. If you do not like their content block it. FF does not need to gain a herd mentality even if it is in the name of cleaning noise from the stream. This is a slippery slope and I want all ... - Franklin Pettit

to realize this point. My stream is my stream not to be judged by others. - Franklin Pettit

Oh please. Blame the user? Seriously? The problem is that popular content is reshared - that's the very nature of social media. FriendFeed currently makes no effort to show how many people are sharing, bookmarking, tweeting etc the same content so the discussions around that content become segregated little silos. This is one of FriendFeed's biggest challenges to overcome, IMO and speaks greatly to the "noiseness" of the system. - Sarah Perez

Well, glad to see it wasn't me that Duncan unsubscribed from. I really try not to introduce too much new duplication into the system. If I see someone share a Google Reader item I like I try to find the original and only "like" or "comment on" the duplicate if I can't find the original. But on the other hand, I'm not sure what kind of behavior Duncan is mad about here. People who don't add their own original content to FF aren't getting noticed very much and I'm watching 2,800 people and I don't see this. - Robert Scoble

Not necessarily. If I think an article is valuable, I'll post it to multiple networks. I'll Stumble it, bookmark it on del.icio.us, and even Digg it, as need be. I may also post a quick note here on FriendFeed, linking to it, to make sure people have a chance to read it. I hope that's not considered spamming, because I'm not doing it for myself. I do it for the VALUE of the content. - Raoul Pop

Raoul: ahh, I see the problem here. Yes, each of those systems has its own audience. I wish FF just had more ways to reduce duplication and/or bundle it together. I agree too that when I get really excited about an article I'll often share it multiple places. Lots of people who follow me on Twitter or Google Reader or my blog don't follow me here. - Robert Scoble

Not to bring up other sites such as SocialThing! but I think that their new release takes care of duplication due to multiple services; I'm sure FriendFeed can do this and much better. - Aaron Myers

Please: no FriendFeed etiquette blog posts! Use it however you wish; but if you're annoying, I'll unsubscribe or block if I have to. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

perhaps this is true for well-read bloggers like yourself Duncan, but for people like me... well, as you can see - no one on ff really reads,likes or comments on my posts - so when I do repost things from big guys like you, its more for my non-ff-friends to enjoy via my feed on facebook. Cool? - Will DeLuca

Duncan - can you tweak QMeme so that if it reports on one of your FF entries, it says "Duncan" instead of "You" at the beginning? - Phil G

I can't get my wife involved in anything more complicated than my Google Reader shared items feed. I frequently use the GR bookmarklet to share interesting things I read on FF with her on Google Reader, which then links them back here into friendfeed. It's not a matter of stealing content, it's sharing with other venues. - David Worrell

So what do you guys think when you find a good article? Do you say "hey, this is a good article?" Or do you say "Wow here's my chance to become popular off someone else's writing?" Let people share what they want. - sergiooo

@Harvey, I've been doing something similar and it is a waist of time. For the time being it looks like friendfeed is built on conversational fragmentation and noise. - Rafael Robayna

@Duncan, I just looked at your feed and you duplicate your own content all over the place and pipe it back into friendfeed so I don't understand where you're really coming from? Sorry if this has already been pointed out. - Rafael Robayna

Duncan is spot on. If you Like something your "unique" network will see it. If you want to raise the profile of a topic with your network then write an (interesting) blog post that will get sucked into FF. - Jon Price