still can't create an account. So weird. Are they just getting slammed this AM? - Drew Lucas

Drew, yeah. It's getting hit hard and not keeping up with the demand very well. - Akiva Moskovitz

That's what I've been trying to say (not that it's anyone's fault though) -- that TM is what it is, and its strong point is not speed. It might never catch identi.ca as a top story, but if it got acquired by Microsoft or Google or TechCrunch, it would zoom right to the top and stay there. It's the nature of news, it starts out small and as it grows it settles on a few stories and repeats them over and over until something new starts, and we start over again. - Dave Winer

That's why I started TechJunk after doing the same thing for political news. Not to strangle the market (which is what TM/TC does, again no one's fault) but to act as a pied piper. As with blogging the way to get around group think is with individual judgment. Pretty soon the flaming will start, btw. :-) - Dave Winer

This is what I mean when I say that TechMeme has changed. Gabe is chasing Google News with TechMeme now, not covering what regular people care about. Although the YouTube story that's on top right now is pretty important for us to know about and care about too. I think this is why I look at FriendFeed AND Techmeme. If you do that you get a good view of all stories. - Robert Scoble

Why do you need to write about Identi.ca on Twitter and not the other way around? - paul mooney

i didnt see it hit my google reader feed at all, only on friendfeed. @scobleizer "regular people" don't care about it at all. - Jeremy Toeman

Dave's comment on speed and TM seems spot on -- I just looked at TM for the first time in week -- all the top stories are old (to the extent that they have been talked about on FF and maybe Twitter if it were ever running for hours and sometimes days) - Brian Sullivan

Scoble, maybe its conscious on Gabe's part or maybe the algorithm now does what all human beings do when put in the same position. It happened in the 90s when the computer press only reported three stories: Apple is dead, Microsoft is evil and Java is the future. If you tried to say blogging is the future and Windows is dead, and there is new Mac software, and Java makes lousy UIs and will be used server-side only, and check out Flash, no one would have written it up. - Dave Winer

You can fill in the blanks on what the big stories are in the late part of this decade (oy it's already the late part of the decade). When you look back ten years from now, it will be clear (probably) that Google has already peaked, and what was Viacom again? Scoble will be the new Master of the Universe, and TechCrunch will be about as interesting as News.com and Wired are today. - Dave Winer

Now will Twitter be the main pillar of the new Internet, or will something like Apache be that? People like me believe it's the Apache model that's likely to galvanize this. Twitter needs to fade into the background the same way Apache did and the same way blogging software did. But Twitter is doing everything they can to be sure they are front and center, which creates this conflict. In March they *were* starting to fade into the background, and great new things were happening there, esp in politics. - Dave Winer

Maybe it is because it is so slow and this morning I can't log in. - Warner Crocker

Early yesterday I was getting a downloadable file rather than the site and couldn't register until later in the afternoon. I couldn't even go to profiles without being asked to download a file. Very strange. This morning I stopped using it because the site was too slow. - LPH™ and his dog P™

identica.ca seems to be a direct clone of twitter - even down to the preformance issues... - Tom Quinn

Have tried to login all morning. No luck. - Barbara K. Baker

There is no doubt that a new site like identi.ca will suffer growing pains and performance problems. The big question in my mind is whether or not the community will contribute something to this open source project and try to make it better or just piss and moan about it. - Mike Doeff

They have a weird bug - their page redirects to a sub domain of their company, where the Identi.ca-code, but the links go back to Identi.ca, but form data isn't sent back to the company-sub-domain when they redirect you back. If you change the form-actions with Firebug, everything works. - sebmos

Techmeme should start linking FF discussion threads as "official" links on stories. They are frequently more interesting than what the other bloggers have to say about the same story. Not sure exactly how to do this but Gabe's pretty smart and I'm sure could figure out a way to do it. - Thomas Hawk

@Thomas...ahhhhhhhhh..brilliant idea !! Thats extacly what techmeme s/do and not only with FF butt other forum driven sites too - Peter Dawson

because techmeme are facists.. only a little though - Tyler Gillies

thats a great idea thomas - take away more from the people who create the content - love it! - Allen Stern

Oh my Godwin! I've been waiting nearly three years for someone to make such a comparison. Thank you Tyler! - Gabe Rivera

"Oh, my Godwin" .... :-) - Brian Sullivan

who is godwin, i dont see his or her comment? - Allen Stern

We all create the content Allen. Techmeme already links digg submissions to stories sometimes. I find the conversations at FF more interesting and mature frequently than the conversations at digg. It would seem a good fit to me. I'm sure Gabe could figure it out if he thought it added value. - Thomas Hawk

Ok Thomas thanks for your clarification. I am just hoping I get a lead sometime this week. - Allen Stern

Thomas: agreed FF threads tend to be be better than corresponding digg threads. But the problem with FF is the commentary around a post is typically scattered over multiple threads and often tricky to associate by machine (note Duncan's tweet above lacks a link). It's a partially solvable problem, but probably not worth it just to get FF comments right now. - Gabe Rivera

I never figured out what identi.ca was (Twitter clone? something else?) - but I made an account. :) - Don MacAskill

Funny.I got info about Identi.ca from Techmeme.You? - Igor Poltavskiy

Even I'VE never referred to Techmeme as "fascists." @Allen, I'm assuming Seth Godwin? may have been on his blog. - Cyndy

cyndy isnt that seth godin? im confused now - Allen Stern

Cyndy, read what Gabe wrote again. Gabe is talking to Tyler, who compared Techmeme to fascism. - Dan Kaplan

That's what I meant, Allen. Never mind. I'm confusing myself just replying. :) - Cyndy

Oh how I love FriendFeed! I've really really enjoyed reading this thread. I will now post a summary of what we've seen so far. - Gabe Rivera

SYNOPSIS: identi.ca, which almost topped Techmeme, should have topped Techmeme, because it's open source and therefore not just another buggy Twitter clone. This illustrates the problem with Techmeme, which TechJunk will help fix, and site owner Dave Winer should know because he knew 10 years ago what would be true and important today in tech. "Regular people" don't care about what's on Techmeme, but do, and should. (That last point was argued by the same person.) Techmeme may or may not be analogous to the Third Reich. Mike Godwin may or may not be Seth Godin. - Gabe Rivera

Godwin's Law: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...: "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." - Yule Heibel

If it didn't sting so much that Synopsis would be hilarious - Nathan Eckenrode

Identi.ca is cool - but the GPL 3.0 license dramatically limits its usefulness as a base for other services to build from. - Soulhuntre from twhirl

this thread should've ended with the synopsis. nothing else will possibly add further value. including this comment. - Jeremy Toeman

@gaberivera's synopsis just gave me my first actual belly laugh of the day; and still giggling a little. Thanks, Gabe. - Merredith Branscombe

Gabe, I love the synopsis. So, you were comparing Seth Godin to the Third Reich right? ;) - Jackson Miller

Jackson, no -- not a fair comparison because people are still allowed to *comment* on the Third Reich. - Merredith Branscombe

oh if there is reference to Godwins law - then who are the Nazi's and who is Hitler on this thread ?? :)- - Peter Dawson

I think in this case TechMeme = Fascists = Nazis, which would make Gabe Hitler. (Disclaimer: This comment in no way, shape or form refelcts the opinion of the commenter and is simply a point of clarification.) - Ken Sheppardson

Fascism does NOT equal Nazism. One can be a fascist without murdering millions of people. http://tinyurl.com/64xk3y - Jeremy Toeman

Why is this supposedly a big story? Someone whips together a PHP app backed by a database and open sources it... woo hoo... How many people commenting on this or claiming it's a big deal have contributed to an open soure project? How many have run one that's gotten any traction? I've done and continue to do both. I think you all wet yourselves over the term without understanding when it is and isn't valuable. Tell me what value open source has in a web service? None. Gimme a break... this is rightly a non-story. - Jason Carreira from twhirl

This FF made me laugh. I'm glad I advertised on TechMeme. Everyone is looking at TechMeme to try to figure out the algorithm and whether or not Gabe is evil. :-) - Robert Scoble

friendfeed is a slow-moving parody of itself. http://www.mail-archive.com/list@if... - Edward Vielmetti