'Like' is probably inappropriate here. 'Made me gasp in amazement and bewilderment' would be more appropriate. It reminds me of the playground; 'Mummy, mummy - Johnny Barnstomworth says 'I smell'. 'Now, now Duncan - you're not to upset yourself. That was a horrid thing for Johnny to say and from now on, you are not his friend.' - Andy C
I don't subscribe to everyone here. I tried that on Twitter. It does not work and breaks at some point. You define yourself by who you subscribe to. - Robert Scoble
@Robert: 'You define yourself by who you subscribe to.' Agreed. - Andy C
I try to keep a 4:1 ratio of subscriptions:subscribers. This keeps the variety going. There are some people who go the other way ... it's up to you. - LPH
Andy, I can see Duncan's point. The best of FriendFeed is when you have interactions, and things have a tendency to be one sided if the only time an interaction starts is when I respond to the non-subscribed, rather than them seeing something that I've posted and finding that interesting. - Michael C. Harris
Anxiously waits for 40 of his 99 followers to rapidly disappear as I only follow 59 (and I honestly feel that's probably too many). - Andy C
I follow people I enjoy or respect their opinion and I would hope others do the same. I would say no. If a major part of you following people is to have them follow you back then I think the point is being missed. - John Worthington
Robert, not everyone has the same scale problems as you :) And, personally, I don't define myself by who I subscribe to. To be honest, I'm not even sure what you mean by that. - Michael C. Harris
I tend to completely ignore companies who have friended me. It's great actually - the social media crowd seem to be quite clued up on anybody who tries to game the system for traffic, and turn their back en masse. - Jonathan Beckett
"You define yourself by who you subscribe to." Great words, Robert. That's exactly how I feel using FF. - Ton Zijp
It's never personal. John Worthington couldn't have said it better. To add to taht, folks who import multiple blogs (or splogs), micro-blogging services, are inactive, and do not natively posts, I do not subscribe back to them.... - Mona N.
John, no, that's not my point at all. One of my main goals is to have good interactions, and I'm toying with the idea that interactions are better if the interest is mutual. - Michael C. Harris
@Michael: it's about quality of input verse open slather. - John Worthington
Michael: I'm implying that you define yourself on FriendFeed that way. Who you follow will determine who you like and comment on and interact with. If you follow idiots, you'll become more idiotic. If you follow scientists (there's a bunch here) you'll become more scientific. If you follow religious folks, you'll become more religious. I try to subscribe to people who make me smarter, are early adopters, and who are nice. That's how I'd like to be defined. - Robert Scoble
Michael, indeed but I would prefer that mutual intrest to be honestly earnt and not gained by some rule... - John Worthington
Following someone back automatically just defines you as an autofollower and someone who can be influenced pretty easily. Some might even do that as a strategy to try to get more followers. I don't really care if you follow me or not, so I'll choose my own following strategy, I won't allow you to define me. - Robert Scoble
I like to subscribe and "see what the person does over time" and I've only unsubscribed from one because they were rude. They are the only one I've blocked. And maybe that is why I am awake at 3 AM reading people's postings? - LPH
Why unsubscribe just because they don't reciprocate? The only reason to unsubscribe is because you don't get any value from them be it becuase they don't share anything you are interested in or don't engage you in any way. Yo ucan be engaged without being followed. The statement "you define yourself by who you subscribe to" basically means people will judge you based on the company you keep. If the only people you follow are idiots then that has to be questioned, for example. - Colin Walker via fftogo
Robert, okay, that makes sense. I follow geeks, lefty, greenie types, early adopters. The common thread is the last one you mention; I follow people who seem nice. - Michael C. Harris
What's your objective with following someone? If you are like me, you are probably interested in him/her and in the things he/she's saying. So I still subscribe to people who does not subscribe to me: i.e Scoble, Louis Gray. - Marcello Del Bono
Michael, I read your post and I highly doubt it's personal. If you like what they post, I would keep subscribing to them regardless of reciprocation. FF is a place to share information, not a popularity contest :) - Mona N.
Mona, I don't think it's personal either, and I never mentioned popularity, I've said that's not what I'm talking about. It's the interactions I'm interested in. And this interaction is interesting :) - Michael C. Harris
<Michael> The best of FriendFeed is when you have interactions </Michael> Well, what you interact on, shouldn't necessarily have to come from a source amongst yourselves. I think it would severely limit the scope and diversity of things to talk about. Think about it; were one to put such a criteria on the people that we listen to, we wouldn't probably grow much. - Parth Awasthi
It would be an odd strategy, indeed. I read lots of bloggers who don't read me and vice-versa. Follow people you find interesting. - James Joyner
if ur posting duplicates on ff i tend to unfollow - adolfo foronda
At some level, it simply becomes impossible. (I just tried it last week and ended up hiding quite a few in order to get my stream back). Discovery of new people, even if you just hit 'everyone' is very important. Don't get hung up in the same circle. Things change - Charlie Anzman
I think with so many people involved in so many different topics you will have people you subscribe to because you're interested in their topics, but they may not be interested in yours. The same is gonna happen the other way. I have people subscribed to me because their interested in my topics as a second hobby or such, but maybe I'm not interested in their car collecting posts. I think that's okay. - Damien Franco
Following does not mean interested in conversation. Following means interested in what feed items you subscribe to. Conversation happens. I was not subscribed to you before, but I am now because I am interested mainly because of the "interesting" comments. - Rob Diana
Why blindly follow anyone PERIOD? I only follow based on how interesting their entries are. I expect the same of people I follow. Hell, I remember how suprised I was when Scoble followed me on Twitter. - Ivan via fftogo
Hi Michael. I'm following you now. :-) Sorry about the long delay. I only follow people back after having time to see their stuff and I've been swamped with 700 requests. Nice to hear about Harabi. I'm still playing with blogger, but may move in the future... - Mitchell Tsai
Of course not. You should follow the people whose streams you find interesting. - Sarah Perez
