Nathan Chase

just like the showing of many likes, you could have the same functionality for identical status updates to Twitter, Plurk, Identi.ca, Rejaw, Brightkite, Pownce, Jaiku, etc. via multi-updating services like Ping.fm, Hellotxt, and updating.me - Nathan Chase

Nice image, I wish it were real... - Rodrigo

Nice idea, but it wouldn't make any sense for FriendFeed to do this. Imagine you're subscribed to all these services and tried to send a message to all of them. It would just create duplication-spam and annoy all of your followers. It's bad PR. FriendFeed is a a collector of feeds, nothing more. - Vincent van Wylick

Totally agree with Vincent van Wylick - Niki Costantini

@Vincent - well that's the idea is to eliminate the duplication spam and annoyance - people are going to want to push updates to multiple services for various reasons, and this idea is so that FriendFeed handles it elegantly in a way that doesn't fill a user's FriendFeed feed with duplicates. We want to avoid scenarios like: http://friendfeed.com/e/806412... - Nathan Chase

also, it could default to the first service posted, not necessarily FriendFeed - so it might read "posted a message on Twitter (and 3 other services)" - FriendFeed already consolidates multiple posts to a single service, why would it be "bad PR" to do it for multiple services? - Nathan Chase

I've had to purposely avoid using multiple status update services because this functionality doesn't exist. If this existed, I wouldn't be concerned about unintentionally spamming friends with duplicates on my FriendFeed feed anymore. - Nathan Chase

another thought is you could have a user-selectable "default" status service in the Account settings, while the others fall under the "(also on X other services)", that way the user has control over which service is displayed on their FriendFeed feed - Nathan Chase

@NathanChase I agree with you, the first service. I mean - look at your feeds, people. How many services & feeds do you have listed? Chances are someone thinks you're spammy (though should I feel happy I have multiple people following in multiple places at the same time?). However, if all the services allow you to link other services, it should be one nice fluid movement. If they would only all work together. - JCLeftie

FriendFeed should have nothing to do with actually trying to figure out what the user meant to do. If you don't want to spam friendfeed, don't add multiple services of the same type that you plan to duplicate content on. What is the point of doing that in the first place? - ♫ Rahsheen™

@Rasheen, because you have different friends on different services, but you'd like all of them to see your updates - Nathan Chase

Nathan, your argument is very wordy, but the answer is simple: it's not FriendFeed's job (and you have 3rd party services that do it perfectly well). - Vincent van Wylick

Nathan, you still haven't answered the question. Why would you pipe it all into FriendFeed if you already know it's going to result in duplicates? It's up to the user to use the tools efficiently. If FriendFeed fixes your dups, what else should be their responsibility? (not trying to be antagonistic, but I don't understand why people think this is an FF issue) - ♫ Rahsheen™

because FriendFeed shows your activity on various services. For example, I might post my location using Brightkite, and then later use Ping.fm to post a status update to Twitter, FriendFeed, Plurk, & Brightkite simultaneously. This has the unfortunate side effect of broadcasting the exact same update 4 times in a row on FriendFeed, where elsewhere they only see the single post. - Nathan Chase

@Rasheen - This is a Friendfeed issue because it makes Friendfeed less useful to have 3 identical messages in a row. People may want to add multiple services so that their FF friends can find them on other services they both may have in common. That doesn't mean people want to read their messages multiple times. - Occasional Headbanger

@Andrew - correct. - Nathan Chase

socialthing does this and it works pretty well. Some sites like plurk don't have a proper api so it's harder to remove the duplication. - Charles

This is and will continue to be a Friendfeed issue unless it's does get addressed in one way or another. - Tsega Dinka

FriendFeed is to provide a feed of all services you put into it. If you put services into it that you know are duplicates and you don't really want output from those services in your feed, you are setting yourself up for failure and it's your own fault. FriendFeed is not where you dump all your accounts so that people can find you on individual services. There are other sites that do this. Have you guys ever heard of GIGO? Use the right tools for the job you're trying to do. - ♫ Rahsheen™

@Rahsheen, but that's just it - often times it won't be duplicates... there are plenty of times when you might respond on a single service to a friend - which will show up on your FriendFeed - but then other times, you're posting to multiple services... as i said before, FriendFeed already takes care of multiple posts by saying something like "X posted X messages on Twitter" whenever you have more than one post to a service - Is it that much of a stretch to apply that to multiple services? - Nathan Chase

@Rahsheen - Why is Friendfeed not for dumping all your sites so people can find you or keep up with you? If that's the job we're trying to do and Friendfeed is clearly setup to do this job, we have the right tool. Don't box us in, man! - Occasional Headbanger

I feel your pain, but I still don't think I want FriendFeed to be in charge of deciding which of my updates should be merged together. I use several different micro-blogging services. I manage to make things work with a minimum of dups. Sometimes you have to really think about how you're using these services. Are you really that active on ALL of them? Is it really necessary to use Ping.fm that often? If your subscribers would be upset about seeing this update more than once, was it really that important? - ♫ Rahsheen™

Don't mean to argue, I just don't think it's FriendFeed's burden to filter my feed. I also don't think I want them to touch my feed except to bundle multiple messages from the same service as that still gives the viewer the option to view my feed the way I put it together. Maybe they add the feature, but I hope they don't bother. - ♫ Rahsheen™

I agree that duping posts across a lot of services is pointless. But some people love it. It's their right. I think it would be good for Friendfeed to address this obvious issue. Expecting each individual to come to this same realization seems overly idealistic to me. - Occasional Headbanger

@Rah I just have one thought. You have if I recollect accurately struggled with this problem and come up with your own solutions. I think it would be great if you gave Nathan some tips possibly even a video of your tricks and tips.. PS. You know I love you but you are being argumentative. ;) - Roger Kondrat

Perhaps I can say it a different way: I have different friends on different services, and I share that activity on multiple services here on FriendFeed. I use Ping.fm so that I can reach them with a message I think would be important to all. FriendFeed reflects this in a way I think is inefficiently consolidated for clarity. It's just a cleaner way of showing my web activity - that's all I'm searching for. - Nathan Chase

LOL@Roger, I agree and I apologize. For anyone interested, my thoughts on Ping.fm and FriendFeed are here http://sheenonline.biz/tags/pi.... You may also see this thread for another perspective: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e/e... - ♫ Rahsheen™

I like this idea. Has friendfeed started doing it? - Colide81 (James)

Another solution I've just set up for me: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e/c... - Rodrigo