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emon hassan › Likes
Guess what is arriving in the mail on Friday?!?! Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens. WOO HOO!!
Helen Sventitsky, vicster is..., ialla and 32 other people liked this
Amazon Affiliate link to product - http://bit.ly/7Fce0
- Justin Korn
/me jealous
- JA Castillo
Awwww, thanks man! You shouldn't have. :-)
- Jeremy Brooks
I finally broke down. I needed another lens for my 5D.
- Justin Korn
Jeremy - You are not to talk with your Mark II !! :)
- Justin Korn
Is this to replace a lens or just adding to your collection?
- ronin
this is a great lens. i predict that this will become your walk around lens. enjoy it man. looking forward to seeing the results.
- Carlos Ayala
I miss having a zoom.... I'm interested to see what you think of it.
- Jeremy Brooks
ronin - this will be my new walk around (not fully replacing anything yet). I currently have the 50mm on my 5D and 18 - 55mm f/2.8 on my 20D (which is by far my favorite lens right now). I might eventually sell off my 18-55, but it will certainly be hard to part with.
- Justin Korn
Jeremy - me too. this is why this lens is showing up on Friday :)
- Justin Korn
I have an EF 24-70 f2.8 that I use as my walk around lens on my 5D mkii. I have had my eye on this lens for a while for two reasons. 105mm extra reach beyond 70 and IS. I have read mixed reviews of the image quality of this lens (mostly great) compared to the 24-70. I'd sure like to hear your opinion of this lens once you have time to shoot with it for a little while.
- Jeff P. Henderson
Jeff - I rented the 24 - 70 when I shot my last wedding and really liked it. I was VERY split on the two and REALLY wish canon had a 24 - 105 2.8 IS, but at last, I had to pick. I choose this one for the extra reach and the IS. In the end, I think the 2.8 would be nice to have, but I could live without it. AND, when I do need the 2.8 (planning ahead), I can rent the 24 - 70 or just pick up my 20D with the 18-55.
- Justin Korn
Guess who's going to mug your mailman on Friday? :-) Nice glass my friend. Nice glass. Enjoy.
- Morgan Haley
Morgan - if only you knew where the shipment was going to: work or home :)
- Justin Korn
from IM
Morgan - you take home, I'll take work. One of us will get lucky. :-)
- Jeremy Brooks
ah crap, you've got me covered...or do you?
- Justin Korn
from IM
that has been my walk-around lens for the past 2 year. good choice!
- meckimac
Interesting. I've been looking to replace my 17-40mm f/4m on my 40D. Also looking at the 70-200mm f/4 IS.
- Peter Kruit
@Peter - I think my next purchase will be either a Macro (100mm Sigma or Canon) or the beefy 70-200 f/2.8 IS
- Justin Korn
Peter - I have the 70-200/4.0 IS and it's really a great lens - so small and light compared to the 2.8 version. I don't dread traveling with it at all.
- Brian Johns
Today. Is. Friday. :D
- Derrick
HELLS YES!! Still waiting anxiously...
- Justin Korn
UPS: SAN FRANCISCO,CA, US 07/10/2009 5:15 A.M. OUT FOR DELIVERY -- WHOO HOO!
- Justin Korn
Looking for similar specs in a Nikon lens
- Alan Morris
*fist bumps Justin and offers a Hoegaarden*
- Derrick
Thanks for the beer! *clink*
- Justin Korn
from IM
Alan - Sorry, I don't know Nikon lenses to suggest anything.
- Justin Korn
from IM
Closest on the Nikon side would be the 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR which doesn't have as good of a rep as the Canon.
- ronin
Alan - you might just want to swtich over to Canon :)
- Justin Korn
from IM
congrats - great gear !
- VictorB
*eeeeeeeeeekkkkkkk*
- Justin Korn
Was that a girlish shriek of joy or horror? =)
- ronin
Joy for the recieval, horror because someone just walked into my office and picked up my camera with new lens and started poking at it! I said, BACK OFF! :)
- Justin Korn
from IM
For future reference, Justin, I'm a big fan of the open hand slap in the mouth. Works wonders. :D
- Derrick
Awesome!
- Mitchell Tsai
Let us know how you find the pincushion/barrel distortion. I'm interested in moving from the 24-70 to the 24-105.
- Brian Johns
Finally put this lens to good use last week at an event I was shooting. I must say, it's an AMAZING lens. Pics might make it to Flickr and/or blog soon.
- Justin Korn
Good Morning! - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
Myrna, Nispell, Dane and 32 other people liked this
How is everyone today? :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
from Bookmarklet
7:21am here, sunny but a little chilly.
- Kol Tregaskes
Good Morning
- zsafwan
Morning Kol :)
- Nia
Good morning, Kol! Still 23:22 here though. =)
- Beau Liening
Morning all, hey Nia! :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Hello Kol!
- Rutger Blom
Hey, Rutger.
- Kol Tregaskes
good morning kalimera
- Demetrios the Traveller
Morning, Demetrios. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Morning buddy:)
- Mycaptain
Good Night!
- Charlie Anzman
Good night, Charlie. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Buongiorno! 11am, here. Sun, clouds, wind on the Rhine river (Germany) :)
- netgeek
g'morning mr tregaskes
- chaz2b
Yep, this looks like a good morning to me :)
- Dan van Moll
Buenos Dias Kol - Though three hours ago here was just coming on midnight. Have a great day.
- Ray Marr aka Knatchwa
Will do, last day of freedom. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Want to get something done – talk to people in their right ear - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science... (via http://friendfeed.com/jhuebel...)
Toby Graham, yagami, Iván Abrego and emon hassan liked this
& they say if u want to memorize something.. listen to it with ur left ear
- iFarah
really? interesting. I need to put this to the test sometime.
- Dee S.
Unless you ask with a baseball bat in hand...both ears pay attention.
- emon hassan
haha.. good one, E.
- Dee S.
i think it has something to do with the side of the brain the heard info goes to.. not sure yet
- iFarah
I see there's tons of new people here on friendfeed participating. How do I know that? Because there are tons of white icons in comments. That means I am not following you yet. Just a month ago all I saw were blue icons. That's cool and welcome to all the newbies!
Tyson Key, Robert Freeze, Steffan Antonas and 76 other people liked this
I'm not really a newbie, per se. Been on here a while, just haven't commented much, Robert.
- John Fox
i am trying to bring some of my tech/faith minded friends on here over the next couple days.
- Tony
you da man Robert always interseting... ha ha from Sydney australia
- Chris Henderson
John: well, you now are a blue icon. :-) Thanks.
- Robert Scoble
good to hear Robert. we needed some new blood.
- Carlos Ayala
Build it and they will come. "Supply Creates Demand"
- Stephen Pickering
Robert: Thanks for the follow. You completely rock. I love your insight into all things social media.
- John Fox
FriendFeed should offer something to people who join from Twitter. Perhaps a delicious pastry or a fetching t-shirt.
- Brett Kelly
Using FF more because I've figured out I can use Twitter for news ... and FriendFeed for actual conversation :)
- Curt Mercadante
Curt: bing!
- Robert Scoble
Curt: ooh, nice distinction.
- Tony
Robert, Bing is something entirely different altogether ;-) Welcome to all the new faces!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Curt has got it on! I stick by my complaint that that it's not actual discussion, just comments. Discussion would entail threads, + better management when discussions get too overwhelming at 50 comments.
- Malcolm Bastien
So you run a hacked ff too?
- Matthew DeVries
Thanks for the welcome Robert. I've only been using FF for about a week and I love it. I find myself participating more, even just replying to tweets.
- Alex Hellstrom
welcome x
- David Lloyd
@malcolm how can you make that assertion with such limited participation here? i disagree with your comment...it is the "actual discussion". i think we may have successfully redefined the terminology.
- Carlos Ayala
And friend feed new people - Avoid this link like the plague - http://ff.im/3EcXi
- Brent - Loving Life
How's that nap going, Robert?
- Brent - Loving Life
Thanks to my new iPhone I can now be more active and addicted to Twitter and friendfeed.
- John Ford
Brent: it's not, someone just invited me to a private party. Sigh.
- Robert Scoble
This proves the point that you are sub'd to the entire base. Interesting...
- anna sauce
Should I be offended that you're not following me yet :(
- John Meagher
follow the white rabbit, mr. scoble. (me) :P
- Oğuz Serdar
We're proud newbies too (on friendfeed) - make our icon blue to you
- HippyGourmet
As long as Oprah doesn't come to visit, welcome n00bs!
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
anna: actually I'm not. Most people don't participate. I only subscribe to those who participate. And even of those I only follow a small number. For instance, I only follow those who speak English. There are tons on friendfeed who don't speak English.
- Robert Scoble
First day on FriendFeed, glad to connect Robert.
- Gabe Taviano
Yeah I haven't been here in a while. Everything has changed. It isn't as small as it used to be (I was here right after it started).
- Jake (aka Jawee)
I'm a newbie to Friendfeed as a result of the interview with Don Tapscott. Thanks!
- Brian Ostrovsky
Jake I'm with you. I left Friend feed for a very long time because there was nothing here. The times they have been a changing.
- Brent - Loving Life
I'm still trying to figure out how to really make use of this other than just lurking.
- John Meagher
Friendfeed is for lurking
- Charbax
There is a video that Johhny Worthington made which might answer that question mark, on participating, if I can find it, John.
- Brent - Loving Life
Yeah, but there's got to be more to it than *just* lurking
- John Meagher
Twitter's for lurking and blasting links, FF is for conversation and community engagement.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Brent: is this the video you meant? http://friendfeed.com/jworthi...
- John Meagher
You start some interesting discussions here, I'll have to try & comment more.
- Steve de Mena
Thanks for the welcome. Looking forward to contributing to the conversation ;)
- art jones
Yes that is it John
- Brent - Loving Life
I totally agree Mark....I do lurk on Twitter with an occasional tweet, but love the "conversations" on FF, and find that I have been participating more and more lately.
- Bonnie Foster
Sometimes it takes a while to catch on. Friendfeed is much more interactive than the others. If yo have interesting friends they post interesting stuff. No filtering necessary. The spammers do not get followed.
- Alan Morris
I am not really a FF newbie. I started with a private feed, shared with some friends some times ago. Then, Brome convinced me to turn my account into public. I then started to comment in english... And here I am!
- DAL
I was asking to myself why there are blue and white icons on comments.. I have tons of whites though.
- Jacque
I never knew any blue comment, maybe I should follow more people and start commenting
- Hendra Saputra
from Nambu
I've been checking it out more because of people like you that have been pushing it's merits. I think I finally "get" the conversational aspect of it. Took me a while!
- Bill Kinney
twit, twit, twit, what more can I say
- Cace Ackerson
Robert, perhaps it's also related to Friendfeed being picked up in Feedburner count?
- Brian Wallace
FriendFeed rocks the house and i am totally happy with it!! Have to say: I luv it :)
- Ronald
FriendFeed does rock, but it is very much a geeks tool. My wife has gotten into twitter but no luck with friendfeed
- Chris Patterson
Tip of the hat to you too
- Bret Rowe
Yeah, I'm been a lurker on here on FF for the past age and am only getting "in to" it in the last while... Have to turn a lot more of those whites to blue :)
- Paul OFlaherty
Thread hijack: Worst Photoshop of a Woman ever? http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter...
- David Lloyd
8-Year-Old Guitar Prodigy Stuns Audiences - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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emon hassan, Helen Sventitsky, Dawn and 5 other people liked this
That's very cool.
- Fa La La La Lindsay
Wow, great kid. I hope he doesn't get screwed up like Michael Jackson and other kid prodigies have.
- Dawn
Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection Redesigned, Now on WordPress - http://thomashawk.com/2009...
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Cristian Vidmar, Jeff Beckham, Sally Church and 54 other people liked this
Love the new look, man!
- emon hassan
The new look is much cleaner. Looks really good. One suggestion, when i click on the picture or the title "Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection", it would be nice if it took me back to the home page. I know there is a "Home" link.
- Kenneth Chu
Kenneth, good point. I think Aaron is going to add that in still. I agree clicking the masthead should take you home.
- Thomas Hawk
by the way Aaron did a fantastic job with the conversion of my blog from Blogger to WP that included at least one very major problem (blogger in the past limited comments transferred out to 5,000). He's going into business for himself -- if you have blog or web projects I'd highly recommend his work.
- Thomas Hawk
Welcome to the family. :)
- Matt Mullenweg
seriously, that friendfeed box on the right hand bar ruins the design. either change your master contrast from red to baby blue or nuke that distracting box... I understand the need to link other profiles but bringing in an ugly duck is simply wasting the precious amount of time to create this simple and elegant design. I suggest converting the mini icons of your elsewhere profiles to grayscale and placing them instead of friendfeed box.
- Berk D. Demir
@Thomas - going off of Berk's comment, if you are using the FF box to link to your other profiles, I'd suggest the Social Homes WP Plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend...) or just mess with the CSS for the FF box.
- Justin Korn
Hey Thanks Matt. About time, I know I've been meaning to get over to WordPress for a few years now. I've been playing with it all day and absolutely love it. Aaron's working on some things to keep the blog steady with the load it gets but other than that I think we're 99.9% there. I really love the picturegrid plug in he just added.
- Thomas Hawk
I know what you're saying about the FF badge not quite fitting in with the color scheme Berk, but I think I'm going to leave it as is at least for now I think. The color scheme is part of FF's identity and branding and at least for now I think I'll go with it unless I find something that looks even better. I'll check out that other plug in as well though Justin.
- Thomas Hawk
Looks great Thomas
- Uncle CW™
Hey TH; Aaron; I can't seem to get to thomashawk.com now - I could however last night; seems DNS is playing up for me - hope everyone else can see it?
- Phill Price
OOO for me as well
- Guillaume Lemoine
I've been on the phone with the hosting company. Hopefully will have it back up soon here. Completely unrelated to my WP conversion it looks like they had a network outage last night. They are going to reroute me to new IP addresses which should have it back up in a bit they say.
- Thomas Hawk
Nice one. Welcome to Wordpress!
- Chris Nixon
from BuddyFeed
yeah, looks like the blog is back up now. Hopefully it stays up now that the networking issue with singlehop seems to be fixed.
- Thomas Hawk
I'm glad you found a happy home. I like the dark background though, but then again, I'm a minority I suppose.
- Mark
Just found myself at the new thomashawk.com for the first time. Looks great and I'm glad to see you on WP. Congrats!
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I love your new site! How about a new photo of yourself? :)
- Midori
love the new look, second the suggestion on new photo of yourself :)
- Cindy Gan
hmmm... someday I'll need to do another photo of myself. :)
- Thomas Hawk
Love it, Thomas, very clean and clear look.
- Sally Church
Mark, Nia, Nicholas Kreidberg and 10 other people liked this
Attention - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
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Nia, gfurry, Baard @ Pixum and 5 other people liked this
Turn the World Around - http://thomashawk.com/2009...
Tyson Key and emon hassan liked this
awesome shot
- Venky Chinnathambi
YesButNoButYes: Where the streets have bad names - http://www.yesbutnobutyes.com/archive...
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emon hassan liked this
My Love, My Soul Mate -- Sweet and Simple Handmade Greeting Card for Valentine's Day - http://www.etsy.com/view_li...
emon hassan liked this
Must Watch: 10 Lectures on Darwin's Legacy by Stanford University - http://www.youtube.com/view_pl...
emon hassan liked this
The Future of News: Joe the Plumber - http://www.pdnpulse.com/2009...
emon hassan liked this
"Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher – who earned 15 minutes of fame by challenging Barack Obama's tax plan during last year's presidential campaign – wants to be a war correspondent. Wurzelbacher tells a local TV station he will travel to Israel to cover the war in Gaza for PJTV, a video site that's part of the conservative blog network Pajamas Media. In an interview with Ohio's NBC24, Wurzelbacher says he wants to get the perspective of "Average Joes" in Israel. As for the danger of working in a war zone, he adds: "Being a Christian I'm pretty well protected by God I believe. That's not saying he's going to stop a mortar for me, but you gotta take the chance." Anybody else think this is a terrible idea?"
- Jeff P. Henderson
from Bookmarklet
I thought Joes 15 minutes were already up!
- Jeff P. Henderson
Anderson Cooper...watch out!! :)
- emon hassan
Interesting blog about what's wrong with friendfeed's interface - http://bokardo.com/archive...
Chirag Chamoli, Kevin, Gökmen Karasu and 185 other people liked this
Joshua Porter does an awesome job here of explaining what's wrong with friendfeed's UI.
- Robert Scoble
from Bookmarklet
I disagree with almost every one of those suggestions. [edit] I'd prefer more, not less on the page. This person doesn't use hide much I guess. Likes allow me to find other people, white space is always appreciated and comments are value added. Again, don't like a title, hide it. It's just not that hard.
- AJ Kohn
AJ: why?
- Robert Scoble
Friends of friends represent huge potential value. I think getting rid of that mechanic would be a big mistake. Placing less emphasis on it than primary relationships makes sense.
- Patrick Pushor
The interface I never knew I wanted - but I totally do. Some really great points in there.
- Shawn Farner
+1 AJ. The first suggestion might be valid but others... no, no and no.
- Tapio Kulmala
@Robert: I'd be okay with the ability to select how many items showed up on the page (default to 5 for newbies), but forcing it at 5. No thanks. I prefer scrolling to clicking by page, particularly with the speed in which things change on FF. White space is necessary to ensure you CAN scan the page. And comments is where the gold is. This interface would essentially reduce it to a one line Title interface, right?
- AJ Kohn
GreaseMonkey does have a script that allows you to filter by content, so I think that is a great idea to already have it in FF. However, the other three opinions, I don't agree with, like the others. You don't care if someone you don't know liked something? The great thing about "Like" is that people that is subscribed to this person can view your content, so you get more exposure. Why wouldn't you want this?
- Shevonne
I'm all for compressing more content into the scarce vertical space. I run FF in Firefox using almost all of the 1200 vertical pixels of my monitor, and it's still not enough. But there is a difference between times when you want discovery and times when you want efficiency, I'd find ways to improve the set up for both MOs.
- LogEx
If they had everything in a single line, the vertical scrolling would be ridiculous. Maybe FF can have an option for people to hide comments, and click a link to show them, if they prefer. Maybe something similar to the WP FriendFeed plugin.
- Shevonne
As somebody in the article comments already posted, you can already turn off friend of friend opinions. Maybe that option needs to be easier to find but I agree with all, keep it on by default.
- Patrick Pushor
It appears he wants to use FF primarily as a news/info feed from select people with no commentary. I thought part of the allure off FF was the social commentary. And it always annoys me when people are so dismissive about seeing stuff from people other than the ones they've personally selected. Seems rather snooty.
- ronin
I do disagree on de-emphasizing the people though, it is FriendFeed after all. I like to be able to easily see who made the post, via what service, the title, and a quick scan of the metadata.
- LogEx
@saeba Bang on. FF is all about the commentary. Any competing service can build an aggregator.
- Patrick Pushor
saeba - snooty? I see it as a headache bypass. There are some people that are a huge pain in the head to read on a regular basis and are out there posting as much as possible. I personally do not want to subject my head to that. Snooty, not at all.
- Renee Hendricks
Most of the things he doesn't like are things that make FF good. For example, showing a few comments can generate interest in the entry even if the title is uninteresting. Finding new people partially comes from being able to see the full list of who liked the entry. I have to agree with the weighting problem though, I complained about that the first week.
- xero
Interesting observations, although I don't feel there's any major problems with the FriendFeed UI. Although that's just my 2p.
- Tyson Key
@TK There are definitely problems with the UI. As a web savvy individual the first time I experienced FF I didn't get it. That shouldn't be. However, I am not versed enough in UI design to suggest much else.
- Patrick Pushor
"Randomness helps us discover. It can create interest. It can lead to intent." http://friendfeed.com/e...
- AJ Kohn
@Susanne Isn't that what hide is for?
- ronin
saeba - I was just commenting on the "snooty" part. I'm very low on the "read me I'm popular" end of things and yet I find it necessary to hide a lot of Friends of stuff. Does it make me snooty? Hardly. Makes me headache free :D But, yes, that's what hide is for.
- Renee Hendricks
This from a guy that seemingly has never commented on any post other than his own and has made no (or few) direct FF posts. I somehow think he is missing something in the credibility department.
- Brian Sullivan
site is down. I didn't do it.
- Josh Haley
Went to read post and got this message "Error establishing a database connection". Worked when pressing Gray's links below.
- B2B Specialist
Sure, FF could (and will) make some improvements, but it's a pretty darn good UI as it is. I was slow to use Twitter and still don't that much. I never used traditional social sites that much, but "got" FF right away. Compared to any other social aggregation and discussion service, the FF UI is an order of magnitude better.
- LogEx
Every suggestion is bunk -- this is clearly not a serious user. Friend names *should* be the top item (this is, ahem, friend-feed). I do care who likes what -- I get to know people that way. A single line entry would be Google Reader -- thanks, I already have that option. Finally, if a title doesn't intrigue me, very often the comments do. +1 saeba, +1 xero
- Christopher Galtenberg
I really like the fact that FF shows you who liked what. If pure scannability is what you are after then just read FF from an RSS reader.
- barce
I have to say that I agree with a lot of what's already been said here about that article sounding like it came from someone that's not spent too much time in FF. I'll be honest and say that I have "friend of friend" off, and that it took me a while to realize how to do that. I think FF is great and a powerhouse of information if you know how to use it. Lets not remove that power to...
more...
- Matthew J Hendrickse
What barce said +1. Scanability is *not* the point of the main page. Social engagement is.
- Christopher Galtenberg
OK, link works now, and now I can comment on it. Mr. Porter, FriendFeed is not a feed reader. It allows the import of a bunch of feeds and could be used that way, but as you point out, the interface is not designed with that in mind foremost. The killer app of FriendFeed is that it is a centralized, customizable place to have conversations about almost any content. Trying to make FriendFeed like Google Reader (my assumption based on your post) will change the dynamic of what I believe is this killer app.
- Josh Haley
There are two major problems with Implementing his suggestions 1. Cluttered screen. 2. Increased need for mouse clicks to get to content. It should be go through serious testing before knowing which approach will give a better experience.
- Amit Morson
While I don't care for his suggestions personally, when I couple his ideas with Louis Gray's "Lite" idea, I think he's really on to something. If you want to go the "Lite" route, keep the initial interface as simple as possible, then let the user discover all of the features of the FriendFeed we know and love. Oh, you can see who liked this item? And you can see comments? And you can see things from friends of friends? Joshua is NOT using FriendFeed incorrectly; he's using it the way he wants to use it.
- Ontario Emperor
title here should read: "Uninteresting blog about what's right with friendfeed's interface". Sorry, Robert stop pumping links simply because you were mentioned in it. AJ nailed it in the second comment. Up next for this thread, what the author of this blog should learn to do on FF. HIDE.
- Carlos Ayala
This would be a cool little tweak - make links open in a 'new' tab.
- Jim Mitchem
I've solved most of the problems Joshua mentions by processing Friendfeed friend, room, list and search feeds through Google Reader. And I can absolutely guaranteee you that, using the GR interface, I can run circles around anyone using the FF interface in terms of grokking all the new FF activity in the areas of greatest interest to me (or any areas). Lightning-fast scanning and...
more...
- Sean McBride
Carlos, let's say that you put me behind the wheel of a NASCAR race car. Before I can drive the thing, I have to make a number of changes to the car to simplify it - "hide" this control, "hide" that control, etc. For newbie car drivers like me, why not come up with a model that's like a Honda Accord? If people insist that I'm using the NASCAR car incorrectly, then I'm not going to drive it at all - which is why more people use Twitter than FriendFeed. The firehose is not for everyone.
- Ontario Emperor
Sean, could you post a screenshot of your FriendFeed/GReader-based scanning solution?
- Ontario Emperor
OE makes a good point and an good analogy. How many of us circle the block in our cars for days, stopping every other time around to change the suspension settings?
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
From a user interface standpoint, hiding items strikes me as extremely wrong. Not smart. Not efficient. I want to see the information that is most valuable to me with the least possible effort.
- Sean McBride
I wouldn't want a bunch of line items as if I'm reading email. I like seeing the comments and who has liked it. That is what makes me give an item with maybe a boring title another chance. One thing I would like is if my or my friends comments stood out a little better.
- Yolanda
Ontario: a single screenshot wouldn't capture my Google Reader view on Friendfeed. Anyone here can try this simple experiment: create a Friendfeed folder in GR, and add a few FF friend, room, list and search feeds. Be sure to include feeds for FriendFeedLinks, FFholic Most Discussed and Best of Day. You'll be able to rip through hundreds of items with the greatest of speed and...
more...
- Sean McBride
Sean, assuming the interface isn't omniscient, wouldn't the bare-bones case require you to add sources of information? And isn't that something users would be much less likely to do than Hide? I think the hide-based paradigm, while counter-intuitive, is more likely to lead to the success which is having just the right amount of feeds.
- Christopher Galtenberg
+1 Barce - yeah if the guy wants an RSS-feed pure list of his friends' content, just pull his feed it into Google Reader via RSS... then he can scan headlines all he wants, and he doesn't have to care about likes or comments...
- Nathan Chase
Christopher - you are correct that it takes a bit of effort to add FF feeds to GR, and probably requires more skill with feed management than most net users possess. We need a slick interface to expedite the process. But try this: go to Best of Day http://friendfeed.com/summary... and click on the RSS icon in the address bar. If you are already a GR user, you will be served up a...
more...
- Sean McBride
I discovered this post through GR, by the way.
- Sean McBride
I also use a Twitter folder in FF to cut through all the noise. From my bird's-eye view, FF and Twitter are just bundles of easily manipulable feeds.
- Sean McBride
Sean, that's actually a pretty brilliant idea, cause I always forget to check the "best of the day", so it would make for a good "news feed" to check, since most of the posts are important news/articles, or at the very least, important memes/social conversations among FF users
- Nathan Chase
Nathan: in my FF folder in GR I place FriendFeedLinks in the number one slot; FFholic Most Discussed in the second slot; and Best of Day in the third slot. It takes me less than five minutes a day to identify the most important new posts on FF as a whole. If I were unable to create this interface, I wouldn't bother using FF at all -- it would be a serious waste of time.
- Sean McBride
Sean: I'm subscribing to you based purely on my respect for your l33t news-reading skillz
- Nathan Chase
More: I find the posts of certain FF users to be exceptionally valuable, like Anthony Citrano, Meryn Stoll, Paul Buchheit and Louis Gray. From my GR view, I can quickly see that user X has posted *number new posts. I can then click on a user's feed, scan the headings of all their new posts, and zoom in on the posts that strike me as most interesting. Viewing all their items as a single list/group gives me a much better conceptual understanding of their posts, without wading through torrents of noise.
- Sean McBride
More: my FF and Twitter folders in GR are nicely integrated with many other folders, all of which are prioritized by importance. I manage all these feeds under a single interface. My lead folder is Top 10 Feeds, and includes BreakingNewsOn, CNET News, FriendFeedLinks, Lifehacker, NYT - Breaking News, NYT - Technology, Slashdot, Yahoo! News: Mideast Conflict, Yahoo! News: Technology and Yahoo! News: Top Stories.
- Sean McBride
Sean - I'll bet your desk is clean too.
- Scott Maentz
Nathan - I've been strongly interested in optimizing my news-reading flow for several years now. This current setup that I've described is the best method for news reading I've discovered to date.
- Sean McBride
Scott - minimizing to the max, getting rid of clutter, streamlining, more bang for the buck, etc. is almost a religion for me. :) That is why I fell in love with the Google aesthetic from the first week that Google was released to the world.
- Sean McBride
Gabe - if I am in the middle of a hot discussion on FF, I simply click on http://friendfeed.com/seanmcb... to read and respond to the latest comments in near real time. But 95% of the really valuable posts on FF are captured in GR soon enough.
- Sean McBride
Sean - More power to you! I also love Google products and use them as exclusively as possible.
- Scott Maentz
I neglected to mention a key point: ALL the items of interest in ALL my feeds (including Friendfeed and Twitter) are easily searchable and retrievable from a single user interface: Google Reader. And if you star items of interest as you scan and read them, the search space is significantly narrowed. And I can forward any of these items as email, and tag them. What's not to like?
- Sean McBride
For all people who are noting that Google Reader items do not appear in realtime, it should be noted that most FriendFeed shares don't make it to the FriendFeed UI in realtime either. So it doesn't sound like you're losing much by using Google Reader as your FriendFeed interface. I'll experiment with Sean's system a bit and see what I think about it.
- Ontario Emperor
I would hate that interface. I don't agree with any of it. I love FoaF and if I don't want stuff from a certain user, I hide them. If I don't want a service showing up, I hide it.
- Mattie Kenny
The basic Friendfeed user interface is like logrolling or birling: I'll wager that most new users lose their balance quickly and fall off the log. I am a speed reader, and can absorb huge flows of text easily, but I can't begin to get a handle on the FF flow from the main page -- it's mostly random chaos. Surely this interface issue will continue to be a major obstacle to achieving...
more...
- Sean McBride
Gabe - check out the FriendFeedLinks feed http://friendfeedlinks.com/ Is it really important to see these items in real time? They are valuable to me within 24 hours or a week. The more one is distracted by trivial posts, the less one has time to focus on important posts.
- Sean McBride
I know this is a plug for my own code, but https://launchpad.net/myff (demo at can be seen in the iframe on the right at http://zzzen.jottit.com) tries to address such problems. Not exactly the *same* problems [and it shows my discussion stream (comments+likes) and not my "what's new" stream], but the code is there, and it's easy to add features. Feel free to use this with your own user name (e.g. http://myff.zzzen.webfactional.com/api...) as an iframe.
- ĎÚβĨŐÚŚ Dod
Ontario - try this experiment: add the feeds for your five favorite friends to a Google Reader Friendfeed folder. I think you will find that you will be able to track their new posts with much greater speed and ease than from Friendfeed. One is not equally interested in all the posts from one's favorite friends: GR makes it possible to find the most interesting posts with a quick scan down the list.
- Sean McBride
Dod: intriguing FF interface. But no features for starring, tagging, sharing, emailing, prioritizing and searching. Yes? No?
- Sean McBride
Some interesting comments but I don't agree with all. E.g. it's sometimes interesting to see who has "liked" a post as that might be someone I want to follow. However I do think there should be more options for hiding or compressing content as you choose
- Mark Warren
I'm pretty happy with the interface as it is. In fact, I think when you compare it to other social networking/sharing services like twitter, identi.ca, facebook, linkedin, etc... I think it wins hands down. The issues Joshua highlights seem trivial to me, and his recommendations might make the service less useful as Mattie noted above.
- Jim in Real Time
I agree with the disagreers here. He obviously just wants a gReader with a Gmail UI and links to a (probably mostly unused) commenting feature (to put it bluntly..).
- Thomas Bøhm
@Sean persistent storage of MyFF is friendfeed itself, and the only way to change its content would be via posts, comments and likes. | I *could* keep some external info in a database at the app's server, but this would require user-auth, backups, etc. and spoil the "zero-admin" fun. | Search I can [and should] do, so you'd "tag" by saying [e.g.] tag-widget (like I just did) and then search for it. | An "item to top" cheat is to delete and re-add one of my own comments (only works for discussion feed)
- ĎÚβĨŐÚŚ Dod
An interesting list, but I'm sure if those changes were made that new ones would spring up. The 100% perfect interface will never likely come.
- Jeremy Campbell
from twhirl
Maybe FF could allow people to Hide parts of the interface.
- Christopher Galtenberg
I responded on josh's blog. He's a smart guy who actually did the first iteration of Grazr's home page. Unfortunately the problem is not the interface. It's what *is* friendfeed. He starts the argument with a supposition of what it is, and that's *not* what FriendFeed is to me (or I gather a lot of other people).
- mikepk
That certainly got the discussion going. What this tells me is that there needs to be several (three would be the best number) different pre-configured default types of FF that are easy to find for new users. Provide an icon in the left sidebar that goes to a page that offers the three options with descriptions on how each benefits users. Then let them easily toggle between them so they can pick what they like best without having to know how to alter defaults or know anything more.
- Internet Strategist
@Strategist, that's one way to approach it, but it dillutes your efforts. It also makes the interface more confusing, not less for initial users. It also means you have to figure out what the default is, as a large percentage of people will never explore beyond a default configuration. Everything has a tradeoff.
- mikepk
choice is good,..but too much choice is bad. regarding the OP i disagree completely with all of his "ideas". i def want to see who liked what. i often feel interested in ppl that like things based on topics. all this screen estate talk bash is silly too. the way FF is structured right now makes it possible for each topic to look the same no matter how much text it contains aso. what i would like to see improved is comment rating as @DIGG and filtering. its essential to sort out spammers.
- Chris Hofmann
The post was obviously satire, since he titled it "modest" suggestions for updating FriendFeed, and because his suggestions are clearly chosen to be shocking and wrong.
- Joshua Allen
Dod - there is a great deal of FF material sitting on Google's servers now, and easily accessible through GR's search interface. In fact, material that has been deleted from FF is still available on GR.
- Sean McBride
Joshua, I'm assuming that comment was intended to be saitire. :) I've met josh, I think his suggestions where legit, although it may have been to just spark conversation.
- mikepk
Another intriguing data point, Josh's blog has 17 comments at the moment. On FriendFeed this share has way more than that and is "liked by over 100 people. So again, what is the *purpose* of FriendFeed, what *is* it. That is the hard question.
- mikepk
"So again, what is the *purpose* of FriendFeed, what *is* it. That is the hard question." - Is it? "History" is full of examples of products that were created for one purpose, but were more useful doing something else. FF started as an RSS aggregator - it's evolving based on how we use it.
- John Craft
FF is a powerful vortex that is going to suck in all the blog commentary in the world. :) Maybe not too much an exaggeration. The interface as its stands blows away all the blog comment interfaces out there, in my opinion.
- Sean McBride
@mikepk: I wouldn't be so sure. I subscribe to Josh's blog as well, but the usage of the word "modest" in a proposal hearkens back to Swift's famous "modest proposal". He left some big red flags in there, like pretending to forget that people have mouse wheels.
- Joshua Allen
Yes, all SM is in a major state of flux. And perhaps it will always be that way. Making *it* whatever *you* want *it* to be.
- Jim Mitchem
Thanks for the comments on my post, everyone. I should have made it more clear that I'm not suggesting Friendfeed get rid of its social features...that would reduce the service to a mere feed reader. I completely agree that those features help make FF what it is. What I am suggesting is that in the current design I think they could be presented more efficiently, and as a result I find it hard to scan to find good content quickly.
- Joshua Porter
Yes, it is a hard question. If its use is evolving, and it's not based on it's initial conception (which, you're right, is the norm rather than the exception) then answering that question in the contest of trying to make interface design decisions *is* excruciatingly difficult. you're left with a) leave it alone and allow the evolution to continue b) try to formulate what it is to give users a better experience of *that*. Scoble and Josh have a different use pattern than I do, and probably you do.
- mikepk
"answering that question in the contest of trying to make interface design decisions *is* excruciatingly difficult." - I think the answer is to make the interface more configurable. Create your own style in the same way you create a WordPress theme or a date format - using defined components, and styling them individually.
- John Craft
John, but the more configurable you make it, the more confusing it becomes for users. I've been at this for almost three years now. It's counter-intuitive but the more options you give someone to tailor their experience the more likely they are to choose *none of the above*. Simplicity suffers greatly when you can't answer that fundamental question of what you *are*.
- mikepk
Again - as with any media, it is what YOU make it. Except of course if you subscribe to cable, in which case you get what they give you and pay for it through the nose. My point is that if the medium is in place, and it's pliable, we each use it to our individual preferences. That's why FF will not ever go away - but continue to morph into a highly user-friendly interface that will continue to attract users because of its concatenation/aggregation features. Duh. ;)
- Jim Mitchem
Friendfeed has a UI, I'd just a burned-in green screen away from being a Univax Server. Useful? Yes, but elegant and pretty?
- Matthew DeVries
Here's a simple thought experiment, imagine a poll of the people commenting in this tread "what's the one user interface change you would make that would most improve your experience of FriendFeed". If you didn't get 100 different answers I'd be surprised. That's the hard part.
- mikepk
imo, the point of Josh's post is that for the casual observer, FF looks intimidating. As frivolous as it sounds, 'Appearance' and how the UI is organized *is the most important touchpoint* for the consumer. As it stands now, many just don't have the time nor the inclination to tackle the steep learning curve FF requires--there are just too many demands on attention online. Another barrier to entry, which Josh didnt raise, are the confusing account settings which could be better described w/bubble help.
- Lee Hsieh
"the more configurable you make it, the more confusing it becomes for users." True - but with a "standard" format (like this one), or a few to choose from, it doesn't have to be. Let new users start with something pre-determined, then migrate to their own custom skin if/when they're ready.
- John Craft
Having FoAF defaulted does seem to cause confusion - though it helped me, personally. But if a person is too lazy to scroll, that's not FriendFeed's problem. Sometimes the headline is irrelevant, but the convo contains more valuable information. If I wanted to see headlines from pre-selected people, I would go to Twitter.
- Mona Nomura
Lee, good point. There are a lot of competing requirements. Further complicating these kinds of discussions are things like the initial user experience. It's like a variant of the old engineering adage, you can have it intuitive and simple, powerful, or efficient but you can only pick two to optimize. :)
- mikepk
Here's something 'right' about FF UI, the 'open in mini-window' live stream. Very cool.
- Jim Mitchem
For those who caught Sean McBride's comments earlier about using Google Reader to find interesting FriendFeed content, I *did* give it a try and have taken a couple of screen shots. 1 of 2 (with associated discussion) http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
2 of 2 (again with associated discussion) http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
And, as Sean noted, such a system is purported to help you locate things easier. So if you're now interested in Yolanda's item (the one at the bottom), it's here. http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Ontario Emperor
I don't know why people are interested in making FF a walled garden. FF remains one of the most enjoyable means of content discovery for me. I think it's something less without FOAF. I would make it a toggle feature on account creation, but not remove it. I'm constantly finding relevant new people through the feature. I think the interface is the strong point - FF is not Google Reader or Gmail - as it's conversation oriented, hence long threads (though for people wanting aggregation *only*, I see the point)
- Mo Kargas
Ontario - nice work on the screenshots. Do you notice now that you can view comments and likes from GR? And that it usually takes no more clicks to uncompress comments for the original FF page from GR than from FF itself? One click on "*number more comments" in GR will drop you into the middle of the discussion stream on Friendfeed, with all comments uncompressed.
- Sean McBride
Hmm... quickly glancing at my GR subscriptions list I see 2 new posts from Patricia, 1 new post from Paul Buchheit, 2 new posts from Veselka, 24 new posts from Dave Winer, etc. A few clicks exposed the lists of new items to view, and I found six items worth clicking through to. All now marked as read, and no need to see again. That was really fast. Knowledge garnered. Desk cleared.
- Sean McBride
So he just wants to turn it into filtered feed reader where only the A-list really gets a look in? What utter bollocks. The strength of FriendFeed is in its social interaction and sharing across the service. Note to Paul Buchheit: please don't do any of these.
- Duncan Riley
@duncan: sounds like you're saying that he's missing the "friend" part of FriendFeed...
- .LAG liked that
This entry had so many comments it would open up in the home feed btw
- Tyler (Chacha)
I guess I disagree with the premise that FF is not supposed to be a firehose. It was a point made by both @Scobleizer and @LeoLaporte in the first seconds of the newest TWiT that FF is supposed to be a firehose. You only pay attention to it when you're looking at it. You step in to it, get your skin ripped off. Then go about your day. There's already readers and such out there that refine the content for you, FriendFeed is about realtime content creation. It only needs the eyes that are on it to run.
- Matthew DeVries
And those eyes aren't necessarily yours. You don't sit down to FriendFeed to catch up on a damn thing, you look it to see what is going on now as everything in it whips around and past you.
- Matthew DeVries
You can't review history... just too much of it has happened. What this type of medium is going to become is a way to take stuff that interests you, and is currently happening, and being fine if you miss some of it
- Tyler (Chacha)
I love the fact that Friendfeed will take the 'likes' of people I subscribe to and give them to me, 435 people can't cover/write/create it all.
- Tyler (Chacha)
now we can see who's really on FF
- Donovan Slennon
+1 Matthew. I like the fire hoseness of FF. The other great function is to zero in on one friend and see what he/she is up to. That was probably the original intention. The social media blast is a cool side benefit.
- Seth Gottlieb
@mikepk dilutes how? I agree that most never change the defaults and get confused which is precisely why I suggest that we offer new users a choice of three "views" with suggestions based on how they want to use FF.
- Internet Strategist
@Chris Hofmann Yes, too many choices cause indecision. That is why it needs to be two or at most three and there has to be a VERY simple suggestion on which someone should pick. Otherwise some won't do anything.
- Internet Strategist
Ok... I'm not trying to be snippy - and I think discussing how to make FF better is great... but for the love of (name your deity) can we stop the friggin' navel gazing. Things evolve... let's give it some time to do that and stop posting on this thread... jeeeezzzzzzz
- Brian Roy
I didn't entirely agree - I like the layout and seeing comments/likes from new people, too
- Sarah Perez
I think Friendfeed would be better off focusing on the functionality over the UI. 3rd parties can deal with changing the UI, but adding functionality like Track/Block can't be done by anyone but FF
- Tyler (Chacha)
I'd like to correct that last statement .. Track/Block can't be done 'well' by anyone by FF. Because 3rd parties can do it, but probably FF could do it better
- Tyler (Chacha)
what a great time to be a FriendFeed developer -- recent tips from power users like Scoble, Gray, and other interesting tidbits like this one. They have so much input now, I wonder what direction they'll take next?
- Pete Delucchi
I wish there were a way I could tell FF to give me only the comments of people in my network when there's a huge number like this...as long as we're making a wish list.
- Rae21
This entry has so many comments it won't open up without me navigating to its page. Grrr
- Tyler (Chacha)
Yeah, Looks like Robert Scoble is a firehose. :) I'm new here. I don't think I'll be friending him.
- Rae21
Rae21: that is pretty smart! But I am looking for great items for you. Just build a new list. Call it "noisy asshole" or something like that. Then add me to that list.
- Robert Scoble
I felt a little guilty about commenting because I didn't want to take up too much vertical space. Sue me.
- Robert Peña
-1. The name is "FriendFeed", not "Firehose". The people are just as important as the feed. Don't lose that, or the mechanisms which promote discovery of new ppl.
- Nick Lothian
Added as a CON for now on the FF PRO vs CON list (for now): http://friendfeed.com/e...
- B2B Specialist
Nick just said it right ^
- Christopher Galtenberg
@karaswisher is only following 16 people -- all of whom are men. No wonder she is grumpy about Twitter!
Kol Tregaskes, Richard pancakhaus Walker, Aaron Draczynski and 13 other people liked this
HAHA
- Roberto Bonini
Beautiful!
- Martha
FAIL
- Susan Beebe
I don't think I could survive with less than 20 people followed
- Tyler (Chacha)
Heh, I'm only following 44 people, and being followed by 47, for what it's worth.
- Tyson Key
I've ponly been on Twitter two weeks-ish. Stats: 52 Following, 48 Followers , 450 Updates. Better than @karaswisher.
- Roberto Bonini
My First Follow on Twitter - http://dcortesi.com/tools...
lisa.ong, Justin Jacobs, Robert and emon hassan liked this
Sloppily Floor - http://inquisitr.com/extra...
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Stormy, emon hassan, MVB (Curmudgeon of FF) and 4 other people liked this
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