ummm. what qualifies one as a poser? - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

well said - poser comes from surfer lingo btw, for guys that would show up w/ nice boards and "pose" on the beach while the real surfers paddled out - very recognizable on the beach and in social media ;) - mike "glemak" dunn

Not to get angry, Brian, but did you read the article? Please God, let's not turn FriendFeed into Digg. - Phil G

First! - l0ckergn0me

LOL @ the certificate - Bwana ☠

remember when all those people came out initially and called Twitter a "fad?" Lots of folks hated it. Didn't matter though it still represented innovation and to that end eventually even the haters were brought on board. Same thing will happen with FF. Gillmor is a hater right now. But he'll eventually come around. They always do. Same thing happened with the conversion from film cameras to digital cameras. It just takes some more time than others. - Thomas Hawk

your article was boring linkbait. How's that much different from Digg? :-) People should be allowed to use services any way they see fit. You get out what you put in, so what difference does it make? Perhaps Gillmor wants to use FriendFeed merely as a way for Scoble to have an easy way to see his tweets on FriendFeed, so be it! - Robert Seidman

Well written article! I also have a problem with these "posers" showing up as recommended users and I also feel FriendFeed is not an application you can look at on paper and dismiss. This happens more often than not. - Bwana ☠

Sweet! My first linkbait! As for the boring part.. we will see how popular it is... - Phil G

Boring linkbait can be quite effective, J. Phil, I suspect it will be among your more popular articles! - Robert Seidman

I agree with Robert. Back when Scoble posted numerous tweets on Twitter, people started arguing with him that he was using Twitter "wrong". His response was great: essentially, there is no "wrong" way to use Twitter. Use it how you like to. FriendFeed is the same way. What if all I want is a lifestreaming service that I can post to my blog sidebar? Does it make me a poser just because I don't particularly want to join and interact with the community that is on the service? I don't think so. - Nathaniel Payne

Bwana, so the issue is more a product development issue w/FriendFeed continuing to recommend the same people. Do you really have an issue with Gillmor or anyone else not really using the service? - Robert Seidman

Nathanial, if it was anyone but Steve Gillmor, I'd agree with you. He's not doing that though. He's hedging his bets. - Phil G

I will preface what I said with an agreement that someone who doesn't necessarily interact with FriendFeed shouldn't appear as a "recommended" user. ;) - Nathaniel Payne

Yup. I read it. Phil. I gave up trying to pay any attention to Steve after his rude interview with Bret Taylor, who was more than courteous in his replies to Steve's leading questions. Gillmor's snobish and elitist line of questioning with Bret and others who work at Friendfeed is testament to his child like behavior when it comes to FF & Twitter. His is noise I can do without, so I have one simple answer: Block on Twitter, Block on Friendfeed. Problem more or less solved. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

So if he signed up for the service, tried it out, then discontinued using it, that makes him a poser? Does not compute. - Kirk Kittell

Brian, about the same conclusion I came to, but I thought I'd set off some fireworks first. - Phil G

Whether he tried it or not is irrelevant... he's not using it, so why is he a recommended user? - Bwana ☠

don't look at the recommendations, the way they're are generated is questionable maybe even random, besides that the post was LOL, it felt right - Dobromir Hadzhiev

@Bwana - That doesn't make him a poser. A poser is trying to get in front of the crowd to be seen by that crowd. Gillmor isn't inserting himself in front of this crowd, his account is being placed there by the service. - Kirk Kittell

I noticed these folks too, I think "using it wrong" is a bit harsh, but all the same, I've begun weeding them out of my subscribe list. I have GReader to pull in feeds, I come to FF for the conversation. But if there's conversation on FF around something posted on an inactive users list, I'm happy to partake of it if it's interesting. Just because one doesn't like the source, doesn't mean the resulting bits around it aren't worthwhile! - felix

There's nothing wrong with just setting your feeds up and walking away. That's just one way to use this service. There are other, more social, ways to use it, and that's ok, too. Agree that what's raw is if he still lands in the Recommended list. Plurk does this, also, I believe. Who do they "recommend?" The usual suspects...which can be rather boring. It may give the creators brownie points and blog links, but little ense. I would hope the FF gurus would mix it up more often. - Jim Stanger

Kirk, then why won't he delete the account? Or stop feeding? - Bwana ☠

why should he, Bwana? Not that this is the case w/Gillmor, but let's say he just wanted to aggregate his Internet presence on FriendFeed and give that feed to his friends and family and not participate all. What's wrong with that? That will likely be a fairly common use case if FriendFeed is to scale. - Robert Seidman

Jim.. good point. That's essentially what I was thinking in the article, but I deliberately went for a more rant attitude. I just love how emotionally charged the word 'poser' is.. I didn't realize people had such different interpretations of it, though. - Phil G

@Bwana - probably the same reason I don't delete my Hi5 or Friendster accounts: it's less work to not delete them. As long as they aren't bothering me with mail, they don't exist to me, and I don't even consider deleting them. I suppose that's the difference I would mention between a poser and non-poser: intent. - Kirk Kittell

I think your assessment may be a bit harsh. There are many who don't use FF to chat and they are not posers. We are all figuring out how to implement the various social meda tools in our arsenal and Twitter was an easy medium for chatting. I admit I initally thought of FF as an aggregator not a chat vehicle. - Karen Swim from Alert Thingy

Just because people are getting used to a service - or find new or personally convenient ways to use a service doesn't mean they are "posing." but I didn't read the blog post - so maybe Im missing the point... - Tony

Also, I'm not as closely involved in the same industry as the rest of you -- I don't have any back story to the why/why not for Gillmor. He's just a name I recognize from Gillmor Gang, which is something I don't follow... - Kirk Kittell

kirk nailed it - there is a backstory here when it comes to steve and ff... - mike "glemak" dunn

Karen - Agreed, actually I tried to say several times in my post that I have no problems with most friendfeed 'tourists'. - Phil G

Ah. Well. I see. In that case: back to work... - Kirk Kittell

J. Phil, noted and thanks for saying it again! I :-) - Karen Swim

I often come to FriendFeed to see what's going on with friends on other sites. It gives me a nice rundown of what they're saying other places and what they find interesting. I don't often come chat or vote up sites, probably because commenting here doesn't show up on blogs, so doesn't make sense to post twice and because Plurk isn't included, so the main place I want to talk isn't available. It doesn't mean I don't use it, I do and often, but I'm pretty sure I don't use it like it's "supposed" to be used. - Teeg

If you read the post, J. Phil's just saying that it's kind of rude to feed your blog and Twitter to FriendFeed and then never participate in the ensuing conversations. I think "poser" may be a bit harsh, seeing as most people haven't really thought this behavior through to this extent, but he it's an interesting point to make. - Lon Harris from twhirl

Richard, FriendFeed can be viewed as a simple lifestream aggregator, and using it as such as fine. Or whatever, actually I don't really care how anyone uses FriendFeed or NOT using it or whatever. There are three (well, four) reasons I wrote this article, to be honest: 1) I wanted to say 'for shame' to those who depend on services such as twitter and friendfeed to promote their personal brand, and they bash FF and *are using it for advertising anyway*, 2) I wanted to write my first "rant" article (contd') - Phil G

3) I wanted to highlight that friendfeed's suggested people to follow mechanism is sort of busted, and 4) I wanted people to realize that FriendFeed has an amazing amount of potential for community building and opinion and input, and those people who just visit and vanish are basically ignoring all that. - Phil G

All I'm saying is if you're going on record to dismiss a service, why bother feeding it your data or even using it. Case in point, I hate/dismiss Myspace all the time, and I have an account. There's absolutely nothing there. It's solely for squatting. I agree that the "recommended user" part is mostly a FriendFeed issue, but I don't see Gillmor complaining about it either. My $0.02. - Bwana ☠

@Robert Seidman: "Not that this is the case w/Gillmor, but let's say he just wanted to aggregate his Internet presence on FriendFeed and give that feed to his friends and family and not participate all." *Spot on!* If someone just wants a link for people to see what they're up to/have to say, they are not at all a "poser" they are just taking advantage of what the service has to offer. @J. Phil: If this blog was just a way to single out Gillmor, then this would not be a problem at all. However, if you are talking about the gen pop of FF users, I think you're off base with this one. - David Cook

David,I'm quite sure Gillmor has went on record to point people to Twitter for everything. That scenario doesn't apply here. My assumption here is that even though the title is general, it's a poke at Gillmor specifically. - Bwana ☠

Bwana, my point is simply that if he wants to bash someone he doesn't necessarily like, then by all means do it and I'll probably get a laugh out of it. But I just don't feel that all people who don't "use" FF are wrong. If you want a service aggregator and don't actually visit the site to check up on it, doesn't make you a poser. - David Cook

David, as I said in my article (and here to Karen) my intent is not to say that most people who use friendfeed (even as a tourist) are posers. - Phil G

@David If FriendFeed were a pure aggregator (like Profilactic), I'd agree with that, but it's really not if you ask me. There's much more to it. But I digress. I have other concerns about Gillmor that are outside the scope of this article. I'll agree to disagree simply because inserting Gillmor into this situation brings along a lot of baggage. - Bwana ☠

Bwana, I see your point and I agree with you in the sense that FF *should* be more than just an aggregator. I, myself don't use it that way at all. I love getting involved, reading posts, comments, and making comments myself. It's just that when J. Phil said: "So, my advice to you internet pundits, either crap or get off the pot. Why not pull yourself off FriendFeed completely until you want to interact? I’m close to just blocking FriendFeed posers as matter of policy." - David Cook

Bwana - I agree with you here, but as I stated in the article, I picked on Gillmor (though I deliberately did not use his name in the title) because he was the first person in the suggested people to be a clear non-user of the service. I admit that using his name would heat up the discussion a bit, which is good for an opinion piece. - Phil G

This is the limit. I need a way to filter posts that have the word "FriendFeed" in them. - Sprague D

J. Phil, "David, as I said in my article (and here to Karen) my intent is not to say that most people who use friendfeed (even as a tourist) are posers." I read what you said to Karen *after* my post went through. But the quote I posted to Bwana is what made me say all that. - David Cook

Sprague - LOL sorry for have annoyed you with my post. Feel free to hide or block as needed. ;) - Phil G

You're on to something Phil, but I'm not with you 100%. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

J. Phil: Stir it up! - Hutch Carpenter

Thanks, David. No offense taken, or meant. - Phil G

Shey - That's OK. Remember my about page. My goal is to increase my writing portfolio. This was an opinion piece, a 'rant'. While I of course will take personal responsibility, I wrote it mostly to see if I could write it, as much of a tautology as that sounds. - Phil G

It's social (media) Darwinism to a certain extent. Those who use, explore and excel using FriendFeed will benefit the most. Should Gillmor or anyone else decide to not do so is only really harming themselves - if you believe FF is here to stay (which I think it is.) So others will be late to the party, some too late, but others will have enough social capital to join when the tipping point becomes obvious. - AJ Kohn

more to the point, and given your own realisations on writing that article, does posing that question place you further into the realms of poser? lol, j/k obviously - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

Slippy - I wouldn't consider myself a poser on FriendFeed by my own definition. Now, you look at me on Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, etc.. HELL YES. - Phil G

I like a point you made in your post. Gillmor is not at all active inside FriendFeed (his activity comes from Twitter). Yet he shows up as a recommendation. Perhaps there is a better way to do recommendations. - Hutch Carpenter

@Hutch, yup, I agree. A lot of people don't like how the recommendations currently work. - Shey, Jamaican of FF

As long as the server or other FriendFeed users are not being hurt, I don't get what's wrong with people using FriendFeed how they want to. - Rishabh Mishra (p248)

im a pouser!!!!!!!!!!! - Tyler Gillies

Tyler - Are you? Your user icon is Ed Norton, and you go by Tyler.. which would make you.. a big fan of Fight Club perhaps? - Phil G