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Fred Davis › Comments
I just saw http://www.my6sense.com/website... and it is a personal Techmeme for your Iphone except it learns. Coming "within days." Awesome!
Scott Magoon, Jacque, Jason Benway and 48 other people liked this
yeah, a personalized step closer to that "right context" i'm referring to.
- Yann Ropars
Super!
- Amir
Looks like a great idea! On a side note, tho — I'm always a little annoyed that iPhone app sites aren't optimized for mobile (iPhone Safari, at least) display.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
from iPhone
please don't laugh at me guys, just opened my first iphone but I cannot even make a call or anything, I get no service. Do I have to call o2?
- Mark
Been using it, and it rocks. you will all enjoy.
- Scott Klauminzer
My6Sense is another really interesting app, but remains iPhone only. I know we're seeing a variety of apps like that. The same holds in reverse for Blackberry only apps. I wish there was a better mix of cross platform tools so we could use the same ones on our Blackberries and iPods. Not likely any time soon.
- Ken Camp
Mark: the iPhone should already have a sim in it but if it doesn't you need a small paper clip to open the iPhone drawer at the top of the phone.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Ken: they will port it eventually. Picking one platform to develop on makes sense.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
thanks Rob! Had to insert sim card myself but the iphone manual "Finger Tips" doesn't actually tell you how ;P P.S sorry for hijacking your thread, but im excited to make my first post on my iphone on friendfeed
- Mark
They have a mobile web version that predates the iPhone native app. iphone.my6sense.com, so it should be no trouble to add platforms
- Scott Klauminzer
iphone.my6sense.com is great. Can't wait to see the app.
- metalerik
When/will it be available in the app store?
- Amir
Amir: We're shooting for a release on Thursday, but ultimately it's up to the App Store's approval process (which is unpredictable to say the least).
- Brian Remmel
Robert, I'm not sure I agree they will port it. I agree they've made those noises, but in reality, there are *very* few companies porting anything between iPhone and BB. And by the time they get too it, my take is that it will be to catch up to a competitor who's beat them to other platform (in the case of porting either direction). Competition is the driver really. And losing face or...
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- Ken Camp
Scott: I know they have a web version. I use a Blackberry, and any web version of any service is useless in general. The browser is the weakest link in Blackberry. Functional but not strong at all.
- Ken Camp
Brian: I know what you mean.
- Amir
Damnit, I got beat to the punch once again. Another breed of relevant personal search powered by our browsing
- Mark Essel
from iPhone
people-powered search has a lot to be said for it... harder to game the system than google...
- Fred Davis
Looking forward to loading this. Have to many "feeds" apps on my iPhone. Hope this means I can reduce them to something workable.
- Jamie Craig
from Nambu
Jamie: Will be available soon - hope you enjoy it!
- Barak Hachamov
Just checked their site out, it looks sensational. I'll probably buy although I have just forked out of a NewsReader last week which, I have to say I'm completely delighted with, "RSS Flash G." The lack of a landscape browser in NNW just proved too much to bear but I'm glad in a way because without that irritant I wouldn't have found RSSFlashG. RSSFlashG is a very feature rich...
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- JSLeFanu
David: THANKS! you don't need to buy it. It will be for free. We will add more features in the next version.
- Barak Hachamov
I'm surprised to find out that my Digital Intuition is hot, but also has an annoying voice :(
- Tech Introvert
Barak, even better. TBH the app store is so insanely competitive in terms of pricing I don't mind paying for the good stuff. I don't t begrudge RSSFLASHG people the €3.99 for the app (I actually consider it to be worth more). My issue with the appstore is all the useless stuff I've bought. The stuff I actually do use is, if anything, cheaper than it should be and at the same time I've...
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- JSLeFanu
I am trying my6sense out right now, but it's making me really nervous to enter passwords for all my social media accounts.
- Scott Magoon
Scott, please keep us posted on how it goes. Btw, I'm guessing you have a preview copy or else it has hit the app store in your part of the world a deal more quickly than it has over here in Ireland.
- JSLeFanu
Anymore news on this anyone? Scott did you overcome your concerns about feeding this app your Social Networking codes? It's a concern I didn't even have until you raised it so I've been checking back here to see how you got on? Is your silence indicative of a disaster, or is your mind now at peace with the world again on this issue, and if so why?
- JSLeFanu
from BuddyFeed
David, I did not overcome my concern about typing so many logins into My6sense. I abandoned the setup process. Also, I wasn't using the app, but accessing the mobile page (iphone.my6sense.com) via my iPod touch. Maybe it shouldn't bother me so much, but that Twitter stolen documents thing has made me nervous.
- Scott Magoon
Scott thanks for the response. I'd be interested to know what type of reassurance someone like Barak could provide that would make you more comfortable about this? I suppose that's a question that applies to users like you and developers like the My6Sense people. This looks like an app for the geekiest among us and, no offense, you're probably, like most people on FF, geeky. So you're...
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- JSLeFanu
from BuddyFeed
Tech Introvert: Well, I'm your digital intuition....so thanks! But that is not my real voice...it's pitched higher than usual :-) Didn't you watch the interview with Scoble?
- Ilana Gurman
Scott, David: thanks for bringing this up. We'll actually be converting to the OAuth Protocol in just a couple of weeks (although our current database securely holds your SN credentials, no worries) so this will help you to feel more comfortable about accessing your social streams and/or sharing messages on them via my6sense. Regardless, you can enjoy the service by adding regular RSS...
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- Barak Hachamov
Barak thanks for the response. I guess "OAuth Protocol" is a good thing (frankly I haven't a clue) but I don't know how bad a thing no OAuth Protocol actually is. I'll be downloading the app in any case and, depending on what, if any, further information attaches to this discussion, and my own level of paranoia on the day, I'll be signing up for some, or all, of the service. I'm...
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- JSLeFanu
any update on this application. I've been checking into AppStore every day or two since and still no sign. I know the approval process can be drawn out but the overshoot on my6sense eta is mega at this stage.
- JSLeFanu
from BuddyFeed
David: Thanks for checking in. We're still pending approval but do expect it to happen any day now. As @dhrac would say, "they're testing our buddha skills" ;) Frustrating as it is, we're exercising a great amount of patience and we look forward to delivering digital intuition your way..! Will keep you posted :-)
- Ilana Gurman
from email
Ilana, thanks for getting back on us on that, best if luck and I hope they upload it soon.
- JSLeFanu
I'm pleased to be first with the news my6sense has landed in the app store, at least in the Ireland AppStore anyway. Just downloaded it now. Don't know if I'll get a chance to play with it for a while but for those who are interested it's there waiting for you.
- JSLeFanu
Thank you David! We are super excited about this. We actually planned on officially notifying everyone tomorrow so we could get in a bit more testing in...Hope you enjoy it, and please please get in touch with your feedback!! Cheers :-)
- Ilana Gurman
@parislemon FriendFeed is over dude - Paul gave no commitments - http://blog.areyoupayingattention.com/2009...
Sean Kelly, K.D., Josh Haley and 9 other people liked this
hey Chris, enough with the FUD. You'd think you were in competition. Oh wait...
- Steve Gillmor
FUD? Competition? I'm not offering fear, I'm offering hope for a better solution. Echo is not in competition to FriendFeed - it's because of FriendFeed that Echo is relevant.
- Chris Saad
I dont understand how you can argue that we shouldnt rely upon one privately owned platform, while at the same time selling your own?
- Nick Halstead
Blogs are open platforms because the only thing a competing platform (competing to Wordpress for example) needs to do to participate is build a better tool and provide an RSS endpoint. Echo, similarly, uses open standards/data and sits on these open platforms. You can easily switch it for another real-time streaming service. Neither of these require you to participate in a single platform to join the conversation.
- Chris Saad
The platform is the web and each component is easily interchanged if a better solution comes along - that's the point
- Chris Saad
Fear Uncertainty Doubt Paul gave no commitments. Read MG's post again. 51 minutes of commitments.
- Steve Gillmor
I did better, I watched the video :) He did not commit to keeping FriendFeed iterating much less competitive and you never pushed him on the point. More importantly, though, I don't understand why you wouldn't want your own blog/software to be as good or better than a centralized tool. You want likes and threading on comments in FriendFeed? Why not use a blog instead and choose a tool that has likes and threading? You have total power
- Chris Saad
I pushed him to get the API commitment which is the whole ballgame. FF is the shit, so the whole blogs argument is meaningless for me. More toys the better. Off to decentralize my nervous system with acupuncture check in
- Steve Gillmor
haha - have fun :)
- Chris Saad
Chris, if FF falters, there will plenty of things coming along that will replace it... some may even be better, and more open... that's what we're trying to do with Grabbit.net, and we thought we could beat FF even before the Faceborg assimilation... just build a better service... with as much open-ness and platform-ness as possible... we will have the beta out in September, so I hope you check it out and give us your feedback! Same goes to you, Steve! And thanks for pushing for the API support! Cool!
- Fred Davis
@Fred if you remain a pure aggregator instead of a generator I will be very impressed - seems like product teams can't resist adding content creation tools into their products
- Chris Saad
It's not just product teams, it's the users. FF didn't take-off until they added all their proprietary goodies (like, comments, etc).
- Carter Rabasa
@Carter that's a failure of imagination from both groups ;)
- Chris Saad
Chris, definitely an aggregation play... for all types of near-real-time messaging... and a big open-source platform play that I shouldn't say more about now... but members of certain open source communities will be very excited about our platform tie-ins ;-)
- Fred Davis
Of course, I'm biased, 'cuz it's my baby... but we're basically trying to build the product we really want to use... and just build it from our hearts more than our brains, if you know what I mean... things created with love usually turn out better than things created by greed ;-)
- Fred Davis
The issue that most folks in these circles (and by that I mean anyone that has figured out how to reach this FF thread (or whatever the term is)) have not grasped is that to make a service "dead" there must be a definitive stop of whatever can define as the major systems that support it. Make any analogous statement to heart or a nervous system you want. When I consider Google Wave, FriendFeed, richer so-called microblog formats, and rebooting/CPR/transplants into other "dead" systems: I smile. Zombieweb.
- Jay Cuthrell
It is funny to see this argument while Yelp gains a million NEW users per month. Facebook is gaining that per week. Twitter every few weeks. So Chris the market has already decided to yawn. Sorry.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Never known u to just go along with a trend Robert. Chris Saad Please excuse brevity and typos - Sent from my iPhone
- Chris Saad
from email
Thats interesting to know, seems I got too late into FF. I just were starting.
- Luis Torres
Chris - By definition, a revolution needs a leader. Are you going back to the Radioactive days? On the Internet, a blogging revolution would require a 'central place' to organize, find and discuss the merits of an idea. Dead or not, Friendfeed was the closest thing to it that I can remember. If the team can manage to 'port' a Friendfeed-like system to Facebook and / or continue to...
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- Charlie Anzman
Can Friend Feed + Troll = FROLL? As a noncelebrity I must say that claiming that one tech is dead while actively working on something that would compete in the same market is pretty obtuse of you.
- Jeremy Behrens
Not sure if u know who I am but I've been advocating this for years - my work follows my philosophy not the other way around. Also the product I work on exists in part because of friendfeed so it's not competition. Chris Saad Please excuse brevity and typos - Sent from my iPhone
- Chris Saad
from email
@haaswrites ...unless their your tweetie-pie ;-)
Hi Fred!
- Rocky Barbanica
Hey Rocky! How are things?
- Fred Davis
from email
Fred is Grinding away on Grabbit...software development can often be like nailing jelly to a tree, but it's cool when things finally start to work!
I can't imagine how complicated a service like that would be to build from scratch! :)
- Sam Guzman
Sam, you can say that again! Yes, we have the email summaries you mentioned, and lot's more! Been working on it since January... it definitely IS a lot of work! But very satisfying, since we're basically building the product we want to use ourselves!
- Fred Davis
from email
I just spoke with FriendFeed cofounder Paul Buchheit. Did you know that he promised family that FriendFeed would continue? More:
immaterial, Alfredo, deceth and 299 other people liked this
He told me they messed up by not communicating better last week. The deal happened so fast that they didn't pay attention to everything.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I like how this is starting
- Robert DeBord
o0o0o0
- Mark
Promises ?
- johnpiercy
as its own service?
- Lee
you are the one who keeps proclaiming its death
- Mark
That's what Compaq said when they purchased DEC. (for those of you old enough to remember)
- RobinDotNet
A promise is not a guarantee.
- Amit Morson
Such a tease, Robert. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
More smoke-blowing. I don't care of Paul swore on the graves of his ancestors. Actions speak louder than words. Some vague promise to a group of people I'm excluded from doesn't do much to assuage my unease.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva, you're right, but it's not smoke.
- Louis Gray
Okay, Louis, true. I retract that first sentence. The rest of it, however, I'm sticking by.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva: well I feel a lot better about things today.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Continue just as it is? Or with key changes?
- Karma Martell
I would expect them to post more on this topic soon - on their personal blogs.
- Louis Gray
If that's what Paul wants to promise us, he needs to release some kind of official statement, not send a message through Robert.
- Rochelle
Soon.
- Louis Gray
I bet you as part of the contract, its in there not to shut this down
- Stephen Pickering
Rochelle: there are too many unknowns to make a definitive statement yet.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
keeping my hopes up. but i do remember working at a few radio stations that were bought, we'd get a memo saying 'the format is not going to change' about three weeks before we switched to spanish. i think there is just too much here for ff to vanish. keep the dream alive!
- michael sean wright
How can he when it`s lost all of its autonomy? Supplanted by Facebook, bought outright no?
- sofarsoShawn
It couldve been part of the deal not to let the site die
- Stephen Pickering
Robert, like you said, one can hope. However both of us know how corporates work and it takes one small decision from share holders to close down the service, no matter what.
- Nir Ben Yona
They want to get to Facebook and get those unknowns nailed down first.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Holden and Rochelle, etc., let's be patient. If you see the post I put up last night and add Robert's comments here, we should be feeling a lot better today than we did on Monday.
- Louis Gray
Robert, all right. Well, after my initial freak-out over this, I've gone into complete wait-and-see mode. More of these vague promises and 'coming soon' messages don't really do much for me. When someone say something definitive, then I'll be there to consume it. The rest of this just doesn't add up for much.
- Akiva Moskovitz
That was a great post Louis
- Stephen Pickering
Thanks, Stephen. I thought it was important.
- Louis Gray
Akiva, exactly, waiting for official word.
- Kol Tregaskes
Nir: the way it was told to me contractually it can't be closed down anytime soon.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I hope they don't change it so you have to have a Facebook account to use it. I have one, but share it with very few; I use Twitter and FF for everyone. I want to be able to use it the way I do now.
- RobinDotNet
Like any takeover/merger, some details just take time to work out. Hopefully FF can stay around in some form and help make FB better. We'll just have to wait and see. Thanks, Robert, for the info.
- Mark Edwards
I agree, we haven`t seen anything substantive in the way of contract etc but fingers crossed.
- sofarsoShawn
But doesn't mean it won't be shutdown at some point?
- Kol Tregaskes
And, Louis, I didn't see your post from last night but I'll read it as soon as I get back from the store.
- Akiva Moskovitz
was Pownce a bit like Friendfeed? I never used it
- Mark
I can't get my hopes up when Facebook is in the picture. :-(
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
I am very happy to hear that! I hope it gets bigger than Twitter. It's a much better service.
- Sam Guzman
Stable Door and Horse comes to mind.
- Kevin J Hatton
The fact that the FF folks haven't yet said "This is how we want it, so this is how it's going to be" is just evidence that they don't have the final say on the matter. If it's subject to some additional authority/approval, nothing is certain at this point.
- Ken Sheppardson
Kol: it won't be shut down anytime soon. He was quite clear about that.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Kol, the truth is they work for Facebook now, and therefore, FriendFeed can/will change, and it may not change 100% how you and I want. It may be part of Facebook's site later, and it may not. But Facebook is changing from what we know of it now to something new where they overlap.
- Louis Gray
In other words that was in the contract. Makes sense, since they were hesitant anyway
- Stephen Pickering
Robert, OK but maybe at some point though.
- Kol Tregaskes
I sure would like it if FF continued indefinitely.
- Jason Nunnelley
Kol: nothing in life is guaranteed.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Patience is a good thing. That said, if FriendFeed wasn't growing at a rate much higher than it has been, something would have to change. You don't bottle up such talent and experience and have it work on a product that was losing.
- Louis Gray
Robert, What about death and taxes?
- RobinDotNet
Good to hear. I am sure they will take time to decide what exactly to do with FF. How to integrate them together. What to do etc. FF the R&D for FB I think it could be
- Robert Anderson
Robert, true. All a bit vague still though.
- Kol Tregaskes
Scoble: encourage Facebook to keep FriendFeed as a premium brand. Let them tie it to Facebook data or whatever, but keep the system separate.
- Gary
Louis, right, this gives them legitimacy and exposure
- Stephen Pickering
Kol... if they wanted to grow they way they "deserved" to grow, this place would have changed underneath your feet to something you might hate. This is one way to put real capital and people behind the site as it is now.
- Louis Gray
So what? Do they continue try to grow friendfeed as an individual product? Or do they just leave it alive for those of us who actually use it?
- Sam Guzman
If this thing grows by leaps and bounds, FB is not going to close it
- Stephen Pickering
Mark: anytime a blogger says something is dead ALL that means is that it is less interesting than yesterday.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Over time, we will learn, Sam. It's a classical marketing/engineering decision. Do you build for the current user base, or the potential user base? With change. some were bound to leave anyway.
- Louis Gray
Louis, not arguing that at all. My point was about shutting it down or not. I'm at the wait-and-see stage, waiting for more news from FF.
- Kol Tregaskes
And any time I write a headline that says it's NOT dead... maybe I know what I'm talking about. :)
- Louis Gray
But this service grows more useful the more users there are
- Stephen Pickering
Something needs to happen. Twitter is useless now - maybe a new denial of service attack. I would love to see the Friendfeed technology spread to the mass user base that Facebook has.
- Frode Stenstrøm
Yeah, I understand. Maybe some of the extra publicity from the acquisition will lead to an increase in users...curious people signing up to see what it's all about.
- Sam Guzman
Well, at least he acknowledged they messed up.
- Rodfather
oh sweet, I just spent ages adding friendfeed people, setting up privacy and setting up FF to stream to my FB....now this might be a waste of time?
- Franz Sittampalam
from IM
Frode: that was what Paul told me too. He wants the tech here to be used by everyone.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I don't understand why Google didn't buy it instead.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Rod, FriendFeed has no PR or Marketing. Maybe if they did, this would have been handled differently. Some things come naturally, and others are hard. But I bet you will see a lot more soon.
- Louis Gray
I've heard the same from another founder, Robert.
- Anne Bouey
Franz, no official word, just wait for an announcement from FF.
- Kol Tregaskes
They didn't want to work for google again.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Makes you wonder about a due diligence ckecklist and the speed of getting this deal done
- courtney benson
Kinda why they left. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Right, look at Google Reader. They don't know how to do social
- Stephen Pickering
It's all wonky and hard to understand
- Stephen Pickering
But GR is going in that direction.
- Kol Tregaskes
Companies come and companies go. They can go by closing their doors or by being acquired. Only time will tell whether FriendFeed has come and gone.
- Jeff Sayre
Google Reader is nothing like FF. No one really uses the social features.
- Sam Guzman
GR is trying, but its all wonky and totally un understandable
- Stephen Pickering
Oh. I just don't trust Facebook at all and can barely stand using it after being here.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Jannifer, I think we have to look beyond the caricatures of people like Zuckerberg, and recognize that he too may want the same things we do. Facebook is growing up and I bet FriendFeed and its team is a big part of that.
- Louis Gray
Louis, hope so.
- Kol Tregaskes
courtney: Paul talked about that too. He said once the team made the decision they knew it had to be closed overnight to prevent it from leaking.
- Robert Scoble
Louis I think its a perfect marriage, genius engineers + genius Marketers
- Stephen Pickering
Real real time would be awesome in Facebook. I really hope it comes soon.
- Sam Guzman
Well, he didn't quite say "prevent it from leaking" but he said "it's important to do it all at once." I knew what he meant, though, that it had to be done fast to keep things from getting crazy, like they do once decisions like this get taken into public sphere.
- Robert Scoble
I am sure paul is truthful in that he would like for it to go that way, but this is a M&A situation, and even if it is written into the agreement, there are a million ways around it. At the end of the day, shareholders make the rules in a majority vote. If ff isn't integrated in fb somehow, I fail to see how it benefits fb.
- Erik Boles
from iPhone
Kol: Paul was emphatic that Facebook is a far more interesting company at this time in both company's history.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Somehow this doesn't sound too convincing. If Friendfeed has been losing a LOT of regular users because of their deal with Facebook, they'd be concerned. Friendfeed is likely to get you to speak on their behalf, since you are their most popular user. Maybe Paul is trying to convince you, so that he can indirectly convince others too. That might save an early end to Friendfeed brought on by the rapid loss of users.
- K N Ajit Narayan
I totally agree with Paul, by the way. Facebook is a much more interesting company to join right now than Google is.
- Robert Scoble
Facebook = Microsoft 2.0
- scott anderson
Robert: Did he mention anything about Mashable reporting an acquisition had been talked about since `07?
- sofarsoShawn
YAY! thanks Scoble for letting us know - i feel alot better today!
- Chris Clayton
Hey, Microsoft had a decent run
- Stephen Pickering
Louis: yeah, Zuckerberg is a lot smarter and a lot more down to earth than most of the press gives him credit for. He's always been straight up with me. Much better than other companies have treated me.
- Robert Scoble
And that's even including getting kicked off of Facebook for 24 hours.
- Robert Scoble
@ Scott, LOL Facebook = Microsoft 2.0! I see your point, but it far surpasses Microsoft Live attempt at a social network.
- Nakeva Corothers
Erik: technologies that have great audiences don't get killed. If anything will kill it, it will be us. By leaving.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, cool. Well if they can ditch a lot of their annoying features, like this FB Lite might be, then I might be interested in moving over with all the FF features implemented but I just can't work with FB in it's currently state. I had another go this weekend and still didn't like it. But I'd be even happier if FF stayed here. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
this is gonna be an interesting story to follow for sure. For now I am just using friendfeed the way I have been and see what comes out down the road. life is about changes.
- (jeff)isageek
sofarsoShawn: I don't know what you're talking about regarding Mashable.
- Robert Scoble
Maybe I missed it earlier in this thread but why can't they just come out and say something directly to the community? Obviously a lot of people are concerned and anxious about it... Why do we have to hear second-hand? And why has it all been so vague? No news is not necessarily good news in cases like this.
- Lindsay is in 20-ten
Robert, Leo called himself Leo Scoble today because he deleted his 5000 FB friends and moved them over to his fan page
- Stephen Pickering
jeff: yeah. Visiting Facebook is going to get more interesting. He also said that the first month at Facebook (which starts Monday) will be all about learning about Facebook's code. So, no new features will come quickly.
- Robert Scoble
Ok. I hope Facebook changes a LOT so it's more tolerable. Although I don't like it, I need to set up a good Facebook page for business so I can remain competitive.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
I hope they do right by you. You brought them to the party. I hope that gets recognized somehow monetarily.
- Jim Posner
Saying that it might be shut down at some point doesn't tell us anything new, though; after all, any site might be shut down at some point due to going out of business etc.
- Tristan Seligmann
When anything comes out of this it was always going to be long term.
- Kol Tregaskes
Can i just add - Paul never said friendfeed was going to die in the first place... instead they said the complete opposite - "FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally. We're still figuring out our longer-term plans for the product with the Facebook team."
- Chris Clayton
I'm not sure why everyone dislikes Facebook. What's wrong with it?
- Sam Guzman
sofarsoShawn, yes, Facebook had been talking to FriendFeed since 2007.
- Louis Gray
Lindsay, I bet the FriendFeed team has a very busy week and maybe you hear from them on all this soon.
- Louis Gray
Robert: "technologies that have great audiences don't get killed..." oh, come on, you know better than that! My dad worked at IBM so I've been seeing tech companies kill great stuff that their customers liked for most of my life!!!!
- Fred Davis
Jim, Scoble has gotten no money from FriendFeed (nor have I). Neither one of us expects to, as that would change the relationship.
- Louis Gray
He said FF would continue operating normally "for now". That was what freaked people out. But I'm glad to hear that Paul and company have plans to keep the service running for the foreseeable future. I wouldn't want to wake up one morning and find my favorite service was shut down.
- Jason is Sassy
Fred, right, the Innovators Dilemma, but in this case its cost of running a website is halving every year
- Stephen Pickering
Louis: yes, but Paul told me that when I last was in the office they hadn't yet decided to go to Facebook. Everything happened in the past two weeks. I think you even walked in on one of their key decision points. He said they worked all weekend long on the agreement.
- Robert Scoble
Fred: nothing in life is guaranteed, yeah, you're right. But there's no business reason to turn this off anytime soon. If we all leave there will be.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: e.g., consumer company changes focus to biz or gets acquired... new company direction leads to consumer products getting killed despite popularity... that's just one of many ways that good tech gets killed all the time!!!
- Fred Davis
No disagreement on that at all, Robert. I know I walked in on something big, and that was my mistake for not calling ahead.
- Louis Gray
Seems their valuation stood on Roberts shoulders to some degree. At the least, a public thanks would have been nice.
- Jim Posner
Jason: i know, thats what got me freaked out too - i just thought i would add it in incase anyone missed it :) and because im a little bored! lol
- Chris Clayton
If FF were Twitter, we'd be screaming bloody blue murder about how they don't "get" user communication, etc., etc.
- Chris Baskind
Fred, can you give any examples? Any software I used to use that is no longer available was replaced with something better.
- RobinDotNet
No business reason that WE understand... 'cuz we don;t go to Facebook board meetings ;-) Facebook may have their own agenda... in fact, I assume they do...
- Fred Davis
Jim: I do this because I love it, not because I expect thanks or goodies.
- Robert Scoble
Why even bring this up if they can't talk about it? Nothing has changed just more innuendo and smoke and mirrors and a lot of 'what ifs'. Wake me when there's something concrete.
- Derrick
Robert: when you talk to paul next, can you push him into doing a public announcement on it all? Just give him a nudge in the right direction! :)
- Chris Clayton
RobinDotNet... god, too many to count! First one I was bummed about was in '85 when Musicworks was the best MIDI program on the Mac... got acquired by some jerky game company that decided it wasn't a game and stranded all the users! Yeah, eventually new better stuff came along... but that didn't do the users of the current any good at that time...
- Fred Davis
Derrick: sorry, I totally disagree. I didn't know that contractually they can't kill the service anytime soon.
- Robert Scoble
Derrick, there is more than smoke.
- Louis Gray
It makes sense, they had leverage to make that deal
- Stephen Pickering
Fred -- Okay, so that was one that was 24 years ago. Have any more recent examples? If you can't think of any, then they obviously weren't that important.
- RobinDotNet
Because they were hesitant, they had the leverage to make that part of the deal. Makes total sense
- Stephen Pickering
Um, apple buys leading music sequencing package and kills of PC version because, um, they want to force you to use a mac... come on, the list is endless!!! Companies screw customers by killing good products for their own reasons all the time....
- Fred Davis
Sorry, things are moving fast in this thread. There's a contractual obligation on FB's part to keep FF running?
- Jason is Sassy
Fred, you keep saying the list is endless, but the only one you can name is one that came out about 2 years after the 1st Mac, 24 years ago. I'm just saying....
- RobinDotNet
Fred, but what if part of the deal was not to kill it?
- Stephen Pickering
This whole "Friendfeed is dead" mantra is, has, and always will be nothing more than an attempt to get attention. Friendfeed is successful and Facebook would never do anything to destroy that.
- Paul L. McCord Jr.
Derrick: believe me, Louis and I have been talking and concerned about the messaging coming out of this deal more than anyone. We both invested a lot of our time/careers here. Louis has been talking with the team too and that's where his post came from yesterday. I suggest you read it and read between the lines too.
- Robert Scoble
Understand Robert, Really not about your motivation, just good manners in my opinion for Friendfeed to thank you publically. Maybe they have and I missed it. I think you did more for promoting the service than the founders.
- Jim Posner
now, what facebook decides to do with friendfeed... who knows... Yahoo kept Flickr going... so far... but that seems like the exception... no one's really using jabber any more, but it lives on in the upcoming Wave and as XMPP at Google...
- Fred Davis
agreed scoble promoted the service in a big way
- Franz Sittampalam
from IM
Jim: thanks, appreciate it. Paul did thank me in the interview I did with him right after the announcement was made.
- Robert Scoble
If there is a contractual obligation on FB's part to keep FF running, the obvious question is what does this contract state and does it give a duration. Hopefully we'll hear more later.
- Kol Tregaskes
Why? What would be the point? I respect you two enough and all that you do in the world of social media and that's fine. I want a place I can converse, post my pictures, air my gripes, and continue to establish the friends I've made via Friendfeed. Will I be able to do that or not? I'm so tired of the conjecture. Some of us, are just people who love the service and more than anything, very simply, we just want to be able to utilize it.
- Derrick
Kol: I call it the "Paul is sleeping on the couch for a month" clause. ;-)
- Robert Scoble
LOL, Robert.
- Kol Tregaskes
For a company like Facebook, I would imagine that the consolidation of branding advantage would lead me to suspect that even if Friendfeed is kept going in some way, it will be re-branded as Facebook... just like Longs, Wamu, and Wells Fargo are going through right in Facebook's backyard.
- Fred Davis
Derrick, this is the place to do that. :)
- Louis Gray
"For now". ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Throws sheep at Kol
- Louis Gray
Hehe, Louis.
- Kol Tregaskes
The other main issue I have is that, now we are creating content for Facebook. Facebook owns our data. For some reason I didn't mind Paul and his team, they were blacksheep. If I wanted to make Facebook richer I would type in Facebook in the URL. I dont want to make Facebook richer.
- Robert Higgins
What are the alternatives to FF? Isn't there Streamy, Plurk, SocialThing?
- Eric
Louis, I'll be counting sheep soon, need sleep. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
@Eric, we've been evaluating alternatives in the CloneFeed/OpenFF room. None of them really come anywhere close to what FF offers.
- Jason is Sassy
Eric, none of those services are really similar. SocialThing is closest, but FF is still quite a bit different.
- Sam Guzman
Of course, since I'm hoping Grabbit will replace Friendfeed for most people, I'm more than a little biased, and that makes me care a lot less about what happens to Friendfeed... even though I love the service, and hope Facebook keeps it going. We're already planning to support Friendfeed in Grabbit, and the new Friendfeed API is awesome, so who knows what the extent of the disruption...
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- Fred Davis
Sam, I know there is something. I am upset, because I wanted to buy FF someday! :)
- Eric
So the word now is that FF will be around for a while AND Paul's mentioned the possibility that parts of FF might be open sourced. Any idea what parts?
- Jason is Sassy
There has to be an alternative.
- Eric
Jason: too early to know that for sure. I'd start with the API. From what my friends are telling me who are good developers the API is actually very well thought out.
- Robert Scoble
Eric: Not really. Make one.
- Sam Guzman
There was an alternative, but I think it shut down.
- Eric
There is no need to replace FriendFeed. That there are options to decentralize our info is great, but I'm not going anywhere.
- Louis Gray
It was called SocialThing.
- Eric
Fred: I just don't like Facebook's service for WHAT I DO. For my wife? It's freaking awesome. And the execs there have always treated me very well (Zuckerberg walked around Davos with me, while every other journalist was drooling over the opportunity to do that -- he's a lot nicer and smarter than most people give him credit for).
- Robert Scoble
SocialThing got bought by AOL, and it wasn't as good as FF anyway. You could see people's activity, but there was no real interaction. FF is what it is because of the interaction.
- Sam Guzman
Eric & Jason: my new web thingie Grabbit, will do everything Friendfeed does and more, so much more... it's still in alpha, and the beta won't be out until next month... but already the alpha features better Facebook and integration than Friendfeed, IMHO... so, check out grabbit.net and ask to be on the beta list, and we'll keep you posted...
- Fred Davis
@Louis, I'm not going anywhere either. But this acquisition not only scared people that FF might go away but also that their data would go with it. So there is /some/ need for alternatives.
- Jason is Sassy
It was called Rejaw, and it was shut down.
- Eric
Fred: can't wait to see more about Grabbit.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Hey dude, I TOTALLY agree with you about Facebook! I've been telling people for a while that I think Facebook is in the process of Yahoo-ing themselves... and that ain't no compliment!
- Fred Davis
FriendFeed family or real family?
- Mona Nomura
FF is crazy to sell. They should've sold to Google, what were they thinking?
- Eric
I think someone needs to create a web dashboard like FF, but that somehow integrates e-mail.
- Sam Guzman
louis i agree with you. i am not going anywhere either. this is the place i love and think is awesome
- (jeff)isageek
Robert, is Paul referencing his FriendFeed family or real family? (not expanding thread - too long)
- Mona Nomura
Mona: real family AND FriendFeed family. They are one and the same if you look at it the right way.
- Robert Scoble
Sam: what do you mean "intergrate email" friendfeed already has email features so it depends on what you mean...
- Chris Clayton
Same here, Jeff. If FF is still around I'm not budging. It it goes FB on us then it's bye-bye.
- Kol Tregaskes
Google Wave is like FF?
- Eric
Sam, got that in Grabbit... email, RSS, blog alerts, news alerts, and more... plus the coolest friend management stuff to help you sort all that out, not just the messages, updates, and alerts...
- Fred Davis
Mona: if you want me to do something for you, talk Maryam into it first. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Fred: Then I am really excited to try it.
- Sam Guzman
Eric: just like the others you mentioned, it has 1 or 2 similar features, but completely different!
- Chris Clayton
and twitter, facebook, friendfeed, etc., of course... we're starting a signup on grabbit.net...
- Fred Davis
I used to use FeedEachOther which was like FF.
- Eric
Chris: Like the friendfeed stream, you could login and see all your friend's activity, but also see your latest e-mails (Could be easily accessed with a sidebar link, like direct messages). By commenting on an e-mail, you could reply. Just like FF direct messages, but it would send a real e-mail response. Does that make sense?
- Sam Guzman
Now there is Google Reader.
- Eric
Google reader is improving, but still has a long way to go. On the social side.
- Bluesun 2600
That's the one thing I've always liked about FriendFeed - the founders (and staff) interacts with the community, as do their family members. The community members were treated like family, too. :) Whatever which way, hopefully Facebook will integrate FriendFeed's functions to carry on the "feel" over there as well. Personally, I have the more the merrier approach! BTW see you Thursday, Robert! Gnomedex sold out!
- Mona Nomura
I'm not up to speed with this discussion, but FB must have bought FF to merge FF tech into FB. FF for everybody, not just Scoble and tech friends.
- Zato Gibson
...would continue as independant application or as zombie inside "failbook"? ;-/
- Claude LaFrenière
Sam: i was actually looking for a way to have the subjects of my emails show up on my friendfeed dashboard awhile ago - do you mean like that? Because that would be awesome!
- Chris Clayton
i would love to see friendfeed get a killer mobile app...maybe improve on fftogo a little more
- (jeff)isageek
Google Reader is my current alternative btw. I've found the share box today and now using it like FF's share box. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Google Reader is great, but it's not built to replace FriendFeed. It's not an aggregator, for one.
- Louis Gray
one thing is I don't think you can share images from pages as easily as FF's share.
- Bluesun 2600
Life2front has anyone heard of it?
- Eric
Chris: Yes, maybe have a subject show up in your feed, and clicking would expand to reveal the full e-mail. Reply's could be generated by commenting on the e-mail. I'm sure FF won't integrate this, but I'm just throwing it out there. It's something I wish some social service would integrate. Either that, or make e-mail inboxes more social. Kind of like Yahoo e-mails new features, but better executed. How cool would it be to login to your e-mail and be greeted by a FF like social stream.
- Sam Guzman
i think you can look at two services that were bought up and never really changed all this time in flickr and delicous so hey maybe friendfeed stays around as it is...maybe just integrates a bit more or something with facebook
- (jeff)isageek
Well you can put your services into a folder then create a bundle and share it. But no not quite like FF. It lacks a lot of features and Comments view is awful.
- Kol Tregaskes
and look how long google had grand central before they really even started doing anything with it.
- (jeff)isageek
I guess what I'm saying is, don't keep e-mail so separate from the rest of your online social activity. It should be more integrated than it is now, in my opinion. Why not include it in a service like FF?
- Sam Guzman
So Friendfeed stays on as a side project instead of being abandoned. Does that really make a difference in the grand scheme of things? The service isn't going to grow by leaps and bounds either in audience or functionality now. I guess a slow death is easier for people to deal with than a quick one.
- Dare Obasanjo
Sam: i love that idea... email services dont have RSS (not that i can find anyway) i was looking for 5 hours for one afew months ago so i could put it in a private group to show up on my FF stream. but i ended up being dissapointed!
- Chris Clayton
I hope we all converge over to Google Wave and that some clever sod codes a FF-type service built on the Wave protocol. :-) GWave is great fun to use!
- Kol Tregaskes
Kol: are you going to send me a download link? :P im still waiting for it from the 'sneak peek' survey i filled out AGES ago!
- Chris Clayton
Whhhhhhat how`d you try it already?
- sofarsoShawn
Dare: there are lots of things that don't get many new features but are still very popular. FriendFeed still has way more features and is better technology than anything else I've seen in the marketplace. Maybe someone will eclipse it, but that won't happen soon and, yes, a slow death is definitely better than a quick one. Why? Cause you can make plans and change your behavior.
- Robert Scoble
Download link for GWave? Don't work like that. ;-) Just wait until 30th September, Chris. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Chris, yeah, and I think what I'm describing would take more than just RSS integration. But Kol is right, maybe Google Wave will be the answer :) I can't wait to try it! Especially if other services can be integrated like in FF.
- Sam Guzman
Kol: but september is too long to wait :( blame scoble for making me a social media addict! :)
- Chris Clayton
Hehe, it will fly by.
- Kol Tregaskes
Robert: if this is just about whether they'll shut off the servers or not then why is this even causing hubbub? Given the complaining of a vocal set of users I'm sure that even if they planned to shut off the site, it'll keep going for a while. However it seems obvious that all their innovative ideas and day time hacking should be filled with innovating on Facebook not here.
- Dare Obasanjo
As both Louis and I have said - these guys have been nothing but actions thus far and haven't let us down. I see nothing changing from that yet, so I suggest everyone continue that trust. They have done nothing to break that trust yet. And like I wrote about, Facebook needs them as much as they need Facebook - Facebook wants to change into something more of what FriendFeed is, from what I've seen and read.
- Jesse Stay
It's not about shutting the servers off for some (most?) folks, it's a matter of how you reconcile FriendFeed and Facebook's views on content licensing, ownership, and privacy; whether we'll continue to see innovation at a pace faster than what Facebook's user base has historically been comfortable with; and whether we'll see a continuation of Friendfeed's openness towards third party developers and the open source community.
- Ken Sheppardson
And as I've said over and over again, Jesse, I think most of us trust the FriendFeed folks as individuals, but that trust doesn't necessarily transfer to Facebook as an institution.
- Ken Sheppardson
I second Ken. Zuckerbergs plans/dreams are also a kind of wild-card here. They could be favorable to us FriendFeed users, or not. Up till now, Zuckerberg hasn't done much favorable for me. That sucks. I wish it were different.
- Meryn Stol
Say what you want about Facebook but Zuckerberg and/or Facebook has revolutionized the Internet by forcing people to be real. (not real-time) It even reflects on Youtube - the commenters aren't as moronic as they were say three years ago, since more and more people are using their real names and identities.
- Mona Nomura
It's always like this and it never turns out the way Paul says it will, though I believe his intentions are honorable. At some point you no longer work for the old company and you start working for the new one. My guess is this has already happened. Soon people from the old team will have their new assignments, and then one day the server will go down. They'll bring it back up, but...
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- Dave Winer
Damn, Dave. And I thought that *I* was a cynic.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva, I've been through it myself, and been in Paul's position.
- Dave Winer
Dave, I don't doubt that at all. It's just amazing from my perspective to see it put so honestly. Well put, sir.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Only when I was in Paul's position, I had a simpler situation cause we were developing shrinkwrap software and our mission was supposedly unchanged. We didn't have servers that had to be kept up 24-by-7. Even so, six months after the merger, the whole thing was turned upside down and the team had all-new priorities and tons of people had left, including the top guy (me!). I would get...
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- Dave Winer
Well put, Mona!
- Jesse Stay
Dave, I expect it to change, but I also expect that Facebook is doing this for not just the team they just acquired. I think Facebook really wants this technology.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, that may be true but they'll want it for Facebook. And if you're a fan of Facebook, that's great, Facebook's going to get better. But if you're not? If you're a a fan of FriendFeed? Then all you're going to end up with is a bastardized FriendFeed with lots of dipshit apps.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Jesse: I'm not so sure. The technology will need to be rebuilt for the Facebook infrastructure. That's one reason why Paul doesn't have good answers for us yet. He said he needs a few weeks to really dig into Facebook's code base before he even has a good idea of where he and the FriendFeed'ers can really add value.
- Robert Scoble
Akiva, I'm a fan of both. And you know you can ignore those apps - that's not something you can do on FriendFeed or Twitter. FriendFeed would have gotten just as bad as it grew.
- Jesse Stay
Dave: thinking back on why I joined FriendFeed, it was because I expected that the team would do something interesting in the future. That reason has now been fulfilled and now that these guys are at Facebook it'll be interesting to see what they do.
- Robert Scoble
Jesse, where is the button to ignore the apps? I want to ignore all of them, all the time. Instead, I have to click hide on every single bloody one of them and still get notifications from people wanting me to add apps. I'd tolerate Facebook better if there was a magic "no apps, ever" button.
- Rochelle
Somewhat selfishly, I have just gained a whole load of new friends on Fb, here and on Google Reader and have learned loads about sharing and subscribing for which I thank you all :-) I will just watch and wait now, but I do agree that if everyone dashes off somewhere else and deserts FF, it could well hasten its demise. Best to try and use all the services and interlink them if we can.
- Julia Ault
Rochelle: I want you to install the FriendFeed app. :)
- Louis Gray
I am sure that FB was not happy if FF was going into MS hands or Google hands ,they bought it and now they will be the most important live and live search player on top of the best social community,,I am happy for them and for us as well ,they will keep our home and thats great news
- Johni Fisher
Jesse, this is true. I guess my real point is—aside from the easy-as-punch Facebook app snarking—that the very philosophies on which each service was built are essentially different. I'm not saying that these divergent ideas can't be unified. I'm just not convinced that they're compatible enough to be integrated without irritating one group and overwhelming the other. I'm sure the...
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- Akiva Moskovitz
Wish I was a millionaire like him :/
- Mark
"I'm just not convinced that they're compatible enough to be integrated without irritating one group and overwhelming the other. " - very well put, Akiva.
- Meryn Stol
Akiva, who says they will become one site? Why not enable the two communities to remain separate if they want, under the Facebook brand? I don't think we know yet what will happen.
- Jesse Stay
Good news because I love friend feed in it's current format.
- Rob Cairns
Robert, yes, we don't know for sure, but then again we don't know for sure - I don't see reason to change too much of our trust until something actually happens. I do know Facebook wants to open up more, while still retaining your right to privacy. The privacy thing is something FriendFeed (or Twitter) doesn't have, and I think would be a welcome addition.
- Jesse Stay
Rochelle, you have to do it either by app, or individual (unless I've missed the option). That said, I would kill for the ability to do that on FriendFeed or Twitter. They don't even have that.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: FriendFeed doesn't have apps, so I'm not sure what exactly you're referring to; if you mean the ability to hide posts aggregated from a particular service, that's already there.
- Tristan Seligmann
Last I checked, Jesse, FriendFeed didn't have MafiaWars or Superpoke.
- Akiva Moskovitz
(If you click on "Hide", and then "hide other items like this one", you get a whole list of options)
- Tristan Seligmann
FriendFeed has a finite number of things to hide ("all items from Bob", "all Flickr posts", etc.). That's much more easy control than the thousands of apps on Facebook. It's like playing whack-a-mole over there. It feels like the more I hide, the more they appear.
- Rochelle
Akiva, Tristan, it's only a matter of time before the auto-dm apps appeared on FriendFeed. So long as FriendFeed grows, they will come. So long as it doesn't grow, it *does* disappear. There's no "hide all from the app that generated this DM" option on FriendFeed.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, and, with all of the hide options already present on FriendFeed, you don't think the devs would have had the presence of mind to include something similar for any supposed FriendFeed apps?
- Akiva Moskovitz
Akiva, I trust that they'll add that as much as I trust they'll continue to fight for FriendFeed at Facebook.
- Jesse Stay
They don't even need any extra options; you can already hide direct posts based on the application that created them. For example, if you hide this post of Robert's, you'll get the option to hide all posts by iPhone.
- Tristan Seligmann
Jesse, I think no-one doubts that *they* will fight. The question is if they win. They're just employees now.
- Meryn Stol
Again, I'm surprised that my own cynicism—legendary in its own right—is being beaten about the face and neck in this thread.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Meryn, I also know the Facebook team - they're just as competent as FriendFeed's. Their original audience started different than FF's, but they too have to expand.
- Jesse Stay
Holden: engagement.
- Robert Scoble
It's hard for innovators to stop innovating, and for entrepreneurs to lose the total freedom and self-reliance that drives them. Every entrepreneur that I know personally (only a few, alas!) who has sold for the big bucks has eventually gone on to create something else.
- Kathy Fitch
Jesse, as I said earlier, my lack of knowledge on the plans of Zuckerberg is the problem. Do you know Zuckerberg? In the end, he's gonna decide what appears on Facebook or not. Also, it's not so much a matter of competence than it is a matter of vision and taste.
- Meryn Stol
I'm sure the FB engineers are competent.
- Meryn Stol
And wouldn't it be fascinating to have a gander at the kinds of separation agreements folks who leave FB must sign? Almost as interesting as seeing the acquisition agreement in this case.
- Kathy Fitch
It's totally unclear if future conversations we might have on FB will ever be indexable by Google. (or any other search engine) That all depends on Zuckerberg's final say. I can't look in the guy's head.
- Meryn Stol
Sure seems like you're scrambling, Robert, to place yourself in the center of this when you were completely blindsided by the sale. Justs sayin'
- Mattb4rd
Louis, nope! Those are two separate worlds for me and I intend to keep it that way.
- Rochelle
Once you stop owning something you lose the ability to make promises about it. Good intentions or no. One hard headed business decision like FF is not earning its keep or we need the resources elsewhere and it's done. Been on both sides.
- Todd Hoff
The only thing that would make a real difference in this case would be an unambiguous statement from Mark Zuckerberg himself. Let him address the FF community and actually say what he will commit himself to. I suppose he's a man of his word.
- Meryn Stol
Good news. Doin' the right thing!
- Rob Schieber
Yeah sure! Promises Promises!!!
- Jose Luis Santos
Hmm. A whole lot of the sale was in stock options. Takes awhile to get fully vested. The next few years should prove very interesting.
- Kathy Fitch
How can you live up to that promises when you no longer own it?
- John D Reasor
....hmmmm, we got the wrong impression then?
- Mark Essel
Nevermind, I'd feel a helluva lot better with an unattached open social media where I could rely on keeping contacts and connections however weak for as long as I chose to continue using the service.
- Mark Essel
Actions speak louder then words, and the key is the final decision is no longer up to him. I am sure Paul means every word he says I just not sure he is going to be able to keep it.
- Kim Landwehr
I don't expect FF to go away right away. I just expect things will definitely be different. I do hope that FB does improve, but I am also branching out given the sale.
- Kevin Whalen
"Promises are a bourgeois invention and, anyway, they're meant to be broken." [V. I. Lenin quoted from inexact memory] by
- ianf ⌘
@louisgray's »If you see the post I put up last night...« <http://friendfeed.com/scoblei...> If you cared for others to read that post, you'd have included a direct link to it. It's the essence of hypertext, and any "Silicon Valley early adopter, tech geek blogger" worth the name would have done just...
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- ianf ⌘
It would make some business sense to keep FF as some kind of separate site/module, if just to stop another site taking it's place and becoming another competitor.
- Robert Littlejohn
Hi Ian! I get what you are saying, but sometimes, dropping links to my own posts in other people's threads looks like spam. I also believe a good number of people saw it, and know how to get it otherwise. That said, it's right here: http://www.louisgray.com/live...
- Louis Gray
Robert - To say Facebook is more interesting to work for than Google may be a stretch. While Facebook is growing exponentially and has challenges, Google faces HUGE challenges just staying Google ... while exploring new areas of growth. Keeping the index relevant is a big challenge in itself. On the other hand ... the 'FF guys' have worked there already and know how they feel about what direction they wanted to go ... which .. I think ... makes a little more sense?
- Charlie Anzman
Charlie: remember most of this team already worked at Google. Facebook is pre IPO. Google is not. The potential rewards are much larger at Facebook and the potential to have an impact is much larger at Facebook too.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Posting links (references) to one's other posts "looks like spam"? That's news to me, and a lame excuse. In any event, given main difference between worlds of analog and digital publishing being ability in the latter case to refer back to source in unambiguous and granular fashion (rather than, as in analog, to indicate issue, chapter, page, verse, line, etc - if at all), not including...
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- ianf ⌘
ianf, I agree, but it feels like spam when you're doing it. Encourage him nicely.
- Bruce Lewis
i suspect that, if FF were to survive relatively unchanged it will be through an open-source effort. i doubt FF will survive as a stand-alone site w/ Fb paying the freight.
- MikeAmundsen
Why don't the FF founders release an official statement saying how long the site will continue and what we can expect if we stay?
- Tomy Thomson
Keep in mind that despite the best intentions, nearly half of all sincere promises end in divorce.
- April Russo (app103)
Robert: I agree that the technology with great audiences don't get killed off, but the name of the game to the shareholders is money. It makes a ton more sense for facebook to integrate friendfeed into facebook, an already monetizable model, vs. leaving it as a de-coupled technology that has to have a new revenue model built for it.
- Erik Boles
like x1000
- raphaeL
With so much money still on the table in the form of stock options, there's certainly plenty of motivation to make FB stellar. If FF ends up being treated well, too (for whatever reason--a promise, a warm fuzzy feeling, its potential role in helping to make FB stellar), then I'm all for that.
- Kathy Fitch
There is a way to argue keeping FF going makes sense to FB: The important thing in social software ISN'T the software, it's the people who use it. If the people who use FF are sufficiently different to those on FB, then it could make sense to keep both services. Possibly they may end up using the same software, but have different brands. Think of VW group in cars (SEAT/Skoda/VS/Audi are...
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- Nick Lothian
Interesting thread. I think that Paul has the best intention and he will do everything he can to keep the existing service up. Dave Winer has a good summary of the forces he will have to fight against. Making a Facebook vs. Google vs. Microsoft decision was probably a hard one. I am wondering if Twitter was in the race too...Twitter + Friendfeed could have been a great team to go...
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- Edwin Khodabakchian
Why the outreach now and not earlier in the week? Has something spooked the FF team? Seeing people looking for alternatives, and poking around Google Reader, Streamy, SocialThing, perhaps? Robert said it himself, if people leave here, FF dies, and the team doesn't have a whole lot to sell to FB (yeah, arguably) and that could scotch the whole deal. So I'm just wondering why the outreach now?
- Dominic Jones
ianf: don't you know, links are dead? ;)
- Tristan Seligmann
read it from the begining, I'm happy FF crew is beginning to acknowledge the questions, Dave definitely has a point, but all-in-all I thought death was near, it looks like it gets delayed for some time. The main thing is ppl are still here although reader is the new playground...unfortunately the communication with their team isn't all that good...
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Dobromir, "read [297 more comments] from the begining" is not a good advice for anything, least of all here, in the Kingdom of Perpetual Constant Fragmentary Attention Overload, where realtime fly-by comments are the rule.
- ianf ⌘
Robert, thank you for sharing this info. I hope everyone got the message clearly. Wonderful news!
- Michael Fidler
from iPhone
Ok, I hadn't time to read all the comments on this thread. But this sure sounds promising, and I do trust Robert and Louis when they're saying something. So I'm hopeful:)
- Patrik Johansson
It is not whether Friendfeed lives or dies. It's whether our free-wheeling, anarchic, community-driven approach will be replaced by the bland family-oriented guidelines of Facebook. Will we still be able to chuckle of Asian men on a beach, for example?
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
hey all, we can't return to the past, what happen has already happened, now the question is this one, may a micro community survive inside a large community, the answer is YES, FF community can and may have the same social behaviour it has here, and when move to FB, we need just to preserve our connections, and to maintain the same behaviour. that all, but even ancients tribes don't survive without scarifying some of their tradition.
- abdellah
Will Friend feed just get - morphed into Facebook now? clearly they want to take on Twitter. I noticed that I tryed to remove my Friend feed from facebook recently because less techy friends complained that I take over there Friend feeds...! But I can't... mmmm
- PRBristolco.uk
FaceFeed. Nom nom nom.
- Marlin Forbes
My goodness, there needs to be a way to search comments...I scanned to see if Paul had chimed in, but didn't see that.
- Chad Gesser
Scobe: I hope he does chime in. I think he needs to since you broke that.
- Chad Gesser
Chad: I think he'll say more after he has a little time at Facebook and can give definitive answers as to what the FriendFeed team is going to do there. He told me that will take several weeks.
- Robert Scoble
no i didnt know that
- Chris Nwakalo
if so wonderful news
- Ronald
Facebook is genuinely interested in best in class customer experience. I can't yet envision what features or practices are incorporated or left behind, but it seems a positive move for users. There is always a die-hard loyal following that doesn't want to see their Freind (feed) go away. Heck, I still record The West Wing on Bravo.
- Jeff Marmins
Yeah i sure hope so robert. . i really rather not be on facebook.
- RamirezG
Chad, to aid in scanning, you can do a Ctrl-F (or equivalent) and search the current page for "- Paul Buchheit" and/or install my user script that adds a mini avatar to the beginning of each comment http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Micah Wittman
Scoble, why do you think FriendFeed won't get sacrificed by Facebook management? Most sensible thing, to me, is to get FriendFeed integrated as a feature of Facebook, then eliminate the individual brand. Fact is, it's Facebook's decision at this point, unless the FriendFeed guys got something in writing to the contrary (which likely didn't happen). Sometimes you've got to go with your...
more...
- Jason Nunnelley
Jason: it doesn't really matter. I've been on Facebook all morning and they already have a lot of FriendFeed's features. Soon the rest will be moved over too. And the servers won't get turned off anytime soon, based on conversations with FriendFeed and Facebook. So, for now, use it and be happy. Me? I've already been spreading out my social networking time just in case.
- Robert Scoble
and before he disappears into a part of the web that I can't find.....how do you say his last name? Boo-Kite? Buck-heat? Really, I don't know and I wanna know. Just so I know, You know?
- Morgan Haley
Real-time contest. Who is doing the geekiest thing right now? Answer on FriendFeed here:
Carlo Maglinao, K.D., Bora Zivkovic and 58 other people liked this
Following FF live feed :-)
- Bo Stern
I'm unboxing and reboxing an Atari 2600
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Converting some values on my HP-16C.
- LogEx
Setting up signatures in Thunderbird.
- John Fox
Trying to make a Google Latitude mashup - first attempt
- Pon
Watching old Dr Who on streaming Netflix.
- Michael Groner
Installing Windows 7 RTM in a virtual machine on my MacBook running Snow Leopard.
- BeauGiles
watching a twit-vid of @amandapalmer singing 'creep' with a ukelele on one screen whilst reading blogs in the other
- Rob Clark
running diff's on about 1.5 million rows of data and piping to another perl script for scrubbing
- Erik Boles
Reading @techcrunch post on iPhone Apps and downloading them. :)
- emon hassan
I am not geeky enough.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
watching old filmation cartoons on hulu. (more nerd than geek though)
- Jason Phillips
I'm working on my own development project management tool in Emacs, doing some documentation and cleaning up Emacs Lisp Code. http://github.com/Nafai77...
- Travis B. Hartwell
Erik wins so far!
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Sharing a mash-up of Rick Astley ("never gonna give you up") and Nine Inch Nails ("The hand that feeds") with all my friends! http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Alex Linebrink
Reading a Klingon blog - http://bologh.blogspot.com/
- Derrich
Q: How many of you are here on the East Coast? I'm in NY.
- emon hassan
Remoting into a computer that's less than ten feet away, because i can!
- Joshua Odneal
Watching old WWF Royal Rumble 1991 and playing club bing for prizes.
- David R
Derrich wins hands down
- Jodi Church
ironing work shirts - getting ready for work tomorrow *sigh* (ultra geeky ey!!)
- Mr K
Streaming old SNES Batman games, playing TF2, and listening to Twit.tv
- Carlton Prest
David R - Royal Rumble RAWKS!!!
- Erik Boles
Watching how the Earth was formed and reading Louis Gray's blog post about FriendFeed. Why am I not getting drunk at a strip bar?
- Stephen Pickering
Indexing mysql databases
- Mike
I thought my answer was good, but Derrich kills it.
- Michael Groner
watching buffy & angel, lmao
- Brendon Wadey
Stephen: then you could be 'On FriendFeed at a strip bar'!
- BeauGiles
Setting up my roommate's new Airport Express so he can use Airtunes, and potentially hack it to play Spotify over it as well.
- Daniel Zarick
Helping someone set up an IRC client.
- Danny Minick
I'm trying to get someone to shoot me a Google Voice invite, just because the geek in me wants to try it.
- Scott Voss
Dang, has Emacs and Lisp hacking lost its geek cred? :(
- Travis B. Hartwell
Agreed. Derrich is a uber geek.
- Fred
And with the iphone still geeking out!
- Stephen Pickering
Google Voice no longer uses invites, just from google directly
- David R
I am watching Fox News Channel. <--- WIN.
- Rob Sterling
@Travis Lisp never loses geek cred. As far as Emacs goes, I'm a vi guy. :)
- Michael Groner
TRAVIS -- not at all, I just like VIM over emacs, much more flexibility, but you be a geek my man, for shizzy
- Erik Boles
:)
- Travis B. Hartwell
getting hands on writing the Windows Sidebar gadget...
- esaarem
Defending Blue Bell ice cream and telling church jokes.
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
Learning and trying Slinkset ,listening to cafe del mar 5 :-)
- Johni Fisher
Editing pics on my iPhone and posting them to social sites.…plus checking FF
- Herb Hernandez
from iPhone
writing an iPhone app and listing to leo laporte
- Jeremy Lane
Discussing reference audio and A/V surround-sound set-ups with your brother.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Scoble: Whats the prize for this contest?
- David R
David, you get punched in the throat with a deflated football.
- Akiva Moskovitz
watching systm on how to build a combat robot
- Sean Montgomery
@David R: FriendFeed fridge magnet,
- Derrich
I'm watching Youtube videos on how to emulate Mac OS 9 on an Intel Mac, full screen so I can run old apps for old time's sake, while listening to Chris Pirillo talk about being a geek.
- Justin Lowery
ill take that magnet
- David R
watching Big Brother feeds. Jordan won HOH. Natalie still a nutjob.
- geoff hines
Playing World of Warcraft and watching FriendFeed's stream at the same time.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
rebooting PC after BSD
- Phani Raj Kuchibhotla
Making a map of a fictional city (in a fictional country) while listening to JoCo
- imperator3733
Installin Expression Bleand while listening to TWIT
- Rohit Harshvardhan
@SEAN M. - Watch the one on kegbot, pure awesomeness.
- Erik Boles
Playing Wow!
- Bill Skoros
installin uber twitter beta 4 on my BB 8900 from Mexico City! cheers
- Carlos
changing my friendfeed theme to custom
- thegeniusfiles
@Justin check out 'Classic on Intel (COI)' - have had luck with it in the past when trying to play SimTower!
- BeauGiles
EB: that's in the queue to be watched next...gotta start on step one of robot building
- Sean Montgomery
researching why the USS Voyager's warp nacelles fold up
- Justin Ruckman
first iteration done, more scrubbing to do, so more perl to write, maybe some awk, peace kids.
- Erik Boles
@BeauGiles I was looking into SheepSaver. I'll have to take a look at COI also…
- Justin Lowery
You're all *nuts* - it's Saturday night, and you (me too) are in front of the computer. <sigh> I'm reminded of my horrible high school art teacher who said artists never have "week-ends." Bastard. Damn fool was right. Substitute "geek" for "artist" and Bob's your uncle - or auntie, depending on how she swings.
- Yule Heibel
watching the syfy channel (alien agent), while surfing the internet and playing the enchanted ds game - half a level to go and i've beaten the game!
- ann glenn
Writing a fiction futuristic piece for my final in Tech in Society class. Cyborgs and robotic secretariats. My favorite line so far is when my main character tells his house bot to go screw a toaster.
- Kenny Rayl
@BeauGiles Oh duh, same thing. Looks like I just finished downloading it.
- Justin Lowery
This weekend geek: robot building...next weekend non geek: Vegas baby....
- Sean Montgomery
and i'm watching the very end of the Seahawks/Chargers pre-season game.
- geoff hines
David: prize? My undying respect!
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Here you go, David R - http://bit.ly/a7eGF
- Derrich
• The Geekiest Thing? Well — I'm reading micro-blog posts from Robert Scoble! How can you possibly do anything geekier than that? ☺
- Richard Merritt
Reconfiguring MythTV on my HTPC.
- Edward Coffey
Reading FF instead of going to bed. Probably should be writing copy of some sort, but this is the time of night where I'll start to babble if I get sleepy.
- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
Installing apps for the new 3Gs
- Denverken
Keeping up with this thread
- Reyna Carlos
Babbling in writing is just pathetic.
- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
Checking Tweets while at GenCon - can'tget much geekier than that...
- Dean Browell
Go Denverken!
- MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF
I am watching Conan O'Brien on TiVo and Reading Scoble's FriendFeed.
- Louis Gray
Reyna Carlos wins
- Jeremy Lane
@Yule H. Having a lazy sunday afternoon over here in Australia - almost 3pm :)
- BeauGiles
Trying to get inspired to design a web site for a client so I can get my geek on. Instead, sitting here reading Robert Scoble's FriendFeed! Much more entertaining... :)
- Laura Zickus
digging deep into xml/css for start-up site... working on new web software that is like a next-generation friendfeed... grabbit.net
- Fred Davis
Building out the infrastructure to setup 500 live web cams across the US to let people like me and you report crimes on the street in real time! (2-5 second delay). Someone starts a fight, cops are called within 10 seconds. 500 cameras are going up by December. 10,000 more in 2010. Yes. it's effing hard!
- Adam Jackson
Using new de-soldering station to repair a bad MB to use in another dedicated system for climate prediction or seti@home...or some other grid computing project.
- Jimmy
On the loosers side: having a drink of JW Gold and reading this at an strippers bar while I wait for the next performance!
- Marco ILLESCAS
from iPhone
...actually, grabbit is really much more than just a next-generation friendfeed... but since that's one of the closest things so far, the comparisons are inevitable... even if they don't do grabbit justice ;-)
- Fred Davis
Did a brand new install of a family tree / genealogy web app, then imported the GEDCOM file from the previous install (which was an older version of the same app: http://www.phpgedview.net/ ). #ShinyNewVersion
- Micah Wittman
Tweeting back to @IvankaTrump about her Thunder Cats movie request [http://twitter.com/mjcarra...]
- Michael J. Carrasquillo
Watching Season 4.5 of BSG
- lisa padilla
...usually I'm the geek of the week every week, so I hope someone is doing something nerdier than tweaking CSS style sheets! Especially on a saturday night! Sheesh! Good thing my GF (@lisapadilla) is a geeky girl, so she understands... in fact, she's nerding out on some grabbit stuff, too, right now ;-)
- Fred Davis
My God, Doc Searls was right, we're all living in Scoble's butt!
- Stephen Pickering
hehe, thx Mary Baum!, really love it so far
- Denverken
Was smoking a cigar, tweeting from iPod touch and thinking about buddha. Does that count? Or should I have also been coding in PHP & reading slashdot?
- Jerry Garcia
yes, Robert's friends all need to get a life! Ha!
- Fred Davis
Watching Android get ported onto an MID
- Netbooknews
watching a bad movie with about 15 other people on IRC.. movie is "Frankenstein Island"
- monkeystick
Lodging DMCA takedown against a scraper.
- Sheila Scarborough
I guess biting the head off of a chicken doesn't count for geeky any longer? Early last century it would have been a huge draw in Kansas.
- Jerry Garcia
I made a red necktie for my Brain (Pinky and the Brain) action figure. Now he's not only not naked, but looks even smarter.
- Fred Jones
Going thru 104 comments on this thread.
- Winston Teo
Shape Collaging FF followees http://friendfeed.com/glongma...
- Capn' One Eye - adrift
Playing with TwitPaint and editing a video
- Outsanity
I was wondering why my Android phone couldn't find Jupiter on Skymap, when I knew exactly where it was
- Kevin Marks
reading scoble FF
- Ruchit Garg
hmm, watching two long running procs on vm's, running a couple rsyncs to a new terabyte server, monitoring FF/IRC/IM, farming on WoW, preparing two servers with NGINX and i'm always keeping an eye on munin/monit/screen sessions -- but that's not geeky really, just a normal weekend
- bear (aka Mike Taylor)
Checking frienfeed at a wedding while everone else is dancing
- Jim Goldstein
from iPhone
Sean: thanks, I just wanted to see if something were happening on Twitter that wasn't here.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
I'm writing blog posts in gmail and saving them under the label "Posterous Drafts". And something something circuit board something thermal something capacitor.
- Brett Kelly
zeroing the hard drive of an old G4 that's going to be recycled.
- David Newman
Writing a paper about Artificial Intelligence in Expert systems :D
- Yahya
playing with django framework
- vinod
playing with Facebook FBML and pages (and hating it)
- Keith - @tsudo
Just chilling with an ice cold Bud and listening to a live Jimmy Buffett concert online. And smiling reading all the posts.
- lily taylor
Sitting at the keyboard in my jammies and reading FF.
- Sandra Large
reading FF & shooting my duck hunt background (just 'cause); listening to music on blip.fm; picking out fall fashion (posting to delicio.us/polyvore/blogspot...) & texting my son. Not sure what I would do w/out connection =)
- Charl Pearce
Listening to Bob Seger, Janis Joplin and The Who on vinyl. Guess that would be contra geek?
- John Nissim
Doing open source development in C++.
- Dean Michael Berris
checking out laptops on pc mag. #
- Francisco
trying to set-up Streamy (the "new Friendfeed')
- Bill Powell
Reading friendfeed on one monitor with 50 tabs open and watching the Second Life Citizen's Convention live music stream in Second Life on the other monitor.
- SuezanneC Baskerville
LOl @Stephen P.
- Francisco
to the wedding geek: sounds like sth. I'd be doing. lol
- Francisco
@Franc. I'm still reading this thread... Uber geek LOL
- Jim Goldstein
from iPhone
Playing with Google Wave
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
Upgrading my desktop computer to Windows 7
- RobinDotNet
Setting up a Linux server and giving it a static IP address, manually assigned DNS server settings, restarting the networking stack, and pinging the router on my local network all via the command line in the Terminal. Also doing a traceroute from this Linux server inside a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro to my website at www.thebrentcameron.com to see how many hops it takes and the time it takes for each of those hops. So do I win or what?
- Brent Cameron
My idea of optimizing Firefox is by uninstalling it.
- Alex Knight
running macros on my G15 to bulk process 500 kids soccer pictures, while browsing friendfeed, listening to techno on headphones while my son watches star wars episode IV
- Robert Higgins
Making my 4th LEGO city model of the day while watching 2 screens of FriendFeed (main feed + this thread). My wife is on Facebook on our hackint0shed netwbook while my 3 year old daughter plays games on the iPhone
- Johnny Worthington
Just got my new iPhone 3GS. Recorded video and uploaded to youtube http://youtube.com/bryansays then used qik app to upload video as well http://qik.com/bryansays then took a pic and uploaded to my blog via posterous. :)
- Bryan Lee
from iPhone
Watching Conan the Barbarian, quoting far too much of it, analyzing too much of it altogether (like did they get all of the out of work Star Trek (original show) musicians together to do the score? It's way too similar.)
- Lucretia Pruitt
Coding an iPhone application which connects to Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed, and fetches RSS feeds off the web :)
- Fahim
I dont know if this comes under the "tech" category! I am currently thinking ;-) Thinking if the human mind is really an illusion!
- rampantheart
Taking some downtime from the SLCC as an opportunity to work on writing for my blog.
- Tim Maly
Figuring out if I can get android running on a dell axim.
- Jim Connolly
Scampering between sites/browser-tabs like a headless chicken is hardly geeky but that's what I've been doing this Sunday morning. Google Reader, Friendfeed, Facebook, Twitter, Social Median, Lazy Feed, et. al.
- Mahendra (SkepticGeek)
Setting my Ruby on Rails environment up on my new Windows Laptop. I know it's the easiest platform to do it on, with InstantRails, but might install it on Linux, just for the crack :) And checking out the Mosso plans.
- Steve Farnworth
running a twitter experiment #chromeexperiment to see if I could actually replace firefox with chrome.
- Rohit
Writing a custom extension module for vTiger CRM which combines data from two other modules and working on my custom Layout Management & Authentication Libraries for the CodeIgniter MVC framework which I intend to release as open source when complete.
- Usman Bashir
Umm, searching for iPhone formatted porn. Does that count as geeky?
- Keith Bennett
from BuddyFeed
Making a few more custom buttons for firefox.
- April Russo (app103)
Answering stupid real-time contests on friendfeed.
- Ben Pashkoff
from twhirl
I am listening to Randal Schwartz and Leo Laporte interview Michael Foord about Iron Python.
- J. Abdul-Qahhar
fighting the headache with some reader and friendfeed...and maybe twitter...maybe not
- Dobromir Hadzhiev
Drinking my morning coffee.....
- Roberto Bonini
it's unlikely to be me - checking friendfeed while things compile (contributing to a linux distro this week), reading up on vtiger (coincidence? someone is vtigering above), and wondering what's for lunch
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Reading Robert's friendfeed updates IS the geekiest thing one can do ^^
- Paul Papadimitriou
from iPhone
And Coffee is the spring of all good ideas :) So it IS geeky :)
- Roberto Bonini
I'm out on this one. Relaxing 'computer off' Sunday planned with my wife :)
- Charlie Anzman
When this was posted? Sleeping. Hows that for geeky?
- DGentry
Joelle: It has to be coincidence what else can it be. :)
- Usman Bashir
changing the links under my flickr photos from my personal website to my twitter and facebook fan page. You've got to go where the traffic is! </geekiness>
- Edward Barnieh
Trying to use lynx to browse the web, most sites fail
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
reading all the comments above;p
- zʍıɔ
Editing videos from my holiday - not geeky enough - and 8 hours late for this post!
- Martin Bryant
We'll, when this was posted I was cutting some zzzs. Now I'm coding the privacy component for BuddyPress--a nice relaxing activity for a Sunday morning. Hum?
- Jeff Sayre
Compressing and archiving a load of files on JungleDisk, trying to convert a Drupal module intended for use with the Twitter OAuth API to work with FriendFeed, and drafting the OpenStream specification...
- Tyson Key
I'm organizing CloneFeed/OpenFF, the open source alternative to FF. Early stages though.
- Jason is Sassy
from iPhone
Geeky/cultural - going through my favorite Woodstock performances on blip.fm.
- jcunwired
....multi-tasking between sourcing UI icons for a new app, scanning FF live feed, coding PHP, browsing Seesmic and now commenting on a thread where i appear not to be geekiest person here on a Sunday. Oh, and now i have too many tabs open in firefox, so i'm using Safari as a fill-in.
- Matthew Ogston
everyon'es working around me and im on friendfeed. lol
- nivcalderon
Browsing Google Reader, Friendfeed best of day, Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Social Median, Twine while copying a video off my Flip & uploading to Viddler... and on my iPhone: getting the Kindle & audible format of a @TedDekker book (Showdown) to take along on my kayaking trip down the Juniata river this afternoon. In the background, Mythbusters is busy figuring out how the Hindenburg blew up.
- Courtney Engle
ohhhh.. i forgot: downloading my entire list of domains for backup before moving servers. Add FTP to the list. and drinking freshly ground coffee in my french press travel mug. The coffee was purchased from a Guatemalan farmer my sister met while there.
- Courtney Engle
A couple of people have mentioned coffee. I just had my tea (I'm not from England). I think that may be even more geeky than drinking coffee!
- Jeff Sayre
Playing Super Mario Bros. on NES.
- ashish
I'm singing a song about robots with my one year old daughter ... "Robot parade... Robot parade .... Robots obey what the children say!"
- Trent Hamm
from iPod
Selecting photos + editing videos from the U2 360° Tour - I went to see last nite! Every geek will love the high-tech specs of the tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos... - stunning visuals!
- Frank Da Silva
Reading FriendFeed to see what geeky things everyone is doing
- Cathleen Rittereiser
Backing my computer up to my home network, while using regedit and preparing to install Win7. Oh +Twitter and FriendFeed are running in the background :P
- Aram Zucker-Scharff
from twhirl
I'm backing up The Internet. And storing it in the cloud.
- Micah Wittman
Micah +1!. Better than me - sister in law just dropped of HP laptop with Vista and said "it's slower now." so I get to play with the cleaning of spyware and the uninstalling of a billion little apps that HP feels are so necessary that they should be part of startup just to ensure that it takes a full 5-10 minutes before you can use the machine. But I'm not bitter.
- Michael Pardee
I'm commenting on this post. Can life get more "geeky?"
- Jimmy Walker
Configuring a Sonicwall router.
- Norm McKenzie
Writing code in Scala.
- Joey Gibson
I'm crocheting but I don't think that counts. I'm ripping out am old unfinished to use the yarn in a new project. Next up: a slouchy beret using DPNs then circular knitting needles.
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
from iPhone
I am redesigning some code for my intelligent search engine which I have been working on for over 12 years now! http://www.cleversearchengine.com
- Benjy Felsham
reading friendfeed and catching up on my rss feed on google reader.
- Fuad Arshad
OK - and now - in English! WOW - I only "get" about a third of the comments! feeling very ungeeky!
- Robyn Hawk
I am wasting my time by writing comments on FF .. it's slightly after midnight in Central Europe now. Shower and bed next!
- Jan Horna
Ditched my wife at the airport to get free wifi. I'm flying virgin she's flying southwest. You snooze you lose LOL
- Jim Goldstein
Trying to decide about paying for Tweet Spinner . . .
- MikeEllsworth
Writing custom PHP code that will pull data from a MySQL database to present a technical class schedule in WordPress.
- Michael Carnell
Ripping Hogan's Hereos DVDs to make H.264 files for later playing on Apple TV. It's good to carry on in comments here as it shows FF that there is a continuing need and use of the FF ways of doing things. If this was on Facebook, I could not send a comment to Robert unless he friended me. Things are just so much tighter and efficient here.
- Keith Rowland
About the only other thing we could ask for in comments, is comments on comments.
- Keith Rowland
playing Ikariam and WoW while on FF and watching Nature
- Heather
Using my phone to Skype, Friendfeeding on a netbook, playing sudoku on my ipod while watching Pulp Fiction.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
Converting/Creating Direct Response Television Ads to Direct Response Web Video and distribution http://www.directresponsetelev... closing deals before the site is even populated.
- Jim Peake
I think Robert should announce the winners of the contest now:)
- Aaman (Clone of FF)
Is there anything geekier than organizing a tech conference? Yes, organizing a science+tech conference: http://scienceblogs.com/clock...
- Bora Zivkovic
following Scobleizer is pretty geeky
- Shari Weiss
working on new version of picollator.com
- Irina Yakhneeva
Installing IE8.
- Rob Schieber
Reading on FF instead of working...
- DAL
compiling Erlang
- Brian Hendrickson
Define "real-time."
- l0ckergn0me
_as if_ you can beat me :-)
- Brian Hendrickson
Hey Chris - How are your Twitter ads going? Would be interested in the feedback you are getting.
- Jim Connolly
OSgrid
- paniaguai
@Danceswithfoxes I guess you write perfectly and never make a mistake. I'm not so good. Sorry!
Lora Lufark, Linda Lorie and Roberto Bonini liked this
I hate tossers like that
- Mark
Mark: yeah. Plus on FriendFeed I can correct my mistakes. On Twitter? Gotta live with them.
- Robert Scoble
editing comments... yay!!!!
- Fred Davis
I love a dev team with a sense of humor. Like the Palm Pre. Check out how you put the Pre into developer mode:
Joris, Eric Borisch, Bill Welense and 12 other people liked this
Type: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart then hit enter.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
...teaser
- Giorgio
Thanks to Luke Kilpatrick for showing me that.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
Konami code!
- Robert Sanchez Jr
I like the phone a lot
- Rodfather
dang
- David Driggs
hah!
- monkeystick
That is the Konami code from video games.
- Robert Scoble
from iPhone
stop it
- David Driggs
rodfather: me too. there are some things I hope they tweak, but i am sure the next software push will have some good changes.
- Patrick Binder
ha! good one!
- Fred Davis
contra cheats ftw... i like the two player cheat with the select thrown in before the start at the end
- Chris Heath
scobleizer, did that code really work on other konami games? i never knew!
- Chris Heath
i know the super contra code was similar, but different
- Chris Heath
the more things change...
- Dirk
robert i'm sure you've seen the Konami code java script that can be added to any website ~ http://www.snaptortoise.com/konami-...
- monkeystick
I believe it worked for Life Force too
- Ron Wening
The code enables developer mode which you need to load in homebrew apps. Check out http://precentral.net for the great catalog of apps being built for the pre
- Luke Kilpatrick
remember the old Nokia phone that you could put into field mode with *5001#12345# and the phone dealers couldn't get it back out. Ahhhhh, geek pranks.
- Erik Boles
Looks like it's missing a 'select'.
- Derrich
Konami Code on Palm Pre? That's a good one.
- jef
clever. banal.
- ax0n
BTW, How am I supposed to punch B & A keys? From On-screen keyboard?
- jef
The Developer code lets you put your palm pre into a mode where you can load homebrew apps. There are already 124 apps in homebrew app catalog at http://www.precentral.net/homebre... - its very easy to install them to your pre with just a few downloads here is how http://www.precentral.net/how-to-... - Some really great ones out there for it.
- Luke Kilpatrick
Derrich, the select moves the 'selector' from 1player to 2player so if you leave it out you're going it alone
- Chris Heath
Programmers are always funny!
- Marco ILLESCAS
from iPhone
Wow, I'm still reeling over the friendfeed/facebook deal... guess that's good for Grabbit... I've been privately bragging that Grabbit's Facebook integration is better than Friedfeed's... ha!
Iván Abrego and Eric Logan liked this
"friedfeed"... ooops! Funny Freudian slip!!!!
- Fred Davis
Just got the very cool logo for our new start-up... grabbit! You like?
Iván Abrego, Bill Rawlinson, Ahsan Ali aka. Slick and Dan Shafer liked this
nice
- Ahsan Ali aka. Slick
looks like a nice happy bunny
- Bill Rawlinson
Yeah, sometimes I think it's the love child of Bugs Bunny and the yellow smiley face....
- Fred Davis
I wish I could let you all see @secretscoble without opening it up. I gotta figure that one out, because the Tweet stream there is magic!
Susan Beebe, Marko Saric, Beth K and 15 other people liked this
Happy 4th of July!
- Melissa Gonzales
Hey! Could you send me an invite?
- Tyler (Chacha)
Nope. I am only inviting people I've met face-to-face and who I want to follow. I'm already following you here on FriendFeed, though, which is even better.
- Robert Scoble
that makes complete sense... so after your jaunt across the ocean head over here to Hawaii :-)
- Crystal Clear
Isn't it a little rude to refer to hidden feeds? As they used to tell us at NSA, true secrets are those shared with no one.
- Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)
Jack, it is very rude to talk about a secret group, but that's one of the things I'm studying too. Humans are fun to study. SEO types are going crazy over trying to get into this account, by the way.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, really, I'm just going to say this just once - repeatedly talking about your "secret feed" is ridiculous. It completely looks like an 11yo trying to grab attention and prove he's a "popular" kid. You admit it's completely rude to talk about hidden feeds, and yet you justify it because "I'm studying humans," which is another arrogant and incredibly rude thing to say (you do not refer to people as subjects, ever). Scoble, for someone with your accomplishments, I expected better character...
- Ben Parr
Just open it up, let us follow @SecretScoble, but refuse to follow us back, whats the big deal?
- Mark
They trade Scoble nudes like baseball cards in there. That's the word on the street.
- Geoff Schultz
I can see your use of the secretscoble account to be very simalar to my use if twitter. I have started to put a cap on the people I follow, rather than blindly following everyone back, about 60% of the people in my twitter stream I have met in person, and about 20% are people I hope to meet. I have found I start missing things important to me if I go over 450. I do respond to every...
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- Luke Kilpatrick
Ben: sorry, every Twitter company is studying Twitter's users. Every single damn one. If that's rude to do, then go postal on all the Twitter developers. Mark: it's a big deal because I want to talk with a very specific audience there, not with everyone. I am studying how that changes my writing, or what I want to do. In my research of how normal people use the Internet they want...
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- Robert Scoble
Ben: and how will this make me more popular? Or prove to others that I'm popular? You have some weird ideas of how to prove you're popular. James: my secret group. Gotta go, the black suburbans are here. :-)
- Robert Scoble
As a uk tax payer I'm helping to pay for your blogger holiday - can I get in ?
- Adrian
Adrian: no. It's like the Suggested User List. Only less fair.
- Robert Scoble
Hmmmm... I think I was following that account on my old @freddavis account... another hassle with Twitter never giving me my account back... add me as @fucktwitter, or just follow me here ;-)
- Fred Davis
So in other words, you're finally experimenting with "the friends are the filter"... you know, the method that you were absolutely insistent wasn't as good as "follow everyone" a while ago? I'm not going to say "I told you so" but... I told you so :)
- Ian Betteridge
Great friends can be the best filters and can allow you to get a much cleaner stream of what's happening than following everyone - same story with RSS feeds - I think Ian is quite right, but maybe you are onto something different Robert...
- Robin Good
Robin, I think we're actually both right: a lot depends on what you're looking to use your feed for. Robert uses his quite differently to the way that I use it. I don't care about 99.99% of the stuff which comes up enough to need to know about it *right now* - Michael Jackson's death being a classic example. But there are certain things that I do want to know about now, and those tend to be the kinds of things that friends would pass on.
- Ian Betteridge
Robert, you could extend the walled garden concept and have an invite only blog, or paid access (that's one way to find your dedicated fans). I don't think that form of community conflicts with open formats either. Both have strengths and advantages. It behooves us to understand and interact with specific communities within both. I prefer the open type due to the nonexclusivity. For...
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- Mark Essel
from iPhone
You could do a quick mashup on your site that could authenticate with twitter and show the home feed for @secretscoble on that page to everyone, without them having to join. Couple of issues with that, though. It would also show tweets from people whom @secretscoble follows who otherwise have protected feeds. Also, basic HTTP authentication b/w your server and Twitter - not very secure.
- sameer
just take screen shots from time to time if you want to make a point about what you are seeing there. then get your friends' permission, and write a blog post about it.
- Laura Norvig
I would keep it that way scoble
- polou/indigo_bow
@secretscoble yes it is -
- Kevin Tunis
Scoble has the first premium Twitter account, because I am certain that people would pay a lot of money to become a follower.
- Bob Blunk
Bob Plunk have you been on the sauce? Just add the people he follows to your account and you have a replica of @SecretScoble. I promise you Robert is not saving all his pearls of wisdom for that twitter account. He isn't tweeting revelations that will change the world on his alternate account. It's just some experiment he is running on things such as how much attention people pay to invites.
- Mark
kewl and best ; Scoble rox lol ; http://www.youtube.com/nicomed... [WE LIVE IN PUBLIC-participant, Sundance Film Price, imdb at http://www.imdb.com/name... ] nicomedy aka ewing2001
- ewing2001akaNicomedy2010
Until you figure it out, I'll use your SUL as a filter to find interesting streams I am not currently following.
- Alberto Saavedra
Twitter should just display posts from everyone you are following in a stream, just like they should allow anyone to sample someones followers. Basic.
- Steve Garfield
Theres no way to push the rss feed out to ff?
- J. Abdul-Qahhar
Yes you can let us see.. Read Friends "Timeline" section: http://support.autoblogged.com/forums...
- CantorJF
I dont want to see it anyway!!
- Matt G
Would you like to show that as a widget in your blog? I could code a wp plugin to do that.
- Diego Sana
Screenshots?
- Tyson Key
Tech execs: how to reach “normal” users with PR and with TechCrunch/GigaOm et al - http://scobleizer.com/2009...
Parthasarathi, Susan Beebe, Kathleen Craig and 17 other people liked this
The PR advice in the New York Times I read really is horrid.
- Robert Scoble
It's amazing how bad most tech companies do when it comes to PR. By the way, I laid out the best advice I ever gave on this topic back in 2003: http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003... what did I say there? Talk to the grassroots first. That is why I use Twitter and FriendFeed. That's where the grassroots are.
- Robert Scoble
I deal with this every day when I talk to NY firms. It's frustrating that they think they only way to get through to people is either cute videos or TV ads. Why don't we just ASK our customers what they want?
- Tyler Hurst
Great write-up. Surprised that you mentioned Techcrunch over Mashable. In fact, you didn't mention Mashable at all..! Any particular reasons for that?
- K N Ajit Narayan
KN Mashable isn't nearly as influential as Techcrunch is, most of my friends don't mention it. Mashable is switching to a Twitter news network, too, which makes them influential on Twitter, but not overall. Mike really has owned the tech news space and continues to do so.
- Robert Scoble
K N: also, note, I was riffing off of the New York Times article that mentioned TechCrunch and not Mashable. There's a reason for that.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, also keep in mind that most of your friends are in Silicon Valley. Mashable is very talked about on the East Coast. I think it's definitely worth considering, personally.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: exactly. Notice that Brooke Hammerling lives in New York. Even SHE doesn't talk about Mashable.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, good point - regardless, people always end up looking to Silicon Valley for their news.
- Jesse Stay
Isn't this more general than PR? The main point, as I got it, was about cynicism. Isn't any communication of opinion, whether cynical or not, contributing to the multi-faceted picture that people get of ... well, anything that we want to hear about?
- John W Lewis
Jesse: I thought Pete Cashmore even moved to SF to cover Silly Valley more.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, I agree that TechCrunch is more influential but Mashable has been coming on strong. Look at this comparison on Compete.com http://siteanalytics.compete.com/mashabl...
- Mike Doeff
John: yes.
- Robert Scoble
BTW Robert, welcome to the UK! Hope to see you tomorrow.
- John W Lewis
Mike: traffic does NOT equal influence. I can have more influence than you have by having just one reader. Think about it. If Obama read me and you had 1000 "normal" readers, who has more influence?
- Robert Scoble
Robert, is he in Silicon Valley now? Interesting. Sounds like he needs to be networking more then.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: I've watched both work. Mike digs for news more and is more tied into the VC infrastructure here, which gets him more news.
- Robert Scoble
I know when I tried to talk to him I was practically ignored, even though it was about a common client. Not that it would have had any effect on influence. I've just had a better impression of Arrington, personally.
- Jesse Stay
Robert, I agree that TC still has more influence but still, Arrington can't be happy about that trend line on Compete.com.
- Mike Doeff
Mike: Mashable is outplaying Techcrunch on Twitter and Mashable is better at writing articles that get Google page rank, like reviews of lots of products. That doesn't equal news influence, but does get traffic. I also think Arrington also made a huge mistake deleting his FriendFeed account (FriendFeed is a top three traffic driver for me already).
- Robert Scoble
Robert, why did Arrington delete his FriendFeed account? You are right about Mashable. On Twitter, one gets the impression that Mashable is more popular than Techcrunch. But that may not hold true elsewhere.
- K N Ajit Narayan
K N: He got mad at the "mob" that formed here after his fight with Leo Laporte and deleted his account. Repeat after me, popularity does NOT equal influence.
- Robert Scoble
Arrington like like a nice guy. Yes, popularity does NOT equal influence. LoL
- K N Ajit Narayan
The chance that an individual will be sufficiently interested in something to pass it on and, thereby, create a mob effect depends on many factors (and, surely, these have been well studied?). Presumably, something must be significant, remarkable (literally), relevant, and so on. The source of the thing has an effect, I guess, in terms of credibility, reach, etc.. And for the original...
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- John W Lewis
Yeah, I always used to tell people they could get more great PR by going to parties at conferences (or better yet, throwing them) than they could get with a big expensive PR firm. When I was a big fancy magazine editor I would habitually filter out any incoming messages from big PR firms, since they were usually content-free at best, and BS-laden at worst. People who I met at parties had way better stories, rumors, and other intell for me than PR flacks!
- Fred Davis
I used to work for a technology consulting firm. Many new client relationships originated from conversations with people in neighbouring seats on flights. We often suggested dropping the advertising and giving everyone a free trip once a month!
- John W Lewis
John & Fred - yes and more yes. Talking to people is remarkably effective. Who knew?
- Tyler Hurst
well I commented here http://scobleizer.com/2009...
- Darren Stuart
The NY Times story was terribly unflattering. I can't blame Ms. Miller - some of the voices quoted were the antithesis of what I've aspired to be. If that's what she's experienced, we as a profession need to take a serious step back and re-evaluate our purpose. I was so peeved I spent my 4th trying to craft a reasonable response. (http://bit.ly/113wnu). So much for BBQs.
- AllisonWagda
Hacks continue to paint flacks as they are. But that these flacks represent what is going on in the industry and the sea change afoot couldn't be farther from the truth.
- andy
Robert - really didn't like how you generalized PR people in your article. Further, the reality is there are very few people in Silicon Valley at all who actually know anything about taking products to the real mainstream. Very, very few.
- Jeremy Toeman
Outcast was the sole voice of reason quoted in that story.
- AllisonWagda
Damn right.
- andy
That article was PR for Brew and looks like it worked. It wasn't about PR.
- Shahin Khan
Classic NY article on the goings-on in CA, completely missing the boat. Btw did anyone notice that most of the NYT Sunday was about California? Happy coincidence or something else?
- anna sauce
Great article, Robert.
- anna sauce
You are right but it was Brew's agenda. No different than other pieces that cover a topic but sell a product. And who's to say that wasn't part of the strategy? (To be that bad.) That's giving too much credit probably. Of course it should have been a tweet and save me a bunch of time (and still annoy me!)
- Shahin Khan
I read that NYT article along with the Arrington's article, my jaws dropped at first, but I do get some of the pt. not 2 original post link: http://ff.im/4SVFw... I forgot to note, sounds so tongue and cheeky, doesn't it?
- polou/indigo_bow
There's an issue that's not covered here, in Arrington's piece or the original NYTimes story, namely that just as PR firms have to change the way they work, tech companies have to adjust their expectations as well. A lot of companies are stuck in the mindset of the "Big Bang" launch, where you put out your news and suddenly you get tons of attention all at once. That's just not how the...
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- Kevin Pedraja
Palin corruption rumors floated anonymously via journos deserve less-than-zero credibility unless/until there's evidence. slimy stuff
Yeah, that's not journalism, that's just rumor mongering... I used to have to verify sources... does anyone do that anymore?
- Fred Davis
Re: Is it news if it's not reported? (Scripting News) - http://www.scripting.com/stories...
Sounds kind of like the "If a tree fell in forest..." argument. Ever hear the expression "That's news to me!"... well in the ultimate personalized web world of the future I'd like to think that if a story is only relevant to me, then (from my perspective) it's still news to me. As far as the press capitulating to the powers that be (even unwittingly/subconsciously) there's a great book by Noam Chomsky called Manufacturing Consent that sheds a lot of blinding light on the so-called free press... great read!
- Fred Davis
@dweekly need to add my twitter handle to my bizcard. certainly no snailmail or fax or landline there
Hey Jerry! Might want to reconsider! If you ever get hacked or locked out of your Twitter account, there is NO way to get back in! Twitter has NO tech support or customer support of any kind (Scoble even Tweeted Ev, Biz, and the gang at Twitter for me... no response), so I had to abandon my @freddavis account and start another one. Outrageous, and I sure am glad I didn't have that on my biz card.... so, @jerrymichalski could go POOF! at any moment!
- Fred Davis
YouTube Increases File Size Limit To 2GB, Now Allows Direct HD Embeds And Links - http://www.techcrunch.com/2009...
Angus Burton, Daniel Rowley, Lo and 10 other people liked this
"By the way, I’m uploading HD videos done with my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR at http://www.youtube.com/scoblei... — awesome quality."
- Robert Scoble
Cool! I'll check 'em out!
- Fred Davis
Plenty of comments on that Techcrunch piece point up the fact that uploading a 2GB file would for most people take a very long time. Even on fast ADSL connections upload speeds are dreadfully slow. And then there is the bandwidth to consider if you are capped in any way. We don't all live in South Korea.
- Gilbert Harding
Excellent!
- Fred Davis
FriendFeed's changed their recommended users when you sign up for a new account. The default screen that Tamar showed yesterday with the most popular 32 FF users now only shows the most popular 12. Now you can't just be popular you have to be *super* popular!
Mitchell Tsai, Jim Braux-Zin, Micah Wittman and 57 other people liked this
Off the FriendFeed recommended list now: Steve Rubel, Bret Taylor, Jeremiah Owyang, Evan Williams, Fred Wilson, Tim O'Reily, Louis Gray, Thomas Hawk, Paul Buchheit, justine, Guy Kawasaki, Amber Mac, Chris Messina, Darren Rowse, Ed Dale, Jeremy Zawodny, dan faber, Marshall Kirkpatrick, will wheaton, Jeff Jarvis.
- Thomas Hawk
Tamar's screen from yesterday: http://friendfeed.com/friendf...
- Thomas Hawk
This list needs to go and in the short-term a very simple list could take it's place. Simply average a person's popularity ranking with their activity ranking. I'd also say that it would make sense to show more than the top 12. I'd show the top 80 actually or maybe even the top 100.
- Thomas Hawk
I'm still not convinced this is the ideal list. There's a large percentage of those Web 2.0 personalities who do not interact at all with FF. They merely aggregate their feeds here. That ain't community involvement.
- Tamar Weinberg
Tamar, this list is no better than the old one really. It's just more exclusive. The problem is that the current recommended user list does not value FF community involvement at all. It's kind of actually insulting to the people who really do in fact contribute and live here. An averaging of the most popular with the most active would create a far more vibrant list reflective of what FF...
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- Thomas Hawk
I agree Tamar. It is about those that are actually involved, not those that just aggregate... maybe a sub list for those that comment as opposed to those that just post. The majority of those that have been removed do not get involved, although Bret Taylor might be considered one of the involved. Yeah you too TH, oh and Paul Buchheit.
- Travis Koger
Putting up a list of the most popular is simply lazy and is not what FF should be about. Feeding into some sort of web celebrity A list is distasteful. Certainly it makes sense for FF to recommend users. It's also important that they do it objectively rather than subjectively like Twitter. The answer is actually quite simple. Average activity/popularity and the popular users who don't...
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- Thomas Hawk
I bet someone at FF could write this script in less than an hour to change this. If they don't change it they should in the spirit of transparency at least explain why they won't.
- Thomas Hawk
Travis, I wouldn't recommend a "sub list." These users should be primarily highlighted. The "sub list" should be those who are "also on FriendFeed (but do not contribute to FF itself)" ... of course, the parenthetical statement is mine alone.
- Tamar Weinberg
I don't think that this is a replacement for the original list, Thomas. I see what you have posted, but I don't think this is the final in any way. I don't know why you have an abbreviated list, but I don't think this is a result of any changes in the last 24 hours.
- Louis Gray
Louis, sign out and sign up for a new account and see for yourself. You'll get this same thing that I do. I used to get the list that Tamar posted yesterday. Now I get this.
- Thomas Hawk
Tamar, yeah I agree, a sub list is not optimal, I actually meant the other way around, sub list for the popular main list for the conversationlists.
- Travis Koger
This is kind of stupid if you can't pick what your interests are, etc. Why just give a list of people with the most followers? Why not try to provide a better experience, instead of just *more*.
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
Steve, exactly, which is why this list needs to go. Given that it would be so easy to change it, the only reason why it won't change would be if FF philosophically believes that this is in fact a better way to promote members. If they do in fact believe that then I think they owe the community a response as to why. If not then they should change this list in the short-term to one that averages popularity/activity for now and come up with something better down the road.
- Thomas Hawk
Totally agree that it would not take the FF guys much time to get this sorted and would once again provide yet another better function than THAT other service! ;)
- Travis Koger
The whole concept of a fixed list of recommended users is poor. It creates competition inside whats supposed to be a community platform and puts the wrong incentives for participation in place. The system should be smart enough to recommend based on some type of interest/content, not just be a big silly popularity contest. niche niche niche...
- Jeremy Toeman
I don't always find myself interested in everything Kol posts, but he posts a crapload of good content. He should be highlighted. Narrowing by interests should not be a determining feature. People should follow those awesome contributors and then figure out how to use FF -- then they can assess who else to follow. By following Veronica or Loic, for example, they won't even know what...
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- Tamar Weinberg
Jeremy, right, and in the longer-term FF should figure out a better way to match interests with new users. If a new person hates photography, I'm probably not a good match for them.
- Thomas Hawk
Kol should definitely be highlighted, Tamar, and he would be if you averaged activity/popularity. Louis Gray probably belongs on this list more than anyone currently on it except Scoble. If you averaged popularity with activity he'd probably be number 2 right behind Scoble.
- Thomas Hawk
Yup. Louis one of FF's biggest community evangelists and they don't even seem to realize it. (I am sure he knows I always thought he deserved to be highlighted.)
- Tamar Weinberg
@Tamar in all candor, I don't think the FF staff has a specific vision of their own service. don't get me wrong, they are smart, nice, etc, but I feel there's a lack of clarity about what they are building, who they are building it for, etc. and the further the site roams randomly down this aimless journey, the more the opportunity window is closing IMHO.
- Jeremy Toeman
@Thomas @Tamar - I disagree, they shouldn't be highlighted just because they are highly active. that's NOT a good enough reason. it should be based on the NEW USER's interests, not based on the power user's...
- Jeremy Toeman
and Louis was highlighted yesterday Tamar, but no longer today, but yesterday's system was also bad as you noted in your post. Unless FF includes a component to reflect activity, this list will be at odds with their community. They should recognize this and correct it. Twitter's taken a huge amount of heat over the unfairness of their list. A list that averaged popularity/activity would be far fairer than one that simply recognizes subscribers alone.
- Thomas Hawk
Jeremy, absolutely, they should be highlighted based on a new users interests. But sometimes you don't know what those interests are and making someone fill out a survey of interests might be a barrier to easy adoption of the service. Certainly though as FF gets to know what you like, they could reshape this list to best reflect your interests. But absent that data, with a blank slate new user, presenting a list which averaged activity/popularity would be a better list than one based on popularity alone.
- Thomas Hawk
An option to list interests that brought up a short list of contributors that share those interests, irrespective of how popular by numbers of followers they are, would be a good place to start. Just because you have a gazillion followers doesn't mean I'm going to find you interesting.
- Gilbert Harding
Jeremy, that's where I disagree. People have varied interests. I used Kol as an example earlier in this discussion to highlight exactly how eclectic our interests are. FF does not survey your interests at sign-up, nor should they have to. If they use a guy who contributes a lot (read: is active), chances are there's *something* there in their stream that will be interesting to a new...
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- Tamar Weinberg
No worries on my part. I have no desire to be on that list. I like being little old me. :-)
- Mathew A. Koeneker
a list of interests would seem to make sense, but adding a step to the sign up process *might* discourage signups. maybe not though. but building that sort of a system would probably take more time and thinking as to the best way to do it. In the short-term though simply averaging activity/popularity would change this list dramatically and could be a stop-gap solution until a better system was built.
- Thomas Hawk
Thomas makes a good point, but I don't think we really need to focus on adding a new "interests" feature, to be perfectly honest. They can work with what they have already. "Popularity" isn't the word I'd use here. I am one of the topmost followed users here and I know so many people who are far more deserving of being highlighted as a top contributor on this service.
- Tamar Weinberg
I wonder why they changed it from 32 to 12. I wonder if it was to drop Evan Williams off the list.
- Thomas Hawk
I would love to see FF improve the page, too. A list of interests and the popular/active people made available with the click of one button would be great. Additionally it would be nice to see a list of the most popular threads and rooms; Plus a link to the faqs.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
from BuddyFeed
100% agreed with Tamar's first comment here about the list.
- Brandon Mendelson
@thomas ive' looked at the stats, they are growing slowly, which implies general product dissatisfaction. so adding a step to signup to create a better product overall is worth it...
- Jeremy Toeman
I've touched on this in response to a similar SUL thread from Scobie Doo... basically, each SUL should be tailored to each user based on things like content (as Jeremy pointed out) as well as FOF (friend of friend) relationships, reputation analysis/tracking, profiles, etc. ... there is a whole new field of "friend management" brewing... and SUL's are definitely a part of that...
- Fred Davis
Agree the list needs to change, a combo of most popular/active would be ideal, perhaps randomised (20 users from the top 100). Fairly simple list. Users who post only their Twitter stream are not the best people to demonstrate FriendFeed's capabilities and new users will find it hard to interact with those users who don't actually use the service a lot if ever.
- Kol Tregaskes
I like the randomized idea even more Kol. It would also be much more inclusive. Maybe have a list of 50 or so users on the suggest page and have them randomly pulled form the top 500 FF users when averaging their popularity/activity. That in fact would be super slick.
- Thomas Hawk
Yep. Also, I've exchanged a few mails with FF and have suggested some sort of tutorial for new users as at the moment new users are dumped on the home feed with virtually no clue as to what to do next. I read a lot of users saying "just joined, now what?". So this needs to change, FF tell me they are working on something - cool! :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
Also, on Tamar's thread it was suggested the list be a combo of the most popular/liked/commented on/active users. Either way it shouldn't be just the most popular! With pretty much no effort some FF users are getting on this suggestion list and gaining lots more new users.
- Kol Tregaskes
You also have to be a geek. Lame.
- Dawn
I dislike the web 2.0 personality slant of this list. If you're trying to win over a new user and you want them to stick around, don't inundate them with repetitive tech noise. Have some variety. For example, throw in Jess Lee to get some fashion chatter in there. Thomas Hawk for some photography and pretty pictures (which will help show off the photo thumbnail features). An initial spate of lots of tech/web noise will probably not help new users see the value in FriendFeed.
- EricaJoy
Am I wrong in that no official FF'ers are chiming in on this thread. Hmm. Yeah I think you could make an easy algorithm of # followers to #followed, % of activity, recency, and then post a top 12 of that, each week.
- anna sauce
I'm showing 30 people in my list right now FWIW
- Richard pancakhaus Walker
Richard, that is because you are an existing user. It appears that this is just for new users.
- Travis Koger
from iPhone
RE: the deleted users: They should keep Louis and you on there, but no one else on that list participates on FF regularly. I think it's necessary to have active users on that list, because new users will easily find other active users to follow by FOAF. The way to keep people interested is activity, not popularity.
- Trish R
Yeah, but the list should include the RIGHT active people, Trish (and I have no clue how you would algorithmically pick the RIGHT people). If a new person who's primarily in to social media connects to friendfeed and gets the "actives" list from ffholic, they will be completely underwhelmed (however the LOLcats lover who just joined would be quite happy). That's what makes the challenge interesting.
- Alex Scoble
I'm not for everyone, nor do I want to be. I'm doing this for fun, not to "be a brand" and I'd like to keep it that way. :)
- Alex Scoble
Correct. I think it's pretty easy to see who should NOT be included in the list, but picking who SHOULD is much tougher.
- Alex Scoble
Alex, FF absolutely should not be in the business of *picking* who should be on this list. Even as much as it makes sense for Louis to be on a list like this over say will wheaton, the problem is once you turn this list into anything other than an automated list you start immediately alienating people. That's exactly what Twitter did. They created a subjective staff picked list which is...
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- Thomas Hawk
Whether they do it using a human or by algorithm, they are picking. I think it would be fairly easy for them to write an algorithm to determine who shouldn't be on the list, but a lot harder to come up with a good algorithm for who should be on the list.
- Alex Scoble
keeping the list objective and formulaic exempts FF staff from allegations of bias. It's not perfect but it's better for them to be able to point to an algorithm than personal choice. The forumula just needs to be tweaked ever so slightly and you'd have a significantly better list. The very simple act of averaging popularity with activity would create a list that i think that 99% of the...
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- Thomas Hawk
Alex- I already wrote it! Not patting my own back (too much) but it seems simple to me. I'll recap: # followers to #followed, % of activity, recency, and then post a top 12 of that, each week. Also, added a "floor" on the #followed/#follower so that the ratio isn't skewed by smaller #s.
- anna sauce
And what did your app determine, Anna?
- Alex Scoble
personally I think 12 is too small a number. I'd like to see them put 80 on this list but I too would be interested in what your algorithm produced Anna.
- Thomas Hawk
Tad, will wheaton was on the list because it is simply based on who has the most followers. When you sign up for FF it asks you if you want to add your Twiiter/Facebook/etc. contacts. What this means is that those that are super popular on Twitter will be the ones that FF ends up recommending. Since adding in the import your Twitter contacts to FF feature the rank of the popular FF users who are popular Twitter users has jumped.
- Thomas Hawk
1) Do you like social media? 2) Do you like LOLcats? 3) Do you like to argue?
- Alex Scoble
Those were funny questions, Holden...although a No, yes, yes response would definitely point them my way. :)
- Alex Scoble
I did an experiment last night on what it was like to be a new user again. I did it with my original account, which I rediscovered yesterday. I was going to write something about what I learned later, but this change is the exact opposite of what needs to be done in order to improve the new user experiencee. I hope it's only temporary.
- Michael Fidler
How the HELL did I make that cut? :P
- l0ckergn0me
Holden, and averaging popularity with activity would remove 100% of the pipes from this list.
- Thomas Hawk
Not that there's anything wrong with the people on this list, but any list which doesn't include people like Mona, or Kol has something wrong with the way it was formulated
- Michael Fidler
As soon as you say "any list that doesn't include ..." I shut you off. Fail.
- Joel Bennett
+1 Joel. Everyone had different preferences. That's why it's like Alex said, there's no right formula to find recommended users for each different user.
- Trish R
I said like; Kol and Mona are just examples of what's wrong with this list.
- Michael Fidler
:)
- Susan Beebe
if you averaged popularity/activity Mona and Kol would both be on this list.
- Thomas Hawk
Great!! that is a list I think properly reflects coolness on FF :)
- Susan Beebe
This list can't possibly be the final result. I'm for rotating it but with people that engage FF directly at a minimum once a day .... Thoughts?
- Charlie Anzman
I like your idea on engagement Charlie. Friendfeed should not just be about the one way "geek" transmitters.
- Mathew A. Koeneker
I agree Charlie. From the graphic there appears to be no logic to the recommendation, three never interact here. I do think there should be some general randomness to a favorites list - I'd like to see new people and not just the same 'celebs' or those with the most number of posts or comments.
- jcunwired
what JC and Charlie said.
- Anthony Citrano
How about a three-part list (1) most-followed (2) most-active-today/this-week (3) quirky gotta look at these people... which is updated dynamically (especially #3)?
- Mitchell Tsai
makes for a very single minded list, really. Not much plurality
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Blog Post: Artist.com: What Should I build my Music Website On (Wordpress, Drupal, Ning?) http://www.widgetmatic.com/2009... #fb
Of the three I'd give a HUGE preference to Drupal... Wordpress is lame, um, sorry "limited", and Ning is a data prison. Go Drupal!
- Fred Davis
Do you think Nikon will have a strong response to the Canon EOS 5D Mark II? 21.1 MP really necessary?
Tyson Key, کلاغ کوچیکه, John (a.k.a. dendroica) and 19 other people liked this
Alex, I'm currently a Nikon fan but if they don't offer a rival to the Mark ii, I might have to switch!
- Johnny
rumors of a D300s and maybe a new D3(?). the D300s has to have 1080p and match or exceed the record time capabilities of the 5D or fire and brimstone will rain down. if nikon neuters the D300s so as not to compete with a D3 video slr the will get a "FAIL". this market is huge in the wedding/family photo service and also a growing option for indie film makers therefore a competent "5D...
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- Marco
Marco, Thanks for the input. I agree with you on many levels (especially the low light performance). I have friends who shoot videos for a certain editing house with a Mark ii. Its nuts. I'm praying for a Nikon response.
- Johnny
thx. just for clarity what i mean by "obtainable price point" is that equal or greater than 5D features must not fall only in the D3 category. and since the rumored D300s is an APS-C sized slr it can't really fall in the 5D price range either.
- Marco
So the D300s is not a confirmed model at the moment?
- Johnny
i'm not really a Nikon Rumors hound but they do have their use: http://nikonrumors.com/2009...
- Marco
Nikon's response to the 5DII won't be in the D300 successor but the D700's. The two things that the 5DII has over the D700 is more megapixels and video. 21MP most likely not necessary. 15 or so would be fine. Video shouldn't be too hard to add. Leave the price at ~$500 more than the 5DII and it'd still be worth every penny.
- ronin
Ronin, are there talks/rumors about a successor to the D700?
- Johnny
I have not currently read of any but it's most likely coming. The D300 is older so it's the next one up for an upgrade. The purported specs of the D300s is telling as it seems to me that Nikon no longer feels like it has to play catch up to Canon (at least with the current DSLR lineup). It wouldn't surprise me if they come out with a D700s next that also just has video mode shoehorned in.
- ronin
I just want Nikon to introduce a solid competitor to the Mark ii. The Video capabilities on the Canon are amazing..
- Johnny
Canon is ahead of Nikon once again. It's not the megapixels. It's the HD video and the full-frame sensor. The megapixels are just icing on the cake.
- Robert Scoble
Actually, at those resolutions there is a lot more noise, IMHO. It's actually at the point where the photon wells in the sensors are too small for the photons to hit accurately and that is generating noise.... a new tech breakthrough in sensors is needed, since this is a physical limit of today's technology... which is already practically nanotech! I have a d300 and love it. d90 for daytrips... it's nice, too.
- Fred Davis
Robert, I agree. I just don't see Nikon producing anything like it in the near future which makes me nervous after investing heavily in Nikon products. :(
- Johnny
MY take on the Great Canon vs Nikon debate: Canon makes better cameras, Nikon makes better lenses. Color tones and saturation are awesome on Canon, but the bottom line is that photography is about the light that is entering the camera, not the sensor or resolution... so that's why I've been with Nikon (and my bunch of great glass!) for 30 years...
- Fred Davis
BTW, I like your new 600mm lens! :D
- Johnny
the Nikon competitor to the 5D will be the next camera they release. MP are more and more being understood correctly in the photo-sphere... get the resolution you need. more is not always better
- Marco
Fred, I've invested heavily in Nikon for the same reason (lens selection; Nikor). I've always heard the argument: A good body is useless without a good lens. But I'm starting to think things over after watching some of my friends with their Mark ii's
- Johnny
I don't think you have much to worry about Johnny. Video will come to the D700. Maybe not as quickly as you'd like, but it'll come. =)
- ronin
Ronin, I hope you're right! :D
- Johnny
no slr from here on out will not have vid. Nikon missed the boat and lost some business to early adopters, i think Alex Lindsay just bought 2 5d's and he is a nik shooter and so did David Zieser(tho his loyalties are less defined). 21mp is bordering the MF territory. the HD space and processing time of that resolution is not worth the hardware upgrade, too me.
- Marco
The truth is Nikon lenses are shit and not half as good as Canon. Sorry, Nikon aficionados, it's the truth.
- tabbr
Could you at least support your statement?
- Johnny
Alex Lindsay waffled for the longest time between the 5DII and the D700. It was the latest firmware update for the 5DII that added manual exposure control for video that tipped the balance. I think he's always shot Canon with digital but he had shot Nikon during the film days. I'm not certain Nikon really missed the boat with video. The D90 was the first DSLR to have video after all....
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- ronin
Fred: sorry that totally does NOT fly in my experience. I was a Nikon guy for more than 20 years an Canon's glass is every bit as good.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, What ultimately made you switch? Or do you shoot both Canon and Nikon?
- Johnny
Fred: go to SmugMug and look at the giant photos they have there shot with Canon 5D's. They are stunningly sharp and totally refute your claims. My friend is a Sports Illustrated photog and he shoots Canon.
- Robert Scoble
Johnny: full frame sensor for $2,000 less than Nikon. End of debate.
- Robert Scoble
Would you recommend making the switch to Canon or do you think Nikon will have a strong competitor in the near future? Luckily, I'm pretty new to the digital side of photography and have invested in a Nikon D60 to take along with my film cameras so I'm not in too deep! The Mark ii is absolutely gorgeous when it comes to both still and video.
- Johnny
Robert, the D700 has a full frame sensor. And a pretty nice one at that. Sure it's no 21MP but it's sweet nonetheless. And definitely not $2000 more than the Canon. =)
- ronin
Johnny: I wouldn't switch right now. Nikon has been coming on very strong.
- Robert Scoble
Ronin: when I bought my first 5D it was $2,000 less. Glad to hear Nikon has caught up.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: Well the 5D was the ONLY full frame DSLR for awhile there. And by the time the D700 rolled around the 5D was like 3 years old already so of course it'd be much cheaper. =)
- ronin
Johnny: or more accurately I would try both systems out and see which one is better for you. There are too many variables.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I wish it was that easy. So much $$$. I think I'll stick with my D60 and film cameras for now and watch the innovation battle develop a little more like you suggested.
- Johnny
How has Nikon been coming on strong?
- Johnny
guys, in terms of 1080p do you think APS-C and full frame will differ much in quality? i haven't read anything, just wondering if the difference is nominal.
- Marco
No one makes crap glass in this day and age. Even third party manufacturer's like Sigma and Tamron have some excellent new glass. At the high end, you'd really have to nitpick to say that a Canon lens is much better than the Nikon equivalent (and vice versa). Canon does have a more comprehensive, up-to-date fast prime offering though and the pricing on some of the new Nikon lenses are just over the top.
- ronin
Robert, I agree about the sharpness and resolution... the Canon technology is better... what I'm talking about is more elusive... for example, one of my favorite lenses is the Nikon 85mm 1.4... there is something about the way the light looks... and the background fuzzies, or bokeh, is better than any Canon lens I've seen... so creamy and round!
- Fred Davis
Then there's the Nikon 14-24mm 2.8 ... Canon's comparable lens is no comparison!
- Fred Davis
But, yes... the Canon is a better camera, and the sensors yeild a better picture... technically speaking... I guess I just have an artistic bent towards the way the Nikon lenses work... but, y'know, it could just be that I'm so used to them I get things out of them I couldn't get from a Canon...
- Fred Davis
Oh yeah, and then there's the bonus that I can use the Nikon lenses on my Sony XD-CAM (EX3) with a cool adapter and get some amazing HD shots... the 105mm Nikon macro becomes a 500mm macro on the Sony! Telephoto macro!
- Fred Davis
Oh, and shooting HD on an SLR is a joke. Get a freakin' video camera!!! I have a D90 and the HD sux... can't focus on moving subjects worth crap... same problem on other cameras trying to cross-over... but for fun, hey, it's great! I got @lisapadilla the Canon Powershot IS780 point and shoot for her b'day recently, and it records in HD (720p) ... and it's very cool... nice image... way...
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- Fred Davis
Fred: you should see the Canon 85 F1.2. I totally disagree with you about HD video, by the way. But whatever. We have been having Canon vs. Nikon debates since the 1940's. I like both systems (Nikon loaned me a D3 when I went to Davos and it was a wonderful camera).
- Robert Scoble
first is nice and i was happy when Nikon did it, but like it or not we must admit Canon changed the game. i am mildly invested in Nikon DSLR equip and also have a pretty heavy stockpile of film bodies and old Nikkor glass. however, aside from a pathetic attachment to the film kit, i have no loyalties to the current contenders. the DX glass i have will sell nicely and SB800's... well you...
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- Marco
Fred: the HD DSLR has production value, not record-your-life value. fixed focal length and manual pull focusing smacks of Hollywood.
- Marco
d90's may have sold more, i dont know. but the 5Dll is sold out almost everywhere: http://www.nowinstock.net/digital... in fact if you search "now in stock" on google, you will see the 5Dll at the top of their list. now that's clout.
- Marco
Robert: Hey, I like HD video as a fun add-on to still cameras (a misnomer now!), but the form factor, connectors, etc. are just not that great... the Canon Vixia HF200 records stunning HD to SD cards for under $600... with optical image stabilization, focusing, white balance, etc. that is designed for video, not still...
- Fred Davis
... for example, being able to flip the LCD screen so you can see it when pointing the video camera at yourself, or twist it for other purposes, is a given on a camcorder... not on a digital SLR....
- Fred Davis
Fred: you are missing an important point, though. When I go someplace like the Carrier Embark we did I bias my life around still photographs. I can only carry so much equipment (I carried a 600 mm F4.0 down there). You can see the results here: http://www.flickr.com/photos... It is massively cool that I can use the same equipment to shoot both stills and...
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- Robert Scoble
By the way, my Canon took better pictures than all the Nikons (I was the only guy who had Canon's on board). But I was also the only one who rented an $8,000 600 mm and who carried it around, too. Which brings me to another point. Check your local camera stores to see which systems they stock as rentals. That's really important if you're going to try out some glass. I'm lucky because Keeble and Shuchat in Palo Alto rents both Canon and Nikon glass and cameras to try out before you buy.
- Robert Scoble
I thought the 21MP was silly at first, but the ability to crop a frame tightly and end up with about the same resolution as I had with my XTi is very cool.
- Jeremy Brooks
On Building43 this video was done with my Canon 5D Mark II and a R0DE microphone: http://www.building43.com/videos... Very nice video quality. Yes, our $6,000 HD camcorders are nicer (this video was made with two Panasonic HD camcorders: http://www.building43.com/videos... ) but you gotta be a video geek to run those.
- Robert Scoble
Jeremy: all the photos I put up from the Carrier Embark are straight off the camera at highest resolution. You can compare the images I got (click "All Sizes" to see the quality of the Canon 5D MK II at highest resolution). I'd be happy to meet up with anyone who wants to do a more complete resolution test side by side.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: The videos from your Mark II are pretty impressive. It's hard to believe those came from an dSLR.
- Johnny
Robert: nice vids! Yeah, you are right about the convenience... although that rig didn't sound very convenient! Awesome lens, though! Which kinda supports my idea that the lens is more important than the camera... and the eye is more important than the lens ;-)
- Fred Davis
I'm sure someone has already mentioned the Nikon D3x... the 24.5 megapixel dSLR...
- Johnny Worthington
Johnny: Thanks for the input. I didn't know about the D3x.
- Johnny
D3x is likely out of the price range for most people and is the most expensive full-frame DSLR currently available. Plus it doesn't do video yet either.
- ronin
First D700x rumor I've seen: http://is.gd/1g5xA
- ronin
Ronin: D700x would be awesome.
- Johnny
I doubt it'll be 24MP though. Especially with what they're doing with the D300s. I'd rather have the great low-light sensor than a high MP one anyway. Making it a bit lighter would be nice too.
- ronin
It's all out of my price range. I would end up getting a current gen D700 in all probability after the upgrade comes out. It would be such a huge step up from my D80
- Evan Travers
Evan: Current gen D700 would still be amazing!
- Johnny
Yeah. If only I could find one for 1500, it would be a done deal. *sigh*
- Evan Travers
Kay Koplovitz: We Need More Women Entrepreneurs - http://www.siliconvalleywatcher.com/mt...
Agreed! So, anyone want to help fund Lisa Padilla's (@lisapadilla) new venture, Grabbit?... c'mon it would be soooo PC ;-)
- Fred Davis
I couldn't agree more. Women often have a taller mountain to climb to advance their careers in the technology industry as there are few women role models they can strive to emulate.
- Robert Saric
Craving intimacy in our social networks - http://scobleizer.com/2009...
Susan Beebe, Nicholas James, Garin Kilpatrick and 35 other people liked this
not so much looking for a better way as much as better ways to use what's already there. FF is at present the app of choice, then Twitter. FB doesn't do much for me but it may be purely an issue of bias.
- chad calease
@Robert: do we need our own "private" FF/Twitter networks? or is there something else needed?
- MikeAmundsen
I use Friendfeed and Twitter to find out what's going on in the BIG world. I use Facebook to know what's going on in MY world, friends of the past and present. There IS a difference.
- Steve Hampton
Steve, you make a good point. Perhaps configuring one to interact with the other [big and small] in flexible, relevant ways is the key here.
- chad calease
Yeah, I guess it would be really great if I had one tool to handle both the big world and my world, it would be great, But there are times that I like the separation of the two.
- Steve Hampton
@Robert: I find myself using Twitter less and less, FF only marginally, and have an FB account but do not use it. For intimate, more personal discussions, I find that niche social networks are best for me--networks that are created with a specific demographic in mind. I'm very involved with the development of BuddyPress (BP) and see some interesting niche social sites being created using BP.
- Jeff Sayre
@Jeff Sayre, it sounds then like we're moving back to the days of discussion forums
- Adam
@Adam, BP is not about forums, although that is one component of the platform. With BP you create your own social networking site. It's obviously not for everyone, but it is more intimate than a one-size fits all approach like FF or FB. http://buddypress.org/
- Jeff Sayre
Steve: I've been working away in my mad scientist's lab for the past 6 months trying to solve that (and other) problems with these real-time stream and friend/frenemy-related issues. You never know, but I think that me and my partner (Lisa Padilla @lisapadilla) may have come up with a solution for your problem... it's called Grabbit, and we're on track with our development team at...
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- Fred Davis
Robert Socble talking @140conf (recorded) LIVE now -> http://www.livestream.com/140char...
- Qbat
I ment Robert Scoble ;)
- Qbat
really interesting.. talking about cnn's coverage on Iran
- Qbat
Find Jeff Sayre comments interesting. Buddy Press could be something that people will explore and like as it is more intimate.
- courtney benson
Robert - I agree although I'm not sure if any social network by nature can perfectly fit into the "biz" or "personal" pigeonhole. I personally use FB only for private sharing with "real" friends - my postings are completely closed to non-friends. I use FF, Twitter, Google Reader, LinkedIN as extensions of my "professional" life. This "firewall" between personal and professional helps me...
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- Jim Tierney
Robert, I use twitter and friendfeed, have FF but don't use it. Still in a research mode.Like FF for professional and ability to go beyond 140. Beginning to get pretty annoyed with the spammers on Twitter and I expect it will only get a lot worse
- courtney benson
Jim: As these social network platforms evolve, new tools and functions become needed, and then those need to evolve, too. What is needed is further evolution of what I call Friend Management, which should ultimately do simple things like sort out personal from biz, and also more sophisticated things like reputation tracking, relationship tracking, etc. ... back in web 1.0 I was working...
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- Fred Davis
@Steve Hampton I like having that boundary too, though I use LiveJournal for the private part.
- Zian Choy
One of the main reasons I'm on FF is the private groups. I've setup a private group with a couple of close friends and we use it very frequently. We were using Twitter with private users, but I prefer having the inline photos and video here. The problem with FaceBook is that although I really like my friends on there, I don't particularly want to socialize with that many people that frequently.
- Chip Ramsey
"Normal" people in my life... What browser do you use? Google. Who's your email provider? Outlook. What they know is what works for them. ALL of them get on Facebook and can use the 30% functionality important to them; view pictures and communicate with the people they care about. ALL of them don't "get" Twitter. I'm not saying they're right, but in my opinion Facebook is taking a...
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- Jeremy Gollehon
@Steve Hampton: I agree completely, well said.
- David Ziembicki
@Steve Hampton: I'm like you in that I try to use FF & Twitter for the 'bigger picture' and FB for more intimate relationships. Although lately all I seem to be getting on FB is folks playing Mafia Wars and the like. I do like to keep them separate most of the time.
- Alex Hellstrom
@Robert I'm convinced the biggest reason people use our site, totspot, is the very search for intimacy that you describe in this article. well put.
- Michael Broukhim
I do not crave intimacy from my social networks, only honesty and transparency. That is why I like Facebook so much, because people are who they say they are. Twitter would do good to do more to copy Facebook in this respect. Twitter is at odds with itself because when you sign up for an account it encourages you to use your real picture and name, and then they show you the suggested...
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- Garin Kilpatrick
Robert, have you ever done research into the history of two way communication online and some of the robust communities -- including private ones, as well as ones people pay to be a part of that have been around for nearly ten years? I think in order to really talk about this form of engagement/interaction online, everybody should have sort of a sense of the history of it. I'm sure with...
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- Patricia
If you think FriendFeed's community is abusive remember that bloggers had Valleywag to worry about. EVERY online community is abusive. Do I need to remind you how many "I am unfollowing Scoble" Tweets I have seen? They ALL are abusive. And heck, back in college the Unix users made fun of me because I used a "toy computer." you know that as a Mac.
Dobromir Hadzhiev, Kol Tregaskes, Gordon Saunders and 58 other people liked this
I use one of those 'toy computers' and I wouldn't use anything else ;)
- Stuart
I have been on many online communities since I joined in 1984 and FriendFeed is the best.
- Robert Scoble
any community has its abusive segments, FF included, it's the nature of human groups
- Prolific Programmer
from IM
Prolific: yup, it is part of hanging out with passionate people.
- Robert Scoble
The detachment of the digital medium always seems to unleash the darker side of people who would otherwise be friendly.
- Adrian Scicluna
It is always easier to blame others than to find blame in yourself, period.
- Louis Gray
Stuart: they all use Macs now too.
- Robert Scoble
all people, passionate or otherwise, @scobleizer
- Prolific Programmer
from IM
I think this is a poor use of the word "abusive". And Macs ARE Unix boxes now, so of course they do.
- Neal Jansons
Ade: Iran proves that some people just aren't friendly online or off.
- Robert Scoble
What Robert says is true enough. I sometimes wonder why people act like insults and arguments are new and shocking, and I conclude it's because they weren't watching during the UseNet days.
- MiniMage - HLtW
Neal: back then their ire was aimed at GUI's. They thought real computer users used command lines.
- Robert Scoble
I've always been afraid of Internet communities until I discovered FriendFeed.
- Mona Nomura
Oh, people crying wah nowadays should have seen the messageboards on my old hacker BBS when I was kid.
- Neal Jansons
from IM
strange how people say stuff online they would never say in person
- Peter du Toit (S.Africa)
Peter: the more I get around the more I realize some WOULD say that to you in person. I will take ALL my online abuse vs. An Iranian clubbing.
- Robert Scoble
Remember how Arrington was spit on?
- Robert Scoble
Peter: Reminds me of http://www.urbandictionary.com/define...
- Nicholas James
Robert: Re Arrington being spat on -- yeah, but you're a nice guy. :) No, spitting is not nice not matter who it is.
- Diego Barros
I was rather horrified when Mike got spit on...he/his family got threatened, too, if I remember right. People are not nearly as civilized as a lot of us would like to believe.
- Neal Jansons
from IM
Robert: I hear you. I guess mobs online or off are not cool.
- Peter du Toit (S.Africa)
Nicholas: lol
- Peter du Toit (S.Africa)
Peter: I will take an online mob over an offline one any day. Pixels might get me angry but they will never break my bones.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I know that. Only saying that IT somehow seems to embolden people to do mischief.
- Adrian Scicluna
Lol
- ♥ Medriss ♥
Raobert: that's why I am saying we shouldn't call the pixel version abusive...hearing/reading words you don't like or are insulting is not abuse. Kids getting beaten, prisoners being tortured, women being terrorized, etc...that's abuse.
- Neal Jansons
from IM
I think friend feed has a lot of smart people on it. What more can you ask from relative strangers than some degree of civility and intelligence.
- James Watters
Robert: thats a quotable quote :-)
- Peter du Toit (S.Africa)
Peter: Miriam here on FriendFeed is worrying whether she will see her friends again. She is in Iran. And we are worrying about whether Aaron will stay on Friendfeed or not. How lame we are.
- Robert Scoble
You could have just said "that's quotable" you dumbass :)
- James Watters
Our revolutionary war father's fought against an arrogant king in the dream that someday, we too could kill a Friday night with internet ruminations.
- James Watters
Anna, thanks for following me. I can barely keep up with my blog and my day job --let alone FF. Jesse, thanks for the votes of confidence.
- Jeremiah Owyang
Miriam's in Iran RIGHT NOW?
- Prolific Programmer
from IM
Robert: I think the greatest challenge we all face is to rise above our personal experience and drama and to see it in context or compare it to other far more serious issues being played out. Important to do but not easy
- Peter du Toit (S.Africa)
Prolific: my Maryam is here. Miriam, though, is in Iran.
- Robert Scoble
I'd say that ANYTHING social in nature, since it involves human beings, is bound to be abusive...it's just what people do. Unfortunately.
- Carlton Hackett
Miriam in Iran is here: http://friendfeed.com/guineve...
- Robert Scoble
I'm not concerned about whether or not Aaron stays or goes. What concerns me is that he thinks if someone's offended by an insult he hurls at a group of people, it's that person's "choice," but if he gets a little back, it's an attack. I will cease to be concerned about that soon enough, though :).
- MiniMage - HLtW
Minimage: that is why I blocked him. I don't have enough time to put up with that.
- Robert Scoble
"It is always easier to blame others than to find blame in yourself, period." - Louis Gray <----YES! And I shall pull a most appropriate quote from "Cyrano de Bergerac" (the original stage play) into the next comment...
- Micah Wittman
"CYRANO: Why, I well believe He dares to mock my nose? Ho! insolent! (He raises his sword): What say you? It is useless? Ay, I know But who fights ever hoping for success? I fought for lost cause, and for fruitless quest! You there, who are you!--You are thousands! Ah! I know you now, old enemies of mine! Falsehood! (He strikes in air with his sword): Have at you! Ha! and Compromise!...
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- Micah Wittman
"I think friend feed has a lot of smart people on it" - James. This is so very true ;)
- Diego Barros
Neal: verbal abuse is still harmful, even while to a far lesser degree than physical
- Mike Chelen
The "passionate people" thing is a bit of a cop out. It's perfectly possible to be passionate without being an ass about it. It just requires a little empathy or failing that manners.
- Eoghann Irving
I don't think Valleywag ever took potshots at the common man-- or am I wrong?
- Andy DeSoto
Andy: define "common." the common man isn't using a computer yet.
- Robert Scoble
Eoghann: when someone is advocating for taking away my rights that calls for stronger tactics. The Iranian protesters aren't always nice. Sometimes people are wrong and need to be told that in no uncertain terms.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble: someone may have a physical presence in the world with a name but are they really considered "alive" or "human" if they aren't on Facebook, Twitter and FF and have a computer (preferably a Mac) ;)
- Mike Bracco
No good deed goes unpunished
- Charlton Barreto
If "abusive" means that we use the traditional standards of libel, that should be just fine with everyone. This tendency towards standards that don't allow saying anything that could hurt anyone's feelings even if true for public conduct has some pretty bad authoritarian side effects.
- Andy Carrel
We're doing pretty well on the "common man" thing, at least here in the United States. Neilsen Online's last U.S. estimate had 231 million American internet users, which works out to almost 3/4 of the total population. Impressive.
- Chris Baskind
Chris: there are almost seven billion people on earth. Only one out of seven has a computer.
- Robert Scoble
@scobleizer are you counting mobile phones as computers?
- Prolific Programmer
from IM
Yup: Just talking about the United States. It's coming along, though. There are about 1.5 billion people online.
- Chris Baskind
like Tony Montana said "you need people like me". Powerful words, don't forget them.
- iTbay
Prolific: most mobile phones are useless for the web. I don't count those.
- Robert Scoble
In the '80s I used to joke, "How can you tell the difference between a Mac user and a PC user? The Mac users have girlfriends." (So did Amiga users but that's a different story... But then again, that could have been because of the Mac OS emulation. Hehe.)
- Mark Davidson
from BuddyFeed
Neal: Online psychological warfare was a pre-runner to multi-player online gaming. If not for my participation on early BBSs, I wouldn't have a practical understanding of logical arguments, cognitive linguistics, emotional triggers, or herd behavior. All of which turned out to be marketable skills.
- Mark Davidson
from BuddyFeed
Haha, now that's a point, Mark. I like to think that users got some value out of our BBS (other than plans to build a Blue Box or the latest list of 950 cutout numbers...it was a hacker board, after all).
- Neal Jansons
Heh, if people are arguing with you and abusing you, then you probably are doing something right!
- Malcolm Bastien
Hey, I unfollowed you on twitter, but that's 'coz I already follow you on FF and pretty much 100% of your tweets are from FF. Why duplicate stuff? That ain't abusive!
- Yuvi
Yuvi: unfollowing isn't abusive. Saying you are unfollowing is.
- Robert Scoble
I do remember tweeting about unfollowing you, citing the fact that I get your content on FF anyway. But yeah, I do get your point.
- Yuvi
Chennai, India. Named after my second favourite curry: Madras.
- Mark
Robert: actually very thankful for messages explaining when and why people unfollow me, *if* they are friendly and constructive
- Mike Chelen
Mark: now that macs are used by real computer people, some of them don't have girlfriends either :D
- Mike Chelen
Robert: I think you're letting your pain blur your thinking... be strong, grasshopper! When you said "EVERY online community is abusive." you went a bit overboard... blub, blub, blub! Here's the thing about communities. They DO have characteristics as a group, and some are more friendly than others, as a group, but all groups are made out of very diverse individuals... because even in...
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- Fred Davis
Fred, every online community has a group identity that defines it as as a group of 'insiders' versus some 'outside' external to the group. That's what makes it a community. And that's often where the nastiness sets in - in struggles over group identity. I would say that's what makes all online groups 'abusive' in at least some respects.
- Scot Mcphee
It was the same with IRC, same with Usenet and the same even with the BBS's - if you were an outsider, then some others may flame you or make your online life suck. Nothing new here...
- dannystaple
Be nice if everyone came online to help each other out IMAGINE
- John Sullivan
It is unfortunate that so many believe abuse - whether verbal, emotional or physical - is acceptable. The greatest issue of ours or any time is not the pursuit of money - it is the pursuit of power over others.
- Internet Strategist
In the 1980's I started with a Mac 512K, a printer and two floppy drives, at $3,300.00 it seemed a bit pricey. But my engineer peers in Hollywood bought PC's, and it took them hours of configuring just to print! Smug me just printed my reports and went home! WYSIWYG was awesome...
- Nicholas Chase
@Internet Strategist: Don't be so certain people are accepting abuse. What I'm dismissing is the notion that coming to FriendFeed opens one up to much more abuse than one could've ever encountered on the internet. I may not know much about social media, but I joined so many listservs in 1993 that I had to go through over 150 emails a day, & I saw nastiness then. From there, I moved to MUDding, IRC, & UseNet, & then the web came along. People sometimes got nasty everywhere. To think anything else is silly.
- MiniMage - HLtW
I am unfollowing Scoble because of this abusive comment. It has mortally offended me, and I am seeing my lawyer. And if you believe that, I have this bridge I can sell you... :)
- Ian Betteridge
+1 on the Unix users were right. :]
- Mark Woodson
Interesting analysis of Twitter's Suggested User List, which @timoreilly objects to in comments: http://twittercism.com/suggest...
Iván Abrego, Rui Pereira, polou/indigo_bow and 63 other people liked this
Scoble, do you feel you're should have been on that featured twitter users list? Or do you feel you deserve a time on it?
- Doubledown_inSL
Interesting. But how did the people on SUL get there on the first place?
- Alex M.
Well said Robert.
- Leo Laporte
Newt Gingrich?? Why *is* Newt Gingrich on the SUL?
- RobinDotNet
I would think having Newt Gingrich on the list would invalidate the entire list. I mean, really.
- RobinDotNet
Doubledown_inSL: I don't want to be on any default list by a platform vendor that I didn't earn my way onto and that YOU can't earn your way onto it either. This is not a meritocracy. It's a royalty system. One that picks stars and gifts them huge audiences.
- Robert Scoble
Ahmed: Twitter picked their favorite people and removed anyone that they saw as a threat to their future business model. Me for talking about friendfeed too much. Leo for complaining about the name. Calacanis for being a pimp. Kawasaki for being too obvious about building his business (Alltop) on top of it. Shall I go on?
- Robert Scoble
Doubledown_inSL: you need to take a look at the original conversation if you haven't already... http://ff.im/4iPSZ
- Travis Koger
Robert: I see
- Alex M.
reminds me of way clubs in NYC let people in #1.Star Power (BIG NAME), #2 Beauty #3 Wealth
- courtney benson
one thing would be interesting to map - how many of the people on the list have ties to kevin rose... i am betting some interesting trends would show up.
- Allen Stern
Courtney: You forgot women to men ratio! ;)
- Travis Koger
Travis, right!
- courtney benson
Allen: Leo and I both have ties to Kevin Rose and aren't on the list.
- Robert Scoble
Media has always been star-driven... so one of the measures of success of any star-maker is the editorial judgment and wisdom of their anointed ones. Same in Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Nashville, Bollywood... print, radio, tv, movies... it's inescapable... and, Robert, no matter whose list you do or don;t make it onto, you are already a MAJOR star ;-)
- Fred Davis
robert - im talking about "in his posse" - justine is(was?), gary, etc. it's something that I've wondered about for a while.
- Allen Stern
It's the Web 2.0 Mafia ;-)
- Jesse Stay
Fred: thank you (for those who don't know, Fred is one of the co-founders of Wired Magazine and a star in his own right). But I wasn't gifted my "stardom" by a media platform. ;-)
- Robert Scoble
Fred, agreed that Robert is top notch but so is Leo, Guy and Jason as well as Kevin
- courtney benson
Allen: if you said it's "San Francisco gadflys" or "insiders" then I think you're correct. It's just that Kevin is one that's very visible in that circle. Funny, Howard Lindzen and Jeff Pulver and Fred Wilson are investors in Twitter and they aren't on it. I think all three of them deserve it too. I wonder why they aren't gifted a spot?
- Robert Scoble
Robert: surely having investors on the SUL would be a little too inbred, even for twitter?
- Travis Koger
Travis: probably. I sure would love to see the thinking that goes on behind the scenes when they decide this list. By the way, I've heard from someone close to the Twitter team that complaining about the list gets you added to a black list where you never will get onto it. Which, funny enough, freed me to complain even more. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I guess it would be a little liberating knowing that technically you could not offend them more than you already have. ;)
- Travis Koger
there's always been old boys clubs, the SUL is just twitter's form of it.
- BCK
Dave Winer is very quiet tonight.
- Mark
Mark: I think he's traveling.
- Robert Scoble
I do like his posts. I wish Dave contributed more on Friendfeed though. I think he is a little reluctant because he doesn't want to evangelise FF at all. He isn't interested in getting people from twitter to here, he considers that FF's problem and not something he should freely help towards. I suppose he is the opposite of you Scoble in that regard.
- Mark
wow, I met Steve Johnson recently @MarketingProfs B2B and I did not connect his real life self with the Twitter suggested list :D
- Valeria Maltoni
also, looks like the editors at People magazine picked who they put on the list :)
- Valeria Maltoni
I swear I typed that before I saw People magazine on the list!
- Valeria Maltoni
Robert, I think you're engaging in one of the oldest forms of media self-promotion here: attacking others as a way of drawing attention to yourself. I like you a lot and you're generally very positive. But when you start claiming that twitter "took you off the list" because you promote Friendfeed too much, I think you're playing the same kind of media game that led talk radio and its ilk astray. It doesn't speak well of you.
- Tim O'Reilly
I wondering if there has been anything showing whether being on the SUL effects a business bottom line, if it does or starts to I definitely can see a problem.
- Kim Landwehr
Just guessing but I find it really hard to believe that half the "stars" on the SUL actually write their own tweets. Betting it is all run by a bunch of PR flacks.
- Dave Hodson
Tim: you keep making this about me but I am far from the only one hurt by this list. But you are right and it demonstrates just how many strings are attached here even for people who are not on the list. We can't even discuss the list and how anti-community and how it sets up a corruptible system without looking like a selfish jerk. But you forgot one thing: I will not accept a spot on...
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- Robert Scoble
Tim: but I have written my last word on this. You are right that it serves me no good to talk about this and waste my energy on it. It's just shocking to me that you are defending something that isn't a meritocracy. I was expecting you to be the first one to decry this system of royalty and corruptible systems. The fact that you're all for it and, worse, saying I'm doing this just for self promotion, makes me sad. Really sad.
- Robert Scoble
You are out of order O'Reilly.
- Mark
Robert, you definitely earned your "stardom" but don't forget you also had a helpful platform as a Microsoft house blogger.
- Michael Markman
Thats a pretty weak point, Michael.
- Mark
Michael: and for that I had to interview and win my job (which wasn't easy). Also I had thousands of readers per day BEFORE getting that job and being a Microsoft employee didn't get me on a default list that was included in a platform service. I also didn't get an unfair advantage against other Microsoft employees and Bill Gates didn't "pick" the winners -- the marketplace did (when I...
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- Robert Scoble
Speaking as a non-celebrity looking in: I'm really bugged by this whole thing. First of all, Robert, I didn't need a SUL to follow you. Or Leo or Tim or iJustine or TechCrunch or anyone else on my list. The SUL means nothing to me. I never even looked into it ( I've been on twitter since 2006 way before the SUL was in place) until this whole SUL scandal started coming up. I understand...
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- Lise
Obviously the SUL is a bad idea all around, or at least the way it is implemented. I can see why they want it; most likely to help with retention of new users. Most people sign up and have no idea what to do. Unfortunately it puts Twitter, those on the SUL, and the people who point out what a poor system it is in a bad spot. There is no way Twitter can say they would be fair and...
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- W_B_K
Robert, hey, I know you weren't gifted your stardom, you earned it by being RELENTLESS about doing your thing, and doing it in public forums (whatever the forum), i.e.: sharing!!!
- Fred Davis
I think, ideally, SUL's would be personalized, based on your interests, your profile(s), your friends, FOF's, etc. We'd all get a different one, that was (hopefully) more tailored to each of us. The web is about micromedia, and the one-SUL-fits-all approach is so mass media that it doesn't fit in very well... as this whole discussion (and the many others on the SUL topic) underscore.
- Fred Davis
Fred: I agree and its a great point. This is almost what Facebook and LinkedIn do to recommend connections.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
Some interesting points here. Being somewhat of a lightweight compared to some of the visionaries here, I appreciate the opportunity to comment on something that has been bugging me for some time. I wrote about the follower issue a little while ago on my blog, http://bit.ly/NhVQa, and I feel very strongly that Twitter has become a popularity contest for some of its users. The fact the Robert engages others equally, regardless of their VC level, is why I follow him. His value to the community is tangible.
- Chris Sparno
I thought LinkedIn had a similar issue a few years ago with the number of connections and they capped the visible connections at 500 and evened the playing field. I like that approach. But it seems that acquiring twitter followers is baked into the twitter dna and they would never create a visible cap at 500.
- Jim Posner
Robert, I love you to death man, but why do you waste so much time and energy on this topic? I certainly don't care who is on the list, it just doesn't matter in the scheme of things. Make you own SUL if you feel others deserve to be heard, you have the webspace and the star power to do it, so just do it. Big hug dude.
- Rob Fahrni
Fred: I'd love a system like that. Sort of like Alltop or WeFollow.com. That would have been the right thing to do. Jim: exactly. Lise: there is a disconnect between those who do this as a business and those who do it just for fun. Audience size means money. Let me know how you feel when someone at work gets a huge raise without deserving it/earning it (especially worse if you've been...
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- Robert Scoble
Rob: I do have my own SUL. It's http://www.friendfeed.com/scoblei... and everyone on it earns their way on it every day by posting great content.
- Robert Scoble
So all those sales people and "MAKE MONEY WITH TWITTER" people -- do they make money off of me if I don't follow them back?
- RobinDotNet
I like what Fred said. It really would enhance the service. Tumblr has the right approach, at least in part, on the micro-level with Tumblarity. Each user has their own benchmark. In terms of twitter's SUL, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with it. Twitter is a business. The SUL is one method they use to promote their brand. There's a level of inherent familiarity built into the brand...
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- Benjamin Taylor
PS It's great to see the hulk back, in solidarity.
- Benjamin Taylor
So if there was a revolt and nobody followed people on the SUL who they thought should not be on the SUL, would Twitter leave them on the SUL? If you don't follow someone because they are on the SUL, is that as bad as following them because they are? (Did that make any sense, or did I not get enough sleep last night?)
- RobinDotNet
Exactly Robert, you work your butt off, and I appreciate you for what you bring to the table. I guess being a z-lister, like myself, leaves me on the outside of understanding why this is such a hot topic? Does this really boil down to money? I'm not trying to be an ass here, I truly don't get why it's so important?
- Rob Fahrni
Let's not forget that you can't be the "media darling" if you don't cater to celebs and the popular.Twitter has grown down distinct paths. On one branch are the value creators - they share and create meaningful content, dialog and discourse. On another, are the media hounds, who crave attention and are collecting followers like Pokemon. Those of us who value the former don't pay attention to the SUL.
- Chris Sparno
Isn't it kind of like going to google and searching for something, and the first links that show up are the ones that people have paid google money to give them precedence, and they might not even necessarily be the best search result?
- RobinDotNet
Chris, nicely put.
- Rob Fahrni
Robin, its exactly like that. Good analogy.
- Chris Sparno
Benjamin: you don't want to see me when I'm angry! Rob Fahrni: absolutely it's about money. And sex. And influence. And other kinds of measuring I won't mention here. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Rob Fahrni: but mostly it's about building a platform that is a meritocracy. I'm an American. I don't like royalty based systems. If you can't earn your way onto this list I don't want any part of it.
- Robert Scoble
Oh Robert, you're killin me man!
- Rob Fahrni
Rob Fahrni: I'm in a good mood. Peter Himmelman is rocking! http://peterhimmelman.com/furious... Come join us, more fun than debating stupid lists.
- Robert Scoble
Then Google isn't an exact model, because it IS a meritocracy, even though it's based on cash.
- RobinDotNet
Robin: I've never paid to be on Google. So far Google is a pretty darn good example of a good platform vendor that lets the marketplace decide winners and losers.
- Robert Scoble
Don't they have paid links that take precedence? I guess the diff is that though they might have that (and I don't know that they do for sure), they also show everybody else that fits the search criteria.
- RobinDotNet
Robin: absolutely not. The paid links were always separate on Google and never were mixed in with the free ones.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, I meant killin me in a good way, I'm grinning ear-to-ear. I see your point but doesn't all this attention, even negative attention, just add to the popularity of the thing you despise? You're one of the good guys Robert, don't let this drag you down. I think this is great fodder for a very long essay on Scobleizer.
- Rob Fahrni
Got it. That's good to know. So the links that best meet the search criteria are on the top. Hmmm. Sounds like meritocracy to me. You're right, not like Twitter's SUL.
- RobinDotNet
It's kind of interesting Robert that you are righteously condeming Twitter for removal from the SUL. As if it a) really matters in the grand scheme of things, b) like this is supposed to be a true meritocracy (I'm uncertain where one exists in the real word), and c) complaining on friendfeed or yourblog will change twitters mind. You are not @aplusk kutchner, or one of the Jonas bros...
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- derikp
derikp: if my son is better at playing soccer and isn't chosen I'd certainly go and talk to the coach and plead his case. But we're not talking about soccer and anyway I'm done discussing this. Onward. I'm glad there are so many people who like royalty based systems and don't understand why meritocracies are important to defend. I guess that's how we end up with countries like Iran and China. Sigh.
- Robert Scoble
It's interesting, a number of you have heavily criticized the SUL, yet you're all still using Twitter. Speaks to the power of numbers in the platform.
- Bill Kinney
Why should there be a list at all? Follow people that interest you. You make twitter what it is.
- Ryan Gerritsen
Bill: You can not like the SUL and still use Twitter. Apples and oranges. I don't like many of the people who live in my town, yet I still live here and like the town.
- Curt Mercadante
Granted. I just think it would be more interesting if someone critical of Twitter put their money where their mouth is and stopped using it. Actions speak louder than words, yadda yadda. It seems unlikely given the audiences some people have over there even if it's not a million plus. I also think the tech celebrity is jealous that traditional media has co-opted the platform. It's a fascinating topic.
- Bill Kinney
oh when will lame twitter SUL get corrected?! *sigh*
- Susan Beebe
from BuddyFeed
And, by the way, it seems like the SUL is being used like the same "mass follower" tools that the Twitter folks are seeking to diminish by killing the accounts of those who use them.
- Curt Mercadante
Reason I still use Twitter, I still get more responses from my Tweets than in FF. Yet I tend to be more engaged in FF these days but I think the FF celebs usually spark the most engaging threads and the rest of us are trying to get that engagement from our posts.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
manielse: there's no audience more engaged than one you build yourself by being of service to them. It's tough work and I'll be watching and engaging!
- Robert Scoble
Sorry I wasn't complaining, just saying many of us built that in Twitter and find it a little tougher to get traction on FriendFeed with our posts. I think tools like WeFollow, Twellow (and even #followfriday) help build relevant audiences easier. You can even argue that SUL is even a good starting place for n00bs.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
manielse: yeah, the eco system that's built up around Twitter is quite powerful. On the other hand here all you need to do is follow someone active and they bring other people into your view (every time I click "like" or comment on someone's items I push those items into your view, for instance) so finding new people to follow here is much nicer and much less of a competition. Plus you find new voices that aren't on any list a lot faster here, I've found.
- Robert Scoble
Manielse, ditto Robert S
- Myrna
Maybe they could reward early twitter users with a day on the list for every month on twitter before 08. If new social networks would promise props in the future I could live without twitter.
- Greg Birch
Although the SUL is obviously distorting of the natural community growth of Twitter, and does not really fulfill the functions @Ev and @Biz intended, "power users" not on the SUL who criticize it should know: they sound really vain, chippy, and silly.
- Jason Pontin
I don't care who is on the Twitter SUL, and I pay no attention to it. I look for the Twitter feeds that are most interesting to me -- they are not difficult to find, with a bit of searching. I don't understand the preoccupation with that list -- like everything on the Internet, it is simple to route around or ignore entirely.
- Sean McBride
Jason: we know that. If I lived in fear of looking vain, chippy, or silly, I'd just stay off the Internet! :-)
- Robert Scoble
Robert, I do not know you or Tim but I do follow and have great respect for you both. IMHO (I am an amateur when compared to you guys), Tim was not saying that he supports the SUL. Do I agree with his comment? Nope. Do I like the SUL? No. But it does happen that if you criticise a list while you mention that you have not been included it can sound like you are "jealous" even if you are not and you do have good reasons for not liking the list... so this can be a tricky one!
- Pablo Melchor
Really, the personalized way is the only good way... I mean, sheesh, Twitter recommends people like Ashlee Simpson to me, ferchrissakes! So most of the people on the SUL are a total waste for me, and I suppose for most people, when you get right down to it... if I had some $ to burn I'd get some outside research firm like Insight Express to scope out how the SUL is actually viewed,...
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- Fred Davis
I still think most people find suggested users through word-of-mouth and their own social circles. That's the only way to get the people you really want to follow based on your interests. I've also found that using hashtags properly will get the kind of users you want to follow to you before you get to them.
- Fleagle
Why Do We Still Call Them PowerPoint "Slides?" http://www.steverubel.com/why-do-...
Ha! Sounds like the beginning of a George Carlin or Seinfeld bit!
- Fred Davis
And we use the "rolling the car window down" motion to get someone to put the window down.
- RuthNH
Is there a better place than friendfeed to go online for conversation? Here, unless you're on people's main feed or have friends who like or comment on your posts regularly, the conversation doesn't get seen. I post fun stuff, etc. and participate a lot, but I'm looking for a place (online) to have actual connections and conversations.
Paul OFlaherty, Amie Gillingham, Andre P. Siregar and 19 other people liked this
I haven't found a better place, I think one just has to really make a large effort to jump in. Comment a lot (consistently), post to rooms. It took me a while.
- joey
I think it depends on the conversation you want to have. There are plenty of niche sites out there that are better hubs for various conversations... but FF is a great general place to have a presence.
- Sean O'Brien
Yeah, I just saw over the weekend how brand new people to FF got lots of interaction & it made it painfully obvious that I'm virtually invisible. I comment a lot, but will try posting more to rooms. I just wish there was some place i could go where I didn't have to wait forever to have conversations & connections.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
I'd like to find the various hubs & niche sites but don't know where to look
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Maybe it depends on who you comment back at and who you subscribe to/who is subscribed to you? You have more subscribers than I do by 3 times, so I don't know. Not that I get a lot of interaction on my feed (but I don't really post conversation starters).
- joey
This whole universe is still rapidly evolving... FF is great, but because it can't thread itself back into Twitter, etc., the "conversations" get smashed to bits... however, FF allows for much richer (longer, music, pics, vids, etc.) conversations that Twitter...
- Fred Davis
It's very frustrating. I post stuff all the time that I think is interesting and/or amusing, and get 0 response. I also comment and like all the time. I'm not whining, I'm just expressing what I'm feeling...
- Joey Gibson
This is a great place to be. So many people, so many possible topics. Just take part. Post things that you are interested in, comment on the other things that interest you. Build it, and they will come :-)
- Andy Bold
@joey I messed up by following a tip that Louis Gray mentioned to subscribe to other people's twitter accounts and now I don't know how to fix it. I may have a bunch of subscribers, but they don't see me. Plus I'm subscribed to all these people and I don't know how to unsubscribe to all those people.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
@Andy - I've been commenting a lot, etc. - just at a loss on how to achieve the conversations & connections I crave.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
This "conversation craving mode" I'm in may go away when my husband gets back in town soon. Then I will have someone to talk to. He's been gone for about a month and when he's gone the lack of friends & conversations become painfully obvious and depressing.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Ah, maybe subscribe to more people then? And just comment a lot. Maybe search for topics that interest you in addition to groups.
- joey
I've found that the secret to FF is to forget about your own lifestream and just jump in on others. You can get some great conversations going by piggybacking off of more popular users topics and you get to meet a lot of cool people in the process. Eventually, you'll notice that people will start liking and commenting back as you get more subscribers.
- Davis Freeberg
So, the question is, what type of conversation and connection do you crave? Seek out the places where that is happening here on Friendfeed and take it from there. The conversation might not be happening here, but pointers to where the conversation does take place definitely are. Joey's point about subscribing to lots of people is a great one. I think I'm at 463 people now, somehow, that...
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- Andy Bold
from email
@Davis I've been commenting a lot, i guess the process just takes a really long time on FF. *sigh*
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
@Andy by home feed do you mean the main public feed?
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
This is the place for conversations. However, if you are interested in following some Twitter conversations, there are a few sites out there like TweetChat and TweetGrid
- Dilip Dand
i guess people crave various degrees of meaningful conversations and intimacy (not sexual) with others. I wish I was a more shallow person, then I'd be happy with Twitter and not be frustrated.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Twitter is so horrible for conversations - that's why I can't hardly stand it. I quit even following people back over there. What's the use, they are just driving up their numbers I guess and would never converse or connect with you anyway.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
The thing I like about Twitter is likely the most annoying attribute. I like that someone can just reply to a blip from me and so forth. But, a conversation (which is more what's going on here) is awful in Twitter. I do wish I could reply, so to Dilip or you Jannifer specifically and force some kind of notice if you happen to walk away from the conversation. But, then that's not how real conversations work. So, maybe I'm thinking about something that would diminish the conversational quality of FF.
- Jason Nunnelley
Jannifer, I agree. Twitter is horrible with conversations especially since they implemented their new "feature" which does not show you a thread if you are not following both the parties. Therefore the tools I mention do what Twitter stopped doing. Also, while most of the conversations on Twitter are not useful to me, I am looking forward to finding one gem that would make it worthwhile :)
- Dilip Dand
About the only time twitter is ok for conversations is on the Tues. night #gno (girls night out) events, but that's pretty much it. Plus, I wonder if there are people who don't know how to check their @ replies when someone is talking to them.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Still new to all of this, but it seems hard to get the conversation focused on what you post. All in all, I'd say that friendfeed has the best conversation though.
- Torp
LOL :) Most likely there are no people to read that account, in which case I am talking to myself. Wait does that mean I am off the deep end :)
- Dilip Dand
@Torp I do believe FF has the best potential for conversations, but yeah it's extremely hard to start a conversation around what you post, especially if you're not on people's main feed.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
@Torp One way of getting a conversation started would be to share your post with various groups. However, that is not a guarantee, but at least it will be in front of several people who may be actively monitoring the groups.
- Dilip Dand
FriendFeed is a fantastic place for information discovery and conversations. You just need to find your pace.
- Louis Gray
It's not always easy. Have you tried posting in rooms as well as your own feed?
- Rachel Lea Fox
Jannifer, you have nearly 1,000 people following you. That's great for breadth, but not depth. If you were at a real-life party with 1,000 people there, you wouldn't be able to have a meaningful conversation with all 1,000 of them. You'd instead talk to a small group of people who seemed interesting. I think the same applies on FriendFeed. Right now your emphasis seems to be on Feed --...
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- Stephen Mack
Stephen: I have a private room here (several actually). That's one way you can do what you are talking about. I also follow small lists of people very closely in addition to lists of tens of thousands of people. That way I get the serendipity of seeing what a large group is discussing as well as the intimacy of small groups like what you're talking about. http://www.friendfeed.com/scoblei... is my outbook of stuff I think you might be interested in.
- Robert Scoble
try out http://snappark.com it's what i called twitter2.0 :-) (but only chinese version is available thou.)
- 费里曼先生
Jannifer - I think it can be tough to get going. At first, most of my contacts were with others in the library world (I have an MLS and work w/library issues, even though I don't work as a librarian). After that, most of my contacts have come from rooms that focus on specific interests of mine, followed by a few general ones. I don't keep many people in my homefeed, so I probably miss a lot. p.s. - adding you now.
- Katy S
No better place then FriendFeed for me. :-)
- Kol Tregaskes
TWEETTABS for one. on-air conversations going wild.
- Nitin Nanivadekar
IRC
- raphaeL
Starting a new conversation is relatively tough - it's probably being discussed in several places on friendfeed already ;-) I think searching for them and joining in where they are is more likely to produce responses although there's never a guarantee ... Of course starting your own conversation has the advantage of focusing it more clearly on what you want to discuss. Best of luck,
- immaterial
53% of my 96,000 followers don't follow directions. They are useless. The others will discuss this on FriendFeed here:
Tyson Key, Mike, J. Abdul-Qahhar and 132 other people liked this
you mean like so? :)
- Iwan
huh?
- Rasmus Lauridsen
:-) seriously, everyone wants followers but what good are they if they won't do anything you tell them to do? Useless!
- Robert Scoble
hahah that is soo funny
- Susan Beebe
yet sooo true. wondering just how long until people figure it out
- Susan Beebe
huh?
- Gabriel
is this a timed challenge?
- Iwan
Hmmm...
- Adam
Literally LOLing at this, Robert.
- ha3rvey (big appetite)
Yes master...
- Chris Forbes
You're not the boss of me! :)
- jcunwired
i'm not sure what you mean ;)
- Suzannah Archibald
I want to know how many of them consider themselves social media experts?
- Colin Anawaty
bit of a pompous mood today? when have you ever expected anyone to follow directions on the net?
- Doubledown_inSL
I was lost when Robert was at the 140 conference - he wasn't active here so I didn't know what to read...haha
- Mike Bracco
*looks around for FF koolaid*
- Susan Beebe
Fine, so I am useless.
- Julie Anderson
Getting people to follow directions on the internet is akin to herding cats. Best of luck. :)
- Keith Bourgoin
Any reccomendations for friend feed convos on the iPhone?
- Stuart Tracte
lol
- Miguel Rodriguez
FF sux nardz
- Doubledown_inSL
How could I defy the techno-hulk?
- Amanda Magee
You are fired up today...you might want to switch to decaf. GOOD GODS, WHAT AM I SAYING.
- M.L. Stone
ahah, like most of the followers on twitter =)
- Pierre TAMISIER
but 47% of people go on FF? that is quite good
- Billy Fung
So, 47% or your followers are expected to discuss here? The comment counter is going to explode.
- Brome
http://friendfeed.com/iphone works well. At least, it works well on my Android
- Keith Bourgoin
3% of Scobes followers are still trapped on Myspace
- Doubledown_inSL
twitter wasn't an interactive medium was it? :P
- jaspio
What?
- fanch_guy
Kevin: only about 42,000 of my 96,000 followers are here. Useless! I think they are all spammers or bots.
- Robert Scoble
I'm amazed how fast this thread is growing.
- Nick Prince
You mean 95,999 followers.
- Robert Peterson
Very clever.
- Nicole
that mass growing of the thread would be the 47% who can follow instructions ;o)
- Carl Grint
I keep having to block spammy, icky followers on twitter, mostly porn and get-rich schemers..augh!
- Susan Beebe
I refuse to respond to such a claim!
- Al Fuller
seriously, how much is FriendFeed paying you?
- Greg Hollingsworth
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." John 10:11
- don manu
What am I not supposed to do? Where is the line?
- Brian Goss
Spammers and bots eh? Great minds think alike?
- ralphsaunders
What prize are you going to give your 100,000 follower?
- Mike Bracco
*reading and where is my popcorn? ;) ;)*
- Ronald
Greg: I got a free t-shirt.
- Robert Scoble
LOL
- Schneider Mike
Flame bater
- Ron Hudson
I won't comment this thread ;)
- DAL
following on twitter AND NOT subscribing on FF = useless?
- Alexei Zheglov
promised to cure cancer at 100k
- Doubledown_inSL
Does it count if I follow you on FF, but not twitter?
- Keith Bourgoin
Spammers are everywhere though including here.
- Brian Sullivan
@Doubledown_inSL Now that's funny.
- Mike Dowden
Power is a double-edged sword, Robert...lol... can be tough to galvanize one's
- Carol Lynn Martens
wow... think we could crash friendfeed with this thread?
- Chip McComb
ROBERT! I sent you like 500 @ replies on twitter, wth aren't you replying? j/k
- Justin Hopkins
I don't get it
- Amelia Rangel
Do you want followers or slack-jawed lackys?
- Mark Petzold
how many comments per minute will appear in average :D
- Flavio
LOL @ Justin
- Doubledown_inSL
No one has to do anything anyone says/
- Paul Kinlan
Huh, what? Should I comment here?
- Kandeezie
let's see how 'stableizer' FF really runs *bumping up this thread *g* *
- Ronald
No. I refuse to. But that doesn't make me useless. :-P
- Ladybug Heather
show me a bridge - I'll jump after you!
- BEX
new game: instead of "simon says" it is now "scoble says"
- Chris Rogers
FF is great, it just requires a higher level of interaction that many people don't have time for or interest in.
- Stuart Tracte
That's truth but I am one of the direcitons follower
- Gent Thaqi
Just following instructions.
- Larry Roth
Glad I caught this in my Twitter feed - I'd hate to be a bad directions-follower.
- Shawn Farner
whatever you say
- George Deane
^^ yeppers, i robot :D
- Ronald
If you're happy and you follow (Scoble), clap your hands!
- Carlos Granier-Phelps
I may of missed something, my bad..
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
Must do what Scoble says... Slow down comment box... forgot what this tread was about.
- Drew S
Doh! Sorry, I clicked that link by accident - I'm in the 53%. As you were...
- Andrew Jordan
/claps hands
- George Deane
I agree that FF is better for tracking conversations, and hopefully @Twitter will get that. I still spend more time on Twitter
- Matthew Scott Horbund
do what?
- Mick
I follow directions but am often useless. Where do I fit?
- Aaron Ball
53% your numbers are inaccurate.
- Carlos Ayala
This should be interesting...
- Robert Lee
YES O LORD AND MASTER, WHAT IS THY BIDDING :)
- ftg888
wow, I'm not the only one who has no clue what's going on..
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
Grr... shouldn't have commented... Now I'll be getting IM updates forever!!!!
- Carlos Granier-Phelps
I think this is just a psychology experiment...
- Chip McComb
lol
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
Commenting so as not to appear useless
- Herb Hernandez
hahaha
- Ronald
Carlos: lol
- Larry Roth
what is actually ment by "directions"?
- Clemsen
yes how is the number 53% found.
- Daniel Graversen
as usual im in the minority (43%), Im never in the majority :(
- George Deane
I hope you're wrong, Chip. Otherwise, you didn't see me here.
- Shawn Farner
reporting for duty...
- Todd Goldstein
baaaaah
- mikepk
Scoble does have a lot of followers...
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
I thought men were basically incapable of asking for directions, so why would they follow them? ;-)
- Julie Bovee Hill
Robert, you are looking angry today. Take it easy, man!
- Walter Lounsbery
d'oh! I meant 47%
- George Deane
I am in building 44. Can you give me directions to 43?
- David Connell
??? is this a test of the national broadcasting system?
- Robert Wilkins
damn it scoble! get a real job! =)
- Jonathan Crossland
Wow--never thought I'd wish for a "Don't Like" button or link, Robert!
- Kathy Fitch
Robert's comments are very important particularly for political & development work.
- Justin Long
Also important for business marketing.
- Justin Long
U made me upset in first look then I realized what u mean and I found Im not not one of those. Hope you are not angry sir and wont fire me..
- Abhijeet Singh
I need a job like Scoble's... but in Miami.
- Carlos Granier-Phelps
to comment or not to comment.... that is the question...
- Kim
Are trending topics on friendfeed called "friending topics"?
- Larry Roth
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT) What was the question again?
- don manu
hehehe... nice trick
- Gustavo Munoz
from twhirl
Robert, I'm up to the CHALLENGE of not being "useless." Actually, my business communication students at SFSU just heard my initial remarks which included THREE RULES FOR SUCCESS in BUSINESS [and everything else!] The rules: LISTEN CAREFULLY, READ CAREFULLY and FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS!
- Shari Weiss
i think this thread goes 'epic' on FF ;)
- Ronald
Apathy is the big killer of networks.
- Justin Long
I'm here. That makes me not useless, I guess?
- Celia
Robert Wilkins: it is my test to see how many spammers, bots, or jerks are following me.
- Robert Scoble
I get alot of spam about sites who gives you followers, whats the point of the followers have no interresting to give to you? And whats most crap is that they have enabled auto-follow back.. grrr :P don't sign up on those sites people.!
- Qbat
I like the constantly refreshed list but it doesn't half distract me from my own comment!
- Joshua Davidson
hahahahaha, ok.. now I get it
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
I Welcome our FF Overlords!
- Al Fuller
Does this mean that you expect there to be 45,120 comments here?
- Andrew Pass
I like Viagra.
- Paul Puri
:-P
- Lorenzo Strambi
this is the only ff link of yours i followed.
- moogs
a spammer...
- Sebastiaan van den Akker
You are usefull for us Robert =)
- Qbat
I am getting a few new people to follow here, which is good!
- Robert Scoble
Qbat aka Larsen: Agreed!
- Larry Roth
I am not a bot! I am a free man!
- Jeff Newfeld
Talking directions?
- Sardar Mohkim Khan
i guess i've been lucky - i don't think i've seen any bots yet on FF (going now to check my short followers list)
- Chris Rogers
Why do you think that people take the time to comment here?
- Andrew Pass
This thread is like watching the real time web on steroids.I can't type fast enough to keep the comment box in view....yikes!
- Dana Fosburgh
Robert - me too, thanks! :)
- Susan Beebe
All you have to do is insult people and then they come :-)
- George Deane
Notice how many of us follow when we are told we are not following.
- Sandy McMerty
So, you're saying that people who don't use FF are spammers, bots or jerks ?
- Djordje Lukic
So when you figure out how many there are, How are you going to auto filter them out?
- Robert Wilkins
I read, I clicked, I arrived. I guess that means I'm not useless.
- Mike
This comment intentionally left useless.
- phil baumann
Seriously though let's not take the term 'followers' too literally. Just because I read a column doesn't mean I share the authors views. Just because you say lets discuss this on friendfeed doesn't mean I log onto FF and.......ah. OK....What is thy bidding?!
- Joshua Davidson
You suck, man. I refuse to be a minion. Oh, wait... shit...
- Joey Gibson
<Insert clever comment here.>
- CAJ, somewhere else
Am I in the 53% or the 47%?
- Tony Connor
What type of followers do you need Robert? Tell us and maybe we will try to be better.
- Qbat
150th
- Harscoat
DeVries: oh, I understand. We need better notified control.
- Robert Scoble
Well, those who don't do what you tell them are actually more useful. No for you directly, but for the society. They mix your directions with their own to create new ones.
- Kirill Petrovsky
Is this a roll call :)
- Boon Kwee
i'm just commenting to hang with the cool kids
- ukgrad98
^^ Nope 'happy hour' at Scoble's ;) ;)
- Ronald
"Follower" is a weird term. "Watcher" may be better. Follower implies action and engagement, and anybody who's used social media for more than 20 minutes knows that just isn't true.
- Jared Smith
Have I responded quick enough not to deemed useless. I feel a little baaaaa now.
- Crispin Heath
Jared: bing!
- Robert Scoble
So if you ever figure out how to deal with the bots and all the "I will teach you to make millions with Twitter" junk let us all know!
- Marshall Huwe
you are talking about twitter, they would be useless but they are numbers and number always count.
- Madhav Tripathi
If we need to use friendfeed to be useful, are there any clients or is it only the webinterface.
- Daniel Graversen
Marshall: this is how. Bots and spammers don't get FriendFeed.
- Robert Scoble
Daniel: what is wrong with the web?
- Robert Scoble
inscribo ergo sum (I write therefore I am)
- Jeff Newfeld
Nothing, just seem deficult to follow more threads. But that is probably not needed because the whole conversation is in once place. No need to multitask.
- Daniel Graversen
is it just me or is the most used "plugin" on FriendFeed twitter?
- Qbat
Actually, I find FriendFeed useless. I was reading an article about Twitter being useless, but the news get faster there. We'll have to say thanks to TwitScoop for that.
- Dragos Pirvu
I never use FriendFeed. it just agregates all my other feeds into one feed. thats all :D
- Zafarali
Dragos: wait until you compare search here to Twitter before calling it useless. Among other features.
- Robert Scoble
No bot me, no. Count me out for that one.
- Ton Zijp
dragos: all the news on Twitter is on FF, plus FF has better conversation - what do you think is missing?
- Chris Rogers
FriendFeed enables comments on your tweets.!
- Qbat
Robert Scoble: I think the proliferation of tools for Twitter let you slice and dice the data the way you want it and that is helpful to many. I do like the Web interface for FriendFeed, but imagine the possibilities that some cool tools could bring. No?
- Larry Roth
So then we need someone in your vast network to write us a little app that will map the Twitter users who comment on FF and then block all the rest! Or at least create a "Real" Group in TweetDeck for me.
- Marshall Huwe
You don't want followers, Robert—you want minions. I've got a few myself, and they're great.
- Glen, Bespectacled Elder
ha!
- Ned Baugh
there are SO MANY COMMENTS HERE
- Zafarali
the best part is u can track em
- Zafarali
Is this the way to San Jose? err ... I mean Friend Feed?
- Tom Horn
Twitter should have a option that people who want's to follow you must write a small text for WHY you should let them follow you or the other way around
- Qbat
Did you know that more than 90% of all statistics are made up? ;)
- Tim Young
I'm getting tired of having to block the spam followers everyday.
- Ron Hudson
Working on both FF and twitter - but FF is easier to follow comment threads
- kathysd
What is interesting is I am already following most of the people who commented here which proves my point.
- Robert Scoble
I was carefully looking at this list the other day http://spinn3r.com/rank... - turns out many people on it barely/if at all - use friendfeed.
- Nir Ben Yona
Can you guys slow down - I can't keep up :(
- Al Fuller
I think Twitter and FF provide different things and there is space on the internet for both :)
- Tom Griffin
I've had friendfeed for quite a while, but I've not used it much, how do I expand this chat?
- Ron Hudson
How does this post check for bots?
- Amit Morson
Followers can not be useless. At least you can be proud of the sheer scale. And I believe, you don't want to have a conversation with thousands people at once. That would be truly useless.
- Grigori Milov
I am here with you - I think it is that only half want to have a say.
- Robert Freeze
On Twitter I talk strangers V on Friendfeed I am among friends
- Asgeir
I'd like twitter to have a "report spam" button, this would avoid quite a lot of hassle...
- don manu
Ron: just click on comments link under the topic
- Qbat
ya like that! thanks. How do I do that?
- Ron Hudson
Why is it important that followers comment & discuss U2, @Scobleizer? BC U R green?
- Petter Griph
Amit: bots don't follow directions from people who are not their owners. No bots here.
- Robert Scoble
FriendFeed should get a comment button under all the comments
- Qbat
So, 47% will choose to do their own thing and not comment on here. Wait - what? Doh! And 65% won't read the comments that have already been made because there are already 'too many' :-D
- Andy Bold
Qbat: click on the time under the post and open it in a new window
- Robert Freeze
Andy: I'm in the 35% that read the comments. Didn't want my lame joke to be a REPEATED lame joke. :D
- Tim Young
Robert Freeze: aaah.! Thank you =)
- Qbat
Robert: unless perhaps the bot has directions to comment on every Scoble post?
- Brian Sullivan
This reminds me of that "following directions" test from grade school. 1. Read all instructions before beginning. (2 -> N-1). Lots of crazy instructions which we all did. N. Don't do any of the previous instructions. Turn the page over, write your name, and wait.
- Don Faulkner
Robert Freeze, that never worked for me
- Amit Morson
Go watch Perez Hilton's video about being beaten up last night and going on techcrunch
- Mark
time for a pint :-p
- tony bland
Robert Freeze that worked. that should be labeled a bit better
- Ron Hudson
Andy: I didn't tell you to read all the comments! :-)
- Robert Scoble
If I reply here that I think it's less than 53% I may actually prove myself wrong. So be it.
- Arnd Jan Gulmans
Should be a rewind and play button so you can play back all the comments.. like google wave
- Qbat
Lots of users are already on the service but, under utilize it. Really still don't understand how powerful the service is or how to use the filtering system.
- Eric Logan
And how many minutes/comments-in does the Scobalizer stop reading the comments? Opps, I just see that we are not supposed to "read" to comments...only discuss them.
- Stephen Price
Thats cause they were busy seeing what I am doing!! LOL, your not the only person bossing people around.
- T.S. Elliott
How big is the percentage of your followers that doesn't follow you?
- Arnd Jan Gulmans
I love Friend Feed!
- Robert Freeze
Click here for 101 ways to get rich ... Woooops, sorry wrong percentage group.
- Chris Spencer
The reason I don't use friendfeed very much is because there is no SocialScope support on my blackberry. As soon as I can get a sweet blackberry app I'll be here more.
- Ron Hudson
Now if I can just get my mom on here. http://www.building43.com/blogs...
- Robert Freeze
I don't want to be in the wrong group. :P
- Sheryl
Ron: http://fftogo.com
- Tom Griffin
Tim: I'm a 65%er :) Though I am now in the 13.9% that skim comments to see what's going on. And also in the 29.4% of people managing to find replies to their comments in the Scobleflow. Definitely in the 100% of people wanting a Comment link at the end of each conversation since I moved back to Safari. Oh, and also in the 100% of people who take conversations off topic while making up statistics.
- Andy Bold
Done, in.
- Thom Kennon
Tom Griffin, I saw that, and it's "usable" but it's nowhere near the elegance and simplicity of say UberTwitter,SocialScope, or TweetGenious. I use SocialScope. It is an absolute Killer app.
- Ron Hudson
Do I get partial credit for skimming the comments? No? Sorry, master.
- malackey
Cool, so, I'm in the 47%, 35%, 29.4%, 100% and 100% ranges! I'm all over the place. Thanks Scoble and Andy for helping me learn something new about myself.
- Tim Young
I see the "224 more comments" bit on FF and know I don't need to add another comment. Erm...
- Ian Betteridge
FFtogo doesn't auto-refresh
- Ron Hudson
To follow or not to follow, or to passive follow versus have an active conversation?
- Peter Simoons
More stats: 41% will miss Robert's reply to them in the reply flood, 26% will see it and not answer, 22% will have ADD (the tech curse) and already be doing something else, and 1% will see the reply and see it as an excuse to make up some more statistics. (And reply that I definitely have not read all the comments ;-) )
- Andy Bold
It's all about the user experience though - it's easier to comment to someone's question on Twitter by quickly clicking @ than click a link through to FF, faff about sizing the screen on the screen to wait for the comments to load, read them and then post, so yeah, I can see why many respond on Twitter than FF. I'm doing that more myself as currently very busy with work projects. This...
more...
- Sally Church
And, somewhere in the horde, somebody will belatedly realise that he somehow manages to fall into Robert Scoble's "useful" list. Darn it - will need to post more signal and less noise now! ;)
- Andy Bold
I refuse to fall prey to this ruse, Robert. Oh...wait... ;)
- Robert J Taylor
I added you to my Live acct weeks ago. No reply.
- Bret
I'm too sleepy to read all this right now.
- Daniel Zarick
clever early morning link-bait
- Jake Ludington
nice one :) you should do an NHST on that hahaha
- The Pageman
They should change that from "followers" to something like "watchers" or "subscribers". As in "I have a subscription to the Scoble lifestream."
- Steve Lynch
from twhirl
discuss (Would hate to be useless)
- Charlie Anzman
So is this a casual social experiment to determine rough percentages of active/rabid users who like to engage/participate with those they follow?
- Eden Hensley
I completely agree! Unfortunately I might be considered part of that 53%! The only reason I am responding is because someone else I follow re-tweeted it. I personally have over 5000 followers but only regularly interact with 50 or so. Isn't Social Media about conversation and being engaging? Hmmm......
- Robert Dominguez
Robert: Very interesting experiment, one should use there own judgment over there (twitter) regarding bots and spammers.
- Eran Even-Kesef
@Scoble: I'm listening. What are you going to say, or what did I miss?
- Jason Cronkhite
from Alert Thingy
It is a direction. Anybody must walk all alone ... so, what is the point?
- bishoph
same here, most people don't read
- Michael Reese
Smile and wave boys, smile and wave:)
- Rick Bucich
I too am tired of blocking spam followers on twitter...
- W_B_K
great man！！no protect update.... and i just follow ..i 'd like be the unless fllower..lol~~
- HealingBrush
Not being a bot, I am compelled to follow directions.
- Randall Fink
I am useless :-(
- Andrew
Re blackberry access, try http://friendfeed.com/iPhone - it's supposed to look good on BB too
- Andy Bold
from email
Andy Bold, I played with iPhone page too, but it's just a pain to have to open the browser. The blackberry environment is all about easy simple communication. If I have to jump through hoops it breaks down. Not to mention a friend feed experience without push is not a friendfeed experience.\
- Ron Hudson
99% of your followers will not read the 250 comments proceeding this one, and I am one of those 99%
- Steve C
That'll teach me for ignoring Twitter for a few minutes a couple of hours ago! Late as usual.
- Graham Stewart
Hey, much better here! Twitter sux.... after getting locked out of @freddavis for months with NO reply from Twitter, even after you tweeted @ev and @biz (thanks!)... so I my new Twitter name is @fucktwtr ... but much better to use FriendFeed!
- Fred Davis
I almost thought that you have a big ego. :)
- Shuuro
followers are for cults. twitter should change to readers/reading, because at the end of the day this is all about reading
- Jim Posner
Adding my opinion to the rollcall, though I've just realized that i actually have no opinion on this.
- Chris Foley
Clever. :-)
- Patrick Ward
To much noise, the good data is lost.
- Adam Mesenbrink
Yes to much noice. Maybe a way to mark comments as good could be a way to filter the comments.
- Daniel Graversen
Adam, I think that's a limitation with the threaded discussion model of FriendFeed - it becomes very, very difficult to follow a conversation once it goes beyond a hundred or so comments. Of course, Scoble will come up with a search filter which makes it easy in about three comments from now, just to prove I'm wrong... :)
- Ian Betteridge
I didn't realize followers were supposed to do what their followees said. Does that mean I have to open those links to help me make money on twitter? I was just using it for communication. Silly me.
- RobinDotNet
Robin: communication takes someone on the other side listening and talking back.
- Robert Scoble
Useless to YOU, perhaps. I'll bet they are getting value from the info you rpovide. Social media doesn't have to be about communication, it can be about "transmitting information" or some other morer restrcitive definition of what goes on. Some people just like to listen!
- Jim Tierney
Useful post :)
- Krishnamoorthy
Agreed! There are those like me who sit in shadows, read and do not comment... oh wait, crap!
- Danny F Santos
Talking back is definitely good, but I'm still not clicking on those links telling me I can make money on twitter. I do talk back to people (as evidenced here). :-) So you have a lot of followers who don't. Do they even tweet? Can anyone explain why people join twitter and don't tweet?
- RobinDotNet
Jim: I'm not a broadcast, though. Are people who just consume really useful?
- Robert Scoble
And BTW, if you don't realize the value your personal brand gets from having those 48,000 followers whether they reply back or not, you're missing something!
- Jim Tierney
Robin: people are used to consuming info and not talking back. I understand that. Jim: there is some value in having lots of consumers, yes. I just aspire to more.
- Robert Scoble
lucky you that non all of them have an active role in your FF... how can you think of have an interaction wth so many people?
- Paolo Galli
from IM
I think you math is waaaaaaaay off. Looks like somewhere around 0.3125%(300/96,000 - rounding up) of your followers are useful, meaning you should edit your comment to say 99.7% of your followers. Really makes me wonder the true value of twitter if one of the top uses gets this percentage of useful following. The other possibility is that as followers increase, the percentage of attentive/usefull/whatever-you-want-to-call-it decreases.
- Robert D. Fraser
Paolo: I've had interactions with tens of thousands of people here on friendfeed, just not all at the same time. Robert: you're right. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Do you think those non-tweeting-twitterers sit at their desk and read all the tweets coming across? Or are they looking for something specific.
- RobinDotNet
Scoble: You are asking questions and experimenting with stuff that I find interesting. Just reading through this thread provides some interesting insights into users' perspectives on Twitter.
- Matthew Schrock
Is that southeastweb thing from a bot or some kind?
- RobinDotNet
Robin: I think it's a spammer. But at least it's a spammer that follows directions. That said I think I'm going to block it.
- Robert Scoble
Blocked.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble you really can do it? I'm very impressed :) I'm jocking... I think many users on the web just read information but doesn't partecipate... it's to difficult ;)
- Paolo Galli
from IM
97.2% of all statistics are made up.
- Jason A. Nunnelley
Tekany: and the statistics that aren't made up can mislead. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Seeing a spammer blocked just makes me feel warm all over. It's so awesome.
- RobinDotNet
I am exceptionally useless.
- Geoff Schultz
Geoff: that's why I follow you! :-)
- Robert Scoble
Following instructions is way overrated
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
That's what I'll have on my next business card: Scoble found me useful, what about you ?
- Antoine Bertier
RTFM or GTFO said the BOFH.
- Jon Winters
Although at this point I would welcome someone giving me instructions as to the next steps in life - far too many options. Maybe I should crowdsource it, but I am certain not to like the results
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
Robert: To be honest, I think sometimes folks are intimidated by the breadth of knowledge that you and others on FF seem to have and your ability to engage in discussions. They may feel that they need to say something 'brilliant' or not say anything. I will admit that that I fell into that category up until recently. To your (and others') credit, once I took the plunge I found that this wasn't the case. You guys still know WAY more than I do, but that's one of the reasons I'm here - to learn!
- Alex Hellstrom
@scobleizer you crack me up sometimes! There, see this post went to you in both places... But I don't really feel like discussing it... ;-P
- Walt Ruppar
Walt: heh.
- Robert Scoble
LOL! Great job of being satirical! You have a lot of great followers. :)
- James Stratford
Just sayin I could follow directions and discuss here if I wanted, but not interested in this discussion. However it did make me laugh that you called 53% of your followers out on not being able to follow directions.
- Walt Ruppar
Alex, uhm like totally and stuff ... and uhm. Ya know. Cool.
- Jason Nunnelley
BTW: where'd you see my reply come in from first? FF or as a mention over on twiiter?
- Walt Ruppar
Walt: here on friendfeed.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, you dropped your twitter response button. Makes sense, but was it purely to reduce redundancy?
- Jason Nunnelley
viewing people as "useful" is problematic..useful to who?..tools are "useful'...people not so much...helpful may be a more precise word.
- Jim Posner
Jim, wordsmith!
- Jason Nunnelley
Hi
- Tyler (Chacha)
.LOLz...great thread!
- .LAG liked that
Twitter to me seems a big mess of information, I can't keep up with it! FF sorts the mess out nicely and without the spam. I much prefer FF.
- Matthew Davis
Jim: you're right of course. I was just trying to be an egotistical bbbaaaahhhhssssttttaaaarrrrrdddd to get a conversation going. Jason: what did I drop? I didn't do it on purpose.
- Robert Scoble
Damn it Robert, you got me to make an account here three days ago, what more can I do for you? ;-P
- Shane Trammell
Robert, you are smart
- Arvind
This is an easy way to get rid of bots. They don't have anything intelligent to share (like me)!
- Carlton Prest
WTG sheeple for getting conned into commenting here... wait. um.
- Scott Breakall
Robert, what if people want to reply and be engaging but don't feel like they have anything of value to say / to add to the discussion?
- Wang Yip
Scott: Perhaps, but at least I un-liked it...
- Walt Ruppar
Robert - what is the point of this? I took carrot...
- Liza
Robert, I just put the lime in the coconut. Now what?
- Sue Radd
Robert-Great discussion at 140, BTW. On another topic just watched the Perez Hilton video and trying to get my head around that rant..if you haven't seen it you should watch both sides of the feud with will.i.am. Interesting use of twitter and video to address insult/outrage.
- Jim Posner
Sue, like it.
- Liza
Yahoo Inbox: 178 messages. 132 are notifications of new comments here. Good job. :)
- Tim Young
Ok now I "get" this FriendFeed experience.
- Ron Hudson
lots of people commenting here--I wonder if it has to do with the time of day more than the topic
- Brent R Jones
I have a fear of being useless.
- Ron Wening
I hope I'm not within the 53%
- Michela Cimnaghi /cimny
Twitter rocks, but I'm starting to see more value in FriendFeed
- Adam
I just drove from Pierre SD to Fort Totten ND, so I'm a little bit groggy. What exactly was I supposed to do to pass Robert Scoble's version of a Turing Test? Also, is it really important that people think I'm not a bot? I bet there is still money in AI.
- Matthew McCowan
Is that percentage of useless followers greater or less on Twitter. (I think I can predict your answer!)
- Curt Mercadante
"I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member."
- jacek
This thread is taking me a long time to read when I haven't had coffee yet today.
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
So, my understanding is.. one who doesn't give 'directions' to his followers is useless too. Mmhhh! yeah
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
Robert - there's nothing egotistical about it! I'd also be remiss if I didn't add that I get plenty of thought-provoking value from you even when in "read-only" mode. Understandably my usefulness to you is nil in those cases. However (and I'm echoing at least one other commenter here: IRONY ALERT) I've found that by the time I comment in this type of thread, my exact thoughts have...
more...
- Jim Tierney
I just hope Scobleizer never directs me to do something self-destructive. I hate it when that happens.
- DGentry
I don't think lurker are useless :), I don't think number of followers have a great significance, Friendfeed is a Virtual Life Streaming, and in virtual life (as in real life) some people don't have a direction, they live (however i prefer LIVE with all capital letters, and have a direction!!!).
- CantorJF
90% of community members lurk.
- l0ckergn0me
Twitter has become useless for any sort of participation
- Jorge Escobar
here.
- metalerik
Yay for the other 47%.
- Colette
Does this post count as "discussing?"
- Mark It's 2000-Oh-1-Oh J
So if we post here, are we teacher's pets? :)
- Daynah
Members of the "TV Generation" are just not used to follow directions... (they sit and consume with chips&beer and maybe do some shopping via telephone - these are a well trained habits and hard to change)...
- Arne Krueger
I thought I'd contribute further to this discussion... you're welcome.
- Mark It's 2000-Oh-1-Oh J
I'm jumping up for another cup of tea, be right back...
- Deborah E. Bifulco
There clearly comes a point of scale where FriendFeed fails to delivery clarity...nothing useful on the first screenful or last... does that mean that 47% of your followers are unable to provide significant value?
- David Race
Will there be and end of this direction? Do we want to close directions? I think somewhen even directions become useless
- Vedran Rudelj
delivering significant value to ff and/or the subscribers depends on the roi they get... some people are just not using it - as it is intendet to be used. so what!?
- Arne Krueger
If technology fails you, next time you are in Memphis lets get together for lunch. Great value remains in human contact.
- Jeff Milton
That is priceless
- Keith - @tsudo
I am not a bot, I am huma ... wait, oh yeah, I am a bot .... never mind, back to being useless.
- John
Bots are human too.
- Thom Kennon
Liza: shhhh. Heheh.
- Robert Scoble
I found this thread useful.
- Mike Nencetti
Love these types of threads - quite enjoyable!
- Jannifer @wordsforliving
Oh, yeah?
- Baard @ Pixum
O Captain! My Captain!
- Nicola Mattina
Commenting so I'm not included in the useless category... Also, I'd love to chat about this the next time you're around the FF office.
- Ross Miller
There are 3 kinds of people in the world: 1. Those that follow Robert Scoble because he doesn't act like he's too good to talk to us. 2. Those that follow Robert Scoble because he is known to follow everyone back, and therefore he is good for "inflating" their follower count. 3. Those who have no idea why they are following Robert Scoble.
- April Russo (app103)
4th type of person follows for great feeds that generate discussion on FF.
- Mike Nencetti
April, you forgot the fourth category: 4. Those who don't subscribe to Robert Scoble but find far too many of his posts liked and commented by their friends.
- Scott of Two Countries
But the only reason why Robert generates great discussions is because he is part of that discussion. He doesn't just drop & run, or only talk to people he thinks are "somebody", completely ignoring the rest of us. While he may have a big ego, it isn't so big that he thinks he's too good to have a real conversation with us.
- April Russo (app103)
53%? That seems a generous estimate.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Rob: I have almost 42,000 followers here and 96,000 followers on Twitter, which comes out to 43%. Glad someone caught me on my math! :-)
- Robert Scoble
My casual research indicates about 1% will respond.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
I can't put my finger on it, but I feel somehow manipulated...?
- Mark It's 2000-Oh-1-Oh J
even if they don't respond there is something to be said about passive observing- no?
- michael sean wright
You call this a discussion?
- Phil Boiarski
Phil: this is not a discussion. It's a lot of people following directions. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Hi Robert, nice experiment!
- Luis Enrique León
Aye aye Cap'n Scoble. Sorry I'm late but I just got done eating a plate of waffles in some diner in midtown NYC...
- Aaron Strout
53% of your followers aren't followers in the sheep sense. That's a good thing. Lose the other 47%
- C. K. Sample III
C. K. why must you self loathe on my thread?
- Robert Scoble
I feel kind of funny.
- Mike Nayyar
It's not easy being part of the 47%
- Aidan Mann
I am not a sheep! Oh wait, maybe I am.
- adam garrett
RS - The puppet master : )
- Mark Harai
I feel compelled to comment here... odd
- Jan Ole Peek
Mark: who is the puppet master and who is the puppet? I'm answering you now.
- Robert Scoble
Just following directions. Too many Mark's here though, I wish FF signed thing with our usernames.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
You can change your display name any time by clicking on your name in the top right corner.
- Mark
Robert: communication still occurs when unidirectional, surely the works of Socrates convey concepts to readers even today?
- Mike Chelen
Wow! It wasn't till I finished reading through almost all the comments that I got what Robert was trying to say :) FF good, Twitter bad. But I can't complain since it was Leo Laportes constant references to FF that got me to join and Roberts comments that got me to try and really understand what FF is all about. Initially FF was a little overwhelming and the only reason I've stuck it through so far is because of the higher quality of content for a (mostly) passive FFer.
- Anant Gairola
Writing that last comment took me 10 minutes! Really really wish there was a good FF iPhone application!!!
- Anant Gairola
Anant: the content here keeps getting better as more and more people join (which is quite a few every week lately, my numbers are going up much faster here than on Twitter, the tides are starting to move).
- Robert Scoble
baa baa
- Kim Landwehr
I'm sorry... did you say something?
- Sean
You have no Idea how tempting it is to reshare this - and discuss it over there >>>>>>>>>>
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
No rain, no rainbows..
- BryanSchuetz
FF is the only place I can dip into your content 'at will', Twitter is to noisy and makes me dig a lot further to see the flow of conversation and any associated references.
- Threepwood
I like to lurk most of the time. I usually don't have much to add by the time I am able to read the whole thread.
- Dan Douglass
from Nambu
Better late than never!
- John Rubier
tag
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Testing the maximum for FF comments? :P
- Barbara
Are you happy with how friendfeed is developing? What would you change, if you were in control? I love the daily digests, I prefer something filtering the best content from those I follow
- Ryan Singer
first post... wait.
- Aaron Baer
following........
- sirishkumar
amazing post.
- Guy Vander Heyden
Suivez moi?
- Gordon Joly
Oui, monsieur Gordon ! Où allons nous ?
- Brome
<----- not a bot so what percent does that make me?
- Howell Selburn
from BuddyFeed
bleet bleet
- Sriks7
Master is our friend!
- Rick Cogley
Adding myself to the list :)
- TiTi
Why a follower must follow direction? :)
- Christine Yang
from BuddyFeed
Lead, follow or whatever...Info on Neda http://tinyurl.com/nm9xdn
- JoWazzoo
:)
- Tony
This is a wicked and interesting post on FriendFeed =)
- Qbat
by the way some of my twitter followers complain that, like you, I redirect them to friendfeed on every post there. Some say I have to choose between the two and they will follow me there, but not on both services.
- Kostantinos Koukopoulos
Kostantinos: it's an open question how best to interconnect FF and Twitter. remember that there are a wide range of options, including sending comments or posts, and sending posts automatically or manually. the feedback from readers is helpful if it can be used to find the right balance
- Mike Chelen
53% of your followers will leave you and then what? insult the other 47%. You can't just say it that way. You need to treat your followers with respect. Especially when you are your biggest fan. People will leave you in a heartbeat.
- Jack Scalfani
Be a nice little follower, and drink the damn kool-aid!
- James
iPhone 3.0 celebration tonight in NYC's Times Square. All friendfeeders and Twitter users invited. 10 pm. Meet at Roxy's then we will hit Wine Library TV party.
FORA.tv, Louis Gray, TaaTaa and 19 other people liked this
10 Eastern, right?
- D Lets
Happy celebration and have a good time :).
- Ronald
Don't start without us. Simon grab a suitcase and head for Heathrow.
- Gilbert Harding
D Lets. Yes. 10 p.m. Eastern. New York Time.
- Robert Scoble
0200 UTC. ;)
- CAJ, somewhere else
Makes me wish I still lived on the East Coast. :(
- John Fox
Oooh I wish I was there! dang! Only 7 hr drive away ;-/
- Susan Beebe
I'll be in Silicon Valley thinking of you ;-)
- Fred Davis
Dang - I missed you by 3 weeks
- Jesse Stay
are you celebrating a software update? that's quite funny!
- ezekiel
it's fantastic... only in new york... proporrei la stessa cosa a roma... ma non sono sicuro che avrebbe successo...
- Viditu
Wow, over a firmware update?
- Adi
Daniel Rowley, Mona Nomura, Susan Beebe and 2 other people liked this
Updated as well. "Find my IPhone" works very well too.
- Bill Hertzing
I am seeing tons of pissed off tweets! LOL
- Susan Beebe
Had a few glitches, but after an hour or two it's working... definitely worth it!!!!
- Fred Davis
No issues for me too. :)
- Mona Nomura
Mine worked great, but I'm now re-formatting with a jailbreak and unlock so I can sell it on Ebay :-)
- Jesse Stay
If you are on Facebook, there are still lots of fun names available. "geekgod" is still available, for instance. Post others:
Tzahi Efrati, Federico Gobbo, Geoff Jackson and 89 other people liked this
ohmygodscobleyoumeanfacebookactuallystarteddoingthemurlsatlast? :-P
- David Feng
a friend of mine just grabbed 'wazzup'
- Than R
shanzhaiscobleizer (you in the know about Shanzhai?) :-P
- David Feng
Than: "screwyou" is not available. Heheh.
- Robert Scoble
facebook.com/awesome
- Jigar Mehta
Jigar: awesome is not available.
- Robert Scoble
"Crackhead" is not available. Ahhh, humanity!
- Robert Scoble
I got my name /cynthia :)
- Cynthia
SeanInsanity is still open.
- Shoq
"longlostzuckerberg" is available.
- Robert Scoble
Robert: I thought "page not available" means its not taken yet.. but they keep names reserved looks like.
- Jigar Mehta
hater is not available
- Robert Scoble
nice job on Fox today. thats a comment, not a new FB name... heh~
- Ted Bradford II
Bet Karoli is gonna wish she wasn't out galvantin
- Shoq
porndog is available
- Louis Gray
bigpoppa is free
- Allen Stern
siliconvalleygeek is still available.
- Robert Scoble
crazy that jeffslobotski was still avail!
- Jeff Slobotski
does anyone know if i can get a URL for my group?
- Jason Pollock
ilikehotdogs is free
- Allen Stern
LOL @ porndog nice
- Lise
Is anyone actually opting to use the firstname.lastname style?
- Rolf Schewe
building44 is not free
- Allen Stern
Rolf: I am.
- Robert Scoble
i got my name... but can i get a URL for a group that I made on facebook?
- Jason Pollock
foodporn is still available.
- Robert Scoble
DannyIsTehAwesome is still available.
- Danny Minick
yogod is still available.
- Robert Scoble
twitterisdum is free
- Allen Stern
I wanted it to look like my Twitter handle.
- Rolf Schewe
what happens if you are a woman and you get divorced (change surname) - can you change your vanity URL?
- Mike Bracco
jason, so long as you have over 1000 fans as of May 31, 2009.
- Ted Bradford II
followme is not available.
- Robert Scoble
jason only if you have 1,000 fans, bring cupcakes to facebook or are a big playa
- Allen Stern
ted... but how do i do it? do i go back to the username link?
- Jason Pollock
How come Facebook won't let me take niron, when no one else has it...#facebookfail
- Nir Ben Yona
I hate the 5 chars limitation. I think they failed on this one.
- Orli Yakuel
yes.
- Ted Bradford II
i know people who have less than 5 chars - guess they are extra special
- Allen Stern
Ted "yesyesyes" is still available.
- Robert Scoble
jason, yes/username
- Ted Bradford II
orli my friend hi :)
- Allen Stern
How can you tell what's still available??
- Kenny
if i go to the username link while im signed into my account then it doesnt give me an option to change the group URL
- Jason Pollock
I think its best to choose something professional such as your name instead of something stupid, shame had to be less more then 5 characters otherwise I would of chosen my first name!
- Liam Daly
hey I got full name with a dot in the middle and it works without it as well, neat. :-)
- Project Glow Guy
Facebook is just telling me that I picked my URL because I did for my personal page but havent for my group
- Jason Pollock
ben you cheated no fair
- Allen Stern
"georgewashington" isn't taken. Neither is "psychology" or "heartbreaker".
- Jessica
2010web is still available. So is web3pointoh.
- Robert Scoble
hmmmmm. hopefully someone else can chime in. gimme a sec. .
- Ted Bradford II
facebookisnottwitter
- imabonehead
GaryVaynerchuk is still available
- Rodzilla
boo to the 1000 fans limitation on subpages. My business is new--not going to have 1000 fans for awhile, if ever.
- Kathy Fitch
iamaho is still available
- Robert Scoble
Ben: Same for me but in reverse!
- Rolf Schewe
silly that folks are taking usernames with dots in them.
- Dane Jasper
www.facebook.com/mike.taylor 10,000 other mike taylors are going to be pissed, lol
- Mike
"gay" is still available. O_O
- Michael Forian
/bacon is still available
- Jason
Alexscoble is still available.
- Robert Scoble
how can you check if you already locked one in?????
- Mike
http://facebook.com/forian (shameless plus) :-)
- Michael Forian
Hey Allen! I'm pissed off that I can't keep my username as I always do (just plain "orli") :(
- Orli Yakuel
It ignores the period, firstname.lastname is the same as firstnamelastname, just like Gmail!
- Gary Etie
I started a thread to share people's new Facebook URLs but Scoble's gets almost a 100 responds. At least I got http://facebook.com/vinko
- Vinko
Mike: you can't. I have an account that I haven't gotten one yet on.
- Robert Scoble
if you locked one in, Mike, then when you go to pick, it will show your name instead of choices.
- Kathy Fitch
firstname.lastname is a respectable username i think, especially if one or the other is not available
- Matthew Arata
isnt it better to not put a . between ur first and last name?
- Jason Pollock
two available usernames : "nomercy" & "creative"
- siyahrenk
yea i hear ya orli - yet loic and gary were able to!
- Allen Stern
http://www.facebook.com/bacon is still available. :)
- Morton Fox
Glad i locked in my all but common full name. :-)
- Project Glow Guy
Yeah Orli, why did Facebook restrict the username to 5 characters or more?
- Vinko
nice Robert. Too bad I cannot change mine now. damn.
- Ted Bradford II
not fond of the dot, either, but whatever. It's FB, people.
- Kathy Fitch
sighs--I don't even really like FB
- Kathy Fitch
shelisrael and 1938media were both available a few minutes ago
- Ken Sheppardson
Can you get two usernames or is it one and done???
- Mike
i still cant figure out how to now change my group URL link.. i have over 1000 members in there but the facebook.com/username link tells me i already changed my URL, which i did for my page but not my group page.... any thoughts anyone?
- Jason Pollock
Ben: You are right, it looks like Facebook gives you both FirstName.LastName and FirstNameLastName.
- Rolf Schewe
Jason: when you choose a FirstName.LastName or without a dot Facebook reserve the other for you.
- Vinko
rssisdead is still available.
- Robert Scoble
I would guess these facebook usernames are still available @iamdiddy, @iwaspuffy @thehusbandofmrskuchner @lartykinglives @mr_spock just t
- derikp
if you get one without the dot can you does it work with the dot? Does the other way.
- Project Glow Guy
Mike: One and done. And you can't change it.
- Ken Sheppardson
qe843zt0m is reserved for spammers.
- KyleHase
it's so freaking unfair! there is a five char minimum but if you work at facebook apparently not! http://www.facebook.com/lee AAARGH!
- Lee Provoost
jason, there's a separate link for choosing names for subpages.
- Kathy Fitch
clowncomputing is still available.
- Robert Scoble
ihaveaprewasitfree
- Ken Sheppardson
Ben: Yes
- Rolf Schewe
Ben: yes, with or without the dot works
- Vinko
lamesauce ?
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Ken Boo I really would want my internet name as another hit point. There should be two, real name and then internet nickname....
- Mike
I checked right after you said how it worked for you.
- Rolf Schewe
faceslam is still available
- Robert Scoble
Cools stuff. It's like a twoofer.
- Rolf Schewe
Kathy: do u have the link?
- Jason Pollock
geekbook is still available
- Robert Scoble
blamescoble is available.
- imabonehead
I agree, Mike. I got 'kshep', but I should also be able to snag 'kensheppardson'
- Ken Sheppardson
I don't understand why they wouldn't let me get Stephen. No one has it
- Stephen Pickering
bradpitt is still open
- Kashif Khan
"google" is still available.
- Michael Forian
I like that they prevented brand new accounts from grabbing names. Good decision FB.
- KyleHase
Firstinitial.Lastname also resolves to FirstinitialLastname ...EDIT: in fact, it seems that you can insert arbitrary and multiple periods anywhere and it will resolve to your periodless name, much like a GMail address.
- LogEx
1601californiaave is still available
- Robert Scoble
OMG Allen! facebook is are losers! fuckers!
- Orli Yakuel
(that's Facebook's new address)
- Robert Scoble
yourmom is still available. Childish, I know. =)
- Mike Smith
gillmorgang is still available
- Robert Scoble
@Michael, even if you got /google I'm positive that they'd strip you of it the second Google asked.
- KyleHase
someone got /faceb00k
- Project Glow Guy
Amy: minimum 5 characters.
- Nir Ben Yona
Robert: You are totally going to get people's handles sniped.
- Rolf Schewe
Hmm, goldengatebridge and statueofliberty are both gone
- Robert Scoble
It ignores the "." in all cases
- Gary Etie
I'm afraid of such a common name like mine, it would be easy for facebook to give it to a richer man. I hope they don't.....
- Mike
arrogantasshole is still available
- Robert Scoble
1600PennsylvaniaAvenue is available
- Kashif Khan
I got /macguy
- Mike Shulman
dickhead is not available
- Robert Scoble
facebook.com/chinaboy
- ybs
sexmonster is not available
- Robert Scoble
I can't search anymore :( No fun.\
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
Scoble, did you get Scobleizer?
- Stephen Pickering
Stephen: I've had that for a long time.
- Robert Scoble
bootycall is not available.
- Project Glow Guy
HAHAHA! Robert, you wanted dickhead? :D (teasing you!)
- Michael Forian
This post is so long ..
- ybs
Sexybeast is still available.
- Zach Flauaus
seriously u guys r so funny lmao, usernames r so fun to play around with and I took the advantage 2 input mine in the blank space: http://www.facebook.com/pkkha: its a personal one.
- polou/indigo_bow
Jason--after you select your username, you'll see the option to select a name for you pages.
- Kathy Fitch
Michael: I am just seeing if some fun names are available.
- Robert Scoble
Wonder if this tread will be longer than the Laporte/Arrington one.
- KyleHase
Why did they suggest "."s if it was going to ignore them? Wouldn't it have made more sense not to allow "."s?
- Paul Lancaster
UPDATE: 1/2 MILLION NAMES TAKEN IN 15 MINUTES - Mashable http://mashable.com/2009...
- Mike Bracco
Is "ihatetheheckouttafacebook" still up for grabs? ;-)
- Kathy Fitch
No one seems to have Robert Scoble
- Stephen Pickering
Or RobertScoble
- Stephen Pickering
My kid got snowcrash
- dthree
seriously--it's one environment that gets progressively less appealing as it develops.
- Kathy Fitch
Stephen: Facebook PR has saved that for me, but it'll take a while because I missed the deadline. I wanted to see if I could get "Robert."
- Robert Scoble
ooohhhh--love the book snowcrash. The robot doggie makes me cry every time.
- Kathy Fitch
facebook.com/asdfasdf redirected me back to home!
- Project Glow Guy
burgerking is available
- Kashif Khan
Check out facebook.com/friendfeed. Hm...
- Ken Sheppardson
god isn't available but "notgod" is.
- Robert Scoble
Oh crap I think I might have cannabalized my fan page
- Stephen Pickering
thinking "notgod" covers a whole lot of territory!
- Kathy Fitch
i wonder if qwertyuiop is available.
- dthree
greatestgeek is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Is this the first network that offered usernames after it got big?
- KyleHase
David: it's not available.
- Robert Scoble
Paul - Why disallow ".", better a choice that works even if mistyped, than not allow the "."
- Gary Etie
linuxrules is still available
- Robert Scoble
geekgod would be good, come to think of it, that would be a great URL and podcast
- Stephen Pickering
The Pun on Greek God
- Stephen Pickering
penultimate is still available (second from last)
- Robert Scoble
Robert: how are you telling if these are available?
- James Poling
mccain is available....
- Mike
drunkgeek is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Yea?
- Gary Etie
venganza is still available
- KyleHase
ummmm--i think geek pagan would be good.
- Kathy Fitch
James Polin: my account has not been assigned a name yet, so I can still check to see if other names are available.
- Robert Scoble
qwertyuiop gone and so is 'badassmotherfucker' :D
- Faraz Mullick
aww, sweet
- James Poling
"biteme" is still up for grabs
- Kathy Fitch
rather sorry I didn't opt for that one . . .
- Kathy Fitch
Robert - you can do the same by typing in the address bar www.facebook.com/*whatever*
- Mike
techtalker is still available.
- Robert Scoble
facebook.com/awesome doesn't go to a page but you still cannot register it.
- James Poling
Mike, that doesn't work
- James Poling
Scoble you are thinking of great URL's for podcasts and brands, etc
- Stephen Pickering
James, thats how I saw obama and john mccain???
- Mike
Stephen: I'm just having fun.
- Robert Scoble
facebook.com/awesome goes to a page not found, but will not let you register
- James Poling
Hi Orli ,Hi Robert :-)
- Johni Fisher
Ihateyoufacebook is not available. :(
- Faraz Mullick
hey is "#FUFacebook" available? LOL - @anildash outta love that!
- Susan Beebe
callforsex is still available.
- Robert Scoble
I'm just saying that going to the URL is not a good way of telling.
- James Poling
its not awesome then if u can find it oops
- polou/indigo_bow
/champion has an error.
- Project Glow Guy
Scoble seems to be the only one actually checking since we all registered our names
- James Poling
How about WillWorkForSex
- Stephen Pickering
Neither smartguy nor stupid are available.
- Robert Scoble
hmmmmm--why is this whole thing making me hate fb even more?
- Kathy Fitch
sighing
- Kathy Fitch
lol someone took: /coolestguyintheworld
- Project Glow Guy
Stephen: willworkforsex and foodforsex are still both available.
- Robert Scoble
ketchup is available
- Guy Vander Heyden
Robert - how are you checking this since you already secured your name? you must have a fake account for this!! LOL
- Susan Beebe
Yes, going to /whatever is not a good way of testing. If someone has that URL but uses privacy settings it'll just go to your home.
- KyleHase
Kathy: "sighing" is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Yes, I fell for Facebook's massive publicity stunt and got sucked into watching the timer count down to zero so I could get /freddavis... same as I have here on FriendFeed, Twitter (if I ever get into my account again, sheesh!), Flickr, etc. ...and beat out the over 2,000 other Fred Davis's in the US... (sorry Redskins fans)...
- Fred Davis
Damn, I can't change, FOREVER!!!!
- Stephen Pickering
thinking we need a universal user name at birth, sort of like the daimons in the Pullman books.
- Kathy Fitch
You can be a drunkasshole. That's still available.
- Robert Scoble
theotherguy is still available
- Robert Scoble
stillavailable is still available.
- Robert Scoble
friendfeeder is still available
- Robert Scoble
I wonder what Arrington got
- Stephen Pickering
"stillavailable" Liked!
- Micah Wittman
Robert, Shania is still not impressed :)
- Melanie Reed
giggling at robert's silly mood--absurd. Is "absurdity" still available?
- Kathy Fitch
Someone just took biteme. What a bitch!
- Faraz Mullick
Robert, cracks me up when people think you're creating the next big thing, and you're just messing around. Must get weird.
- Gary Etie
rssinventor is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Kathy: absurdity is still available.
- Robert Scoble
"biteme" is a very good user name, yw.
- Kathy Fitch
lol
- Kathy Fitch
"interwebs" gone already
- dthree
techmeme is still available.
- Robert Scoble
supercalifragalisticexpealidocious is still available! Hurry!
- Sid Burgess
Californication
- Stephen Pickering
I like three-letter usernames. Why it SUX that I can't keep ATX going. :(
- Dean Kakridas
Guys, stop stealing bandwidth and make room for the serious d-up users. lol
- Melanie Reed
most country are available...
- Guy Vander Heyden
Sid--can you spell that backwards?
- Kathy Fitch
http://www.facebook.com/socialm... is available
- Jorge Escobar
Stephen: Californication is not available. Neither is fornication, or fornicator. But "bigdude" still is.
- Robert Scoble
Jorge: that's so 2006.
- Robert Scoble
"so2006" is still available.
- Robert Scoble
ATX should get an exception to the five letter minimum rule
- Gary Etie
is web2010 available?
- Kathy Fitch
What's more valuable on a social media site than your OWN name when all you are doing is selling yourself?? Some silly name suggestions up there. Even for nerds...
- Dean Kakridas
top100 is not available. top1000 is.
- Robert Scoble
actually, my user names are worth more to me than my real name, Dean.
- Kathy Fitch
betterthanyou is not available.
- Robert Scoble
More folks know me as "kafkaz" than anything else, I think.
- Kathy Fitch
@Robert, I know -- and guess what, someone just took it! LOL
- Jorge Escobar
worthmorethanyou is still available.
- Robert Scoble
doughmaker is still available. Great name for a baker.
- Robert Scoble
fuckyoumoney
- Stephen Pickering
imrich is still available.
- Project Glow Guy
Hippopotomonstrosesquippediliophobia is available. :D
- Faraz Mullick
greatname is still available.
- Robert Scoble
wonder how many of the "i-can-seo-you-best-of-all" names are taken, by now.
- Kathy Fitch
realdude is still available.
- Robert Scoble
this reminds me of google whacking.
- Kathy Fitch
Is billgates still avail?
- Ken Sheppardson
omgwtfbbq gone
- dthree
Well, having finally gotten back in for my pages both are not available until June 28, 2009 for the "under 1000" gold name rush
- Melanie Reed
Hesreallybig
- Stephen Pickering
googlewhack is still available.
- Robert Scoble
yeah kathy my brand r worth as much as my real name. my name is so hard to spell and pronounce that I use a pen name or two
- polou/indigo_bow
Ken: both BillGates and WilliamGates are gone.
- Robert Scoble
how about failwhale
- polou/indigo_bow
Robert - say you weren't all connected and stuff and already had your name reserved, would you take /Scoble or /RobertScoble ?
- Matthew Arata
Robert, I hope you got Scobleizer.
- Joe Lima
my name is an accident of birth. My online identity is something I chose and forged myself.
- Kathy Fitch
myrealname is still available. Failwhale is not.
- Robert Scoble
failwhale gone
- dthree
So is Facebook doing the "verified names" like Twitter?
- Jorge Escobar
I should have gotten "sidneycrosby" or "kobebryant" just to get a zillion hits over the next few days.
- Kevin Mohr
I agree, kathy. I went right for dthree, not my real name
- dthree
StephenPickering wasn't hard but there is a guy in Australia who's going to be pissed at me
- Stephen Pickering
Matthew: I registered "Scoble" for my son at 9 p.m. So that's the answer. I already had RobertScoble saved by PR. But I probably would rather have "Scoble."
- Robert Scoble
This says it all: http://www.facebook.com/help...
- Melanie Reed
Robert: By registering "for my son" do you mean you logged in as him and picked that name?
- Ken Sheppardson
Pantalaimon
- Kathy Fitch
Ken: yup, I called him and he was at the movies so he gave me his password. Very trusting for a 15 year old.
- Robert Scoble
a shapeshifting daimon--but not easy to pronounce.
- Kathy Fitch
He'll change his password tomorrow!
- Stephen Pickering
Pan--too short.
- Kathy Fitch
lol. someone got facebook.com/index :) well, obamasucks and bushsucks are both available.
- Gil Francisco III
15 is an interesting age. Our son is 15. Eek.
- Kathy Fitch
Gil: Lets see how long that lasts!
- Project Glow Guy
Why wouldn't they let me have Stephen? I type in the URL and it says page requested not found
- Stephen Pickering
fakestevejobs is still available.
- Robert Scoble
friendfeedrocks is still available.
- Robert Scoble
online identity is so screwed up--back when folks were first grabbing url's, little did they imagine the twists and turns to come.
- Kathy Fitch
onlineaddict is still available.
- Robert Scoble
lamename is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Stephen, obviously, it's reserved.
- Gary Etie
geesh is still available.
- Robert Scoble
theboss doesn't appear taken.
- Project Glow Guy
geekboss is still available too.
- Robert Scoble
This is something that frustrates me. How do I access my fan page from within my account? I don't see anywhere to do it. (I have 2 fans heheeheheh)
- Stephen Pickering
http://www.facebook.com/oprah is giving an error
- Jorge Escobar
probably oprah is reserved
- polou/indigo_bow
/fartknocker is still available
- Mike Shulman
@polou it was working for weeks, but not today
- Jorge Escobar
@jorge 2 prevent squatting i guess
- polou/indigo_bow
/legendary seems available.
- Project Glow Guy
univision is available
- Jorge Escobar
rickymartin is available
- Jorge Escobar
stephen look at your info tab--it will be under "pages"
- Kathy Fitch
aside--that lack of ease is why I hate FB
- Kathy Fitch
/jdsalinger was taken by Paulo Edrosolano. Verified names anyone?
- Jorge Escobar
will become a fan of stephen's page now, just because.
- Kathy Fitch
whoareyou is still available.
- Robert Scoble
puppetshow is still available.
- Robert Scoble
myfeed is still available.
- Robert Scoble
unixgod is still available. But "grepthis" is not.
- Robert Scoble
Kathy I see the the pages I am a fan of, but not my page. I can find it but I have to type it in the url facebook.com/pages
- Stephen Pickering
twitter is *still* available
- Jorge Escobar
Jorge - No way
- Stephen Pickering
techguy seems available.
- Project Glow Guy
Jorge: sorry, Twitter isn't available.
- Robert Scoble
Ben: techguy is not available.
- Robert Scoble
@scoble it's not?
- Jorge Escobar
techking is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Jorge: I just checked, it's not.
- Robert Scoble
Thanks Kathy, would love to have you as a "fan" but I don't even know how to direct you to the page! hehehehheheheheh
- Stephen Pickering
Hmm... I get the screen "The page you requested was not found."
- Jorge Escobar
Robert: Damn i only have guessing urls to go off after securing my name.
- Project Glow Guy
could it be that the small caps twitter and not the big caps Twitter is available?
- polou/indigo_bow
toptwitterer is still available. So is topgeek. Jorge, remember that I'm using the tool where you can register them. That's the only way to really check.
- Robert Scoble
@Scoble +1
- Jorge Escobar
polou: it doesn't matter. Both versions are not available.
- Robert Scoble
okay scoble
- polou/indigo_bow
Isn't it case-insensitive, i.e. jungleg = JungleG?
- Jorge Escobar
They told Miss California we're stripping you of your crown and we want those tits back
- Stephen Pickering
bestblogger is still available.
- Robert Scoble
/mynamewastaken is taken. haha
- Project Glow Guy
good lord, it's just facebook, the internet equivalent of the yellow pages. Just take your real name and be done with it. This is all the excitement of filling out a change of address card at the post office.
- Matthew DeVries
White Pages
- Stephen Pickering
morecommentsplease is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Robert - how many names are you going to check - I got mine.
- Robert Freeze
Change of address at the post office?!! I'm there!!!
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Robert: I'm just having fun.
- Robert Scoble
There are 11 people with the name Robert Freeze on Facebook - I wanted to make sure I got mine the way I have all the other pages
- Robert Freeze
Fun is very underrated
- Stephen Pickering
@Scoble what tool are you using? or it's a private tool?
- Jorge Escobar
I think you have checked a few hundred...
- Robert Freeze
Speaking of which, justhavingfun is still available. So is echochamber. Jorge: I'm just using http://www.facebook.com/usernam...
- Robert Scoble
can you keep checking after you set yours?
- Robert Freeze
http://www.facebook.com/fender is available: for you devious luthiers
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Beware, just because it says "Page not found", doesn't mean it is available. There is a big restricted list somewhere, and I found one (a city name).
- Paul Holmes
Paul: funny, "restricted" is still available.
- Robert Scoble
Scoble, what 's the record for # of comments on friend feed - are you going for the record? BTW - I love friend feed.
- Robert Freeze
halfmoonbay looks like it might be available
- Gary Etie
facebook.com/fail appears to be available, as well.
- Paul Holmes
same with facebook.com/sucks
- Paul Holmes
seoking
- Raanan Avidor
Robert Freeze, I don't think record threads are created, I think they happen. Lots of people try to get one going, whereas Scoble just has the dynamics going at this point in time, and I think he'd agree.
- Gary Etie
Did you notice that somebody got http://www.facebook.com/friendf... - and it's not this website!
- Paul Holmes
Drat. Someone took awesomer
- Joi Ito
hmm, probably friendfeed could file 4 infringement @paulholmes 2 facebook if its not legimate
- polou/indigo_bow
Paul - that's interesting - why would they?
- Robert Freeze
Robert, because they can )register it, that is, not keep it, when friendfeed comes a callin'
- Gary Etie
polou: friendfeed is a trademark, so they will lose that user name if friendfeed cares.
- Robert Scoble
It could be they legitimately hadn't heard of this, and figured it sounded good.
- Paul Holmes
I'm sure somebody at FriendFeed will fill out the form at http://www.facebook.com/copyrig... and /friendfeed will point to the FF<->FB app within a week.
- Ken Sheppardson
robert, but friendfeed can still file to facebook as an infringement of a trademark.
- polou/indigo_bow
This is funny - http://www.facebook.com/mysapce - oops, you got a typo buddy.
- Paul Holmes
I got my name! Go ME! I don't care if anybody likes facebook or not but I really think it's important to have your own name so no one else uses it.
- Sheryl
Another trademark infringement - http://www.facebook.com/iGoogle
- Paul Holmes
Sheryl: Especially when its common :-P Take that 500+ other me's on facebook.
- Project Glow Guy
Facebook will be busy looking with trademarks infringements this coming few weeks!
- polou/indigo_bow
@polou - I know, it's still kind of funny
- Paul Holmes
I tried 2 put a submission 2 my biz name, but the biz number reg was not defined clearly. We have IDs with names and since laws are different in Canada and elsewhere then US.
- polou/indigo_bow
Ben: Agreed. Mine isn't as common but I tried for my first name and it was gone. Good thing I use my full name everywhere. Continuity. :)
- Sheryl
How hard could it have been to prevent creation of trademarked names, without verification from the trademark holder? Easier than it's going to be to straighten out the mess. It's got to be part of the planned hype, with built-in controversy, and ongoing coverage.
- Gary Etie
trademarked is still available.
- Robert Scoble
I'm Zuckerberg, and I'm thinking, how do I force a relationship between celebrities and businesses and FB? Let the world register their trademarked names! Yea, that's the ticket!
- Gary Etie
facebook.com/scobeleizer and facebook.com/scobelizer are still available
- Paul Holmes
The following are taken: pagenotfound, 404error
- Project Glow Guy
odd those pagesnotfound and 404eror r taken wonder 4 what the reason?
- polou/indigo_bow
This kid won't be happy when he wakes up and sees what his college buddies did with his username: http://www.facebook.com/Boner
- Bryan Person
I like this one: http://www.facebook.com/GrumpyO...
- Bryan Person
@BryanPerson - did you read this somewhere, or did you just discover it?
- Paul Holmes
Polou: Joke maybe, only tech savvy people would understand.
- Project Glow Guy
@PaulHolmes: /Boner I saw on Twitter (guessing context); /GrumpyOldMan is one I checked myself.
- Bryan Person
Someone asleep at the wheel at my alma mater. /Syracuse, /SU, /SyracuseUniversity all still available.
- Bryan Person
@bencooper silly 404errors
- polou/indigo_bow
twitterisbetter - http://twitter.com/lindsey...
- Paul Holmes
I've been compiling a little list on my blog, too - time for a hobby - http://www.paulholmes.ca/2009...
- Paul Holmes
Anti username list of taken names: usernamesarestupid, thisislame, idontwantausername, nousername, usernamessuck, saynotousernames.
- Project Glow Guy
@plusk on Facebook is @aguynamedben on Twitter
- Paul Holmes
islam, mohammed, muhammed, muslim, moslem, jihad and jihadi are all available (read: restricted)
- Paul Holmes
idiots is still available
- Jesse Stay
some random guy has appleinc - http://www.facebook.com/applein...
- Mike Bracco
I'm running out of ideas for my anti-username list. username1 & username2 are taken.
- Project Glow Guy
2010web is still available ;)
- Nik Rosser
are we going to see these on ebay soon?
- Mike Chelen
Mike: http://bit.ly/4fls9
- dthree
The notorious "dot" issue - no need to worry if you are facebook.com/PaulHolmes or facebook.com/Paul.Holmes, or facebook.com/P.a.u.l.H.o.l.m.e.s. - it all goes to the same page.
- Paul Holmes
Paul: Seems dashes work the same way. ben-cooper = ben.cooper = bencooper.
- Project Glow Guy
cool, thanks Ben.
- Paul Holmes
David: thanks, interesting business, guess this does not violate FB TOS?
- Mike Chelen
bigpoppa is, unfortunately, not available.
- Jeremy Toeman
nor is "pooper"
- Jeremy Toeman
So, it has been established, both "."s and "-"s (dots and dashes?) are ignored at Facebook. At Gmail, ".", dots are ignored, "-", dashes are not. At both FB and Gmail, g.a.r.y.e.t.i.e = garyetie = gary.etie. but ≠ g-a-r-y-e-t-i-e, or gary-etie, for Gmail.
- Gary Etie
I just decided to continue in my 12 year old mistake and take iphigenie again.
- Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)
It would be getting harder to register firstname.lastname by now (Unless you have a more unique name). After the main one is taken you get reverse name taken lastname.firstname then they start spilling out to using initials which multiplies the amount of people that could also use it. All variations seem to be taken for my name now.
- Project Glow Guy
pornstar! oh, taken.
- Jeremy Toeman
@Jeremy - no, all *porn* names are restricted - already tried a bunch.
- Paul Holmes
http://facebook.com/douglas... was just achieved. Totally forgot about opening the names up tonight but still got my name
- Douglas E. Welch
from twhirl
cool name: http://www.facebook.com/default...
- Gil Francisco III
/myspace
- Kevin Baird
hahhaha good one!
- Susan Beebe
ender and enderwiggin are both taken
- Jeremy Toeman
seems like all LOTR, harry potter, and star wars names are gone... guess i'll just go with my own name, though i'm in no rush, since nobody else seems to have it. :)
- Jeremy Toeman
omg.cabbages, lord.cheezeburger, xenawarriorprincess85, zuckerbergs.bitch, pine.sol, zune.iphone, rebuilding.43, knightindustries.2010 lol
- sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq
get.a.life is available.
- Anthony Citrano
from BuddyFeed
Think I have struck gold - Apple, Mac, Iphone, Ipod is avaiable
- Asgeir
You think getting a clever name is funny now, but it's like a bad tattoo,in a few years, the fun will have worn off
- Jeremiah Owyang
I'll bet it'll be more like days, Jeremiah.
- Ken Sheppardson
MyClass.SQLCommand := "SELECT * FROM SocialMedia.FaceBook WHERE Free=true" .. uh.. or the like ;) Damn ObjectPascal & SQL GUIs!
- Thierry R. Andriamirado
oooh! gefiltefish is available... tempting
- Jeremy Toeman
I have secured my regular pseudonym zigojacko (http://facebook.com/zigojacko) although I'm looking forward to when they release usernames for Facebook pages :)
- Geoff Jackson
http://www.facebook.com/richard... - squatted on!
- Tim Tyler
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