I guess I joined FriendFeed a little too early to see this screen. What the hell is this? These are popular FriendFeed users? Evan Williams is a popular FriendFeed user? Barack Obama? Do these people even *use* FriendFeed? What about uh, I dunno - Rahsheen, Mona, RAPatton, Shevonne, Rochelle... you know, popular FF users who actually USE FF! Come on FF staff - please reward the people who actually engage on the service! This screen is simply a popularity measure to make FF look more appealing to outsiders and will cause them to follow people who aren't *really* involved. - Tamar Weinberg from Bookmarklet

Tamar, that page reflects the "most subscribed" accounts. It's not hand-selected by FriendFeed, and doesn't indicate how much people are liked or disliked. The reason that folks like Pete Cashmore, Obama and Ev are so high here is because 1) Twitter put them in the suggested user list, and 2) FriendFeed enabled you to sync your followers with Twitter. Tada! I would argue that many there earned their position organically, however. - Louis Gray

Fair enough. Time to make a change, I think. It's only fair to reward real *FriendFeed* (and not Twitter) active users. - Tamar Weinberg

hmmm but this is FriendFeed, not Twitter... - Anna Bourland

Ahh, Tamar, you beat me to it. - Anna Bourland

yeah this screen has pissed me off oh, since I joined FF - anna sauce

Yeah. :/ It's sad when people join FF, follow those people on that list, and then get frustrated because of what they're seeing (or not seeing). A lot of them quit FF thinking that it's not nearly as cool as they had heard or hoped. - Rochelle

Yes the list has some weird people on it, together with some really good FFers. But if they start making up the list on some subjective criteria like "whos a good friendfeeder" won't we end up at the same place as the SUL? I'm weird, I like to slowly build up my stream so I know who I follow and why. That way I get alot of value out of this place, while being gently eased into it. Starting to feel a little bit like the cooked frog though :-P - Rasmus Lauridsen

FFholic has a list of the "most active". I think that list is a lot better than the FFholic "most popular" list, which is very similar to the suggested list provided by FF. - Rochelle

Rochelle, in theory the most popular on FFHolic should match the suggested list by FF. But FFHolic's data is not perfect. Keep in mind I am not saying this is the right approach, but I understand how it works, and it's better than Twitter's nonsense. And you all know I highlight 10 new folks every month who are awesome and off this list. - Louis Gray

Louis, and thank you for that! I think your list needs more publicity. I try to link to it when I see a new FFer posting about who to follow. - Rochelle

Louis - Your earlier recommendations were particularly useful :) Amazing how this comes full circle almost a year later. Great catch Tamar - Charlie Anzman

lovely - nothing like yet another list of mostly users who don't even use ff. i smell a cn post coming. - Allen Stern

Maybe a system containing activity and popularity. Activity isn't all either. There is also quality of output, not to mention interest. There are alot of popular people I don't follow, not because they suck, but because what they talk about is not what I want to read about. Suggesting users in any service like this is a quagmire of hurt feelings, envy, suspicions, gossip and other parts of human nature that aren't really too pretty to look at. - Rasmus Lauridsen

Rasmus, how would you determine popularity? - Rochelle

I think I got sidetracked by my flighty little mind... I should have removed the first part before posting... I evolved during the writing... Need an editor here :-P Popularity has to play a part of the metric, popularity (followers, we be sheep after all), activity, interests/topics. The more I think about it the more I hate the idea of a list, because it will lead to the quagmire of doom. - Rasmus Lauridsen

I don't think they should take anyone off the suggested user list(or whatever it's called), but it's about time they add some new people to it. - Michael Fidler

I don't know much about programming, but I think trying to mathematically trying to determine interests/topic and then sort out who is most popular would be pretty much impossible. - Rochelle

Split that page into four lists: Most Subscribed, Most Active, Most Liked, and Most Commented. - Michael R. Bernstein

You never know, these bright minds are ex googlers after all. They can find algorithms for anything over there at "Don't be evil central" - Rasmus Lauridsen

Michael, all of that data is on FFholic. :) Perhaps FF needs to take a hint from Arda Kutsal, the FFholic guy. - Rochelle

how much has changed since my first exposed ff defaults post on 7/6/08 - http://www.centernetworks.com/friendf... - it's great to see justine and barack up there - two people who really participate here. - Allen Stern

Or, better yet, FF could identify all users who are active within the past few days and/or have above a certain number of likes/comments and then ROTATE those users through a suggested users list. Each refresh gives new faces. Then newbies will see different people they can follow and many of us will get a chance to be featured. - Rochelle

Rochelle, I totally agree. Maybe everyone that's not active for a year or more, should be moved onto a founder's "honorary" list. - Michael Fidler

Great conversation and I updated the post to link to this discussion. Thanks for all the input. BTW, if you want an easy way to see all of Louis' "10 people" posts try this search http://friendfeed.com/search... - Keith - @tsudo

Keith, thanks for the link! - Rochelle

Rochelle, I like that idea very much, let the realtimeness of the place shine through. Could also have a who's active now feature that works realtime. Or a whats going on now with some of the good discussions, based on activity. Then people can pick and choose from the people mixed up in that particular "mob" - Rasmus Lauridsen

this will be a very important question for friendfeed - do they go the route of twitter or do they try to stay loyal to their fans. - Allen Stern

Tamar I'm also trying to aggregate the "Best of" links to share with new Friendfeeders here is my list so far http://ff.im/47jWL I'd love to have suggestions from anyone else - Keith - @tsudo

It may be possible to look at the common words used by FFeeders and construct a list of interests. There is a site already building a list per user. I linked a few days ago after building my word map. Since I'm on the iPhone and not using a machine it isn't easy to flip back and forth. hopefully my memory is right. - LPH™ and his dog P™ from BuddyFeed

The way it is, this list is exactly what it says it is: the most popular. I don't see how limiting the "popular users" list to only people who actually log into FriendFeed (as opposed to those who create an account and simply allow it to collect their tweets or rss feeds) would be any more valid. If you think what sets FF apart is "community" I disagree. However, it would definitely be useful to have "most commented upon" and "biggest commentor" lists too. In fact, I originally only followed Robert Scoble because he comments on so many people's streams that following him becomes a good way to find interesting people.... - Joel Bennett

Joel - to me it isn't a question of validity its a question of value. If you add Mashable, iJustine, and Barack Obama you'll gain a ton of posts but no community. Friendfeed's value is content + community and conversation. This list only gives 1/3 of the real value. I'd much rather see a list of active members and I think it would help new users "get the point' of Friendfeed. - Keith - @tsudo

Allen, this isn't the first time this subject has come up here. I’m guessing, but when the site was redesigned, the subject must have come up internally, but I guess they choose to keep it unchanged. - Michael Fidler

Keith, Good point! - Michael Fidler

michael - while the mechanism might be slightly different, it's the same exact issue as with twitter. - Allen Stern

I agree:) - Michael Fidler

As I understand it, as soon as you start subscribing to other users, that list changes to one based on those you're subscribed to, not FriendFeed in general. - Tristan Seligmann

Tristan I think this is correct. However Friendfeed should still reconsider the page since all new users will see these recommendations - Keith - @tsudo

Thanks for the post and Thanks Louis Gray for the pointers on FF I joined a few groups to hunt for people to follow unique to FF only. - Luke Jeffrey Smith

Two things stand out: (1) new FF users may follow these official recommendations but get disenchanted with the service. That's because users aren't stimulated when FF is simply perceived to be a broadcast medium. By highlighting people who use FF merely to amplify their Twitter feed, you are not getting the community that so many of these people seek. - Tamar Weinberg

(2) I like Rochelle's idea and I am glad it makes people like Rasmus happy :) Rotate the "popular" list. It gives engaged users the ability to be highlighted repeatedly. Or just reward the biggest contributors by giving them placement on this page. It incentivizes people to be very active, and that's what FF needs, IMO. - Tamar Weinberg

Hi all, thanks for this spirited discussion and the all great thoughts. This page is something we are definitely working on improving, so we certainly appreciate the feedback! - Ana

Thanks Ana and team :D - Tamar Weinberg

Got to love having the FF team respond to our discussions and let us know they are listening. One more reason why I love Friendfeed - Keith - @tsudo

Thanks Tamar! That means a lot coming from you. =D - Shevonne

I agree that a 25% of this list is composed by the absolute most active users, another 25% by the most absolute commented/liked users and the remaining 50% by the same criteria but relative to the same language of the new account. - Roberto aka postoditacco from fftogo

Since I'm here, might as well point out that I wrote a post about this conversation here: http://scobleizer.com/2009... - Robert Scoble

as i always point out, i will change the name this time... let's say you are into food and drinks - what good is it to get scoble as a recommendation? or cashmore? etc. i can't wait until ff gives us a whack answer like twitter did :) do i need to get more cupcakes? - Allen Stern

Allen - LOL you and those cupcakes !! hehe! :) tryin' to pull the cute routine like iJustine did w/ Twitter - Susan Beebe

Tamar et al - THANK YOU for posting this... The FF list is completely useless to new users unless they want to follow celebrities and A Listers, not the people who actually USE and promote FriendFeed. I've been on FF since March 1, 2008, however have only been recognized by FFholic and a few kind bloggers! :D The FF list really should reflect the community, not just cool trendy names - Susan Beebe

There is absolutely no reason there can not be multiple lists. That way those who want to subscribe to "famous" people can go their way and those who prefer substance to fame can have their own list. Eventually I sincerely hope FriendFeed will consider making the quality content being accumulated here useful for reference. See http://www.growmap.com/twitter... for more on what I mean by that. - Internet Strategist

Tamar Thanks for posting this. It got me thinking about what it was like when I first signed up here, except I thought I deleted my original account a long time ago. Over the last month, I've been trying to figure out the date I joined, but all my searches kept coming up short. Thanks to this post and Robert's too, I decided to search FFholic. While conducting a search using my name, I found my first account. Now, I understand why it wasn’t coming up in my previous search attempts; it was under a name I never use. I must have added the not on the beginning of it, rather than delete it: http://friendfeed.com/notmike.... It looks like July 8th will mark one year on friendfeed. One unforgettable year! - Michael Fidler

BTW, I can also see why I lost interest initially; I was following suggested users. It looks like I was active from the start though:) - Michael Fidler

Could we solve this problem ourselves? Let's leverage our community to make our own recommendations. Do you think we could use A Friendfeed Follow Room? http://friendfeed.com/friendf... - Keith - @tsudo

I've been suggesting this page be changed for ages now. Sure there are some users there that use FF a lot, like Robert but if you are showing off your service to new users the 'most popular' users are perhaps not the best ones to look at for good feeds and good interaction. I'm not saying it should be the most active either but it certainly should take into account the users activity as well as their popularity. - Kol Tregaskes

If you subscribe to a lot of the most popular users you are only going to get their Twitter stream, which is not a great demostration of FriendFeed features. - Kol Tregaskes

I suggested to FF directly that the introduction to new users was poor (as I recently tested it and found it confusing). I suggested that there should be a quick tutorial as soon as the registeration process is complete, with guidelines on the basics of how to post, comment and subscribe as well as how and why to update your bio and services. - Kol Tregaskes

I also suggested that the tutorial include an interactive section which showed the user how to post a new entry, something generic like Title: "Hello, I've just joined FriendFeed", Comment: "This is my first comment, yippee" :-)". We could then use this in a saved search and check it to welcome the new users aboard. At the moment new users are put on the home page with no clue what to do next and no welcome, making them feel lost and ignored. - Kol Tregaskes

Too bad I was sleeping when you started this thread. Reward the glorious! :D - Sasha Kovaliov(.com)

FF have told me they are working on this. But for the moment I continue to check for new users as best I can and point them in the direction of the Beginners (http://friendfeed.com/friendf...) and Feedback groups (http://friendfeed.com/friendf...). - Kol Tregaskes

Keith, good idea. There is also FF-Subscribe Sunday here: http://friendfeed.com/ff-subs... - Kol Tregaskes

And I have to thank Ana for taking the time to read my *very* long email on all this. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

I like the idea of the most popular, most liked, most commented and most active list but it should be a combo of all these and not separated into 4 lists. 4 lists would just confuse new users. Keep it simple, make the list more intelligent and perhaps randomise it a bit showing 20 of the top 100 users? - Kol Tregaskes