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Hutch Carpenter

Twitter to Clean Up Trending Topic Searches – Is This that Reputation Thing? - http://bhc3.wordpress.com/2009...

Thursday from I'm Not Actually a Geek - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter liked this

Rob Diana

Is Twitter Trying To Lure You Back To Twitter.com? - http://regulargeek.com/2009...

24 hours ago from Regular Geek - Comment - Like - Share

Louis Gray, Mike Fruchter and Hutch Carpenter liked this

Maybe this is a play for increasing page views for eventual ads? - Hutch Carpenter

Jesse Stay

Does Twitter Have An Internal iPhone App? - http://staynalive.com/article...

yesterday from Stay N' Alive - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter, Thomas Power and Louis Gray liked this

Kol Tregaskes to Kol's feed, Friend Birthdays!

I'm 33 years and a few hours old right now! Happy Birthday me. :-D

Wednesday - Comment - Like - Share

Nir Ben Yona, Morgan Haley, Sergej Sidoruk and 146 other people liked this

Happy Birthday! - Kenton

188 more comments

Thank you, Kenton! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday, Kol!! - AJ Batac

Happy birthday, Kolin! - Stephen Mack

Happy Birthday Kol. - CW™

No pressies yet. Guess what? They are delayed in the post, LOL. Thanks Royal Mail. Thanks for being on strike all the time. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Kolgratulations! :) - Jemm

Happy birthday, sir. I hope you're having a great day! - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

Happy Birthday Kol! Have an amazing one ! - Wang Yip

Thanks, AJ, Stephen, CW, Jemm. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thanks, Pea. Well normal day at work, but I work for a games dev, so that's a pretty good day in my book. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

We're same age :) - diego morelli

Thanks, Wang! - Kol Tregaskes

Diego, it's a good age. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

I agree ;-) - diego morelli

It was actually a nice sunny day for the most part today. It's been dull and gloomy for ages. So the Sun came out for me today, hehe. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy birthday Kol! Have a great one! :) - Dee S.

Happy Birthday, Kol! Thirty three was a pretty good year for me and I have a feeling you're going to LOVE It :) Best wishes, congrats and go celebrate! - Holly Rae, FFer

Thank you v much, Dee. Hope you're well? - Kol Tregaskes

Thank you, Holly. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday! - joey

HB! - Spidra Webster

happy birthday :) - Deniz (bluesign) Edincik

Happy Birthday Kol! - OnuRC

Happy Birthday, Kol! - Anne Bouey

Happy Birthday, now come to the point where is the party? - ffcode

Ta very much, Joey, Spidra, Deniz, OnuRC, Anne and ffode. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy b-day Kol!! - Derrick

Happy birthday, Kol! - Joe Bonner

Off for a bit, back on in an hour or so. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thanks, Derrick, Joe. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday, mate! - Ade

Happy Birthday Kol! Have a great one :) - Niki Costantini

Happy Birthday! - scott anderson

Happy Birthday. Only do things you want to today. - Jeremy

hb ff - daveccorey

Happy birthday, Kol! :) - directeur

Happy Birthday :) - Rodfather

Many Happy returns, Kol. 33? Oh yes, It was back there somewhere. Not a memorable one, but left to my own devices I don't bother about my birthday. - Ian May

Happy Birthday, President of FF! - teh Dork Knight

Happy birthday! :) - Tamara

Happy Birthday Ol'Chap! - Carlos Ayala

Happy Birthday Kol - Iván Abrego

Yay! Have a great Birthday :-) - Bicentennial (Franc)

Happy Birthday, Kol!! - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)

HAPPY 33rd Birth year anniversary, Kol! - Helen Sventitsky

Doğum günün kutlu olsun Kol =)) - Porschebenimolsana

Happy day to you, Kol!! :) - JA Castillo

Kol, Happy Birthday!!!! - Mike Fruchter

Happy Birthday to the nicest guy on FF. (ew, that sounds so fake greeting card-like. It's true though, so I'm leavin' it.) - Jim Hearts FF

Happy Birthday! - vicster

Happy birthday Kol! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

HBD - Babak (Tanxy)

Have a great day, Kol. - Kevin Pedraja

Happy birthday! - Stefania Cabitza

Happy bday - mikepk

Happy Birthday! - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

Happy 1/3 Century Kol! - Steve

Happy Birthday! - Chieze Okoye

Happy birthday Kol! - Maxamad (Amazigh)

Happy birthday, Kol. Wish you the best :-) - LouCypher

Happy Birthday, Kol! Best Wishes! Hope you have a great day - Andrew Terry

Gosh! Thanks everyone! Well I was going to thank every single person so... - Kol Tregaskes

Thank you Ade, Niki, Scott, Jeremy, Dave, Directeur, Rodfather, Ian, TehKenny, Tamara, Carlos, Iván, Franc, MVB, Helen, Porschebenimolsana, JA, Mike, Jim, vicster, Tina, Babak, Kevin, Stefania, Mike, Tut, Steve, Chieze, Mo, Lou and Andrew! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

And thanks for your comment, Jim. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy birthday Kol! I hope the future brings nothing but joy for you. - Beau "Slick Foot" Liening from iPhone

Happy birthday, Kol! - Alex Scoble

Ian, yeah I celebrate my Birthdays less and less. Hopefully a few games on the way though. - Kol Tregaskes

Thank you, Beau and Alex. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday Kol,Hope you have a good celebration ! Your thirties are great :) - Paul Downing

Happy Birthday! - Yolanda

Happy Birthday, Kol! - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Thanks, Paul. Well I better make the most of my 30s. It's the 40s soon - not looking forward to that. ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thank you, Yolanda, Jandy. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy birthday to ya - ardiba

Thank you, ardiba. - Kol Tregaskes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY -YOU ARE SAME AS ME :) ! HOPE THIS YEAR AND AFTER EVERYTHING WILL BE BETTER IN YOUR LIFE ... - matmazelange

Thank you, matmazelange. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday!!! - Amit Morson

Thank you, Amit! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Kol! - Laura B coughin'

Just a normal day at work, Laura. Though got some B-day cards and a bit of cake back at home. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday Kol!! - Charlotte M

HAPPY B'day Kol.. !! Crap. am I the only Bloke who is pushing +45 on FF ? - Peter Dawson

Thank you, Charlotte, Peter. Peter, nah, I don't think so. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday! - James Myatt

really do you think is that the good age ?i m the 33 now but dont think so :( - matmazelange

Happy Birthday Kol! - Penny

matmazelange, it's better than 34, 35, 36... ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Thank you, James, Penny. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy 33rd! :-) - Rene Wirtz

:))) u right - matmazelange

Thank you, Rene. - Kol Tregaskes

happy birthday kol! - chrisofspades

Thanks, Chris. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Bonne Fete! - Nathalie, Dreamer of FF

¡Feliz cumpleaños! - Lo

Selamat Ulang Tahun! - Joe Silence is not dead

Thank you, Nathalie, Lo, Joe. - Kol Tregaskes

happy birthday - Meral Alabaz

Aw, you kids are so cute at that age. - m9m, Crone of FriendFeed

Happiest of Birthdays..................33 years old ...........boy both my kids are older thinking as I type this I am getting older by the minute....................... - VAL D.

Happy birthday! - Anika

Happy Birthday! - Tyson Key

happy birthday! One day I'll get down south and buy you a drink :) - alphaxion

Thanks, Meral, Val, Anika, Tyson, alpha. Hehe, m9m. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday :) - Farshad

Thank you, Farshad. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy birthday Guv'nor! (That's my lame British accent) ;) - Jorge Escobar

Hehe, thank you, Jorge. :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday Kol. - Carlos Sousa

Thank you very much, Carlos. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday! - Rachel Lea Fox

Happy B to the D...A...Y Kol. - Mark Krynsky

(((cabbage patching))) Yay!!! - rowlikeagirl, hecho en eu

Happy Birthday!!! - Marco Fabbri

Happy Birthday to you Kol! - Thomas Hawk

Happy birthday, Kol! - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

Happy birthday! - browneyes from iPhone

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KOL :) You ROCK and make FF a great place to be, THANK YOU!! <3 - Susan Beebe

Happy birthday :) - Timothy Griffin

w00t! Happy Birthday, Kol! - Ayşe E.

Happy Birthday Kol ~ We're celebrating in Australia for you ~ hope the sun shines all day for you -/ - Chris Loft

happy birthday! - Bill Kinney

Happy birthday! - Kamilah Gill

Happy birthday, Kol!!! - Micah Wittman

Happy birthday, Kol! - Bren, Photophobe from iPhone

Happy b-day Kol! - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Congrats on another year :) - LANjackal

Happy bday Kol! - imabonehead

happy birthday ^^, - zʍıɔ

Happy Birthday! - M♥hammad

Happy Birthday!! - Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕

Happy bday - N.G. Gordon - RadarSync

happy birthday kol, :) - chaz2b

Know I'm late, but Happy Birthday Kol! - Bonnie Foster

Happy birthday to you :-) - Mahdi Ebrahimi

Happy Birthday Kol! This year's gonna be great for ya! :D - vijay

happy birthday to you and me :) - Ahmet Soyata

Happy Birthday Kol and Ahmet :) - Bhowmik Shah

Happy Birthday Kol and other friends. - Mahmood Padura

your at 33 and I just turned 32 :) As of October 12th funny. - Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa from IM

Happy Birthday! - SuezanneC Baskerville

Happy Birthday Kol! I hope you're having a wonderful day! - Michael Fidler

Thank you everyone! I'll thank you all individually when I'm back from home later today. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Oh and Happy Birthing Date - Hope the year ahead is even more exciting then the last. - Raymond Marr aka Knatchwa

Yay! :-) - Mathew A. Koeneker

Whoa. Happy Birthday Kol! (My birthday's tomorrow - different age ;)) - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Happy Birthday Kol. The years go quicker and quicker from here on out :-) - Slippy "Threadsbane" Lane

congrats on 33 - Robert Higgins

Don't let the decimal system get you down, in hex you're only 21 :) - Eivind

happy birthday Kol!! :-) - victed from iPhone

Happy Birthday! - MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF

Happy Birthday Kol! - Garin Kilpatrick

Happy Birthday kol! long live the gamers! - Darth Farhad Sama

Belated Happy Birthday wishes... - .LAG liked that

HAPPY BIRTHDAY - Shevonne

Happy Birthday!!! - mridul

happy birthday - brainno722 (Peter)

happy birthday! (: - Mor Büyü *

Happy birthday tregaskes, - Acharad Sami VanJoulee

Late but Happy Bhirtday Kol ;) - ★ Soner Gönül

As promised: Thank you Rachel, Mark, rowlikeagirl, Marco, Thomas, Chris, Susan, Timothy, Ayşe, Chris, Bill, Kamilah, Micah, Bren, Shey, LAN, imabonehead, zʍıɔ, Mohammad, Zulema, N.G., chaz2b, Bonnie, Mahdi, vijy, Ahmet, Bhowmik, Mahmood, Raymond, Suezanne, Michael, Raymond, Matthre, Ahsan, Slippy, Robert, Eivind, victed, Mary, Garin, Darth, .LAG, Shevonne, mridul, Peter, Mor, Acharad and Soner. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday! - Araceli from Nambu

Thank you, Aracedi. - Kol Tregaskes

Congrats :) - alfred westerveld

Thank you, Alfred. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy belated birthday! - Arlan Koizumi

Thanks, Arlan. - Kol Tregaskes

Kol, I need the "As promised" list in alphabetical. kthxbai! - Jorge Escobar

Pass. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Hoorah! - Ron Bailey

HAppy Bday - siniradam

happy birthday! - errorist

Happy b-day! - Zachary TG

Thank you, Ron, siniradam, errorist, Zachary. - Kol Tregaskes

Bit too late, but wish you happy then, to wish you anything anyhow. ;-) - Dutch Bloggies

Oops, that last one was the wrong account. It came from me. :-) - Ton Zijp

Pokey Polly just now wishing you Happy Birthday and many more! - Polly Potter

Whoa ... Missed this HB to Kol! (Man ... you're just a kid :) - Charlie Anzman

Thank you, Dutch/Ton, Polly and Charlie! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Hehe, yeah should read "33 years young" ;-). - Kol Tregaskes

happy 33 and 2 days birthday - Morgan Haley

Thank you, Morgan! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

ugh 2 days overdue - happy belated kolbot :) - mike "glemak" dunn

No worries, thank you, Mike! :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday Kol!! - jcunwired

Thank you, jcunwired. - Kol Tregaskes

Happy belated birthday mate !!! - Nir Ben Yona

Thank you, Nir. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Louis Gray

TweetDeck iPhone Update Fail Makes the Day "Manic". - http://blog.louisgray.com/2009...

Friday from louisgray.com - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter, Jim Connolly, M. Hakan Deryal and Jesse Stay liked this

Hutch Carpenter

Michael Jackson – Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough - http://www.last.fm/music...

Friday from Last.fm - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter, vicster and Derrick liked this

Louis Gray

Brizzly and Seesmic Web Get Into Twitter Lists Game - http://blog.louisgray.com/2009...

Friday from louisgray.com - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, Iván Abrego, Jenna Bilotta and 2 other people liked this

Louis Gray

Dear Blogs: "Best of 2009" awards and lists done now are worse than Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Be patient. -- Mgmt.

Friday from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Kol Tregaskes, Mike Fruchter, Shey, Jamaican of FF and 6 other people liked this

I remember when that sort of stuff came out right between Christmas and New Year. I'm old! - Eoghann Irving

4 more comments

Mine usually goes out the first week of January, because I procrastinate. :) - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Does anybody pay attention to that stuff anyway? Best of lists are so 1990's... - Otto

Oh...I guess my "Best of 2010" could wait until the weekend, then... - WorldofHiglet

Before Thanksgiving? Where I live, they were up before Halloween - TheIndustryStandard

Didn't the Onion already warn us about the growing shortage of retro? Oh, when will people learn? - Andrew C

Derrick to Derrick's feed, Dog Lovers

Buggs - Boston Terrier and Pug Mixes - Are Sweeping the Nation - http://www.pawnation.com/2009...

Friday from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Michael Pinto, Iván Abrego, Kol Tregaskes and 15 other people liked this

"First came puggles and labradoodles. Then, inexplicably, the goldendoodles. (Can anyone explain how that second 'd' in 'goldendoodle' makes sense?) But if you were afraid that the world had exhausted its ability to deliver new, ridiculous names for mixed-breed dogs, you can breathe a sigh of relief. Buggs have arrived on the scene. Buggs, in case you aren't yet up to speed, are Boston-terrier/pug mixes. While buggs (along with puggles and the like) are just fancy names for crossbreed mutts, we can't deny that they're really freakin' adorable. Some buggs have an undeniably pug-like pucker, while others have obvious terrier tendencies. None of them, thankfully, look like insects." - Derrick from Bookmarklet

5 more comments

I've seen tons lately. They are soooo cute! - Shevonne

x_x - Derrick

almost cuter than my parents' cock-a-poo... :) - T. Brent, technopeasant

i saw a chihuahua lab mix once and wanted to steal that thing. - Princess Granny Pannies

frenchy-bos, just sayin! - Jason

At least the boston/pug mix is a little more natural-feeling, though I can't imagine it being an especially good blend from a health standpoint. Puggles at least got the benefit of the longer nose from the beagle, but in this case, they're just enough alike to be cute but not different enough to improve both breeds' disadvantages. Pugs, by the way, are the best dogs on the planet. Even when they're chewing my slippers. - Karoli

Louis Gray

Happy Birthday to Two Awesome FriendFeeders! My Wife... and Some Guy Named Paul.

Thursday - Comment - Like - Share

Tina-Marie Simba-Masozera, Yuko Elvey, Thomas Power and 75 other people liked this

Kristine is shown with her favorite son, Matthew: http://www.friendfeed.com/kristin... - Louis Gray

25 more comments

Paul is hiding here: http://www.friendfeed.com/paul - Louis Gray

Happy birthday folks! - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

Happy Birthday to (Sarah and Matthew)'s mom ;) - ffcode

This strengthens my faith in astrology, It's a good day, one that has produced stuff Louis loves. - Laura Norvig

Hooray! Happy Birthday! - Martha

Mrs. Gray... *swoon*... Happy Birthday!!! - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

Scorpions FTW! :) Happy Birthday - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Happy Birthday Kristine! - testbeta

Mrs. Gray is better looking than Paul...so happy birthday to, Mrs. Gray! :) - JA Castillo

Happy Birthday guys! It was mine yesterday too. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Happy Birthday! - Yolanda

Happy Birthday - Shevonne

Happy Birthday, Kristine! Happy Birthday, Paul! - Anne Bouey

Happy birthday to the both of you!!! - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

happy bday everyone ... enjoy the celebration - johnpiercy

Thanks everyone! I'm having a great day and going out tonight with the hubs. - Kristine Gray

Happy Birthday! - Josh Haley

Happy Birthday! - Mycaptain

Happy Birthday! - MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF

Happy Birthdays all around! - Trish Haley

Happy happies!!! - Helen Sventitsky

Happy Birthday :) - Rodfather

Beautiful family! - Cool Wired

happy belated birthday ;p - zʍıɔ

OK, Louis, here's my response: http://sharisax.com/2009... http://www.flickr.com/photos... - Shari Weiss

happy birthday(s)! - AJ Batac

AJ Kohn

I think I ticked off Robert Scoble.

November 2 - Comment - Like - Share

Victor Ganata, Helen Sventitsky, Jason Huebel and 2 other people liked this

what did you do? - Shey, Jamaican of FF

7 more comments

That doesn't appear to be too hard to do. - Derrick

+1 Der - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Oh, I left a post on his blog lecturing him about how he didn't grok why lists wouldn't work. Don't get me wrong, I like Robert. And part of the reason is he does get passionate about things. - AJ Kohn

lists in general or just on twitter aj? - mike "glemak" dunn from iPhone

@mike: mmmm, Twitter for the most part but I find lists overall to be pretty blunt instruments too. - AJ Kohn

oh yeah? what did u do man? - Bishal Adhikary

I gave him a lecture instead of a conversation. Everything is fine now. http://scobleizer.com/2009... - AJ Kohn

Did you talk about something non-tech related? - Anthony Citrano

Brandswag

The Arrival of My Twitter Marketing for Dummies Book - http://kylelacy.com/the-arr...

Thursday from Kyle Lacy, Social Media -... - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Fruchter liked this

Alex Scoble

It's funny, I joined friendfeed just to connect further with my brother...I got that for a time, but in a larger sense I connected with a community and discovered so many interesting people and so many noteworthy stories. Despite what I've written before, to Paul Bucheit and the rest of the friendfeed team, I will forever be grateful for the...

November 2 - Comment - Like - Share

Tina-Marie Simba-Masozera, Thomas Power, Andy Bakun and 95 other people liked this

service that made this possible. - Alex Scoble

21 more comments

cheers, again. - Bren, Photophobe

Cheers to you too, Bren...twice! - Alex Scoble

I'm tyring to like , like , like many times....lol...Alex...wuvs ya - Bill Heslin

LOL, you guys are the best. - Alex Scoble

Amen, Alex. I have come to know more people through FF than I ever could have imagined. It may not be as geeky as it was when I first joined, but the community has grown & improved. Kudos to all of you (devs & users) for giving me that. :) - JA Castillo

Beautifully said, Alex! :) - directeur

Well said but ... don't cue the fat lady yet! - AJ Kohn

AJ, I think you have me confused with another Scoble. :) I'm not calling anything over here. :) Just giving thanks. - Alex Scoble from IM

Alex, are you on google wave? I have one more... - Anthony Farrior

oh, scratch that, i have 10 invites left... - Anthony Farrior

That's nice, Alex. - Anne Bouey

You are my favorite Scoble by far! (Sorry, Robert) ;) - Jorge Escobar

Hmmm.. sounds like the speech that is said before the music is queued up and the lovely ladies come from stage right to escort you off. But Then again.. thanks are not said enough in life so say it often. ;) - CW™

Yes and yes to everything. - Eric @ CS Techcast from iPhone

Long live Friendfeed!!! But even better,long live the relationships.... - Steve

werd! - imabonehead

Love you! even don't know you! love cool people! - Farhad Jafari

nice! - .LAG liked that

Well said, Alex. - Martha

I don't know if that applies to me but the love extends to you too Alex :) - Holden Page

Couldn't agree more .. FF still rocks - Charlie Anzman

FF is the Jewel in the Center of the Internet - Robert Higgins

Louis Gray

TweetDeck Promises to Add Twitter Lists Support Soon - http://blog.louisgray.com/2009...

October 30 from louisgray.com - Comment - Like - Share

Venkk Sastry, Bonnie Foster, Head Ov Metal and 17 other people liked this

What about Seesmic? - Jorge Escobar

13 more comments

Yes this would be awesome... #tweetdeck - Yann Ropars

I assume Loic will provide updates soon, but I can't speak for him. - Louis Gray

But you are on a speed dial basis with him, aren't ya? ;) - Jorge Escobar

I am on a speed-DM basis with him. :) - Louis Gray

Ok, so get his point of view as well for this post. Do some journalism for once! LOL j/k - Jorge Escobar

Isn't tweetdeck supposed to sync with two computers if you have it installed and logged on? Mine doesn't do that w/home and work computers. - Amani

Jorge, I updated the post to reflect that Loic has promised list support in Seesmic. - Louis Gray

Thank you, I'll send you the wire tonight ;) - Jorge Escobar

So does SocialToo :-) - Jesse Stay

I want these in my tweetie iphone app and hopefully they'll be in the new tweetie desktop version - Robert DeBord

Tweetdeck to Twitter list sync would be great - Mo Kargas

I wonder why Loic only mentions update for Seesmic Desktop, not Seesmic Web. Come to think of it, I wonder what Loic's plans are with the two. It seems like they almost go to different directions (some features are unique to each other) - Andre P. Siregar

Cool, anybody knows when twitter add GPS integration? - Francisco Espinoza from FreshFeed

It will be interesting to see if tweetdeck is able to transparently migrate their existing groups to twitter lists. - Edwin Khodabakchian

Paul Buchheit

That's kind of an understatement :) (these people keep emailing me, completely unaware of the fb deal)

November 2 - Comment - Like - Share

SAM, sridhars, Symon Muchina Thuo and 47 other people liked this

<coffee comes thru nose> - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

13 more comments

LOL - CW™

I hate recruiters - Ivan Kirigin

Recruiters, gotta love em. Well, actually you don't. - Eric @ CS Techcast

Haahah. That's a good one. - Micah Wittman

You should reply and say, "Man if only you'd called me a couple of days ago I would have been able to do something with you. Now? Well, sorry, you just missed your chance." - Kenton

wtf? - kosmar

what fb deal??? - Gustaf

ha ha.. are they looking to give you a job or get you to hire them on behalf of FF. - Bindu Reddy

Presumably they are offering their services to recruit staff for friendfeed. You're just an entry in a mail merge database, as far as they're concerned. - DGentry

HAHAHAH That is epic!! tooooo funny :D - Susan Beebe

LOL! - Kol Tregaskes

Tell them you'd like a job at Facebook. - Andrew C

All is well Paul....What's happening in FB... - Symon Muchina Thuo

loled so hard. - sridhars

Paul Buchheit

I tend to agree with Scoble about the "forum problem", but at the same time I really like seeing comments. I'm not sure what the solution is, but I think it's less of an issue if you keep groups relatively small. re: http://scobleizer.com/2009...

Tuesday - Comment - Like - Share

Marc Dong, John Serra, Bertrand Doux and 81 other people liked this

I think the current FriendFeed approach is close to optimal. Do you not see it that way? - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

266 more comments

FF has the inherant ability for the user to take control, both of what they see and the comments they allow. If a user is judicious in their lists and/or filters they should see mostly relevent content (IF that's what they actually want to see). The ability for a poster to moderate comments on their own post gives us the ability to avoid trolls/spam and/or steer the conversation (again,... more... - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Scoble and other "super users" have this problem much more than regular people because they have thousands of subscribers. This is also part of the reason that Twitter probably works better for celebrities -- it's more of a broadcast channel. - Paul Buchheit

They could have a million subscribers and it wouldn't be an issue, Paul: turn off comments on his FF posts and it would be all broadcast all the time. It's the number of people they choose to subscribe TO that is the issue. To be honest, it's like someone walking into a football stadium and then complaining that it's too loud. If one chooses to follow thosuands of people one must surely expect that the amount of 'noise' is going to increase. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

One thing that was tossed around a while back was the ability to disable comments from anyone you're not subscribed to: that'd allow those with a lot of subscribers to have high-signal conversations that their subscribers can still see and gain value from. - Mark Trapp

Perhaps he'd like a 'hide user' button similar to FB? This would prevent the "brings people into YOUR life that YOU DID NOT INVITE!" effect... of course the conversation could be rather disjointed. Maybe a small 'additional comments hidden' status that would show them when desired... Of course, without the conversations, FF == twitter? - Eric Borisch

Paul, can you help me test something? :) - directeur

The features that would make FF optimal would be to let users follow each other's hides and blocks. For most users this would be a nice, small improvement. For users like scobleizer it might make a huge difference. Of course, implementation details matter. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

The problem is that we don't keep groups relatively small. There are always those who are like me who like to connect, for one, but even normal people add tons of people to their groups. It's just natural. I remember I was first to add 1,000 people to my Twitter account and people thought I was weird. Now thousands of people do that. - Robert Scoble

One thing with Facebook is they capped it at 5,000 friends. Which kept it from being used by super-connectors but also caused it to be seen as a place where you talk with just your real life friends. Now that public pages are coming on strong, we're seeing that change. - Robert Scoble

Bruce: the FriendFeed approach is far from optimal. Many, many people told me they don't like joining a forum and like just lurking instead, which is why they chose Twitter (Tim O'Reilly is not the only one who told me this). Tim Robbins likes that on Twitter he can listen to his heros. He sees it as a learning engine. Those of us here love FriendFeed because it lets us talk. But it definitely turns off lots of people. - Robert Scoble

Paul: the solution is to let us toggle comments on and off. Give the USER CONTROL. If they just want to listen to their friends, hide all the other noise. But then give us who like commenting ability to turn that back on. - Robert Scoble

You have the ability to toggle comments on and off: Edit -> Disable Comments. - Mark Trapp

Robert, comments _are_ content. - directeur

Mark: that is on a PER ITEM BASIS though. Totally useless for what we're talking about. - Robert Scoble

directeur: yes, but they are content a LOT of people don't want to see or deal with. - Robert Scoble

Robert, but then you'll be a megaphone broadcasting "your" views. - directeur

Robert has the same comments (or the same potential) on his blog as he does on FriendFeed, so I don't think it's the comments themselves. I think it's the fact that FriendFeed makes comments almost on equal level as the original post, instead of burying them way down at the bottom of a page or requiring a click to view. Out of sight, out of mind, right? - Daniel Sims

Nothing in the API precludes someone from writing a FriendFeed client that hides all the comments so you just see a river of feed items. That's how Twhirl, AlertThingy, and all the native iPhone apps implement FriendFeed. - Mark Trapp

I have two arms. I barely use my left one. Please cut it off! - directeur

Turning comments off entirely would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If you could authorize other users to delete comments on your items, you could minimize the forum problem. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

directeur: that's right. That's what most professional publishers want. - Robert Scoble

I really think the "comments are awesome, why would you ever want to get rid of comments" argument falls on deaf ears at this point. The solution ought to be how to turn off comments if you want to get Scoble (or the people he's saying he represents) back on the FriendFeed train, or to say they're not worth it. I do think if it weren't for the comments, there'd be at least a half dozen other things Scoble or people like him would come up with to not like FriendFeed at this point. - Mark Trapp

I like the idea of having another options to disable comments for people you're not subscribed to. That way you can allow conversation, but limit it to people you "know" if it makes you more comfortable or limits the noise. I think you should have the ability to set the option as a default for all new posts but be able to override it on a post-by-post basis: 1) public comments 2)... more... - Her Lindsay-ness

Her Linday-ness: I want that but it would be hard to design. - Robert Scoble

Mark, I think you make a valid point but then the question becomes: if there are no comments, is FF still the best medium to use? If so, then the ability to turn off comments on one's entire feed should be easy enough to code and implement. I suspect, though, that all things being equal (meaning: there's no ability to comment on an item) FF would no longer be the best medium for a broadcaster. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Mark: I don't think these people will consider FriendFeed at this point. Too much momentum over on Twitter. Look at the news brands: http://twitter.com/Scoblei... you're not going to get them to switch off of Twitter at this point. Sorry. That game is over. - Robert Scoble

I think the real game is how does Facebook evolve? - Robert Scoble

The real game is an open decentralized solution. yes, I'm a dreamer. - directeur

Which leads everyone to wonder why you're trying to nitpick a feature like this, or base your argument on the lack of the feature. The real reason why you (and others like you) aren't into FriendFeed isn't because of the forum problem or the lack of a feature, it's because you think Twitter is better and that's where everyone is. That's fine: that's a great argument. The rest of it is inconsequential to that argument, and wouldn't invalidate it even if you got your way. So what's the point? - Mark Trapp

I've been talking with a lot of brands and celebrities and regular people. For public studying they like Twitter better. That has Facebook wondering what it will be in the future. - Robert Scoble

Mark: sorry, but I spent two years talking to thousands of people about FriendFeed and I'm just passing along why they didn't like it. Take that feedback or leave it. Your choice. - Robert Scoble

Mark: did you speak at dozens of conferences about FriendFeed and Twitter? Did you show hundreds of tech influentials FriendFeed and listen to their feedback? - Robert Scoble

But your feedback doesn't correlate to the real reason why you, and the people you say you represent, are saying why you won't ever use FriendFeed. You said there's nothing anyone could do to get people to use FriendFeed. - Mark Trapp

Mark: if I want to listen to ONLY tech influentials, I can on Twitter. I can't on Facebook. I can't on FriendFeed. http://twitter.com/Scoblei... - Robert Scoble

Robert, if you're going to pull the "don't you know who I am?" crap, it falls on deaf ears. Let's have a constructive conversation on what you're trying to talk about. - Mark Trapp

Can't you make lists in FF? - Dragon Goldmaple

Sure you can: you can import feeds and lists on FriendFeed. - Mark Trapp

Mark: times change and at this point it would be hard to get anyone to take FriendFeed seriously. That said, I believe that it IS possible to move people from Facebook to Twitter or Twitter to Facebook, so THAT is the real battlefront. - Robert Scoble

any comment thread about 20+ without threading and community promotion/demotion becomes difficult to participate in (for me). Though there is a difference between discussing the radiator on a 94 Subaru and the nature of discussion forums. - Hayes Haugen

Robert: is the problem really comments or the fact that each time an item gets commented, the items pops back at the top of the list? Regarding the noise, I think that the "problem" with friendfeed is that it was much easier for people to plug in automated feeds and that as a result, there was less of an explicit action. I do not know how other people feel about this but I really miss... more... - Edwin Khodabakchian

Mark: OK, show me your public list the way I did on Twitter. You can't do that here, sorry. - Robert Scoble

Hayes: BING BING BING. - Robert Scoble

Ok, so it's not about who you read, it's who you can show that you are reading. - Dragon Goldmaple

Bing goes the internet! lol - Marshall Kirkpatrick

Sure Twitter has a lot of momentum now, but how quickly the winds change. Frankly, it's a shame that FF is going to be neglected... I wish that someone with as much motivation and insight as Paul and the original team could take it over now that FB has consumed them. There is still SO MUCH potential in this platform that it is depressing to see it squandered. @Robert - I don't think it... more... - Her Lindsay-ness

Robert, I don't use public lists: I believe you read my blog post about why I don't. But Hutch Carpenter does, and here's his FriendFeed public list on Innovation Management: http://friendfeed.com/innovat... - Mark Trapp

Robert, who do you call "influentials"? Do they talk "tech" all the day? Isn't it unhuman? Let's go back to spring/summer 2008, and redefine "smart" for me, please :) - directeur

Edwin: the problem is on FriendFeed it has the chat problem -- it gets noisy and gets noisy fast. - Robert Scoble

directeur: influentials are people who influence. I picked them. Shoot me. - Robert Scoble

The noise is largely proportional to the circles you're in. If you put yourself in a huge room, it will be a loud room. - Kevin Fox

Robert, do you remember the "MOAR NOISE" phrase? It was THE reason why I built NoiseRiver. Filters, I used to say when you were always saying: MORE NOISE! - directeur

Kevin: exactly. But on FriendFeed the room gets big VERY QUICKLY because as more people join they drag in their followers with them. - Robert Scoble

Facebook has the same problem. While we're chatting here, tons of tech news diversity have swooped by. - Robert Scoble

So Robert, should there be something built in to "warn" others of becoming "chatty". Something that says: "This comment is irrelevant. You may post again when you have something relevant and germane to our discussion"? So WHO makes those distinctions and judgements? - Melanie Reed

Compare this chat to http://twitter.com/Scoblei... which one brought more information to you? The chat is more fun, cause we're engaged, but it's noisy and if you don't care about it, a waste of time. - Robert Scoble

Melanie: in a chat room you can't control people that way. - Robert Scoble

Robert: True, but [big number]*[average number] is far larger than [average number]*[average number] - Kevin Fox

Hayes you are correct. Slashdot has actually had the best discussion forums for more than ten years because it has threading and community moderation. Its not a trendy social networking site though so no one notices. If you had a social network site where you post topics but with Slashdot like forums it would rock. Only down side is moderators tend to inject bias but /. has good signal after moderation kicks in - Ed Millard

Robert, I don't care about more information. I have more than enough. :) - Melanie Reed

Does it really have to be one or the other Robert? - Internet's Tad from fftogo

(Where you (scoble) are the big number) - Kevin Fox

Kevin: the problem with FriendFeed is if you and Melanie were having a conversation it would be pretty small, right? But I follow you. The second I touch your conversation it gets big. - Robert Scoble

If only someone could figure out how to make a room that gets big very quickly appeal to broadcasters... - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

This problem doesn't happen on the private Facebook because you have two-way friending there and a cap of 5,000. But on Facebook Pages? Absolutely. Noise baby noise! - Robert Scoble

Bruce: broadcasters don't like any of this because there's no way to monetize. Why do you think Arrington really hated this? - Robert Scoble

Robert, I don't care about more information. I have more than enough. :) What I would like is what Tad is implying in his comment. You know you can have "...two opposites that have learned how to blaze together" ;) And excuse me, but is wrong with a big conversation? - Melanie Reed

"The chat is more fun, cause we're engaged, but it's noisy and if you don't care about it, a waste of time. " If someone doesn't care about it on FF, they can hide it and not see it again. Problem solved. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

Chatting is not intended to provide information. It is like planning -- it is the process of chatting that is what is useful not the words that are spoken/written. - Brian Sullivan

Thank you, Tina! and Brian! - Melanie Reed

Melanie: I love big conversations. That's why I loved FriendFeed. But most people aren't like me. - Robert Scoble

Tina: there are so many things going by on my screen in FriendFeed that hiding them all would take all day long. - Robert Scoble

Robert -- why is it that you think that people are like you and things should be done for your needs? - Brian Sullivan

FF is too busy!! - Joe Silence is not dead

Brian: again, it's not about me. - Robert Scoble

Robert one word: APML. I used to yell it back in 2008, no one cared. You want "filters" by personal interest. - directeur

FreiendFeed sold ME on it two years ago. I've been trying to sell others on it. The feedback I'm giving is from OTHERS. - Robert Scoble

The Forum Problem is a problem? - teh Dork Knight

directeur: APML will never work. - Robert Scoble

oh dear, don't hate the messenger. - Joe Silence is not dead

Robert: who are these "others" and what are their numbers? - Melanie Reed

Paul nailed it - Twitter is a broadcast channel. Massive amounts of subscriptions are fine there - it's all about reach. But if you want discovery, if you want to engage, then FriendFeed and FoaF is where it's all. They're NOT the same. One you can subscribe/follow as many as you want, in the other, subscription abuse will cripple your ability to view and interact. - AJ Kohn

Finally, a thread on this subject that makes sense. - Akiva Moskovitz

Threading may or may not help... it seemed to hurt with GoogleWave... it was so hard to follow all the tangents... of course without threading a lot of the tangents just get lost anyway. I guess I have given up on trying to catch everything... If it's important and I didn't see it the first time, eventually the concept will bubble up enough times for me to notice. That's one NICE thing about following lots of people and participating in lots of convos. - Her Lindsay-ness

why won't APML, or something like it, work? i missed that memo - Marshall Kirkpatrick

Robert, go say this to Last.fm or the BBC :-) Smart recommendation engines are the future - directeur

FriendFeed may make some audience/discussion leak out, but also makes audience leak in through seeing what your friends are talking about. Arrington may be mostly concerned about the leak out. Other broadcasters may be looking for the leak in. - Bruce Lewis from fftogo

Marshall, me neither! :) - directeur

Also, the meta around the content in FF (likes, comments) is what helps turns random data into information. It's annotated and qualified. - AJ Kohn

Lindsay: true - Hayes Haugen

Thank you, AJ, yes. And you can sort that out when you want to on your own time. That's the utility of it. - Melanie Reed

Perhaps one solution to the 'forum problem' is to allow posters to selectively choose who can participate in the discussion but still be viewable to the public. - Rodfather

I love the noise but I don't subscribe to thousands of user. - ashish from iPhone

So maybe the real question is, why do some people prefer conversation over broadcasting and vice versa? Is the broadcast-mentality simply a matter of popularity (the inability to reciprocate all the connections, so just broadcast instead) or is the effort it takes to connect with people on a more meaningful basis a major turn-off? Or is it just the tools that people use and what makes it easier for them? - Her Lindsay-ness

Rodfather, this will bring wars. Trust me. I'm not a commercial object. So you want to SHOUT and ask me to close my mouth? :) Moreover, close comments, other threads will be started and the noise you wanted to avoid will be even greater. The Streisand Effect, anyone? :) - directeur

For example: this discussion has 80+ comments and rolling. I don't mind that at all. I am engaged. I am also updating a web page on our web site as I do it and switching over to grade 30 some PRF's for students on the play Macbeth. I am not having any trouble with the "forum problem" or any "chattiness" I learned the "ropes" of FF when I joined and accepted that it as it was. - Melanie Reed

To me FF turns data (the river of content out there) into information (the good stuff - explained). The tool set FF provides is superior in this way - but it takes time to dial in the right set of filters to apply to the data set (which changes!) and many simply overwhelm the great filtering system they've provided. - AJ Kohn

A lot of people don't want to put in the time and effort to make the tool work for them like you, AJ and Melanie. I can empathize with that. I think it also has to serve their base inclination of either broadcasting or conversation, and the tool choice is also influenced by whether they already are part of a community on it or not. Most people won't leave their community even if it us using the less appropriate tool for their inclination. - Her Lindsay-ness

directeur, then those people can make their own thread and allow everyone to comment. I'm thinking of in case there's a roundtable event where certain 'experts' in a field can have a thread to discuss a topic among themselves without worrying about others cluttering the thread. - Rodfather

AJ, indeed - the task is to build new concepts with and for filters. Filters, not to shut stuff out, but to mix it better to create a constant flow of narratives. - David Bausola

AJ, is it more that FF provides the platform for the users to turn that data into information? The users are integral to FF. Now with Twitter you can program a week's worth of tweets (I have heard) but I don't wish to do that. Facebook... you could almost do that-although it does have engagement -you could certainly use it without. But FF runs on an engagement engine - Melanie Reed

Marshall: I don't trust automatic systems to guess what I'm going to be interested in next. Never seen a system yet that works. But we should debate this. - Robert Scoble

Robert, we should debate it! The robot that makes all my decisions for me says it's quite likely I would enjoy doing that! ;) - Marshall Kirkpatrick

That's getting into intelligent agents and AI once full blown - Melanie Reed

if you ask me, and you don't, the problem has always been lack of comment moderation and threading. Too many users isn't a problem if no one sees them. Slashdot was one of the first doing this, using an interface which is actually very similar to FF and it seems to work there. - Vincent van Wylick

Web tech needs to look outside their dev environments for richer influences in filter design: http://www.youtube.com/watch... - David Bausola

Is the problem that Robert is looking for a single service solution. I see the same 'content' on Twitter and FriendFeed but I scan Twitter for 'raw information' and go to FriendFeed to 'discuss' it with others. I watch the news at home on TV but I talk about it with my friends or work colleagues around the water cooler or coffee shop table. I am comfortable existing in several spaces - Johnny Worthington from iPhone

@Lindsay: I don't know. I'd rather educate people on the power that FF can provide with a little effort. Or, that it actually doesn't take LOTS of subscriptions. Max it at Dunbar's number (which is what I do for my home feed) and you'd be fine. - AJ Kohn

+++ Johnny Scotty would be proud of you: The right tool for the job - Melanie Reed

@David: Exactly! My home feed - I tweak it. I use people like Robert and Rob Diana and Michael Fruchter and Anthony Citrano and Thomas Hawk and numerous others to bring a mix of themes and concepts into my feed. - AJ Kohn

So are we saying that its not the tool itself...but HOW it is or is not used that maxes utility? If so I agree! - Melanie Reed

@Melanie: Yes, the users are the key. The users are the filters. http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/soylent... And the engagement provides a rich annotation and a secondary level of filtering. So yes, users and their engagement absolutely matter. - AJ Kohn

Sure, yes, how you use it maxes utility. But it also helps if it's suited to how you WANT to use it... if not it's a struggle. And people don't like to struggle, even if it's possible to make something do what you want it to... easier to use another tool if it fits your purpose better. FriendFeed fits my purpose so it's not a struggle for me... but for someone with a more broadcasting mindset than a conversational one, it's going to be tougher. - Her Lindsay-ness

Vincent, most long-time FriendFeeders have spoken strongly against any sort of moderation/rating system for comments. No one wants mobs of people trying to control what other people can see like what happens on Digg. It's why every time the topic of 'Unlike' comes up, people rise up to talk it down because it creates an aura of competition and negativity. - Akiva Moskovitz

AJ, yes! users are the filters. - Melanie Reed

Akiva +++ - Melanie Reed

Anybody use Mailchimp here? It is tangential to the discussion. They have a cracker jack built in user educational system that monitors and makes usage suggestions. - Melanie Reed

Is lunchtime finally over yet? - Hayes Haugen

I'd love to peek in on the recommendation engine discussions. I'm in the 'they don't work camp' myself but I'm open to being convinced and perhaps technology has approached a point where it could work but ... from working in eCommerce I've seen it fail time and time again. Random factors, contextual issues etc. - AJ Kohn

@Melanie: Know of Mailchimp but don't use. The 'monitor and makes usage suggestions' sounds interesting though. - AJ Kohn

AJ, that's because the devs didn't pay attention when their instructors (ahem) were teaching it to them. ;) - Melanie Reed

Another point I'd like to make is that no one is forcing anyone to read the comments here. If people want a broadcast-only medium, it's fairly easy not to click on the 'x more comments' link. Unfortunately, Robert makes a painful observation: he played FriendFeed cheerleader for two years and the people who needed to take the bait didn't or did but then cut loose. That pretty much means... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

Johnny: I am comfortable with all of these too, but it's not about me. But, anyway, the business battle now is between Facebook and Twitter and it'll be interesting to see the choices that Paul's team makes and how those compare with the team NK over at Twitter is making. Then the market will choose which one is best. - Robert Scoble

Akiva: If I were at Facebook and knew that they could turn into the next MySpace I'd put every single engineering minute onto Facebook. Wouldn't you? - Robert Scoble

Like I said before, there is still SO MUCH potential here... and it's a shame to see it squandered. I think there are a lot of ways it could be taken to the next level. For sure it could be a contender to Twitter with a few enhancements, but fat chance of that now that there is no longer a dev team, and that it's "parent" is a competitor. - Her Lindsay-ness

Robert, here's a good example: You want to debate intelligent recommendation agents? Allright, I know that you know Chris Saad. Chris is a very cool guy in fact! But do you know Deniz Oktar? Deniz, who is not as popular as Chris, is a SMART Turkish guy too and works on the same subject. If you limit your view to "popular" people, you'll definitely miss him. And debating such a subject without alternative ideas likes Deniz's or humbly mine, won't be perfect :) - directeur

Not sure, Robert. Is turning into the next MySpace a good thing for you or a bad thing? For me, it'd be bad. - Akiva Moskovitz

Akiva, go take a look at (and experience) mailchimp's monitor and make usage suggestion system. It's adaptable for a number of scenarios - Melanie Reed

I think the business battle (other than the marketing to consumers end of it) will be occupied and won by Wave. Facebook, Twitter and FriendFeed are mere toys in that world. - Brian Sullivan

Melanie, I'm not complaining about a solution that MailChimp could provide. I'm fine with FriendFeed as it is (for the most part). - Akiva Moskovitz

directeur: most people choose news brands to curate and find new people that will have something valuable to say. See http://twitter.com/Scoblei... for instance. That already is TOO MUCH so telling people to get more people or more things into their lives just isn't going to cut it for most people. - Robert Scoble

Allowing public panels where only the influential can talk certainly would have a useful role, Its just like panels at conferences. A lot of people would no doubt like to just follow the influential in these forums. On the down side it would make the already influential more so and it would probably lose some audience if it was done a lot because there is no democratic engagement. The people who don't spend all their time cultivating their fame and networks do say interesting things too. - Ed Millard

directeur: and, anyway. if he's in Turkey and not in San Francisco he's far less likely to influence tech in a major way. So I disagree. - Robert Scoble

(FYI - look at this conversation and tell me where else anything like this could take place.) - AJ Kohn

No, we're completely boring and worthless, Ed. We're not worth paying attention to. I mean, who wants to see a picture of our kids? ;) - Her Lindsay-ness

IRC or a phpBB messageboard! - Joe Silence is not dead

Akiva, I meant for those who might struggle "getting" FF but would enjoy and benefit from it once they do. There's an "on ramp" to FF that rivals North Corridor Dallas coming out of an apt complex on to 50mph+ 4 lane traffic. Some of us are better at that than others, but you still see a lot of cars on the road. :) - Melanie Reed

There has also been a lack of creative uses using the FF tool sets. Good uses of the tools inspires participation + it's easy to criticize -- harder to create. - David Bausola

@Robert: Whoa, whoa. Weren't you arguing that adding 8K new people from Twitter Lists was a good thing? Is more better, or worse? - AJ Kohn

+++David - Melanie Reed

@David: Good point, no real developer platform. That's been a big boon for both Facebook and Twitter. - AJ Kohn

Robert, yet he DOES. You just aren't into that speciality :) If you think that every "tech" thing must happen in SF you really miss A LOT. - directeur

Woah, Robert, so you are saying anyone who doesn't live in SF doesn't count in a tech discussion? That's a little self centered isn't it? - Ed Millard

I understand it but I really dislike any discussions where the topic seems to be "how can we turn this thing that the people who use it like into something that people who don't use it and would only use it for selfish reasons like?" Screw them. If something's not as "techy" as Slashdot and it's more chaotic because the comments aren't threaded like Slashdot and there's no moderation... more... - Mark H

Lindsay, I want to see a picture of your kids. I only wish I had some to show back. ;) - Melanie Reed

Ed: you are NOT a careful reader. - Robert Scoble

Robert's not saying that those ideas can't happen, or that a true revelation can't come from elsewhere, but that ... the likelihood that someone outside of SF to influence tech is less. The Capital of the Internet is SF. I'd agree with that. But that doesn't mean it'll always stay that way, nor does it mean that tech from other areas can't be influential. (least that's how I read it.) - AJ Kohn

OK I just read it, you still said if you don't live in SF there is very little chance you will have any influence on tech. If you have no influence then you either have nothing to say on the subject, or even if you do have something to say it wont matter. - Ed Millard

Hrm, I think the whole thing is overblown. My personal FF landing page still has as much utility as my first day (if not more). Bleh, whatever. - Chieze Okoye

@AJ The FF API is beautiful, I don't think dev communities saw the richness that you can create with the aggregation of FF streams. A few valley PR oriented bloggers pushed 'conversation' as FF's 'killer app' - whereas, the realtime aggregation streams and republishing of content is radical and unique. - David Bausola

Well I'm pretty sure all the people in Seattle, Toronto, Paris, London, Moscow,Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangalore, Boulder, etc. probably disagree - Ed Millard

@David: I'll take your word on the API and wouldn't doubt it given the FF team's chops. But fostering usage, that community - that's where things may have gotten shaky. Too few people leveraging it. It could still resolve back to an inability to really grasp what FF can do for them. - AJ Kohn

AJ, I think you're on to something. Back in the day, usability (including general user and disabled) use to be a well-known topic. Universities made it a part of the curriculum. Everything before and including e-commerce got the once over. But it occurs that the latest generation (including GLS and SM) have outpaced the community standards for usability. It's really the wild west again-... more... - Melanie Reed

Akiva: I suspect the noise problem Robert's describing from others isn't that comment threads get too long. It's that items keep popping to the top as new comments show up, when they don't want to see the new comments. I don't see any way around that except a separate client. It would take too much away from the FriendFeed experience for the default interface not to work this way. - Bruce Lewis

Mark, I didn't mean to suggest /. is the only solution to the forum problem. If you have really big forum discussions /. is time tested way to control noise and raise the signal level. On the other hand it would probably be a horrible solution for intimate and friendly discussions among friends. Someone earlier Lindsey? kind of had a good suggestion. When you make a post have a row of option buttons and let the poster set the kind of forum for that thread, broadcast, panel, open, modded, thredded, not.. - Ed Millard

Ed: I specifically said "far less likely." I didn't say there is very little chance. But, seriously, this is an argument for another thread. Lots of people think they have influence but actually don't have as much. For instance, I love to think I have influence on Facebook but I'm far less likely to influence that then Paul Buchheit is. Facts are facts. - Robert Scoble

Chieze glad you like FriendFeed. Me too. It's awesome. But that doesn't mean much to the rest of the world. - Robert Scoble

Robert, how often do you use "Add This"? It's germane :) - Melanie Reed

OK we will agree to disagree on that one and drop it. I've lived in the bay off and on, I think there are pluses and minuses to being there. - Ed Millard

Melanie: "Add This" being the "Add Photos" at top of FriendFeed? Not as much as I should. - Robert Scoble

Robert: No this service: http://www.addthis.com/ This is fast becoming the SM share button for many websites. Ours uses it. And FF is on it. Take a look at the entire list - Melanie Reed

FriendFeed's feature set will mean a lot to the rest of the world when it's fully integrated into Facebook in 2011. - Bruce Lewis

Bruce: I don't think it'll take that long. - Robert Scoble

Robert, you may be right, in which case FriendFeed is a relevant thing to look at. Maybe it isn't actually too far ahead of its time. - Bruce Lewis

Just like Lisp can make you a better programmer in other languages, FriendFeed can make you a better thinker when writing about other social networks. Popularity isn't everything, even for a blogger. - Bruce Lewis

You mean, it's not all about attention? :D - Her Lindsay-ness

Who really knows why Twitter got all the traction? Does Scoble? I very much doubt it. I think there's a great effort going into finding a logical explanation for Twitter massive success and FriendFeeds more modest gains. My own best guess is that it has more to do with the madness of crowds than it does with any limitation in FriendFeed. Twitter had a decent enough foothold already by... more... - David Hall from FreshFeed

Twitter got the traction because Twitter's easy. It requires very little effort to get into and it requires even less to participate. It's the same reason why YouTube comments are the cesspool of the Internet and MetaFilter's comments are not: anyone can sit around and watch videos all day and then trash talk them but you make people pay to comment and you'll weed out the chaff almost... more... - Akiva Moskovitz

David: I was there from early days on Twitter and studied how it grew. I know more than you might think. Remember, I was the first person to follow 1,000 people there and I was the 13,800ish user to join. - Robert Scoble

This link is the most illuminating one on FF traction at the time of the buyout. It indicates FF was just starting to regain traction after it had stalled out for a while and it suggests if maybe FF had stuck it out a while longer things might have changed. http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Ed Millard

Twitter got hot in the early days because of Leo Laporte and because of SXSW and because it was goofy fun way for tech influencers to talk to their friends. It just kept growing from there. Another factor in addition to simplicity (Akiva's right there) is the API. Tons of clients and tools and services are built on top of it. FriendFeed got nearly none in comparison. - Robert Scoble

The difference may be luck of the draw ( a la Gladwell) - Brian Sullivan

People had to build tons of clients, tools and services for Twitter because the default web UI is so bad. - Ed Millard

Ed: what that graph doesn't show you is what we now know. Google Wave sucked a lot of attention of geek influentials away (IE Hype) and Facebook's Connect is running away with another game. I went into FriendFeed the week they decided to sell and asked them because I knew Twitter had new features coming that would make FriendFeed less interesting. I think the FriendFeed team looked at the competition and decided to fold. - Robert Scoble

How could I have ignored the API? It's like Firefox's plug-ins: it's the only thing that makes Twitter usable for many users. Without it, they wouldn't touch it. Heck, if it weren't for Tweetie 2, I wouldn't touch it either. - Akiva Moskovitz

And Facebook's Connect platform is getting incorporated everywhere. I think FriendFeed was hoping to become part of the general web, like what we did over on http://building43.com and that just wasn't going to happen because Facebook's Connect platform is rocking and rolling now. In fact, I made a fundamental blunder by not going with Facebook on Building43. If I had, our traffic would have been much higher than it is now. - Robert Scoble

You can be sure that once CNN and other assorted media outlets started plugging Twitter it was game over. Once the band wagon was rolling every "personality" was going to hop on. It is a little disturbing that Miley Cyrus has now joined the "everyone should delete their Twitter accounts" camp. - Ed Millard

David Hall +1 Steven Berlin Johnson would be a good reference - the persistence of babble is incredible valuable in phatic communications. FF, through the web interface hides a lot of that. Instead, the babble was more bookmark centric and less about 'having a sandwich'. That's why you have, on the whole, better conversation threads on FF, and ending up having to duck out of the way of... more... - David Bausola

Disturbing REALLY????? My word, Miley is absolutely right <sarcasm/> - Roberto Bonini

To paraphrase Louis Gray's wife, "nerds in startups are fickle". I speculate they had a lot of self doubt when they stalled out prior to that up tick, and decided to sell just about the time FF was starting to take off again. Someone waves $50 million at you during a period of self questioning that is a potent motivator, I think Zuckerberg saw that and he did nip a potential competitor in the bud. - Ed Millard

But all the above comments is about public sharing. I use FF a lot for project planning and development - it's fast - you can discuss items with good archive search, and you can post media. I wonder how many people use FF in this way, and ignore the public babble? - David Bausola

Having read most of this thread (and Robert, comments are VERY valueble) the"forum problem" is NP-complete. Comments are valuable becuase seeing people reason is often just as enlightening, if not more so, than the original information. - Roberto Bonini

Ed - mind you, there's only a few ways you can get to the helm of the FB API design and product development. :) Who's to say this isn't all going according to plan? - David Bausola

Roberto: me and you agree on that. In my research most people do not. They see these things as noise. But, if you make the comments toggle on and off we BOTH win! Plus, comments REALLY help search! - Robert Scoble

Ed: correction, it was $50 million. - Robert Scoble

Robert you keep talking about "your research". Is this anything more than anecdotal conversations? - Brian Sullivan

David, Well maybe Paul and Co. are doing a trojan horse on FB but what I've read about Zuckerberg he doesn't seem likely to relinquish control of anything he cares about and I am skeptical you are going to turn FB in to FF with their entrenched user base. - Ed Millard

@Scoble you're arguing from authority again. I think on a broadcast platform like Twitter that's an easier one to pull off. On Twitter it's a big "so what" if you've posted a load of BS because most people will simply miss any challenge to your "content." Post the same on FriendFeed and you get tackled and you get tackled in public. Reasonable enough grounds to explain your current stance and certainly as good as any reason I've heard you put forward yourself. - David Hall

Robert, I stand corrected, and it is corrected, this editing your posts thing is one of FF's scarier features. - Ed Millard

OPEN QUESTION: Is FF gaining or losing users? I see very little here now - but I'm told user numbers are going through the roof. - Jim Connolly

Ed: tell me one thing. What's the biggest difference between FF and FB? There's already not as much difference as you'd might think. The one thing I miss over there? Real time search. - Robert Scoble

Twitter got big because it's about ego. Look at me, Me, ME! Twitter flourished because people like to talk about themselves. (FF is not, which is why it hasn't gained nearly as much traction.) It was developed as an update service. It has evolved into ... something else. As for comments, they are invaluable. - AJ Kohn

and the ability to edit comments, moderate comments, import all my feeds, bumping up of older posts - Holden Page from IM

Jim: user numbers are not going through the roof here. I don't know anyone credible who has said that. The registered numbers are going up, but the active numbers are going down. - Robert Scoble

AJ: FriendFeed is just as much about ego as Twitter is. If not more so. - Robert Scoble

Ed, the goal is to design influentially for the web. Paul B does seem to give that ethos in his startup camp talks and general interviews. I would think FB would warm to that ideology. - David Bausola

Very true. Robert. - Roberto Bonini

@Robert: How? Seriously, I'd like to hear your opinion. - AJ Kohn

Robert: In other words, as people like yourself, Arrington and even those little guys like myself with a couple of thousand subscribers leave - we're being replaced by less active users. Makes sense. I used to check in on and off all day. Now, 2/3 times a week, - Jim Connolly

Jim: not true. I don't see a lot of people joining in here and I'm watching it closely. Sorry. More people are leaving the back door than are coming in the front. - Robert Scoble

To me the two big ones are 1) perception that it more walled garden networks and not as open though certainly it has avenues which are more open like FF 2) its home to massive quantities of apps, games, spam from people trying to get rich that hold no interest to me, though obviously many others like them. FF is probably just overlooked by that crowd, if it were bigger it would be infected with all that crap too. FF seems to mostly just be good people from my limited time here. - Ed Millard

All User Centric Design is modeled around the ego. Good software design keeps that in mind. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - David Bausola

AJ: Twitter is, for many people, about business now. Not ego at all. News brands: http://twitter.com/#... no ego. Tech companies: http://twitter.com/Scoblei... No ego. But here? It's ALL about ego! - Robert Scoble

David is right. - Robert Scoble

On Twitter the default is to show number you follow, number of followers, number of Tweets. That's all playing on ego and popularity. Nearly everything (even lists) is geared to stimulate a innate need to acquire more of something as a way to ... validate contribution or perceived influence or authority. FF does not show this in the default mode. - AJ Kohn

Companies and brands are the most aggressive form of ego there is, and they usually are direct reflections of the ego of the company's CEO. - Ed Millard

Alright Robert. In order to reduce the signal to noise ratio, we can do one of two things, we can use "Likes" to filter the comment stream. If I Like more posts from Robert than i do from LG, Roberts comments appear but not LG's. We can use semantics to (somehow) sort the thread and show comments relevant to the original post. (simply dumping noise isin't a solution - not all noise is noise all the time. Likewise, increasing signal in an echo chamber is fruitless) - Roberto Bonini

@Robert: Oh, I think Twitter is a great business tool! It's a marketers paradise. But I'm not sure that's what most people believe it to be. People still think they're going to get some sort of social dialog there. I think it's why Twitter churn is so high. People get it thinking it'll be one thing and quickly find out it's another. - AJ Kohn

+1 AJ, there are some people that use Twitter in awesome, constructive, useful, ways like Tim O'Reilly and Jay Rosen but a lot of people its pure self promotion. As for news outlets using twitter they are going to go wherever the eyeballs are, and they will go to multiple networks not just Twitter. Those are pure broadcast, no engagement, they aren't really a ringing endorsement of why Twitter is great. - Ed Millard

I'd bet FF *would* take off (but be worse for it) if it listed how many times the content I fed got liked and commented on, and that (along with subscribers etc.) were all listed right there at the top of my home feed. And that upon signing up, I'd get suggested users based on subscriptions but also who got the most likes and comments. Yet, I don't think that's conducive to what FF really excels at. - AJ Kohn

@Robert, biggest difference between Facebook and Friendfeed - reciprocal connections. Without a doubt. The apps, the ads, other stuff, is true, but for me the central difference, and the thing that betrays a fundamental difference of worldview between the two apps is whether or not you can follow someone's content without them having to follow you back. You can only do that on Facebook... more... - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

@Ed: I realized a long time ago that Twitter was a big Internet megaphone. And if you could get a lot of people to 'listen' to that megaphone well, that's powerful stuff. It's about Reach. Twitter gives your message reach. Nothing wrong with that. I just don't see it as ... transforming. - AJ Kohn

Those who study the art of propaganda consider reach to be everything, because following reach is influence, and following influence is control. TV is losing its reach in the Internet era so most of those "brands" and "personalites" are rushing to find a way to regain it, enter Twitter and FB. They are better because they are bidirectional. - Ed Millard

*Noise* :) - ashish

@Ed: I'd be interested to see more on how reach leads to influence. It often does but ... not always. Plenty of multi-million dollar ad campaigns in the graveyard as examples. Reach + ? = influence. - AJ Kohn

Ed I think you're right. I caught that TC piece at the time too. Seems to me that the FriendFeed guys had a bit of a crisis of confidence and grabbed lunch while it was on offer. In any case I always figured FriendFeed as a place to graduate to once you'd rammed up against Twitters limitations. And, as I'm sure you know, that doesn't take long. That's how I got here. I was actually on... more... - David Hall

You don't have influence until you have reach so its the prerequisite. Then it a matter of how effectively you craft the message and push the buttons in your target audience. Some people are good at that part, some aren't, some fail, some succeed. - Ed Millard

Robert, I just wonder. Isn't twitter more about consuming the information and FF more about sharing and discussing? Look at http://twitter.com/Scoblei.... What can anyone add to that or comment on that? I agree it is getting a lot noisy in here (exhibit, this post). But not all posts will be this noisy I think. - Amit

+1 Jandy, she answered Robert's challenge to me better than I did. - Ed Millard

@Ed: I'm not sure. New memes start with someone small sometimes. Say ... keyboard cat ... and someone who has reach communicates that message and it goes big. So who has the influence? The creator of keyboard cat or the person to has the reach to make it go big? I find it very interesting. - AJ Kohn

Jandy: +100. You just nailed for me why I like Twitter and FriendFeed better than Facebook. Agreed. - Robert Scoble

Robertt, maybe this post and the scads of comments prove your point, but maybe your point is limited to your own experience due to your unique position in tech. You speak, noise follows. But that does not make Friendfeed irrelevant or useless for the average or even just left or right of average user. You have a unique experience that is going to color any forum you put your time into.... more... - Martha

+++Jandy - Melanie Reed

Well put, Jandy. - Akiva Moskovitz

I think the forum problem is not as big in smaller more intimate groups. Recently I've been very active in the DMU group here that includes a lot of folks who've migrated here from Flickr. The relevancy is much more higher in these venues than in the main feed because it's a smaller controlled experience. I do wish though that groups were more full featured like the rest of FF though.... more... - Thomas Hawk

oh of course and photo voting pools for groups would by awesome too. ;) - Thomas Hawk

Lists are not enough. Twitter, FF and other social networks need tagging by default, then filter on list + tag. That's the element that would kill the noise and turn them into interest networks. - howard shippin from BuddyFeed

Martha: you might have a point if we were just talking about me. But we're not. So, try again. Again, I've talked with thousands of people about these things. They tell me they don't like the noise that public forums bring. I've been doing this for 25 years and this isn't the first time I've heard this pushback. Facebook, by the way, on its iPhone app, handles it perfectly: it hides all... more... - Robert Scoble

You all keep referring to this as either chat or comments when actually its a discussion. I think that the ability to discuss anything on Friend Feed or anywhere else for that matter IS where you learn the most. I'm not techy like most of you, I'm just an ordinary 'average' user, but I see twitter more as a 'newsreel' of info, shallow but instant, whereas Friend Feed is more a 'thrashing out of ideas and opnions, and is therefore all the richer for it. - Sandra Large

Sandra: chat/discussion/forum/comments are all pretty much the same thing. Yes, the two are different. There CAN be lots of learning here, it's just that this is a lot noiser than other online things in some ways. - Robert Scoble

Robert, about noise: when you or other tech influencers introduce FriendFeed, you show the things you're excited about, which tend to be big and noisy, right? And if you're the first person someone follows on FF, they're going to get a noisy first impression. The slower growth that doesn't come through tech influencers may have less of a back door. - Bruce Lewis

And about the 25+-year-old forum problem: Moderated Usenet was great until moderators slacked off. Decentralized moderation fixes that, at least for small discussions. Larger discussions can lead to whack-a-mole (though I notice this one hasn't), but with one of the suggestions I made earlier in this conversation the number of whackers could scale with the number of moles. - Bruce Lewis

Moderation = censorship. Censorship sucks. Give the users control to hide and block. The less censorship the better. - Thomas Hawk

@Paul - what about a view to only see the user's posts/content ie no comments of others and no likes => then it becomes twitter like - Kishore Balakrishnan

Come on, it's hardly messier than Facebook, since the default view only includes the first and last comment. Basically the gist I'm getting is that people who think they're important don't want to listen to people who they don't think are important. Such is the human race, I suppose. - Victor Ganata

+++Victor hammer meets nail. - David Hall

Robert said "FB iPhone app ... hides all comments with an arrow that you can then use to expand the comments. That is so much better than this mess here that it isn't funny". Robert, I must be missing your point because FF also hides most comments until you expand them because you want to read them... Don't want to read FF comments, don't expand them, problem solved. Or are you saying FF is a "mess" because it shows first and last comment? - Ed Millard

235 comments! I really don't want to expand *that* on FF! Is this a pain-point for anyone else? - Space Cowboy

Not for me. If I'm interested enough in the topic or dialog I'll click the time stamp and open the post page to read everything. The text amount is comparable to a medium length blog post: if I have the time to read that I have the time to read this if it interests me. - FFing Enigma (aka Tina)

A typical blog post? Dragging & copying the comments only (which took about a min. of scrolling) produced 9200 words and 23 pages of text. Blog posts also tend to have a more easily read narrative. - Vincent van Wylick

The problem is for big conversations like this one you need threading and maybe moderation, but for more normal conversations that are smaller flat is better. Allowing a switch between the two adds complexity. For big conversations FF lacks the button to reply to a specific poster so the viewer can thread, at least as an option. Much of the noise level in this conversation is due to people having to manually try to fake threading. - Ed Millard

The threading vs. flat conversation is interesting to me - we've tried multiple times to put Disqus or Intense Debate on a film blog I write for, and every time we meet huge resistance to threading ESPECIALLY on long threads. People say they have a lot of difficulty finding the new comments when they aren't all at the top or bottom. - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Why can't there be a summary fly-out with timestamps based on response rate to single comments and a "last comment made" link as well as "thread count" links and lastly, "participants in this thread" link? Collapse everything else except the initial post. The initial interface looking like this one, should always be available for those who want to "sort through". You want the... more... - Melanie Reed

Jandy, you kind of have to let the user flip between threading and flat to solve the chronology problem. Slashdot has a popup menu at the top that lets you view in "Threaded, Nested, Flat, No Comments". The down side is the UI gets progressively more complex both to implement and use unless you are going to force everyone to lowest common denominator UI. - Ed Millard

But Ed, that's what I have against the traditional "threaded" approach: all the fork like structure. It does get complicated real fast. What's needed is somewhere a "summary" for those jumping in late to "catch up" but also the "single comment" link to democratize the discussion. Threads have all the indentation problems of trying to follow that way IF I am picturing what you mean by thread. - Melanie Reed

+1 Ed - Bicentennial (Franc)

My other observation is this: everyone creates a "story" about the ideas and information they are taking in and immediately starts associating connections in their mind creating a mental picture whether they realize it or not when they are perceiving that information. Our user interfaces don't yet lend themselves to that especially where it come to dialogue and forums. We've accepted a... more... - Melanie Reed

Here's why you don't need indented/tangential threading: FF discussions tend to be small enough to fit in the "RAM" in one's mind. It curtails many threads that might ramble; the exception (like Paul's thread here) comes when the power of the topic/zeitgeist and vibe of a live chat going strong overrides that usual point of decay. Predictablly, one or several commenters here will start a new thread or escalate it to a blog post and summarize their thoughts based on what transpired on this stream. - Micah Wittman

Melanie, have you used Slashdot, they did forums earlier and better than anyone. The forum starts out flat, and then starts threading. Random community moderators start modding up the insightful posts, and burying the trolls, crap, etc. Once the moderation kicks in the "summary" is all the posts that were modded up to 5 which are shown expanded. All the lower moderated stuff is there but you have to clck to see. Slashdot would suck like YouTube comments if they hadn't solved the forum problem. - Ed Millard

It's organic, not hierarchical. As other have stated, there is as much to learn from watching the process unfold as there is to gain from end result. - Micah Wittman

Ed, no, I haven't used Slashdot but I'm willing to give it a try. I'm pretty adaptable. But when I see a problem and it becomes "the picture" for me, in this case a circle then I know its time for the leap out of the present "prison of one idea". ;) - Melanie Reed

Micah, its true threads are bad for small friendly forums. Some of this discussion is about what happens when the forums on "celebrity" social expert's threads get so big they overflow readers brains and they turn in to *noise*. One noise problem is organization, the other is some post and some posters are better than others in the mind of the celeb and the reader. - Ed Millard

Slashdot dealt with most of the forum problems ten years ago, they had to to survive the trolls. The problem is their UI needs to be complex to be flexible and keep everyone happy. Their audience is also mostly geek power user. When you get to social networks the other UI school is demanding the UI be dirt simple so the unwashed masses can cope, but dirt simple mean its inflexible and it ticks off nearly everyone, especially power users. Hard problem to solve... making everyone happy. - Ed Millard

Ed, conferences have break-out groups. The same idea should be employed. - Micah Wittman

Ed, yes, you offered a little explication for others of what happens when you lost the ability to categorize your"story" into a mental picture that is associated with previous "stories" you have stored in the brain. That end result is "noise". Some of us are better at doing that than others, that's true. But there come a point of over flow for all of us. What our UI needs to do is to amplify and assist in that "story" constructing process. - Melanie Reed

Break out groups is a nice idea, but it seems a bit cumbersome. You need to make a new post, post a link here and get some critical mass from the first forum to move. If you do it five times you would splinter the first forum and lose critical mass, especially in a "real-time" forum where people will only watch one forum at a time. Chances are most people will cling to the first forum if its interesting. - Ed Millard

Ed and Micah, what I hear both of you saying, and Robert as well, is that at some point in the "story" constructing process, the dialog from the forum needs to end in the narrative of a blog. Up till now, the blog component has been a random, unattached part of the discussion. AM I hearing that you think that in some way it should become part of the UI? So that the discussion gets... more... - Melanie Reed

Not sure I follow, blog is kind of a one voice, one direction thing, only way a forum morphs to blog is when once person splits off the forum to make a more in depth point and posts the blog link to the forum. I'm mostly just talking about the various methods for restoring order in a big forum, and improving signal to noise ratio. Most entail putting more options and more UI in and around the forum and making the UI more complex which many think is bad on a social network. - Ed Millard

Ed, as I was writing this, it occurs to me that what I'm suggesting is what I may have just figured out (finally) that Google Wave is trying to get us to do. But if so, I beleive FF could actually do it better. the "noise" problem that was created by the various forms of SM, inside and outside of the platforms, was the inability to "connect the dots". We didn't have a framework for how... more... - Melanie Reed

One of the problems that we haven't solved is the usefulness of digression and random access of connective tissue in the "story" process. That's the wild card that often comes up as "noise" - Melanie Reed

I can't speak for Robert. Some of his issue "seems" to be he only wants to see the Silicon Valley/SF movers and shakers in his feed talking about tech and social networks, and he doesn't much want anyone but that same group to be posting on forums under his auspices. Friend Feeds openness is bad for that. The same is true for all the Twitter celeberati. They don't want peons anywhere near their online presence to tarnish it. - Ed Millard

Only way I can see to maintain FF openness for those who want it, and celeb broadcast only mode for the celebs who demand it, in one social network is you have to have an option when you make a post on your feed to control the forum methodology (i.e. broadcast only peons can only look on, panel mode where only my social elite are allowed to speak & peons can watch, private where only my circle can speak and see (FB mode), or completely OPEN(FF mode). - Ed Millard

There also seems to be an issue where someone you follow, through the "like" process, can inject pictures of kittens, babies and man titteh in to your feed. Of course that is kind of the original point of social networks, seeing what your network sees. I think some just want hard core tech news and talk and twitter lists probably do allow an uber though somewhat lifeless feed like that. - Ed Millard

Ed, well, that is the territory of the heart when it comes into contact with the machine. And oddly (or maybe not so oddly) there is a post on my feed that addresses that theme: http://friendfeed.com/faithx5... ;) Digression and Random access at work. lol And I find that refreshing. I'm always excited about how some new idea may be generated because I allowed what... more... - Melanie Reed

@Melanie: I fully believe in non-linear learning. The ability to take input from diverse thematic content and synthesize something ... to apply something from one world to the other. That's where I think we're heading. I think of it a little bit like a digital version of Burroughs' Cut Up technique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - AJ Kohn

I can't believe I read the whole thing - Michael Slattery

Such a simple and obvious solution: provide an optional *LIST* view for Friendfeed items. Open the comments only on items that look really interesting. Am I missing something obvious? Then Friendfeed could easily emulate Twitter on all essentials (and surpass it in many other areas). - Sean McBride

Sean, I think the obvious thing you are missing is there are no FF developers any more so FF probably isn't getting anything it doesn't already have. And there are camps here that don't really like the alternatives that FB and Twitter offer which is why this is such a hot button issue. I wish there was one social network that had lists, open forums, walled gardens, and broadcast mode based on the wishes of the person running a feed so everyone could be happy in one network. - Ed Millard

Carlos Ayala

Isabella vs Achilles

October 5 - Comment - Like - Share

tvorini, VAL D., Cerem Beyazıt and 55 other people liked this

That last one is awesome. - nakachi

17 more comments

@nakachi it would've been better if she hadn't moved as i took it. ;( also, Achilles is my friend's dog. - Carlos Ayala

LOVE. You know, if you ever need a little break, you should feel free to send Isabella up to Va. I promise to send her back. - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

Aw, so sweet. - Anika

careful what you wish for pea, we may never see you again! - Carlos Ayala

you keep warning me but I gotta tell you, I've taken on some seriously challenging kids and survived to tell the tales so, bring it on. i ain't scared! ;D - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

haha! you should be! - Carlos Ayala

pfft. has she ever broken into anyone's home? broken some stranger's sunroof? gone to bed with every knife in the house under her pillows because she's a ninja? shoplifted when she was 3? :D i got this. - pea ♥ fierce as a woozle

give her time. she is only two and is currently only throwing forks and knives at her mother while saying "shit" 'cuz she missed. but when she connects she reaches out to dad for a high five. trust me, there is much evil brewing within this one. the force is definitely strong with her. - Carlos Ayala

lmao @ reaches out to dad for a high five. - nakachi

Great pics. I wonder if Cletus will ever calm down enough for stuff like that. - Matt Hilton

What an adorable pair. I just can't take the cuteness + her awesome shirt. <3 - Carmen

she's so cute! - vijay

:) - edythe

Rawks. - rowlikeagirl, hecho en eu

Great pictures! - Mike Fruchter

x_x - Derrick

Want to like this again. <3 - Carmen

Thank you Carmen! - rowlikeagirl, hecho en eu

Louis Gray

Video: Leveraging Social Networks to Build Web Traffic - http://blog.louisgray.com/2009...

October 21 from louisgray.com - Comment - Like - Share

Altan Khendup and Mike Fruchter liked this

Great video... Thanks for sharing! - Angels In Action

Akiva Moskovitz

Little Squinter

Tuesday - Comment - Like - Share

Matthew DeVries, Michael W. May, rowlikeagirl, hecho en eu and 57 other people liked this

AAAAAAAAH .... what a cutie ! - fatima

9 more comments

^_^ - Kamilah Gill

hey buddy glad to see you happy :) - ffcode

Where's Audrey? - Glen Campbell

:D - JA Castillo

so so beautiful - Pam Gwenzi

Baby! I don't know if I've ever thanked your for sharing these Rochelle. So, "Thanks." - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS

I'm sure that Rochelle would appreciate that but I'm not Rochelle. - Akiva Moskovitz from BuddyFeed

Holy cuteness, Batman! - Mellissa Jane

D'oh! Sorry Akiva... well, thanks to you too. #readingisfundamental - MASTER OF THE OBVIOUS

oh man. This is right up there with the one where's she's in her carrier being all smiley and happy. - Yolanda

Shey, Jamaican of FF

Which would you rather see: Sunrise or Sunset?

Tuesday - Comment - Like - Share

Mike Nencetti, David Cook, Steven Perez and 5 other people liked this

I think I'd have to go with sunset -- I'm not really a morning person :P - Shey, Jamaican of FF

22 more comments

Sunsets have the promise of a great night. Sunrise carry the inevitability of another day. - Alex Scrivener

Sunset - Katie: Witch Of The West

Well said Alex - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Out of the two, I always prefer sunset. I find it more humbling to know that another day has slipped out from underneath me, and it's a good reminder to make every day as full as possible. - tinypants - Hagitha of FF

Sunrise - Viva Vida

sunset - anahita

Sunset. I like closure. :) - Bill Mason

Sunset - Eric Logan

Sunrise, I seldom get to see them. - jcunwired

If I'm cold, a sunrise. In all other cases, I prefer sunsets. - Josh Haley from iPhone

Sunrise - Mike Fruchter

I like the light of sunrise the best but most often see sunsets. I've also lived on both the east and west coast. Great for sunsets over the Pacific and sunrises over the Atlantic. - Andrew Smith

With out view, we get a great view of the sunsets. We get the sunrise driving in to work :) - Shey, Jamaican of FF

Sunrise. - Helen Sventitsky

Sunset. Sunrise is too early to wake up for and I'm not able to stay up for them any more either. Also, "Before Sunset" >> "Before Sunrise". - Andrew C

Sunset - Rodfather

Sunset - Mo Kargas

sunset in the summer, sunrise in the winter, :/ - chaz2b

sunset - Carmen

I get to see both daily and I still can't make a decision. Every morning, I'm like, "Take that sunset!", then at night, I'm all, "Aw...you brought it!" - Anika

this time of year....sunrise.....(not that I am up to see it)..........the sunset is too early now - VAL D.

Love both - Charlie Anzman

to an astronomer - both are illusions. (prefer sunsets) - Mike Nencetti

Mo Kargas

National Geographic unique moments - Chill Out Point - http://www.chilloutpoint.com/places_...

Tuesday from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Bluesun 2600, Wulffy, Cesar Sanchez and 16 other people liked this

Really nice shots - Shey, Jamaican of FF

2 more comments

cool - echostreamer

Yes, yes, YES. Goddess, I love those trees. The other shots are interesting, but the first one is my Happy Place. I have them as my wallpaper shot from a different angle at a different time of day. - Kamilah Gill

Great shots! - Michael Fidler

Jesse Stay

These individuals (so far) are all going to be on a list I'm creating for Twitter. Can you name who they are by just their icons?

Screen shot 2009-11-03 at 2.41.27 AM.png

November 3 - Comment - Like - Share

Yvette Ferry, borghrose, Ho John Lee and 2 other people liked this

yes - Rhys Amos

9 more comments

I can, I think I follow most of them myself - Mo Kargas

I bet you don't follow all of them - there's a good variety of them on there - not all of them "social media experts". - Jesse Stay

Not all of them, no. When you make that list, I'll follow it :) - Mo Kargas

Is this the new recommended user list? Would be great with a larger variety, not everyone is on Twitter to check up on celebrities and Social media "experts" - Asgeir

I can name at least 60% of these by sight. - Robert Scoble

You have Kawasaki and you don't have ME?? What's wrong with you Jesse? :P - Jorge Escobar

A few, but definitely not all (especially the one that's got the default Twitter avatar). - Curtiss Grymala

I can name about 10-15. It made me realize that I know more people by their twitter id than their real names. - James Williams

I know about 17 of them. - Jason Williams

I was lying. - Rhys Amos

Robert Scoble

FRIENDFEED IS SO AWESOME!!!!

November 2 - Comment - Like - Share

Kirsten Mitchell, linkkihakemistot, Chris Luzader and 61 other people liked this

There, does that make everyone feel better? - Robert Scoble

96 more comments

FU Robert...but we still love you... - Bill Heslin

Your killing me man! - Owen Greaves

FU too but I still love you. - Robert Scoble

Ladies and Gentlemen, the REAL FF Manic Depressive, Robert Scoble! - Internet's Tad

Dont' - Bill Heslin

You must be back on your med's again Robert : ) - Owen Greaves

You talk out both sides of your mouth so much, I presume this is sarcasm. - jcunwired

This means our yapping really got to him ;) - Maxamad (Amazigh)

Robert is coming in because he's for the Yankees...so thanx robert - Bill Heslin

*channels Dvorak* I'm not buying it! - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF) from iPod

Me neither...MVB - Bill Heslin

I shant comment on another RS post...I loves my FF peeps...We rock - Bill Heslin

MVB: seems that everyone here wants this, so this is what I'm going to post. I don't want to rain on anyone's parade. - Robert Scoble

Robert, I have no problem with you not liking FriendFeed as a service or not getting anything out of it anymore. You had valid points about forums. What bothered me was the language and the tone of your initial post and screenshot that singled out and attacked the people of FriendFeed. You don't have to like the service or find it interesting but there are more respectful ways to communicate that...ways that don't personally offend the rest of the users and cause them to get defensive and angry. - joey

joey: you're right. I was wrong. But I'm not getting fed here anymore and I didn't communicate that well. - Robert Scoble

Sorry Robert, ever read the story "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" ? Check it out. - Maxamad (Amazigh)

I guess it's like falling in love with a four-star Thai restaurant that slowly switches to some other kind of food. - Robert Scoble

The worst part is that my "best of day" is dominated by people posting all the different reasons your post was wrong. - Bruce Lewis

Mehmet: I've read it many times. So you're right. Fine. FriendFeed is awesome. Now what? - Robert Scoble

Bruce: we're even thanks to that man-boob liking photo. - Robert Scoble

Whew, now I can sleep well! - Herb Hernandez

WoW! I just unsubscibed from Robert...MY feed just went way back to REAL people... - Bill Heslin

Here we go again.... is this 1110? - Ed Millard

Bill: exactly. - Robert Scoble

Don't you all know what bait smells like by now? - Josh Haley

Muah Robert!...hehheeh - Bill Heslin

Yes Josh - Bill Heslin

Anyway, what kind of tech stuff are you looking for? - Bruce Lewis

Josh: nah, yesterday's posts were bait. This is just me saying hi. - Robert Scoble

Bruce: I've already found it, you don't need to find it for me. - Robert Scoble

I still like you, Robert. We've had good conversations. Just... Perhaps you could have handled it a little differently, is all. Best of luck in whatever is next and I'll see you around the net. - MVB (Curmudgeon of FF) from iPod

Mmmm....bait! - Bruce Lewis

Bruce: I'm not going to fall for your bait. - Robert Scoble

Bait?? Why can't you just leave us alone Bobbie? - Bill Heslin

MVB: fun still ahead! - Robert Scoble

Bill: you are welcome to block me. Then you'll be alone without me. - Robert Scoble

I was just answering Josh. I'm not baiting anybody myself. - Bruce Lewis

The food's the same here, you just made a serious mistake by stiffing the wait staff. Face it Robert, you're a fast food kind of guy. - jcunwired

jcunwired: I enjoy fast food as much as anyone but I do try to temper it with veggies. - Robert Scoble

Not that there's anything wrong with that. If you need tech "news" you don't want to hang out on a site that's exactly the same kind of awesome it was two months ago. - Bruce Lewis

Oh good lord, a blanket apology/explanation is plenty sufficient. He doesn't need to come to each of our houses and prostrate himself before us and beg our humblest forgiveness. We need to learn more from that Baboon that Benson played in the Lion King. - Matthew DeVries

Bruce: I'm not going to fall for your bait. FriendFeed is awesome! - Robert Scoble

Why is Scoble trying to kill Friendfeed? - Cliff Gerrish

Cliff: why would I try to kill something so awesome? - Robert Scoble

My "more wrong" blog post was (in tone) bait. My comments here are real. - Bruce Lewis

I swear Robert you like to toy with people because they are so predictable : ) - Owen Greaves

Why indeed? - Cliff Gerrish

Because he has the delusion that he can. - jcunwired

Is this what it is going to come to? People ripping each other apart until there is no one left alive when the lights are turned off? - Mathew™ one of a kind

jcunwired: I couldn't "make" FriendFeed despite pissing off thousands of people over on Twitter by constantly talking it up. I guess everyone forgets that. Same over on my blog. And I've shown FF to thousands of people during speaking engagements. But, no, all that work didn't help make FriendFeed hyper popular so, no, I don't live under any delusion that I can, then, get anyone to leave. FriendFeed is awesome and nothing I say can change that. - Robert Scoble

At the Boston FriendFeed meetup I was the only one who found Robert Scoble through FriendFeed. Everybody else found FriendFeed through Robert Scoble. - Bruce Lewis

I found you through FriendFeed and I'm grateful for that! - Robert Scoble

you could say that that it's a sad sack of going nowhere, now that the team was acquired and told Steve Gillmor like 8 times in the last Gang that a bunch of the best features here were too much for the 300 million nuffnuffs that use Facebook. - Marshall Kirkpatrick

if you wanted to say something about FF not being awesome, that is. - Marshall Kirkpatrick

Marshall: oh, you were listening to the latest Gang. There was a LOT of news in that Gang and Steve and I were wondering if anyone would notice. - Robert Scoble

it was hard to notice with the thick fog of PR bs. mostly seemed like bad news and non-news. would love to know what I missed :) - Marshall Kirkpatrick

i don't mean to be un-understanding, FB is a huge org with hundreds of millionso f users, billions of $ at stake. i'm sure i'd speak cautiously too - Marshall Kirkpatrick

Marshall: yeah, if I were FriendFeed execs I would speak carefully as well. The transcript comes tomorrow, we'll dig through it and highlight anything really useful in the Gillmor Gang. There were a few things that clarified where they are going a bit. - Robert Scoble

Transcript? FriendFeed execs? Did an interview happen with Bret, Jim, Paul, Sanjeev? - Bruce Lewis

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Matthew DeVries

Bruce: we had Bret on last week. - Robert Scoble

OK, well...welcome back, then Robert. http://www.youtube.com/watch... - Josh Haley

That's great. Will there be a transcript? - Bruce Lewis

Bruce: yes, Gillmor told me today it's coming "soon." Hopefully tomorrow. - Robert Scoble

Josh: I won't be baited. FriendFeed is awesome. And now I'm off to play with my kids. Be back tomorrow for more awesomeness. - Robert Scoble

Good night! - Bruce Lewis

What does he mean by "awesome?" - Cliff Gerrish from iPhone

My work is done here, ooh wait, it isn't. - Amit Morson

My favorite link on FF and it not being "hyperpopular", http://www.techcrunch.com/2009... - Ed Millard

ScobleGate - Joe Silence is not dead

Somebody needs to post the man boob licking photo with Scoble's body and complete the circle. I'll start my stopwatch. - Louis Gray

LOL Louis!!! - jcunwired

It would be too easy. - Josh Haley

no target of opportunity is beneath me. - Joe Silence is not dead

Why? - AJ Kohn

Aascoble, you makin me crazy I tell you, you crazy kid! - Eric @ CS Techcast from iPhone

See, you know Robert's being facetious when his contribution doesn't end with: "And here's why: 1 ..." - AJ Kohn

ROBERT. LOL. - Mona Nomura

AJ: I don't have to do those tricks anymore. Look at all the comments! - Robert Scoble

Never satisfied. Tell me how much you love FF every waking hour. - Jason Hill

And, anyway, I understand everyone here knows at least 60 reasons why FriendFeed is awesome, no need to iterate through that list again. - Robert Scoble

@Robert: I miss it though! You're welcome any time. In other news, the world of the Internet is a fascinating place. I wouldn't be anywhere else. - AJ Kohn

Always here. Like every time I long-on. Robert is infinitely connected. Is it happiness? ... a disease? ... or both?? :) - Charlie Anzman

Hehe - Keep it comin' big guy .... - Charlie Anzman

Now what's Scoble up to? You gotta watch this dude he's pure trouble. The kind I like :) - Jeunelle Foster

Here is my entry in Louis's contest, is there a prize, if so did I win? http://friendfeed.com/edmilla... - Ed Millard

OH GAHD! *gouges out own eyes* - Joe Silence is not dead

So confused... but don't care anymore. Can't we just go back to how it was before? Everyone posts/likes/doesn't do whatever they want. - Jan Ole Peek

Louis, Robert probably already has a real picture like that somewhere. - Jesse Stay

Josh, I want the transcript to your video - Jesse Stay

I enjoy friendfeed sooo much!! I hope it doesn't go anywhere but gets optimized! Great site to make great connections and meet a bunch of awesome people! - John Tastad

hahahahaha - ffcode

You are over here checking it out, right? It must be awesome then. ;) Enjoy those kids! - Martha

Don't go away mad, just go away - Gunny Wallen

Yeah! Everyone is feeling better now! - Red Label

OMFG. Really? - ruh öküzü

no - Alfred C. Ingram

Louis Gray

.@centernetworks if you look at @TheEllenShow's latest "follows", the entire Twitter team + social media/tech dorks are there. #lists

Tuesday from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

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Of note, whoever is running Ellen's account followed the entire Twitter team, and they must have found a social media/tech news/bloggers list, because a ton of folks from FriendFeed and peers are on there. Yes... Ellen is following me. Yay. - Louis Gray

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figured they followed me for the same reason. - michael sean wright

i am taking the night off to celebrate this momentus occasion - i would make a blog post about it if i was a twitter blogger. - Allen Stern

She is following me too. I thought it was a joke at first. - Mike Fruchter

Yup, followed me today too. - AJ Kohn

AJ Kohn

Ellen DeGeneres is now following me on Twitter?

Tuesday - Comment - Like - Share

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I got the same new follower notification as well. Odd.... - Mike Fruchter

ellen is very bright - mike "glemak" dunn from iPhone

Rochelle

"Got Milk?" onesie from Zoe Haley. Thanks, Zoe! :)

November 2 - Comment - Like - Share

Holly Rae, FFer, Yolanda, Iván Abrego and 51 other people liked this

Oh, that first picture is too sweet for words. - Ayşe E.

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So does she got it? - Louis Gray

Cute amount: Way 2 - Morgan Haley

She's got it! :) - Rochelle

:D - Josh Haley

hey buddy how you doing? - ffcode

Yay! Zoe says "Hi Baby!" - Trish Haley

We had one of those!!!! I miss it!!!! - Martha

AJ Kohn

Twitter Lists are Competitive | The Real Problem with Lists - http://www.blindfiveyearold.com/twitter...

November 1 from Bookmarklet - Comment - Like - Share

Brian Krueger - LabSpaces, Mike Chelen, Mike Fruchter and 3 other people liked this

"Instead of using lists to help users manage the stream of data, they’ve turned them into a competition." - AJ Kohn from Bookmarklet

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I've seen people asking to be put on lists of other people. If my followers did that to me, I'd block them on principal alone. - Anika

@Anika: Yup, that's how it's going to start. People asking to be put on lists. Trading membership on lists. Accounts set up specifically to get you on a list or lists. It's just ... foolish. - AJ Kohn

And you make a great point as far as being on one list, yet pushing tweets on a different subject. For some people that may be a turnoff, but I'm not going to stop being me because of that. - Anika

I agree with you. Who cares what list you're on? People are just going nuts over the new and shiny toy. - Trish R

value is in the eye of the beholder, who is free draw whatever conclusions they like from published figures - Mike Chelen

AJ Kohn

Video SEO Tips - Getting Started - Online Marketing Blog - http://www.toprankblog.com/2009...

Tuesday from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

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AJ Kohn

You Aren't Average | SEO Book.com - http://www.seobook.com/you-are...

Tuesday from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

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Mark Krynsky

Social Media Time Management: 9 Guiding Principles | Brand Elevation Through Social Media and Social Business | Altitude Branding - http://altitudebranding.com/2009...

Tuesday from delicious - Comment - Like - Share

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