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Heidi Cool › Likes
Blogging Never Went Away - http://thefuturebuzz.com/2009...
Heidi Cool, Mike Fruchter, James Hull and 4 other people liked this
I think that talks about the decline of blogging are more about the question if eventually - say - every human will have a blog, or if they instead will end up with a more lightweight solution like Twitter or FriendFeed. The direction early adopters (and this has quite a big intersection with the early bloggers I think) are taking can be indicative of that. The question is: Will...
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- Meryn Stol
I also think blogging will be considered optional in online participation, not a requirement. Using your blog as personal "hub" for your identity could very well be replaced by a service that only aggregates activity elsewhere, perhaps with the option of adding some static content (about page, contact page, and such).
- Meryn Stol
Not everyone is interested in telling elaborate stories or writing essays. Small stories fit easily into the FriendFeed share box. You can even add a few pictures if you wish.
- Meryn Stol
2009.04.06 OaD #96 | My Peeps - http://www.flickr.com/photos...
Heidi Cool, Alemsah Ozturk, Mitch Wagner and 3 other people liked this
I love Peeps. They are my favorite thing about Easter-time.
- Her Lindsay-ness
from Bookmarklet
Hey, those are my peeps too.
- Mark Krynsky
i like them but wont eat them :(
- chaz2b
Why is Twitter so confusing? - http://timtfj.wordpress.com/2009...
sleepingbeauty and Heidi Cool liked this
"If you’re not a Twitter user, you’ve probably encountered a fair number of articles like that by now and become equally puzzled as to the point. As a user, I’ve sometimes been tempted be puzzled about where the confusion and ignorance comes from. Actually the source isn’t hard to find. More of that later. For now, let’s look at what Twitter actually is. Not what the articles say it is; not what Twitter describes itself as; but what it really is."
- Jonathan Kong
from Bookmarklet
agree totally, 'what are you doing' is a wrong question to ask.
- TrafficBug
Understanding the Psychology of Twitter - http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog...
Heidi Cool, Samuel Ochanji, İlkon Emlak and 10 other people liked this
There is a survey link at the bottom that you may be interested in participating in
- Allison
from Bookmarklet
Should Early Adopters Reap The Rewards for a Startup's Growth? http://www.centernetworks.com/early-a...
Internet Strategist, Dave Martin, David Berrebi and 28 other people liked this
Though I am not a twitter early adopter, I tend to be one for most apps & services I use. I am currently doing kind of work with a couple companies as describe in this article: testing, reporting, feedback and so on. Sometimes in great detail, requiring hours of labor on my part. In at least one case, the company is sending me some promo items. Not much compared to the hourly rates that...
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- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
I remember how I was treated by investors and employees. Will no one involved in Twitter start another company? Fred Wilson? Really? I will be far less willing to pour thousands of hours into their next venture cause they treated early adopters like shlubs. Even Ev and Biz will probably make a crapload and then want to invest in new companies. Leo Laporte is the one who got me onto Twitter and he was treated like crap by Twitter.
- Robert Scoble
But the real question is how does the early adopter community as a whole change this dynamic? How do you deal with the fact that there's always someone who's going to do that work gratis? If you don't participate you miss out on the opportunities that the early adoption brings you that are beyond the scope of the company -i.e. Revenues derived directly & indirectly from blog & vlog coverage. How do you (we) get the companies to sign up for some clear form of reciprocation/recompense?
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Rob: that's not really true. There are a few super connectors who can really help get a much larger audience onto new services by getting excited by them. My brother, for instance, no matter how excited he is by friendfeed, has only dragged a few hundred people on here. If Leo Laporte talks about friendfeed, though, thousands sign up (I've seen this happen over and over). So, if a company then turns around and treats the super connectors like crap (like Twitter has) and they remember (they do) ...
- Robert Scoble
... then next time they come pitching they'll just stay quiet, which will retard their ability to get an audience. It's very possible they'll get that audience anyway due to other connectors, but it's a lot tougher. This is why PR people gripe about Techcrunch in private but usually treat Mike nice when it comes time to do a press tour.
- Robert Scoble
Leo is really the one who got Twitter hot at SXSW two years ago. Most people don't know that. But he talked about Twitter on TWiT two weeks before SXSW and got all the early adopters onto it before SXSW. Then when we got there it was the talk of the conference.
- Robert Scoble
So the question really remains, for the next big thing (forgetting the investors of Twitter for a moment) How do you ensure that you can change the dynamic? This story is all too often repeated. And the end result is damaged relationships, and a damaged community
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
How did Twitter repay Leo? By putting far less popular people onto their suggested follower list, which, in TechCrunch's case, got him 250,000 followers already (TechCrunch had far fewer followers than Leo did before Techcrunch got put onto Twitter's list).
- Robert Scoble
Rob: make anything you do algorithmic and a meritocracy. Why is Techcrunch on the list (or Veronica, who had far fewer followers than Techcrunch did) on the suggested follower's list and not Leo? The fact that there's not an equal way to get onto this list is what screws things up. It penalizes people like Leo who brought huge numbers of people onto Twitter.
- Robert Scoble
In the case of Twitter (and the example of supporting the celebrities on the recommended users list) I think that twitter is not only screwing the early adopters (and super connectors), but in the process they're screwing the community as a whole. What value are these celebrities actually bringing to the _conversation_ ?? How many people do @iamdiddy or @The_Real_Shaq talk to? How many people do they follow? Just seems wrong all the way around.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Look at Facebook or friendfeed. Facebook is growing far faster than Twitter is and they didn't need to do a "suggested" list that was made up of Zuckerberg's friends. Neither did friendfeed. Friendfeed's list is algorithmic and is based off of people you've already added.
- Robert Scoble
Rob: bing. The thing is Twitter is arrogant. They see all the hype and let it get to their heads and forgot the people who got them there. But, worse, now "little people" like my brother know they have absolutely no chance at getting onto the top tier because they didn't bring Biz Stone cupcakes and aren't already celebrities. So, even if you don't care about A listers or early adopter/super connectors it hurts everyone (and messes with stats that could be used to suggest followers to you, like wefollow).
- Robert Scoble
The signal that sends to everyone is quite caustic.
- Robert Scoble
Leo and Kevin Rose are the reason I joined Twitter. I respect their recommendations - if they suggest elsewhere I check it out. I was on Pownce before Twitter because of that. I hope Twitter appreciates that. I know I've been treated like crap by Twitter, but I know they don't really care.
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: yeah, I forgot that they even treat you like crap and you're a developer. Sigh. What's worse is they probably will go onto make billions. I'll be laughing, though, if the wheels come off the train because of their arrogance. I notice that more and more people are going to Facebook, especially developer and early adopter types and friendfeed is seeing a nice pickup lately.
- Robert Scoble
well said Robert
- Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)
Agreed. Now it seems that your job, and that of others in positions like yours, is to prevent that same arrogance from infecting the other services that you want to see succeed. Like FriendFeed.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
I feel much more welcomed by Facebook. Dave Morin notices me by name in the halls, and goes out of his way to say hi. I get regular announcements via press channels from Facebook. Josh Elman has been wonderful to work with - he talks and listens when you approach him. Their PR department has been through a learning curve, but I think even they are improving and have been much easier to work with.
- Jesse Stay
Robert! I haven't seen you this worked up in quite some time, but I agree with your sentiments. I gave up on twitter a while ago because I stopped having meaningful interactions there. Friendfeed on the other hand, and more recently Facebook (as much as it pains me) , have got my attention. Your take on Facebook's potential to take on Google in next gen advertising/marketing is where the next battle will be waged. Consider me among your early adopter crew. Where to next?
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I'm on the verge of ditching twitter and sticking with FB and FF. The only thing is FF doesn't have a private message feature. If FB/FF were to do a public/private sort of thing where I can have IRL people I know see private info and just people in general who I "friend" online that I don't know see all my public stuff but not my private stuff they will win my eyes.
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
Jesse: yeah, isn't that a turnaround? Facebook is much nicer lately. Zuckerberg is a lot more confident, too. He keeps playing the shy kid, but I see him really growing his personal skills. He's definitely THE one to watch in Silicon Valley. Everyone seems to want to work there, the recruiting they are doing now is pretty extreme.
- Robert Scoble
FF needs to add more features to lists and allow private info to be shown to certain lists I add people too. That would make me completely switch. FB is so mainstream right now, but I can't import everything I do in the social web like I can with FF. And twitter...well they're like Myspace. Look at what a wasteland Myspace is right now.
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
Brian: this is the single worst thing I've seen a startup do to its early supporters. It has pissed off a whole community. Most of whom aren't willing to stand up and say they are pissed, because it looks bad. But they sure changed the dynamic when they did this.
- Robert Scoble
Rob: the friendfeed guys are very good at dealing with community. You can see that in how they participate here. Ev and Biz never really participated with Twitter's community. I'm not worried about arrogance here. Over at Facebook they know they are very close to finding a serious gold mine and are staying humble so that they don't miss it. If they get arrogant, it'll be after they figure it out (sort of how Google got arrogant after they did AdSense).
- Robert Scoble
I've always been confident about Facebook's development staff and knowledge. I'm not so confident about Twitter's. (Twitter also needs some better Project Management) Facebook's PR and Executive leadership has definitely turned around over the years. I really love what I'm seeing, and right now have a lot of faith in them again. I hope they continue that way.
- Jesse Stay
slayerboy: friendfeed has some new stuff coming soon. I haven't seen it yet, but have heard the rumblings. Can't wait to see what they do.
- Robert Scoble
I do agree, early adopters mostly are not getting the reward they deserve. The trivia celebrity hype e.g. on Twitter may be the reason for the disappointment early adopters feel and why this debate http://friendfeed.com/e... popped up.
- Mark Jacobs
Mark: I don't want a reward, I just want to be treated fairly and equally with everyone else. In other words, if someone who has brought fewer people into the system gets a goodie, I should too. Not saying that there shouldn't be rewards for everyone who participates.
- Robert Scoble
i think Jason over @ Social Median did a good job with us early folks. he treated us well and took what we said to heart...ended up making some good changes
- Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)
Robert, you know what's interesting is that since you're saying it on Twitter or FriendFeed, Ev and Biz will never call you out on it. They seem to only pay attention to blogs. The minute you complain on your blog they notice and demand an apology. I find that interesting considering they run the service they're not even paying attention to.
- Jesse Stay
and he also placed us early birds in the "Featured Newsmakers" section on the home page. a nice touch
- Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)
Jesse: that's cool. Zuckerberg has a Twitter account so he can see what other people are saying about Facebook and respond there. Companies who don't track what's being said about them on all services are not doing a very good job.
- Robert Scoble
I think it would be a very interesting experiment if Scobleizer deletes his twitter account. What would the twitter founders react? What about Scobleizer's followers do? etc...
- imabonehead
Jeff Social Median is a well-run company. I've been impressed with how they treat people. Makes me want to use their service more.
- Robert Scoble
imabonehead: they wouldn't care. That was the point of "would a kitten die?" (Kitten is a metaphor for would Twitter care?) No. Most of my fans have already followed me here on friendfeed anyway (I have 31,000 followers here, which is far more than I had on Twitter a year ago).
- Robert Scoble
I think that's one reason Social Median sold in under a year. They are extremely well run, and I still wear their shirt proudly that they sent to me for free, at their own expense.
- Jesse Stay
Robert it's funny (and sad) that all of Twitter's competitors are using Twitter to track the conversation about them, but Twitter is not. I think that says something.
- Jesse Stay
Robert: I have noticed certainly that Ev & Biz haven't and do not partiipate in their community (in fact that was one of the first things I noticed on Twitter...and thought it strange). I'm glad you feel that way about FriendFeed. I got on here not long after I got onto Twitter, and at your suggestion I might add. I've not been a huge Facebook fan, but like the overall direction of upgrades and changes I use it more and more. I think I see correct decisions being made, despite massive outcries.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Yo, Jesse: Can you go do a manual refresh of your Twitter feed here so we can talk about your whitelist Q? Sorry to borrow the thread ;-)
- Ken Sheppardson
Jesse: Exceptional point. One of the big uses for Twitter is brand protection and customer service. It truly is mind boggling that Twitter itself doesn't jump on that bandwagon. (Especially considering their Direct competitors use it!)
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
It's a hard question. On the one hand, early adopters provide free beta testing, free design ideas and free brutally honest evaluations of your project. On the other hand, it's kinda like the users of Open Source projects demanding a new feature for a product the haven't paid for and then complaining when it doesn't happen!
- John Rubier
John: I'm not demanding new features. I'm just asking startups to treat all users fairly (one user who does less on a system should not be treated better than another user who does more). Systems built should be meritocracies, not rewards for bringing the founder cupcakes (or worse).
- Robert Scoble
But see part of the problem, Robert, is that life's just not fair. No matter how much longer you or I or been using a service, we're just not as popular as Britney Spears or Ashton Kutcher. It's a pretty classic big fish small pond issue I'd say.
- Ken Sheppardson
Ken: if you're more popular than me, that's fair, but the system should treat everyone fairly. If you are less popular than me, the system shouldn't make you more popular just because you brought Biz some cupcakes. The system as it is now is NOT fair because people who had far fewer followers than, say, Leo Laporte, now have far more followers than him because Twitter's founder "picked" them to be popular.
- Robert Scoble
If startups were smart they would reward users for engagement, too. But in a fair way that everyone can have access to. The world should move toward meritocracies and away from systems where merit is thrown out the window.
- Robert Scoble
Dave: the list is 97.99% of it, yes. The fact that getting on the list is arbitrary has built a system where other services like http://www.wefollow.com are now suggesting people who were picked by Twitter to be popular, not who earned that. For instance, Leo Laporte and Guy Kawasaki and Jason Calacanis had far more followers than other people on the list and now have been passed by. Those three earned their spots on the list, and were snubbed. Not to mention that people like my brother have no chance.
- Robert Scoble
Speaking of the article, I helped Beta-test the original Qik iPhone app and even submitted several bugs. They're picking Kevin Rose over me to give the final version to. Should I get Qik for the iPhone more than Kevin Rose since I contributed more to the original product? (Note I'm just posing the question for discussion - I recognize Kevin Rose brings much more to Qik than I ever could)
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: I think so. Companies that only go for A listers are blowing it big time (and I give that advice to lots of companies behind the scenes). Go read my corporate blog manifesto. Here, let me go find that for you...
- Robert Scoble
http://scoble.weblogs.com/2003... -- note #7 (talk to the grassroots first).
- Robert Scoble
Isn't your corporate blog manifesto Naked Conversations?
- Jesse Stay
Jesse: I wrote the corporate blog manifesto before I worked at Microsoft and long before Shel and I wrote Naked Conversations.
- Robert Scoble
Wow - that's good, sharing it with my Twitter and FriendFeed audience. I never saw that.
- Jesse Stay
Companies that bypass their most loyal people over "celebrity" stars are just trying to get the most exposure instead of using the tried and true method of word of mouth. This is how Twitter ORIGINALLY started, by word of mouth. Instead of letting that continue, they shoot themselves in the foot and move "stars" to the forefront. Treat everyone equally and you'll retain and actually gain more people. Show that you have no respect for those that built you, and you'll wonder why you were just a fad.
- Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ
That could have been written yesterday and still be applicable.
- Jesse Stay
Rewards are typically related to risk. Early adopter risk what? Wasting some of their time? Entrepreneurs put a lot more at risk. Simply grabbing on to someone's passing coattails doesn't qualify you for a reward.
- Nathan Wenzel
Nathan: bullshit. I've spent 5,000 hours on Twitter so far and I've pulled my audience from my blog over to Twitter (I have hundreds of thousands of readers per month). That was a HUGE risk to my reputation. In fact, go back and read some of the hate mail I got when I kept talking about Twitter to my blog's audience back two years ago. Many kept asking me to shut up about Twitter. Maybe they had a point.
- Robert Scoble
Show that you have no respect for those that built you, and you'll wonder why you were just a fad.
- Ben Watson
from twhirl
RScoble: easy... Companies are rewarded for their value proposition. You say you have hundreds of thousands of readers per month. That would appear to be your value proposition. If you want to make the argument that companies should reward those who bring them value, I'd agree. If you make the argument that companies should identify their high value customers and make sure those people are happy, I'd agree. But simply being among the first 100 people to sign up doesn't seem to merit much.
- Nathan Wenzel
Nathan: It's not just about being the first 100 or 1000 users. It's about putting in the time to make the service viable for a mainstream audience, and it's about using your clout (as in the case with Robert and Leo) to bring additional users to the service. How successful would Twitter be today without some of those "super-connectors" writing about it and adding to the hype? That seems to merit a great deal. Some of the tech-pundits can make or break a site with how & how much they write/speak of it.
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
Rob: I agree. The post and my comment was about early adopters. If the post was about "super-connectors" or "evangelists" (a new title I've been seeing a lot lately) then I would have agreed. Do I think Twitter/FF owe people like Robert something? Absolutely. But not because they're an early adopter. Because as you said, they're super-connectors.
- Nathan Wenzel
Nathan: people who are early adopters are often also evangelists and super-connectors. That's sort of the same personality type. After all, who would be stupid enough to use Twitter before all their friends were on it? Early adopters. Anyway, I don't want startups to give me anything, I just want them to build features that treat everyone fairly. The world needs more meritocracies.
- Robert Scoble
I find it hard to be an early adopter without being the evangelist. If I try an app or a service out, and it's terrible, I don't continue, and don't evangelize. If I like it, especially enough to spend the time to report, diagnose bugs, and provide feedback, I want to see it succeed, & I push the product to all my friends. I may be "little" but it's basically no different than what someone like Robert does (just less press). I want the companies I support to show they value my efforts. Pay it forward & back
- guruvan (Rob Nelson)
This conversation gets to the heart of social media and what is meant by community. Once a brand's early adopters build a community, the brand has an obligation to keep the brand promise. When it doesn't, like the automakers didn't by building crappy cars, the community deserts the brand. And then the brand goes bankrupt. So we have to ask "what is Twitter's brand promise and are they keeping it" before talking about early adopters and how they are treated. This is a big, important discussion.
- Francine Hardaway
from BuddyFeed
My expectation is almost always as an early adopter I will eventually be alienated by the service I helped. I use, I promote, I provide feedback (and being in the tech profession my feedback is not unuseful). Like most people; I do this to improve the service I am using, or eliminate the headaches I'm living in it. The most heartless version of being alienated is when a service decides they will now become a pay service and not grandfather their early customer base into the service, even for a year or two.
- Keith Barrett
So why does this seem wrong? Because the reality is that the company could NOT have gotten where it was without the early adopters. There's no way they would ever have had the resources or staff to perform the debugging, promotion, customer growth, or eventual press without that FREE public participation.
- Keith Barrett
Robert is absolutely right expecting brands to respect the contributions of those who got them off the ground. They make a cardinal error in snubbing those people because they ARE still bringing in new users and keeping existing users there. Those users are more likely to keep using the system unlike the fad group that creates an account because Oprah mentioned Twitter and never uses it. If they were really wise they would seek out and support their evangelists - even those much smaller than Leo and Robert!
- Internet Strategist
15 Things I Wish I Had Known When I Started My First Blog - http://www.quicksprout.com/2009...
Iván Abrego, Jorge Escobar, Daniel W. Crompton and 23 other people liked this
Thanks for sharing this post.He makes great points and I would simply say pick something you care about and give yourself room to evolve. None of us can predict where we (or readers) will be in a year or two. Many blogs have changed directions sharing that journey with readers. When you are true to yourself it will show in your writing. Not every reader will remain with you forever because they change too.
- Karen Swim
Zee I like this one. One thing this mentions is not burning yourself which I really think is important. I tend to wright when I feel in the mood. Some days I have done 2 blogs others none - it just depends on what I can share and what I am up to writing.
- Rob Cairns
Really good post!
- TheHenry
Zee - brilliant post. Thanks
- DC Crowley
Don’t blog about news??? "Readers didn’t care to read blog posts that were news related." - I disagree with this. people care about news of course.
- Randy
I've just realised that it's been a year since my first blog post! I must blog about it....thanks for the invite, Zee. I'll be doing a lot of hanging around in here after the next couple of weeks :)
- WorldofHiglet
my secret time saving email tip: change your desktop email signature to "Sent from iPhone" - then write 1 sentence replies! sshhh
Ashish Bogawat, Rob Boek, Jesper Kjær Hansen and 108 other people liked this
That's GENIUS!
- Chris Saad
I do that all the time. Helps if you don't capitalize words and make misspellings too--looks more authentic.
- Andrew Leyden
sweet. I'm going to start doing that so people will think I have an iPhone.
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
My secret too. Be careful not to type too much w/o errors or it will raise suspicion.
- Craig Mische
That is genius actually, I like it.
- xero
how many of us do this? (and probably have people do it back to us ;-)
- Tobias Peggs
OMG. brilliance.
- Anthony Baker
LOVE THIS!
- BEX
Don't do this with people that know what the X-Mailer: iPhone Mail (5G77) email header means.
- Lars Trieloff
THAT IS AWESOME!!!
- Keith - @tsudo
Especially don't do it in a reply to your boss when you are supposed to be at your desk.
- MVB (Curmudgeon of FF)
I like it a lot. My emails have become shorter and shorter anyway, so used to twitter.
- jjprojects
smart :)
- Sebastian
Just don't ever attach anything! You'll give yourself away.
- Gregory Cohen
BRILLIANT!!!!
- Paul
Classic
- Nina Morena
Simple for me, mine does come from an iPhone 98% of the time.
- Tsali, The Native of FF
wow...that is a great idea!!!
- Brian Appleby
Kevin... stop fooling around... go and roll out some new digg features already!
- Eddie
Oh.... that's GOOD....
- Ciaoenrico
I wonder if people would think I'm never in the office ;-) Double benefit!
- Ken Stewart | ChangeForge
twibs : find the businesses on twitter - http://www.twibs.com/
Heidi Cool, Nilesh and Sonya Smith liked this
"find, follow, and interact with businesses, apps, and services on twitter"
- Seth Greenblatt
from Bookmarklet
How Not to be a Key Online Influencer (via @Ed_Dale 's twitter stream) - http://www.davidhenderson.com/2009...
Heidi Cool and Leo liked this
This is actually a very funny post....me being from Memphis...I can totally understand the writer's sentiments..Memphis ain't that great.
- Leo
More Adults Than Ever on Social Networks - ReadWriteWeb - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...
Heidi Cool, Ⓐ ☠ slayerboy ☠ Ⓐ, Alex Williams and 7 other people liked this
25 Different Uses For FriendFeed - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
jswi_jim, İbrahim Uzun [ j ], Devon Campbell and 87 other people liked this
Post by Michael Fruchter: http://friendfeed.com/fruchter
- Louis Gray
Louis obviously has been teaching Michael how not to sleep and just keep writing posts.
- Rob Diana
Like you, Rob, Mike was born with talent that is hard to teach. This is his natural flow.
- Louis Gray
Wait, was that a compliment in there? Sneaky.
- Rob Diana
I'm just counting down the moments until the first "Is Mike Fruchter the New Louis Gray" posts start!
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
Nicely done Mike - nice blend of cool ideas in there! thanks!!
- Susan Beebe
awesome Mike, ok am gonna hold out on my list for a coupla weeks then. Don't wanna be giving people too many ideas :)
- Zee.
Main: Best tech discussion place.
- Igor Poltavskiy
Haha +1 for Eric.
- Mack D. Male
A lot of great suggestions
- Mason Blake
This is really helpful....still wrapping my head around FF.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
Great post. I use FriendFeed as a Yahoo! Pipes replacement. Set up a FF account, bring in all your favorite RSS feeds, publish your FF to Twitter, and get updates in Twitter when there are updates to your favorite blogs. Great for industry specific Twitter groups. Wish you could do this in Rooms rather than having to set up a new FF account. Both the FF and Twitter accounts can be private, too.
- Dominic Jones
from twhirl
IRWebReport, the only thing Pipes still does better is the handling of dupes.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
@ aka Tina, I wouldn't know. I tried using Pipes a long time ago and gave up after 10 minutes. This is one case where FriendFeed *is* simple. :-)
- Dominic Jones
Powncers: how can I help you?
Morton Fox, polou/indigo_bow, Alex and 3 other people liked this
There are a lot of posts and comments here saying FriendFeed doesn't do what Pownce does, or that FriendFeed sucks. I want to help you get used to FriendFeed. Leave a comment here, email me at mark@itafroma.com, or IM me at mark@itafroma.com with what you used to be able to do in Pownce, and I'll try my best to get you to the FriendFeed equivalent or explain why FriendFeed does it differently.
- Mark Trapp
The fact that Pownce is closing is frustrating enough, I'm sure, but there's no reason getting used to FriendFeed has to be equally as frustrating.
- Mark Trapp
Thanks Mark. I've always thought of FF as more of an aggregator, but it has evolved quite nicely over the year. What is the character limit here? Obviously it is more than 140, but I think I recall hitting some limit in the past. If we could have lots of room to type and ramble that would be superb. (We Powncers are sometimes verbose!)
- Heidi Cool
Hi Heidi, for a post title, it's 300 characters. For a comment, it's 512 characters if you just type it in FriendFeed, but you can override that to 1023 characters if you write your comment somewhere else and copy and paste. The discrepency for comments comes from a Javascript check in FriendFeed that only fires when you type, not when you copy and paste. I'm pretty verbose myself, and generally if you're going to hit the limit, it's perfectly acceptable to break it up into multiple comments.
- Mark Trapp
Thanks, Mark. Friendfeed was a bit of an adjustment, but after some time I was able to figure out how to make the site work for me. It's just going to take time. Maybe there's a screencast on basics about dividing up friends and how to reduce the noise?
- Mike Lewis
Hi Mike, Louis Gray had an excellent post on the use of hide, the main way to cut down on noise in FriendFeed: http://louisgray.com/live... Ross Miller, a former FriendFeed temp, created a screencast for it as well: http://blog.friendfeed.com/2008... His other screencasts are here: http://vimeo.com/rossmil...
- Mark Trapp
FriendFeed also answers a bunch of questions here: http://friendfeed.com/about... and Louis Gray talks about how to use lists, essentially a FriendFeed version of a group of people, to organize noise: http://louisgray.com/live...
- Mark Trapp
Thanks Mark, the copy and paste option may be a good work around...except of course when I surpass 1023!
- Heidi Cool
!alishagg says: !honds says: Hey everyone. I quickly whipped up a web app that will allow you to back up all your Pownce contacts (not notes) to CSV. It will give you all their other social profiles as well as any public information Pownce has about them. Give it a try. I will be updating it tonight. - http://andrewcurioso.com/pownce...
Kevykev, Roney Smith, Heidi Cool and Christian Burns liked this
Not working for me at the moment, but then again i do have 1800+ friends :[
- Julie G.
wow that's awesome worked for me, and fast too. grabbed my 300+ friends and my 70ish people I was fans of. in less than a couple minutes.
- Wolfman-K
Fantastic! Worked like a charm...
- Michael Potter
great works, got them all.
- clarke thomas
Worked for me. Thanks.
- Bryan Pearson
My new T-shirt slogan: "technically difficult and weird." That's what Facebook's Chris Putnam said when I asked for a more than 5,000 friend limit.
Jonas, Amber, Random Time Lord, David HC Soul and 41 other people liked this
how can it be "technically difficult and weird?" I take it, it's not a completely scalable architecture and would require a large-scale rewrite. How unfortunate if that's the case.
- John Wang
John: it takes more and more processor time the more people you have. They are fighting scaling problems all over the place as they flew past 100 million users. They got more users in the past three months than they had in the first three years of their life. Amazing growth there.
- Robert Scoble
Why do something the right way when you can do it the quick way? Isn't that the American way? :p
- Chris, Taskerrific Guy
I'll take 1 too - fits me to a T as well
- Susan Beebe
Its a good problem to have.
- Jay
I guess when you get up above a few hundred friends, using Facebook is a whole different ball of wax. Thousands? Isn't it nearly useless at that point?
- David G. Johnson
c'mon stop bashing Facebook for this. supporting millions more users is way more important than enabling a handful of users (OK, probably just one individual) to have more than 5,000 friends.
- Jon Price
You should sell them. It's time for the official Scobleizer t-shirt, and that slogan prob'ly suits lots of us.
- Andy Kaplan-Myrth
We were able to make it work at myspace.. :)
- PaulKats
David: Facebook is far from useless when you have 5,000 friends. Why would you think it'd be useless? It actually gets MORE USEFUL the more friends you have! Facebook is really a big rolodex. Jon: more than 1,000 people have 5,000 friends, they tell me. I small minority, yes. But more are coming.
- Robert Scoble
Ever get the idea that Robert Scoble's brain is wired very differently than the brains of the rest of us?
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
I suppose Facebook's usefulness when one has thousands of friends depends on who you friend. If one friends 5,000 thirteen-year-olds, that person will be in a world of pain when he or she logs in.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
If I had 5000 friends and I knew folks at Facebook, I would ask for an extra long News Feed front page.
- Andrew
possible248: exactly. On my Facebook are the world's top tech CEOs, geeks, and press. Very useful to me. More useful, in fact, than the 8,000+ business cards I've collected over the past few years.
- Robert Scoble
MiniMage: I hope so, if you all are wired the same as me God help us all!
- Robert Scoble
I don't understand how they can't go over the 5k limit. Are they just assuming that no-one can have more then 5k associates?! Therefore, allowing a higher limit will associate them to be similiar to Myspace when they want to be seen as a social utility?!
- Nicholas James
bah! maybe they have some graph algorithm in n**2 or n**3 or n!-- you have to set a limit -- maybe it would be nice to disable this funky part of the app -- if it could be isolated. Scobble is asking to crash the servers each time he logs in.
- General Kafka
Scobble: have you tried to turn your 5000 friends on FB into LinkedIn contacts ? I find my FB neighborhood very "playful" and nothing like a professional rolodex...
- General Kafka
General: I'm not on LinkedIn. I tried it once and too many people asked me to do things for them so I left.
- Robert Scoble
I am on LinkedIN and I love it, it's very useful for a 20 year old designer. Yet I understand how you felt and why you left, cause I know many people who add people on there just to get stuff from people. I hate it, I would never ask people I don't even know for a favor, I hardly ask people I know.
- Brendon Wadey
I don't think I'll keep using Plurk. It's a great service altogether, but really, really time consuming.
Alex Albrinck, Rob Diana, Laurentiu and 10 other people liked this
Time consuming and I find there is more noise than Twitter. I like that you can always see everyones replies so you don't miss anything, but every 5 seconds, I've got alerts waiting and new messages... It can be a little much.
- Natitude
Also, I don't see Plurk becoming as useful as Twitter (ex: the journalist story, etc.)
- Rubin Sfadj
Plurk is overwhelming to me. If I step away for 10 minutes, I will have over 100 missed messages.
- Reem Abeidoh
I agree. I really love the concept, but after just a few days I was overwhelmed.
- Sara
It's easier to follow for me than is Twitter, but I'm used to the threaded discussions of Pownce. That said it's already becoming overwhelming. And I just had my first argument there (which I've never had on Pownce) so I'm being less enthusiastic about it than I might have been a few hours ago. Thus this isn't really an unbiased comment as I fear I'm still in a bit of a mood.
- Heidi Cool
threaded response is useful but the timeline is not. I wonder if they can throw ajax in their plurk.com/m and make it alternate standard UI
- Toni @ NavinoT
According to Standard Metrics, Social Media Just Isn’t Worth It. - http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC...
Mitchell Tsai, Nikpay, Heidi Cool and 2 other people liked this
What are your thoughts on this?
- Steaprok
Majority is ignorant!
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Robert do you agree or disagree?
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Robert do your followers Truly Follow you? http://i26.tinypic.com/21o30r7...
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Igor, may I ask why you continue to post that image? Does it hold sentimental significance to you? It just confuses me, that's all and I'd like some clarification.
- Timothy Neilen
Does something bother you about the image? What does the image represent to you? Because it may have a different representations to different people depending in what format and text association it is presented. Like their is a saying, "Art is in the eyes of the beholder!"
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Oh, and I posted the image in this room only in two posts, each being a different thread! So posting the same ulr two times, makes it "Igor, may I ask why you continue to post that image?" ?
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Oh I am sorry, I just realized that you are following me and You must of picked up the Tweets I made to my friends with this image! I used it as a parody! lol That is what happens when we follow each other so close! LOL
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Igor, that's alright, mate. The image does not bother me, it just confuses me. To me the image represents adaptation.. the dog is not normal, but it has learnt to adapt to it's adversities by learning to walk on two feet instead of all four. He has most likely learnt this by mimicking humans.
- Timothy Neilen
I hope Robert's Followers are not the same! lol
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Is this comment thread the Friendfeed equivalent of an art installation piece?
- Mark Trapp
Tim, symbolism is incredibly strong! Visualization can be a very strong rhetorical tool. I live in Japan and the Chinese Kanji are symbolic in their meaning! So one Kanji will have one meaning by itself, but when attached to another Kanji the meaning changes. That is what happens when you show the same image to different people. It all depends on what text is attached to the image and who you show it to!
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Ignoring the image thread, I thought the article made a good point. Mktg is about quality more than quantity. In traditional media such as direct mail, it costs less to mail to a smaller quanity of people who might actually want your product than to a large group only a fraction of whom will care. Social media has time and opportunity costs but relationship building can build a customer base. It depends on the product niche whether this will work, social mktg is not the solution in all fields, but in some..
- Heidi Cool
Marketing is how u use it, online & off-line! Marketing is a concept & a theory not a tool in itself. There are many marketing tools.Social media can be a tool but it may not be one, depending how you adopt it. The image that you ignored can be a marketing tool, if you want it to be! Actually it is a marketing tool, if you look at the Branding in the lower right corner! The image I did not create but received from an innovative marketer. Try to see fine points of SM not just look at it from a macro level.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Standard metrics are flawed in that they are "standard metrics". Standard metrics work for standard media. As media evolves, we have to use different metrics for measuring return on investment. Social media becomes about targeting the right few and more about engagement, conversations, relationships than the standard media approach of blasting a message to everyone and seeing if it sticks.
- Muhammad Saleem
Nice!
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
@Muhammad Saleem I agree, rather then think in direct marketing metrics, I think there could be a lot learned from traditional media branding metrics. i.e. measuring the monetary value of "influencers" and "mindshare". We still have some ways to go I think in establishing effective social media metrics that work for both clients and marketers. But I have seen progress in this area.
- Steaprok
Veronica Belmont’s Top 10 Up-and-Coming Web Applications - http://mashable.com/2008...
Lyn, Anthony Farrior, Russellreno and Heidi Cool liked this
I can't agree with Pownce or Rupture. I used Pownce religiously, and loved it more than Twitter. But ever since FF came along, I abandoned Pownce, since it doesn't sync correctly with FF. And Rupture is either buggy, too confusing to use, or the community is dead.
- Bill Bittner
I love pownce.
- Thomas Hawk
I like Pownce too but man it has gotten so much slower
- Bwana ☠
I need to look at Pownce again...but nah, I like FriendFeed...why should I use yet another app? seems like redundancy to me...why is everyone so hooked on it? pictures? use flickr and they show up here anyway.
- Susan Beebe
Pownce is my favorite app. I go there every day and have made some great friends. Pownce is all about conversation. You can have longer discussions there than here. (There is a character limit here even if it is more than 140) And pics aren't the only things that embed, so do videos and audio.
- Heidi Cool
Posted a new article and video to my blog. "5 Steps to Getting Started With Twitter." - http://janronpublishing.blogspot.com/2008...
Laurentiu, Joe Dawson, Heidi Cool and 2 other people liked this
Diggs, Stumbles and Tweets would be most appreciated. Thanks, Sharon Bray-McPherson
- Sharon McPherson
I liked TweetVolume. I'm assuming the other search is just adding "site:twitter.com" to a Google search.
- Mitchell Tsai
Actually Mitchell, not it's not. You add the keyword or keyword phrase of your niche and results will be returned as a link to Twitter users who have the keyword(s) in their username.
- Sharon McPherson
Hmmm... I'm confused as to what differences the searches have. For some items http://www.google.com/coop... returns a slightly different-ordered search than "site:twitter.com" at Google. For others the ordering is quite different. Maybe because my regular Google searches are biased by my previous history (something which annoys some SEO friends).
- Mitchell Tsai
Good post Sharon. I'm a new Twitter user too and while it can have it's downsides, I think it's a great tool for networking with people you wouldn't have normally
- Natitude
Please no asking for social votes and content promotion :)
- Muhammad Saleem
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