Hieronymus Murphy - Likes

Congrats Robert... best wishes to all - Rhys Amos

320 more comments

Congrats. Now the fun begins!!! - Mike Shields

Awesome! - dstamand

Congratulations! - Stephan Planken

Congratulations! Welcome, Ryan! - Lance M. Brown

Awesome - RetiredTeacherD

Yay! Congratulations! - Jesse Stay

YAYAYAYAYAY! Congrats to you and Maryam!@#!@#! - drew olanoff

congrats Robert and Maryam, Welcome Ryan. - rick

Welcome to the world. - Dave Mora

Congratulations!!! - Mike Doeff

!!! - sean percival

Born 11:32. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

LOL He was keepin ya'll on yer toes. CONGRATS! - Danny Minick

Yay! Congratulations to you and your wife! Now off to buy RSS and iPhone - Lise

Congrats!!!!! - Mark Evans

Congratulations! - Kenneth

I hope you're well rested, Robert ... ;-) - Hieronymus Murphy

Congrats Robert! - Charlie Anzman

Congratulations! - 321

He looks like you. - Cjay

Congratulations! - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

Congrats to you all - JanLawrence

Congrats Robert and welcome RSS! - Robb Brock

Congratulations! Happy Birthday Ryan! Lots of love to the whole family. - Jodi Church

SUBSCRIBED! - drew olanoff

Hello World! - CannonGod

Congratulations!! Welcome to the world Ryan!! :) - Laura Zickus

<rss> awesome! </rss> - sean percival

welcome to the new world little one! all hail our pink squirming screaming overlord! - bear (aka Mike Taylor)

LOL at CannonGod's comment. It's like he started a Wordpress blog. XD - Danny Minick

When does he start micro blogging? - Cjay

20.5 inches long. 7 lbs. 13 oz. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

nice alpha version. welcome RSS ! - Kaïs Miled

congrats!! welcome rss! - barbarars

Ryan is no longer in beta! LOL :D Congrats, Scoble! - Danny Minick

Congratulations :) - امیرعباس

RSS is finally here! Congrats Robert & Maryam - Dennis Jernberg

Congrats Robert... best wishes to all - joupy

Congratulations! - Aaman (Clone of FF)

Blessings, and the best Robert! - Nakeva Corothers

Cute! - Charlie Anzman

مبارک باشه Congratulations - هامد

Congrats!!! - Jim Williams

Grats! - Denverken

مبارکه رفیق رابرت . خدا حفظش کنه - جـوان ایرانی

If Dave Winer comes on here and claims to have invented RSS I will smack him. - drew olanoff

Congratulations! - joey

Congratulations and all the best. - Bryce Roney

Welcome Ryan!!! - Phil

Welcome Ryan :) - giuseppe c. | markgreene

Awesome. Congratulations! - John McCrea

Congratulations :-) - ѕнαнιη

Congratulations! - anna sauce

Congratulations :) Welcome Ryan :) - Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Congrats, Imagine where RSS and the web will be when he turns 30! - James Watters

Congratulations to you both. - Don McAllister

congrats Robert and Maryam :))))) - C o n f o r m i s t

congrats to the family!! - erik yuzwa

Welcome to RSS in Pubsubhub mode :) - Ouriel Ohayon

Congrats to you all!! We had our second child, a boy, on Tuesday. Enjoy!! - Alex Cordiner from iPhone

Yay! Congrats to you, but mostly congrats to your wife for doing all of the hard work. ;-) xo - Jennifer Leggio

Mazel Tov! - Robb Vaules

Congrats Robert....wishing all the best to your family.... - Carlos

Congratulations! Wow! Seems like we were there just the other day! Looking forward to your late-night feeds and tweets and blog posts! - Louis Gray

You rock! Congrats. Thanks for sharing. How's mum doing? - Steve Lacey from iPhone

congrats! and welcome ryan - Daniel Levine

Congrats Robert - It is a fine family.... - Simarprit Singh

"beautiful new baby" by Robert Scoble, photojournalist. I stepped away for coffee and bang! RSS - Brian Hendrickson

nice! - Josh Haley from iPhone

Thank you so much for sharing - Sherrie Belken

:) congrats - Shandiz

Born on Talk like a Pirate Day, too! Yarrrr! - Josh Haley from iPhone

congrads ms & mr scoble, :) - chaz2b

Thanks to the good Docs! - Keith Rowland

congrats!! ^_^ - Christine Lu

Congrats! - Mycaptain

Steve: mum is sleeping but got to hold Ryan. Instant love! - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Welcome, Guest dear to our world / Now the world is on your own - C o n f o r m i s t

that feels good - Brian Hendrickson

Gonna have to learn to operate that iPhone with one hand. - Keith Rowland

Congratulations! - Parth Awasthi

Congratulations. Hope Maryam iis doing well - Rachel Clarke

Congratulations! Wish him all the best! - philos

Welcome Baby Ryan!!! My baby Ryan (17 years!) and I are honored to welcome another superstar to our planet! Love, hugs, and lots of kisses to Baby Ryan, Mommy Maryam, Dad Robert and big brothers Milan & Patrick and of course Grandma!!! My guess on Ryan's arrival (predication) was only 23 hours off. I thought he would arrive on Friday, Sept. 18th at 11:45 pm. Love to all, Kelly & Ryan Kim - Kelly S. Kim

Congrats, Robert and Maryam. - Derrick

Congratulations Robert, and well done Maryam! You are truly blessed :) - Nicola Quinn

So happy for you Robert and Maryam. Yeay...another FF baby! - Mark Krynsky

Congratulations! - Surachart Opun

What a moment, eh? I remember when my daughter came into this world, it was so exciting there were no words for it. Congrats on your wonderful baby boy! - Michael J. Carrasquillo

Congratulations - testbeta

Congratulations! Welcome to the world, Ryan. :-) - Yvette Ferry

Congratulations Robert and Maryam! And welcome Ryan. If I was having a baby today, I'd begin a blog for him/her straight away as an online diary they could look back on when grown up. - Sandra Large

he's so cute... - Sinem Vural

Robert, Congratulations to you and Maryamie! - Mike Fruchter

Wow, congrats to all of you! - Paul Salzman

Congratulations to you both! - Forrest W. Kobayashi

Great news guys! All the best! - Chris Nixon

الهــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــی چقده ناز نازیه.اینو فارسی نوشتم مریم جان بخونن ....راستی به باباش که نرفته:)) خوشگلتره:)) پس به شما رفته - joupy

congratulations!! - Jeroen De Miranda

Congratulations to you and your wife Robert! - Randy

Congrats Robert! - Terry Jones

congratz and welcome RSS! - Jon Winters

Congrats Maryam :-) - Terry Jones

Felicitations and humble prayers for your new son. - Victor Panlilio

congrats and best wishes! - Mike Chelen

Congratulations Robert! Welcome Ryan! - Jeff P. Henderson

Congrats!! - Tan Kaiquan

congrats and best wishes to all. :) - Naor Mark

Congratulations - Meral Alabaz

I was a c-section six week preemie in an era when that was seriously life-threatening, they didn't know if I would make for the first week. It always gets me a see a c-section / preemie come howling into the world. Welcome, little guy! - Bob Morris (polizeros) from iPhone

Beautiful baby! Congratulations daddy man :) - Gary

:) Congrats Robert... best wishes to your family! Get her name in twitter and ff! - Business Blogger【ツ】™

Congratulations to you and Maryam! - Elwin Witzke

AmazinG!! congratulations :) - Nakul

cutie pie baby - Debby Bruck

Congratulations :) - Baard @ Pixum

Ryan, good to see you. - Burçak Çubukçu

تولدش مبارک ^_^ Congratulations! - ‎‎Emad

Warm wishes and congratulations. Love that you posted him crying. - Irene Koehler

Congratulation to all of you! All the best for baby ryan!!! - Arne Krueger

Congrats to both of you :) - zephyrlily

Congratulation....best wishes to all - Opium

woooow like :) - کلـیـشه

Congrats M. & R. - Giuseppe M.

ووووی مبارکه، به مریم خانوم هم تبریک ما رو بگو - Zahra (raoros)

Congrats Robert and Maryam, Welcome to geekdom Ryan! - Andrew Wardlaw

Contrats!!! I'm so excited!! - Jannifer @wordsforliving

Congrats.That pic brings back memories of my own baby's birth only ten months ago. C-section baby boys rock! - Georgiana Comsa

Mazel Tov to you and Maryam. - Michael Markman

Congrats... a few more Scobles make the world a better place ;-) - Aad 't Hart

Congrats! - George Mitsopoulos

Congrats... and Welcome Ryan. Good to have you among us. - fatima

Congratulations! I - Michael Fidler

Wonderful news. Congrats. - Keri

Congrats Robert, and the best to you, Maryam, and of course Ryan! - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

Congratulations Congratulations !! - Farzad

Congrats - Sandeep Swaminathan

looking to to the same in 3 weeks - ROBIN SMITH

Congrats on the blessed event! :D - Joel Lovato

Congrats Robert and Maryam. Welcome Ryan !!!!!!!!! - Nir Ben Yona

Congratulations, Robert! - Mark Trapp

Congratulations to Robert and Maryam. - George Hall (Australia)

Right ON! I am so happy for you. I have 4 kids of my own and they are my greatest joys. Take care and I hope all goes so smooth for him and mom. - Robert Anderson

Congratulations! - J. Abdul-Qahhar

Daddy Scobleizer!!!!!!!!!! First things first....when will he be signed up for Twitter and FF? - krystyl

Congrats!!! - eric susch

welcome Ryan, it's a beautiful world - Michele Costabile

Congrats!! - Olivia Lovag

Congrats to the Scoble family from South Africa! Welcome to the world @RSS - Shaun Trennery

Good luck beatiful baby. - Oğulcan Selçuk Akbulut

Congrats, Robert! :-D - Kol Tregaskes

Congratulations Robert, and welcome Ryan! - Giorgio Zarrelli

Congratulations Robert and R.S.S.: "Hello World" Cheers! - Louis Trapani

warmest congratulations - Peter Holland

what a beautiful baby=)Congratulations=) - Candan Celik

Such a miracle and a blessing - Congratulations to you and Maryam and "big" brothers! - Marla Schulman

Congrats, Robert. Amazing pictures! - Jordi Soler

Congratulations to all of your family! Enjoy! - Ed Richardson

Congratulations ... enjoy! - Hitesh Parashar

Congratulations!!!! He's beautiful! Welcome little one! I'm proud to share a birthday with you! - Martha

Congratulations Robert and Maryam! Welcome to the world Ryan :-) - Rasmus Lauridsen

happy birthday BABY - ≤ M@RzI

Best congratulations!!!! :) - CantorJF

Congrat Robert. It is wonderful what this new media could do to share your joy! - Gianto Widianto

congrats! - Pradhap Nirmal Natarajan

Congratulations! - Steve Garfield

به به . قدم نو رسیده مبارک مریم جان . خیلی نازه :) - RokhSaare

Hope the baby and mum are well. Congratz. Happy Ied Mubarak =) - zʍıɔ

WoW,Congratulations! - atalmatal from MojiPage

Congrats on the blessed event! Welcome to the world, Ryan - Jazz Baker

Congratulations! - Jim Is Not Smart

appena nato e già dal dentista? - paolo beneforti

Congrats :) - Maryam Ardakani from FreshFeed

He was delivered by a Blue Man? - paul mooney

Congrats Robert. It's allways a special moment. I still have my child birth in my memory! - Rui

What a happy day! A healthy new Scoble and mom. - Dave Winer

آخي ، بچته ؟؟؟ مبارك باشه تو روز به اين عزيزي به دنيا اومده ، بت نميخوره بچه انقدري داشته باشي شيطون - mohammad

My goodness, congratulations! - DGentry

Congrats! - Ivo Mortani

Congratulations!! and best wishes - Johni Fisher

congrats! - masstrovato

Congratulations! I hope everyone's ok?! - Holger Eilhard

حاجي خانومت ايرانيه جدي ؟؟؟ پس خيلي مباركه ديگه - mohammad

Congratulations, Scoble family! - Bill Scherer

wonderfull - braciolanet from BuddyFeed

Congratulations to you and your family Robert! A very handsome baby boy! Cant wait to see more pictures! - TiffanyCarr

Congratulations, Robert. - motownmutt

Congratulations! - :: Kim Sherrell ::::

congrats :) - £lham

مبارکه :) - خیزران kheyzaran

Congrats! - Roozbeh

Congrats to Robert and Maryam! - Bec Rowe @d0tski

WooHoo! My best to the whole family. I hope Maryam is getting some rest after all that hard work! - Robert Couture

Congrats to you and your fam, Robert :) - LANjackal

Ryan was born when the Berlin Marathon was finishing. Perhaps he'll be a long-distance runner. Congrats. - Carl Jacobsen

Congratulations to you and the wife, Robert! Job well done. I see he is gonna take after his Daddy! ;-0 ,hehe:-) - Duliece

One more congrats won't hurt, right? Thanks for sharing the pics. - Kevin Sablan

Congratulations :) - A35G

Congrats - Exciting & now the fun begins :-) - PXLated

Wishing you and yours the best on this wonderful day! Congratulations! - Steve

Congrats on the RSS feed update :) I hope you've pinged both rsscloud and pubsubhubbahubba ! - Ahsan Ali aka. Slick

Starting today. Sleep will be nothing more than a fond memory. :) Congrats. - Richard

Congrats! - Herb Hernandez from iPhone

Congrats! - YusufOzanTasdemir

Congrats Robert!! - Taehoon Kim

Congratulations! - Thomas Hawk

Congratulations to you both :) - 1x29

Congratulations to all! - malackey

fantastic !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - michele ficara

Awe!! Congrats =) - Brodie Beta

Congratulazioni!! ^______^ - Andrea | amnesiak1978

congrats!! - Clarita

Congratulations to your whole family, Robert :-) - Mistletoe Glen

Welcome Ryan! Congratulations Robert and family! - Tim Probst from iPhone

Congratulations!!! God bless.... - Bob DeMarco

Congrats! - Jason Williams from iPhone

Congratulations Robert, Maryam and Milan! All the best to the four of you. - Eiso Kant

Congratulations :-) - Jalada

Congrats! Enjoy. - Jim Peake

Congrats - BeeLing

Congratulations!! - Paolo Leonardi

Congratulations, Robert and Maryam! - Helen Sventitsky

Congratulations! - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

Congratulations. - ashish

Congrats - Brian Appleby

oooww wonderfulll :)) - Ucandepik

Well done, my son's name as well. - Robert Kenney

Congratulations - Caleb Scribner

Congrats - Manuel Mas

Congrats! Best wishes to you, Ryan and all your family! - Lenny Post

congrats ^_^ - Furkan Tunalı

Conga Rats! - Michael R. Bernstein

Wonderful! Enjoy! - Alan Morris

Hello! - N.G. Gordon - RadarSync

Absolutely wonderful. Welcome to the world Ryan! - Loren Heiny from iPhone

Congrats :) - Hasan Al Shehabi

Congratulations to both of you. - Roberto Bonini

OMG Congrats to both of you, he looks healthy and promising. - Jeunelle Foster

Congratulations to everyone! He looks healthy! I am sure you must all be very happy! ;) - Altan Khendup

Congratulations! May your tribe ever increase in happiness, joy, and fulfilment. - trey pennington

Congrats! - Ben Parr

what would be ryan's reaction when he would read this post someday, so many folks who knew dad congratulating him! - testbeta

Congratulations! - Anne Bouey

hiya RSS! - Laura Norvig

Yah!! Congratulations. - Micah Wittman

Congratulations to the whole Scoble family! - WorldofHiglet

Congratulations to the whole family! Enjoy these most precious times. - Marylene Delbourg-Delphis

best wishes to all - Hamza Şamlıoğlu @TEAkolik

congrats Robert and Maryam - Kevin Tunis

Congratulations, Robert! - Sabri Küstür from FreshFeed

Wonderful. Best wishes to Ryan... - Mitchell Tsai

Congratulations to the whole family :) - Chris Saad

Congratulations - Samaneh

Congratulations. cute :) - FFTornado

Congratulations. First picture on twitter! - Cindy Makonin

I just came to make sure you were getting a proper congratulations - Sherrie Belken

Welcome :))) - Flynn (Michael A. Volz)

congrats;) - خاتون

Congratulations to the Scobles! - Carlton Prest

Congrats Robert! - Jorge Escobar

congratulations, Robert and Maryam. - Valeria Maltoni

congrats! - Daniel Brusilovsky

WOW - what a miracle - congrats! - Mark Harai

Congratulations Robert & Maryam! - Rodrigo Jaroszewski

Congrats from Italy, Ryan! - Federico Bolsoman from iPhone

Congratulations Robert and sorry for delay, Best wishes - erfan

He is crying: "I want an iPhone". Felicitations! - William Mougayar

May he be blessed throughout his life! God bless you, Robert and Maryam! - Melanie Reed

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!! - Greg Ness

congrats :) - Erdinc [bilimdiyari.com]

Congrats Robert & your family :) - Sampad Swain

what a beautiful little guy! congratulations! rock on! - B.L. Ochman

great day, congrats - imran

Wow congratulations to both you and Maryam you must be so proud :) - David Richardson from Android

Congratulations - Eric Logan

Wow, Congratulations, Robert and Maryam!! Ryan looks beautiful.:-) - Cathryn Hrudicka

Congrats man. That's so awesome. - Give 'Em DBizness

Happy Babbie Day! - Jack (a.k.a. Jeber)

Congrats! - Zachary TG

Congrats! I wish a long and healthy life. - Muammer Okumuş

Robert, you newest addition is too freaking adorable. I hope you and Maryam are doing well. Congratulations! Here's to a long, prosperous future! - Mike Nayyar

Welcome, Ryan - you picked a good family! - Matthew Blaisdell

congrats to you and Maryam! And welcome, RSS! - Joshua Allen from fftogo

congrats!!! Welcome to Ryan - Dario Salvelli

Congratulations to you and Maryam! E benvenuto Ryan! - Marco Fabbri

Congrats! :) - Emmanuel Anumonwo

Congratulations! - mlazopoulou

Such auspicious times... Welcome, Ryan! - Red Label

O HAI, Ryan! Congratulations to Daddy and Mommy, too! - Ladybug Heather

What's Ryan's Twitter address? - MVB (Grinch of FF) from iPod

قدم نو رسیده مبارک!congratulations - Jan Valjan

Congrats, best wishes. :) - Hunt

حوزه جان بیا در گوشش اذان بگو - مـــــــــمد

woohoo! congrats! - Tyson

That is a wonderful moment! All the best to momma, baby and the family! - Mary Gilmour

Congrats Robert! Welcome Ryan! - Garin Kilpatrick

Awesome, Congratulations Robert and Maryam! And welcome to the world Ryan. - Mitch Baldwin

Happy parenting! Congrats! - Natallini

Groovy + one geek on the planet - Yann Ropars

Congrats!!! Robert - Steve Chou

To the proud Papa.....Congratulations!! - Bonnie Foster

http://www.youtube.com/watch... - kevin fitts

Congratulations Team Scoble. Best of good wishes to all of you. - Morrie Johnston

Congrats Robert and family!!! Welcome Ryan :) - buvanesh

congrats Robert! - Joshua Guffey

Congratulations! RS - Sean Kelly

Congrats :D - Emre Misvaklı

Congratulations. he's so cute :) - Armando Grati

Beautiful! - Ryan Sholin

Congratulations - Kreg Steppe

Congratulations! - Gordon Saunders

Congratulations! - موسوی Hamid Reza میر

Congrats Robert....How amny more before you have your baseball team :-) - Alex Marrow

Seriously, Best whishes.............God Bless...... - Alex Marrow

Mazal Tov! - Raanan Avidor

All the best! Fun Times!!!! - Jim Turner

congrads now the fun starts, beautiful baby - Debra Moore

congrads ! - ★ Soner Gönül

Congrats and Best Wishes! - Tracy Benham

Looks like the baby's first trip to the dentist - Steve Borgman

Welcome, Ryan! Congrats, Robert! - Thierry R. Andriamirado

They have me waiting outside while they prepare to surgically deliver Ryan Soroush Scoble. His life should start within minutes. I wonder what he will be like? What technologies will he see in his lifetime? - Robert Scoble from email

19 more comments

still with my premature congrads, and the techs will be what we cant imagine, :o - chaz2b

sending well wishes.... - Denverken

Is this the first time you've disclosed his name? Best to mother and child. Good health to all! - Ed Shahzade /NextInstinct

I have a feeling it's gonna be a smooth ride for Ryan tonight - Brian Hendrickson

Ah! Wonderful times that pass so fast! Following from South Africa! Our thoughts are with you and your family! - Andre

best wishes to mom and Ryan - Amit Nangare

shouldn't be long now and he'll be there in your arms :-) - Jodi Church

Three boys. Cool. - Victor Panlilio

Was just sharing this amazing experience with my family. Best wishes to all of you from India! :) - Mahendra (SkepticGeek)

Best wishes to you and your family. - Henry

Best wishes... - esaarem

Robert - best wishes - imagine the world and technologies Ryan will see in his life, likely into the 22nd century! - Shannon Clark

Any second now... - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Maryam is sleeping through it. - Robert Scoble from iPhone

Anticipation is making you wait ... - RetiredTeacherD

best wishes - C o n f o r m i s t

Best wishes to you, your wife and little baby Ryan! - Laura Zickus

Exciting - sending positive thoughts. - Mike Doeff

How wonderful :D Best wishes - Harrison Powers

Congratulations and Sweet wishes ! - Honey

Good point. Never thought about it that way. - Roberto Bonini from iPhone

6 more comments

that's bullshit, Dave. I have supported RSS and you from the beginning. - Steve Gillmor

You're having an Emily Litella moment Steve. I wasn't talking about you. - Dave Winer

who then - Steve Gillmor

I think the wikipedia article on RSS sums up what Dave's trying to say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Jesse Stay

Jesse, I have been one of Dave's principal allies since those early days. He calls TechCrunch names, he's calling me names. - Steve Gillmor

like I said Dave, when you say something, stick with it or look like you're faking it - Steve Gillmor

I don't want to fight with you Steve. I don't want to fight with anyone -- I just want to write code and work with other developers and users. - Dave Winer

Great post Dave, keep pointing this out. - Robert Scoble from Bookmarklet

38 more comments

Isn't it the responsibility of an individual who they follow? It was my assumption from the start that the SUL is biased and effectively worthless to me. - SawyerTraining, Inc.

Interesting. I hadn't considered the potentially insidious effect the Suggested Users List could have. - Teri Gidwitz

Great post and i really liked the link to professional poker and Twitter. - John Ford

This was an excellent post and Dave is 100% correct - The SUL is total bullshit! - Jim Connolly

Wow. I guess I didn't realize the extent of this situation. Great post by Dave - very eye-opening. - Curt Mercadante

Refinement of the system by which it is determined who follows whom could represent the next great leap forward for social networking. As this SUL issue exemplifies, there's a ton of inefficiency in how these choices get made. The SUL will soon give way to subtler, more intelligent ways of sparking connections. The paradigm of each person having static, manually managed list of... more... - Joshua Maurice

the biggest challenge here is understanding that Twitter is turning into an editor/publisher; not just a provider. could be a slippery slope. - MikeAmundsen

You can see the sense in having a SUL -- some people get on Twitter and have no idea whom to follow. Maybe they'll follow no one and join the large percentage of users who never come back after signing up. So giving some recommendations helps people get involved. But it seems like just about the bluntest possible instrument for achieving that end. - Joshua Maurice

The SUL as it stands isn't all that useful. It would be more useful (to users) to have one based on a friend-of-a-friend type of algorithm. - John (a.k.a. dendroica)

The SUL is, sadly, not based on quality - It's based (according to Biz and Ev) on people they 'just happen' to like. - Jim Connolly

Wait a second, did I read that right? The people on the SUL are working in concert with Twitter to follow a code of conduct that Twitter approves of in order to be selected and remain on the SUL? WTF? I thought it was just a list of random people they thought would be interesting to new users. If commerce is involved as an end result doesn't this violate some laws too? Doesn't this also effect Twitter's Safe Harbor? - Adam Turetzky

Adam: I was kept off the SUL because I talk about friendfeed too much. - Robert Scoble

Sounds like bitter grapes from W(h)iner. Steven Johnson was put on the SUL and says he was surprised to have been selected. And Robert we know you don't really care because as you've said so many times it's not how many people follow you that counts it's how many *you* follow, right? - Sprague D

I'm not opposed to the SUL, but I think Twitter should be more transparent about how users are selected and they should probably be selected through a lottery system. - Peter Warnock

I think John (dendroica) is onto something with the "friend-of-a-friend type of algorithm." Let's try to keep the focus on this constructive question of how to advance social networks to the next level. We seem to be on the verge of being able to integrate semantically annotated content (the "what" of social networks) with the metadata about who, where, and when, and using all these to... more... - Joshua Maurice

Currently the SUL is a list, the next iteration will be a directory and later on natural and sponsored lists generated from keywords will be available to help new users start their Twitter experience, the ideal will be that the lists are ranked by quality but since this is difficult due to the number of profiles we will settle on popularity... sigh - Alberto Saavedra

Sprague: the number of followers does matter to many in society, as this post points out. By the way, why do you think I say that who you follow matters so much? Because your input will affect your output which will get you more followers. But my point is that you can either get followers by gaming the system (or having it gamed on your behalf like with the SUL) or you can get it by... more... - Robert Scoble

The whole idea of having some people you follow, and others you don't follow, will appear crude very soon -- I will want to see SOME data emanating from even the most "boring" people, and will want to filter out SOME data emanating from even the most interesting people. - Joshua Maurice

[deleting my own comment after regretting useless snarkiness] - Fred Yankowski

Seems a tempest in a teapot to me. Most don't even know the SUL is there. And others, like me, make a point of ignoring such lists assuming they'll be fluff and because they specifically don't want to read what everyone else is reading. Many websites routinely post Best Of lists and no one insists they divulge their editorial thinking or hints at dark conspiracies because they do so. So why the hubbub? (Unless of course, they get paid by those being ranked. Then, yes, absolutely, it should be made public.) - Bob Morris (polizeros)

Bob: the problem is that the SUL has artificially raised people's follower numbers. For instance, I've always had more followers on all social networks than TechCrunch. Including on Twitter. But when that account got added to the list it went from about 50,000 followers and today has more than 700,000 followers while I went from about 60,000 to about 95,000 today. So if you are a business that relies on audience (and you could say that about me) you are at a HUGE disadvantage if you aren't on the list. - Robert Scoble

I posted a comment on a TC article they wrote about twitter asking if the fact they are SUL does that influence the way they report about the company. My comment was promptly moderated into non-existence :0 - David Lloyd

Wish all these threads had ajax or something and I could drag them around in the order I want them. Make it happen please Robert! - David Lloyd

Mark: exactly. The SUL is a huge gift to media companies and certain people and they all know it and many have even changed the way they deal with Twitter. - Robert Scoble

When twitter grows exponentially some of these accounts are gonna have 5 or 10 million followers. That's a lot of $'s of value. - David Lloyd

ive said all along that certain blogs are able to pay at least one writers salary on the SUL bonus - Allen Stern

For me I guess it's a transparency issue. I don't care about getting on the SUL (I'm not that interesting), but I'd like to know what people and companies are doing to try and get on the list. - Eoghann Irving

Egohann: lots of people I know want to be on the list. I've heard that if you beg to get on the list, though, that you'll be blacklisted. I wonder how long it'll be before someone creates an account specifically to try to get onto the list. - Robert Scoble

"Sooner or later someone who they propelled to the top will do something bad." Dave Winer, 21 June 2009 - David Lloyd

I guess the concern is will people start doing "favors" to get on Twitter's SUL? Since there's no defined way to get on the list, it would be very easy to abuse that. You could end up with a lobbyist system almost. - Eoghann Irving

how does SUL figure into monetization of Twitter? both for Twitter owners and SUL account-holders? when money is linked to the SUL, how does that affect the content of those on the SUL? could you lose your place based on your content? does losing your place remove all your followers? does the content of SUL-ies get preferential search status? added reach outside Twitter? do these values go away if a SUL-ie is bumped off? - MikeAmundsen

Mike: no one knows because the SUL is totally at the whim of Twitter. - Robert Scoble

@Robert: if a SUL-ie pulls lots of followers, then is removed, i doubt the followers disappear. from my POV, this is another example of @Biz and @Ev not quite thinking through the implications of what they are doing. i admire their success. i'm happy for them. however, i think, as Dave implies, this is gonna turn ugly at some point. and i think Twitter may turn out looking bad in the process. - MikeAmundsen

mike they dont get removed - when i brought twitter the cupcakes to get on the list - i was told justine was removed yet she keeps her 500,000 followers - Allen Stern

plz understand that twitter is a marketing network, period. - Allen Stern

Twitter is used for marketing, but I don't think it's just a marketing network. There are a lot of people using it without any commercial interests at all. - Eoghann Irving

How do you apply editorial standards to something that lets you post things like: "I'm out of sugar" or "My toothbrush just fell in the toilet"? I think that we sometimes expect too much from social media sites.. - J. Abdul-Qahhar

@Allen: yep - totally makes sense. now i imagine some future scenario where someone on the SUL starts saying really bad things about Twitter (or anything else Twitter-folks care about). Ev/Biz can pull them, but they've already created a monster; can't put the toothpaste back in the tube; etc w/ the cliches. now multiply this by the number of folks on the list and that's millions of bad news threads in the blog-o-sphere. - MikeAmundsen

Mike - I call this "keeping the top on top" and Twitter isn't alone with this problem... - Allen Stern

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