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"God: he laughs at our suffering?" LOL cc @almightygod

December 10 - Comment - Like - Share

Mark H, Ryan Souders, Christian (Simply X) and 4 other people liked this

Oh hell yes! - Ciaoenrico

Yes he is, like that. - Burçak Çubukçu

God also knows IM shorthand - sofarsoShawn

Leo Laporte

I'd like to reiterate my call for Facebook to open source the Friendfeed codebase (as AOL did when it bought Netscape). A federated OpenFriendfeed is the best for users - and fits Facebook's move toward an open social platform. I'll pay to run a server. Would you?

August 11 - Comment - Like - Share

Brian Hendrickson, helpmeguru, Justin Bradshaw and 222 other people liked this

I agree with this fully. - Akiva Moskovitz

76 more comments

I can't imagine that the terms of the acquisition would permit this to happen. Oh, wait... Facebook take FriendFeed open source? Maybe in two or three years after they squeeze every bit of life out of it, ala Google/Jaiku - Ken Sheppardson

Would that mean there would be dozens of Friendfeeds all trying to get us to come to them? - Mark

I support this fully - Ryan

yes what about a free GAE - abdellah

Oh I agree. But with Facebook's record? HAHAH! Oh god, I need a mint. - ‘-.-’ Tutivillus Grift

I'll file this away under "Never Gonna Happen"... - Andrew Terry

Jaiku is not dead. It was bought for a reason, and yes, it will resurface soon. you just wait n see. - binmugahid

yes - andy brudtkuhl

I agree with Andrew... - Suril Amin

I don't think I'd pay, but I'd love to have it open source - Jake Anderson

Worked for AOL. We got Mozilla and they got a much improved Netscape. - Leo Laporte

Leo, I think you have a little too much "hope" on this. Maybe you're just thinking if Facebook was smart, then they'd do that. - Mark

Facebook is much smarter than you're giving them credit for. I think. - Leo Laporte

great idea Leo, i'm 'cautiously optimistic' at this point in time about the future of FriendFeed... lets hope for the best people - Chris Heath

There is no value in that to them. Why open source something that give them a competitive edge. - binmugahid

I do not agree. It destroyed netscape. let Facebook use the best features of FriendFeed in it. Keep the talent like the four ex-google founders. Open source is not the answer to everything. sometimes Closed Source is better for the users as well. Just keep the innovations coming and it will be fine - hasanahmad

They've got the Friendfeed team. That's probably what they really wanted. Getting the open source community working on the FF codebase and contributing it back to Facebook is a win for everyone. - Leo Laporte

On the other hand, I ike to see Laconica (identi.ca) getting more like ff. - Chanux

Wow did this just happen today? - bravestface

yesterday - Chris Heath

Open-sourcing Communicator may have ultimately destroyed Netscape as a brand but without that move, I suspect we'd all still be developing for IE6. Great call, Leo. - Jared Smith

Excellent idea Leo. - Adi

I just can't stand Facebook. To many people I let in from my youth that I don;t want to see - bravestface

Yes. - .LAG liked that

You're assuming that Facebook bought the company JUST to get the developers, and not because they want to integrate many/most of the features into their service. If they want the features, they don't want a bunch of clones competing with them. - Joel Bennett

I'll send you a hefty donation for that Leo. - jcunwired

bravestface: That's not FB's fault you let them in. sheesh. - Gus

when will twitter be back up any 1 know - daveccorey

There already is an open source clone of twitter - see identi.ca and laconia or whatever it's called - Doug Holton

True. very True Gus. My own fault. Perhaps I need to setup an Alias account that encompasses what i really want - bravestface

I already run a Laconica server at http://army.twit.tv - I don't think we need another Twitter clone. We need something more like Friendfeed. Or maybe Wave will be the answer. - Leo Laporte

hay hay hay, sin duda un tema un tanto escabrozo, pero entre Facebook y Google, esto no lleva a nada bueno.. i'ts a hard theme, no doubt about that, but between facebook and google we are going to hell !!!!!! - Đoи яамoη

Or Pushbutton? - bravestface

This would be amazing. - Adam Teece

The Wave *protocal* might be a part of the answer... or just giving yourself over to whatever Google wants you to use might work (i.e. Wave, Reader, Gtalk, etc.)... but I don't really see Wave asdirect 1-for-1 FF replacement. - Ken Sheppardson

Too many systems in place - bravestface

They open sourced the Facebook code base (fbopen)... the license is very restrictive, however. FB owns all code modifications. Probably be the same license for FF. - Kurt

In know people that have replaced their email with Twitter....that just isn't right...we need one locator that many systems can reach - bravestface

Great idea Leo. Now let's see what they do, if they're listening. - Kelly Mitchell

Leo - your last comment is why I think Facebook bought Friendfeed: "We need something more like Friendfeed. Or maybe Wave will be the answer." This is going to be a product they will launch in opposition of Google Wave. It will surface Q1 of 2010 and will have some of the same features that Wave has - but be closed sourced to Facebook. - Jeff Vreeland

I see what you mean. Facebook and Google though don't really open source their web apps - Doug Holton

Facebook doesn't seem to have a good reputation with those kind of thing. Facebook promised to open their chat/IM system via XMPP. More than a year has passed since they announced this XMPP system it still did not happen. We still have to rely on screen-scraping methods to implement Facebook chat on third-party IM systems (like the 3rd party Facebook chat plugin for pidgin called pidgin-facebook). - Gideon Guillen

I would love to see friendfeed become opensource. Mostly as a developer I would love to see the code. See how friendfeed works. - mikemcmullan

An "open FriendFeed" could be Facebook's chance to get something lined up to compete with Google Wave. Without it, Google and Twitter are going to own the real-time communication space. - Derek Gathright

Completly agree! - Jamie-Lee Mclean-Davis from Nambu

Open source is the way to so that "The poeple" can do what they want or to a program. E.I. www.Openssourcemaps.com - D Lets from iPhone

Absolutely. - Ian Littman

OS FF would be awesome, but making it a federated service is an entirely different ball of wax. Just ask the Wave guys. They said during the original IO presentation that federation was one of the harder parts (though FF would be easier w/o the real time editing piece, but still). - Patrick Sullivan

OS FF - Malcolm Bastien

I think a integrated RSS/FB/FF/GW/Twitter client will be an interesting real time inflection point - Jim Posner

I totally agree Leo. I can't help but think that this deal is going to be a massive success or a massive flop - nothing in the middle! It's simple things like opening the FF source that can help make it a massive success IMHO. - Chris Cathcart

correction: Http://www.openstreetmap.org - D Lets from iPhone

I would just like to see the real-time commenting open-sourced. - patrick

wow Leo you sure know how to get a topic started - Joe Geeting

I would. It is hard using Friendfeed now not knowing its fate. - Hunt from BuddyFeed

I actually was hoping Twitter would be the one to grab it up. Seems like a natural progression for Twitter to make. I just hope Facebook doesn't bury it and they actually use it. As far as open source it? Could be interesting. - Michael Bower

In a secure and closed environment it could be a powerful communication/collaboration tool for businesses. Features of a chat, but persistent. Ability to share photos & files... - Ken Bauer

definently - Ryan Peach

Right-o - Myrddin Emrys

I would love for this to happen. Federated Friendfeed servers would be quite fun and is the logical step for a great Internet service which aggregates disparate information from all over. - rob friedman

You know what, Jaiku was open sourced. And nobody uses it anymore. The fact that "it" (FB open sourcing FF) will happen or not is completely irrelevant. Because you will all be hopping on the next early adopter miracle train (read:service) anyway. So stop whining and move on. Federated this, federated that. identi.ca tried that. Again, no users. It's nice to talk the talk. Especially at times like this. You just gotta walk the darn walk afterwards. Which people usually forget to do. - Vlad Bobleanta

Whoa... you should enhance your calm. Communities are finicky things and sources like Microsoft that are poo-pooing Open Source IMHO is the real problem. Me thinks that a better source of education to dissipate the FUD floating in the global porcelain bowel instead of modern political tactics are are needed to solve real problems. - Myrddin Emrys

very good proposition, i'd pay - Brian Appleby

Leo, like this idea. - Kol Tregaskes

adoption of open standards such as OMB, which is used by laconica, would allow federation among servers - Mike Chelen

It will one hell of a start, I doubt it though... - Dobromir Hadzhiev

It would be a good thing, but not sure it it will ever happen - Thomas Lee

I support this as well. - Carlos Ayala

Now this is something I would fly out to support at the launch... - Johnny Worthington

Another reason why Leo kicks ass - Mo Kargas

If FriendFeed went open source identi.ca / lamonica would be dealt a serious blow. FriendFeed could become even more powerful if the people could tinker with the code and add many features that remain missing, or strengthen features that currently are weak. It will be interesting to se how FB utilizes their newest acquisition... - Randy Shapiro

FYI, there's already an open source alternative: http://www.fftogo.com/e... - Marcos Marado from fftogo

absolutley ;) - Kenneth Reitz

i would pay - cheapsuits

ive all ready got a amp for 5 bucks 4 twitter that was suspsose to help twitter run better guess what it dont - daveccorey

no definitely not. it would shift everything to Chinese government... Damn, millions would have their rest life in prisons. - xiawinter

http://kennethreitz.com/blog... - Kenneth Reitz

Bret Taylor

We now show twitpic thumbnails automatically if we see twitpic URLs in your message (thanks to Ben)

February 4 - Comment - Like - Share

Martin Ringehahn, timepilot, jswi_jim and 116 other people liked this

Ben does all the work! :-) - Louis Gray

17 more comments

Cool! - Kol Tregaskes

Awesome! Thanks guys! - Holger Eilhard

Good one. - Moses Kpetigo

Nice :) - videopixil

Awesome :) - Joe Dawson

Bret and Ben rawk!! - mandyvan

very cool - Dobromir Hadzhiev

yes! - Alex Gawley

yes, very cool. - Nigel Kitchen

Thanks! - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

cool. thank you! - Alfredo

It is the little things that make the experience better. - Matt Hixson

YEAH!! I love Ben's code! w00t! that is a COOL feature! - Susan Beebe

A humble testimonial from someone who knows Ben's code, and worked with him on something: Ben Rawks :) - directeur

Oooh! I can't wait to get my camera phone, I'll be able to use this! - Haggis (Sean Loyless)

Why express compatibility in terms of products. There's a consensus on how to do thumbnails, why not just support the consensus? Here's the result of the investigation I did back in January. http://www.scripting.com/stories... and an example page. http://discuss.flickrfan.org/2009... Seems to me if I link to that page in FF, you should show the thumb. Why not?? - Dave Winer

I went ahead and tested it and as before it does not recognize the thumb. http://friendfeed.com/e... The reason you should do this is that you encourage entrepreneurship on FF as a platform. If I can deliver a beautiful feature for your product without you having to do *anything* that gives us a chance to become big through FF. If you only work with people who are already big, you make sure innovation happens elsewhere first - Dave Winer

Dave, the bookmarklet will automatically pick up those thumbs (and you can remove them by clicking on them). Automatically pulling them in anytime a link is shared is an interesting idea, but we have to be a little careful about user intention. In the case of twitpic, they obviously wanted to share the image, but if I just post a random link via twitter, it's not clear that I also want to share whatever image it is that the author of that page set as the thumbnail (which could be anything). - Paul Buchheit