jeremy franklin

Oh how I understand that - Glen Campbell

Brandon: that has an even better keyboard. I think I'll stay with Nokia devices that have regular phone keyboards that are hard to text into. - Robert Scoble

We've become a society of people who walk the earth incessantly looking down at the river of noise flowing through our mobile geekery. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Productivity is overrated, Robert. - Pete Delucchi

I don't do the smart phone thing for the reason you mentioned Robert, but FriendFeed really destroyed my ability to focus on anything for more than 30 seconds. I've been ignoring FriendFeed for larger and larger chunks of time and find myself not missing it at all after about a week. - Mark Trapp

Hold on one sec while I twitter this.... - Glen Campbell

Mark: I can see myself joining you. - Robert Scoble

Mark - I too have been taking longer and longer breaks from my dips into the river of noise here. Things seem to be evolving. Can't quite put my finger on it though. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Brian - Had to rework my lists a couple of times but readily admit I spend a too much time here. On the other hand, a lot of it has been productive in a lot of ways. - Charlie Anzman

Agree. I left FF for about two weeks, and when I returned, something felt different. I spend a lot of time here but, as Mark said, I find myself not missing it as earlier. - Mladen Srdić

I understand. not sure if that's good or bad. lol - Erin Kotecki Vest

Totally agree Mladen. 6 months ago, it was like crack for me. Not so much anymore. Still a BIG fan, but not missing it as much these days. Interesting. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Mladen and Brian and Mark: is it because there's less and less tech news in between cute videos and pictures and funny news stories? - Robert Scoble

I'm starting to lose interest in FriendFeed now that the general public has found it. Much like Facebook its no longer interesting. - Christopher Welle

"with Nokia devices that have regular phone keyboards that are hard to text into" -- thanks Robert, I will inform my colleagues that ITU keyboard has this kind of reputation :) - silpol

Christopher - I get concerned when I hear comments like that. It takes 'a little' time but the controls are here to see and respond to what you like. Just create your own channels. Still one of the best networking and discovery games in town. - Charlie Anzman

Christopher: I've noticed this behavior about early adopters. It happens in every online community I've been a part of since the mid 1980s (yes, that's how long I've been doing online community stuff). I thought FriendFeed would be different because you could join rooms that have smaller groups of people in them and also make a list of only your closest friends and avoid the noise. Why aren't these working for you? - Robert Scoble

Robert, maybe: I still make sure to go through Google reader just as regularly as I always have, and I feel informed. With FriendFeed, I'm reading things I already read in reader or saw on TV. The only things it keeps me informed on is specific people, and those updates, for most people, are few and far between. You said Google reader makes you smarter: I think that's the same thing. With GReader, I can spend an hour or less, get informed about the topics that interest me, and actually have an end point. - Mark Trapp

Not really sure Robert. I've got about 15 lists that are pretty well tuned so I get reasonably filtered buckets of noise. UPDATE: I also agree with Mark that an effectively tuned GReader is a highly effective firehose. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

It isn't the devices we use, it is us. That said, I would rather have the functionality and the negative side effects than another thing take its place and not have the functionality. - David A. Levine

I'm absorbing so much information from the interactions and activities of others on FriendFeed that I view any loss to productivity today to fall into the category of "pay it forward". - JodyC

David: I don't agree with that. An iPhone is akin to living above a bar for an alcoholic. Nokia's web browsers are a LOT harder to use so I don't even attempt to use them, most of the time, where when I have an iPhone in my hands it's hard to get me to do anything else. - Robert Scoble

I don't mean to be rude, but shouldn't we exhibit self control at some point. I love the tech news, discussions, and Twitter, but I can focus on other things when needed. - jeremy franklin

I haven't really used FF and don't miss it. Twitter -- now there's another story. I got an iPhone so that I could Twitter any time/place/thing (to be fair, my PDA died 2 weeks before and I missed an important meeting as a result). I paid for Twittelator instead of using the free apps. On my desktop I have TweetDeck with one Twitter identity and Twhirl (LOVE them both) with the other. Twitter is my number 1 news source and I am finding out a lot more about my world because of the tweeters I follow. - A.J.

Agree with Mark again. My main news sources are Google reader and rss crunchers, like Feedheads and Feedly (i don't use it anymore, but I'll give it another shot). I once started a thread for sharing via Google reader and got a fine response of about 20 people. Interesting way to get some interesting content, beside tech news. - Mladen Srdić

These things are not bad, we are using things in a bad way. - YAAK

I think the need to know new information before others is an addictive thing now a days. To be able to talk to others about a subject that is new is impressive. With technology, information is coming in faster and faster. We also add to this tsunami of information with our own lil nuggets. Also being able to be on the "in" faster allows you to make decisions in business and personal life before others which is beneficial at times. Just look at stock traders and how they deal with new information. - Christopher Welle

There's some stupid stuff on FF that I could do with out, and then there's the issue that some people rather post tech stuff to rooms rather then their main feed. - Colide81 (James)

It's all about self discipline. Switch it off when it's too distracting. If needed turn off wifi. - Peter van Teeseling via twhirl

@pvantees the problem is that addiction overrides discipline. - ·[▪_▪]·

My girlfriend pointed out that I wasn't able to watch a movie or tv show with her without thumbing through posts on Google Reader for the iPhone at the same time. I had to lose that habit, lest I succumb to a meta-relationship to go along with all my meta-interactions online. - Shay Frendt

I'm having a hard time making the transition from an iPhone to a Blackberry Curve-- AT&T to Sprint [even though it'll save me $60/month.] I keep asking myself "How will I access FriendFeed on the go?" "How will I manage all of media on the go?" It's sad. - Brandon McCall

Sounds like a new group of 'recognized disorders' for the Psych community ... luckily, there's now help thanks to passed legislation (that was attached to the bailout bill??!!) http://newsblogs.chicagotribun... - Charlie Anzman

I got my FF addiction under control but I think I've lost my grip again. I have to get it together again. It's causing a general lack of ability to concentrate, I just want to check for something new all the time. - xero

I've started microblogging more when I bought iPhone 3G. If thats more productive or not I don't know, but its fun. I love my iPhone! - Svartling

There is just the need to know how to control yourself... if you know how to control yourself there will be no addiction... - Edoardo Piccolotto

But isn't the new generation of mobile devices, micro sharing services and tools opening up a whole new form of organic communications enablement that has the potential to change everything. What if the mobile device is our communications hub/router/data store, freeing us from our desks & enabling a wider group of people to engage like never before -- Cheers, Christopher :) - Christopher

Brien - Watching the river is a pleasure. Productivity is another kind of activity. Do pleasure and productivity mix? Fun and work? - Jimmy Walker

Being connected is a *good* thing. However, it takes discipline. If you can't control when you use it and when you don't, it's probably best not to have an iPhone. I hope I can teach my kids this - it's a valuable skill. - Jesse Stay

I don't surf the net that much on my BB Curve since I have my laptop in front of me most of the day. If I was mobile like you are, then I'd definitely be using my phone to access http://FFtogo.com a bunch! You're in a tough situation...I'd probably cave in and buy a replacement within 3 days! ha, ha! I was highly temped to buy the iPhone just because of your love for it, as well as numerous other buddies of mine who swear by it. However, I am a cautious buyer of new technology, and opted to go with BB - Susan Beebe

Interesting thread. - Mathew A. Koeneker

Very good advice, Thomas. A comment on no. 6 ("Groups"): I remember Flickr staff mentioning that not only photos that are in too many groups (more than 10-15, as a rule of thumb) get penalties for their Explore rating. Allegedly, this is also true for photos that are in the *wrong* groups, specifically the ubiquitous "post 1, comment x" groups. So not all photo critique groups might be good when you want to get your pictures into Explore. - Ole Begemann

Ole, I hadn't heard that certain groups penalized photos but have seen Flickr staff in the past mention that posting your photo to too many groups will reduce it's visibility with their algorithm. - Thomas Hawk

Re: no. 5 ("Explore"): more criteria that seem to influence whether a photo makes it to Explore: the presence of EXIF data, geotags, title, description has a positive influence; faves and comments from people who are not among your contacts seem to count more than from contacts; faves and comments from popular photographers count more than those from nobodys; a photo that gets 2 or 3 faves within minutes after uploading is more likely to make Explore than one that gets faved 15 times within 24 hours. - Ole Begemann

Thomas, I'll try to find a reference for this. - Ole Begemann

Good point on EXIF data Ole, yes, photos in Explore are required to have EXIF data. My own guess as to why this is is that if a photo has EXIF data it is more likely to be your own photo vs. something you simply ripped from the web. Not foolproof of course but I'd guess that this policy is in part due to a desire to increase the authenticity of the photos promoted on Explore. - Thomas Hawk

If you look at the photos in Explore, the only "Leave a comment" groups that I see with any regularity are TWTME and 1-2-3 groups... what makes them special I'm not sure, other than they're amongst the largest groups in general. But you see very few of those award groups or "leave x comments" groups in the photos in Explore, so I suspect that Flickr must be penalizing them. - Eric

Thomas, that's a great refresher on the original article. Some great tips. - Tom Quinn

And Thomas, throwing reciprocation in as a "bonus"? It should have been #1 or #2. The vast, vast, vast majority of comments and faves that I receive are from people whose stream I previously visited. The only real exception to that is when a photo is high in Explore, which results in a torrent of views/comments/faves from strangers. - Eric

Yep Eric. Reciprocation is very high. Bonus tip might not be the best place for it. It's very important. Faving back when people fave your work, commenting back. Adding people back as mutual contacts, etc. All encourage activity on your photostream. - Thomas Hawk

Eric, participation groups don't penalize your photo from Explore best I can tell. This photo http://www.flickr.com/photos/n... from a few weeks ago was in the Deleteme Uncensored critique group and was #3 on Explore as well. - Thomas Hawk

In fact just searching flickr for the save10 tag from the DMU critique group along with "explore" brings up a number of photos: http://www.flickr.com/search/?... - Thomas Hawk

Good post, *IF* getting attention is important to you, as opposed to using it as a vehicle to just share photos with people - Eric Rice

After I read your original article on Flickr popularity a while back, I began reciprocating every comment received. That worked very well. - Tom Harrison

Eric, true. Some people have no interest in their photos receiving attention. I do think that the majority of people posting on Flickr though do appreciate when their photos receive some attention. Lots of people do not though. I have friends that only publish private photos that their friends can see and opt out of every public aspect of Flickr. I think these people though are the exception rather than the norm and think that Caterina's quote is pretty typical of the most active users on the site. - Thomas Hawk

Thanks for digging my article Aaron! :) http://digg.com/arts_culture/T... - Thomas Hawk

Alright, I found something. Flickr staff member acknowledged almost 2 years ago that "groups that force people to comment/fave on certain photos with no choice" do in fact hurt your Explore chances. Also, "weight of comments and favorites from contacts is quite low in interestingness calculation." (http://www.flickr.com/groups/i...). A very old post and the algorithm has changed since then but we can probably say that the gist of it is still true. - Ole Begemann

interesting Ole. I hadn't seen that. I think it would be difficult for Flickr to manually track every group that encourages tags and comments as participation. Per the links above though, photos in DMU have definitely made it into Explore anyways. - Thomas Hawk

Yeah, I have no idea how they maintain a list of the "bad" groups. Further below, SilentObserver mentions his business is writing algorithms to filter them out automatically, though. - Ole Begemann

Here's another good summary of nearly everything the community knows about the Explore algorithm: http://www.flickr.com/groups/6... - Ole Begemann

Here is an example of tagging. I did not know this woman was a celebrity until after got this shot. It appears on the first page of the image search engines and it has received over 12,000 views. http://flickr.com/photos/50938... - Russellreno

So far I got 3 (!) photos into explore. Their common factor? They all were faved by you (TH) soon after I posted theim. - Guillaume Lemoine

Flickr used to say "who" faves your shots was a part of the Explore algorithm. It wouldn't surprise me if the algorithm weights faves by different people from the Flickr community differently. For instance, Pro accounts where people actually have paid for the service might be weighted higher than non-Pro accounts. More active users might carry more weight with their faves then less active users. Just speculating on this part. - Thomas Hawk

Thomas - I don't think that participation in all groups gets a penalty, just that there are some groups that are penalized as far as Explore is concerned. I simply don't see Explore photos in "Post 1, Comment X" groups - so either there's no explore-worthy photos in those groups (not likely IMHO), or Flickr is penalizing the photos in those groups. - Eric

such a great post Thomas, thanks for writing it - Dobromir Hadzhiev

As a note to certain groups penalizing your photos...I had a photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/j...) that went to explore spot 150 or so. After, I added it to a few groups to see if I could bump it higher. It had the opposite affect and immediately dropped off. I can't say which group exactly did it or if it was the number of groups I submitted to, but adding to groups definitely does come with some sort of penalty. - Justin Korn

If you use FeedBurner, you can splice your Flickr photos into your blog feed. I have it splice my last two photos and I find those have at least 5x the number of views as the ones that aren't in my spliced feed. - Mike Cohen

I'll pass. In my opinion, Lucas has already drained the life out of the Star Wars franchise. I say, "Move along, nothing to see here." - Anthony K. Valley ©

zactly. George, please, find another franchise to mess with. - felix

Actually, looking forward to it. (will duck now, avoid the backlash) - Nice Fish Films

NFF - hah! You're kicked out the cool kidz club. Requirement #1, hatin' on Lucas. :) - felix

Heh... Creator, writer, producer, director... but he can't mess with the franchise, no.... Perspective, please! - Michael W. May

Michael - he could mess with it if every time he's touched it after the 3rd one (arguably even w/in the 3) he didn't make them worse. Sometimes retroactively worse! - felix

When will it end?! - JMShoes

Because getting the original versions is such a difficult task? :P - Michael W. May

ugh - Mona N.

I'd rather have a steampunk star wars remake :) - Eric Rice

Nooooooooo........ - Bren

It would be a neat trick to render 2D acting into 3D - Dave Pelland

you know it's because lucas hates humans, right? - Faboo Mama

Steampunk Star Wars would renew my faith in that franchise...Though I do think that "The Force Unleashed" will do a good job of drawing me back in :P - Sean Dunn

As a Star Wars Fan Boy... Wahoo! As a movie go-er and lover of film I say thank you Mr Lucas. This way of producing this 3D effect is a new technology and has only just begun to be applied to a few films. If any person can showcase this new technology it's Lucas, and if any film can showcase the spectical and potential it holds it's the Star Wars films. And Lucas has a track record of bringing these new techs to wider use. THX, ILM, 100% Digital Film, Pixar, Avid Film and Video and Digidesign Pro Tools... - John Worthington

Is this Lucas' way of acting out or a cry for help? I mean, Episode 1,2 & 3 were bad enough, now 3D? Intervention George, you need it. - AJ Kohn

sorry felix, i have to hide this. BLASPHEMOUS on allll sortsa levels! - Mona N.