What're you talking about? I've been on all night... ;) - Ted Roden

ironically, FFholic is down right now as well - Jesse Stay

I believe the economic issues out there are impacting people and making them focus more closely on things that deliver clear revenue benefits. That coupled with more growth at Twitter or Facebook has some considering how they are assigning their time. - Louis Gray

You also have to define heavy hitters. Mona is still in the top 10 in terms of activity. Tina (SB) isn't on there right now, but she's been knee deep in the weeds of late. And I think that Tyson Keys got burnt out on liking too much. - Scoble, Alex Scoble

I would never consider myself a big-hitter here, but I am normally active enough. However, since the beginning of this year I have been working far too many hours and my FF participation has suffered. - Rob Diana

Who are these "big hitters" in your mind? - Meryn Stol

Is there a meta page that shows the most active users? - dpurrington

@Dave http://www.ffholic.com/Users... - Manuela

I agree, seeing less activity from heavy-hitters, or as I lovingly call them 'spammers/attention whores'. Also noting that at the time of writing this, Tyson Key hasn't 'liked' it yet. - Will Higgins™

@manuela Sweet, thanks. - dpurrington

Just a time thing for me .... Miss being here! - Charlie Anzman

I don't know if I'm one of these "big-hitters" been personally I've eased off as I'm redoing my sites and doing lots of testing for a re-launch. Plus my pay-job had been busy and looking for a new job has taken up my time. FriendFeed is not boring to me, it's as good now as it's ever been for me. Just time, other priorities, oh and the better weather means more walks with the dog. :-) - Kol Tregaskes

Mohomed, last time I looked the suggested users upon sign-up are the most *popular* user not necessarily the most *active*. - Kol Tregaskes

I disagree about FF being boring, FF is what you make of it yourself. If it's boring, do something about it. Sub to people who are not "boring", join rooms of interest, make friends lists of people with interesting content and generally join in with commenting. Hide stuff you don't like, share stuff you do like. - Kol Tregaskes

@postlinearity: people who get bored here have no one to blame but themselves. - .LAG liked that

For what it's worth, I only discovered this post after seeing one of the comments (from Kol, I think) mentioned in a BackType e-mail just now. - Tyson Key

I think lack of time, and having other things to think about is part of it. Not so long ago, I was one of the most active users according to FFHolic (either 1st or 2nd place), and now I'm back in the hundreds. I haven't spent as much time online recently as I usually do, for what it's worth. - Tyson Key

I don't think I've been any less active than normal. - Derrick

I've been busier lately doing other things, so I haven't been as active on here as I have been in past months. - Mathew™ aka Youngblood

Hmm, I haven't been that active on Twitter lately, either... - Tyson Key

Also, too many services? If you are using/maintain too many services then the simple answer is to cut down. Yeah there's lots of good services out there but just be super-selective. I try to keep to my core-services but continue to try all the new ones. I've added feedly to my services but it uses my GReader feeds so is adding nothing extra to be load. I also try to tidy up and streamline what ones I already use from time to time. - Kol Tregaskes

Interesting comments here, especially re: busyness. Services need to be part of our daily flow - this is an ongoing challenge for Enterprise 2.0 as well. Investing a lot of time here with discussions and likes takes away from time elsewhere. I'm still of a mind that FriendFeed is more uber info mgt service (tracking is the activity), than social network (interaction is the activity). But I may be unique in that perspective. - Hutch Carpenter

Hell, most of the services in my feed I don't use very often. I typically either used them a lot at one time, or just tried them out for a while, although I import them into FriendFeed so that others can still sift through content from them if they wish, in the hope that they find something interesting or useful. - Tyson Key

Some additional perspective from Business Week: Time Management in the Age of Social Media http://www.businessweek.com/managin... - Hutch Carpenter

I think we're all just guessing blindly until Jesse enumerates or describes who he defines as "big-hitters," but interesting article Hutch; I don't know where I'd fit into given those three categories. - Mark Trapp

We were all partying too much at SXSW. :-) - Robert Scoble

Jesse, I wonder if it's not relative to the surge in Twitter of late? - Duncan Riley

Duncan, I think it has a lot to do with what both you and Robert are saying - a perfect storm of Facebook launching feeds, Twitter surging, and half the blogosphere trying to catch up from SXSW and other conferences. A lot of people are worried about jobs, and focusing on more important things as well - I think we're all being forced to focus on where our priorities are, which means less use on sites like FriendFeed. - Jesse Stay

I haven't noticed much difference. - Rodfather

It would be intriguing to track these flagging dips and spikes - I sense it too. These "networks of us" are the product of such disparate personal behaviors, so it's that much more fascinating when they trend together and break like waves on some common beach. - Thom Kennon

I'm fairly new to FF, and I'm still getting the hang of it, mostly using it as a "ubiquity engine" rather than a feed aggregator. - Alan Chamberlain from twhirl

And apparently still getting used to the Twirl client, as well. :-)) Anyway, I do see a bit of net fatigue, but I see distinct uses for each of the services. FB is people I actually know IRL, and that feed is slower, and more intimate. Twitter is lots and lots of people I know *of*, and that stream is fast, fragmented, and frequently irrelevant, although I still get a lot of useful content links from it. LinkedIn is mostly people I used to know and want to stay in touch with, but don't really need to get the play-by-play. Seesmic is something I'm still trying to find a use for. :-) I think there's a valid community to be a part of there, just haven't found anything I feel is all that compelling to video about... - Alan Chamberlain from twhirl

I simply don't have the time in the day I did in the past. I manage to check in from time to time, but my activity on FF has drastically dropped. Hopefully in my situation it's for the interim and not the long run. Starting a new job has a lot do with it as well. - Mike Fruchter

Mike - your comment is exactly where I'm coming from. People with company jobs will find it difficult to engage at the levels needed to be big hitters, or even moderate hitters. Tracking people and RSS feeds related to one's job or interests puts FriendFeed much more in the flow of daily activities. It does narrow your sphere of interactions though. - Hutch Carpenter

Hutch, you nailed it. At my previous job I was paid to play on the internet all day. I guess I was a big-hitter in the beginning on FF, but all that changed with my new job. FF now has become like Twitter, I check in on it from time to time and interact when time allows it. The toll it has taken is less time for interactions and blogging, which is the down side. I wish I could get paid to blog and play on FF all day, but reality is a whole different ball game. - Mike Fruchter

I'm blaming work. - Steven Perez from fftogo

People tell me slow down, and I don't tweet as much because no one ever replies to me. No matter how many tweets I post in a day. There might be times where I go two or three or even a week without a reply. Same goes with FriendFeed I guess... - Patrick from twhirl

@mark you too? - dpurrington from BuddyFeed

There is a disturbance in the force. - Pete D

Like a lot of folks here I've been busy with work. Took on more responsibility at one and have been working hard for a couple of clients who are at the tipping point. You just can't turn down work, you have to knock it out of the part and thus ... I'm on here a bit less. That said, I still learn a lot here so I *make* some time. - AJ Kohn

FF is a great tool if you're in a job related to social media, the Web, or the Internet business in general. I think @Hutch, @MikeFruchter are spot-on. Plus, any who's been around knows that online communities rise and fall, and then the next new, hot thing comes along. Don't fall in love with services, they're just utilities, tools. - .LAG liked that

Busy with trying to turn Taskerrific into something that's potentially viable. That includes a lot of time dedicated to coding, as opposed to playing around on here, unfortunately. - Chris Charabaruk

What's funny is I'm getting more visits from friendfeed than I've ever gotten before. So, maybe we're commenting and engaging less (or, are doing so over many more posts). - Robert Scoble

Robert - I've run the tests over 9 platforms. Where you engage and spend time the most ...is where you'll get the return from (If that's what you're looking for). While it's no secret that I LOVE Friendfeed, there needs to be a simpler, maybe alternate format for those with less time. Almost anyone can start a mini-viral here but it does take a significant investment of time, regardless of whether you've been here since the beginning or not. - Charlie Anzman

For me there has been a "perfect storm" that has caused my activity to drop. I re-designed 2 personal sites over the last 2 months. I was out of town for a few days. Work piled up a bit but I am also much busier than usual lately so casual time has decreased. I've been somewhat allured to play more with the recent Facebook release. Lastly I've been trying to consciously focus more and strike a better balance to create more content instead of consuming it. - Mark Krynsky

@Charlie: I've found the new FF Notifier useful for keeping up with FF without being on FF constantly... may be worth a look for you. - .LAG liked that

Jesse, FB could be part of it. Certainly every week I'm seeing more and more there. I know the new look is hated,but it seems to have encouraged for FF like participation - Duncan Riley

I went through a heavy Twitter phase and now I've come back around to really using FriendFeed again as one of my major social media hubs. I actually think the FF redesign of several months took me some time to get used to, not sure if that was a factor for anyone else. - Eric Berlin

Breakfast is for WINNERS! Damnit! - Thomas Hawk

Thomas LOL :) - Susan Beebe