Friendfeed’s Paul Buchheit has just confirmed to me that the next ‘big’ new feature coming to Friendfeed, will be the last. This comes a day after Buchheit issued a confusing statement about the future of the platform he co-founded. Here’s what Buchheit just told me, in full: - Jim Connolly from Bookmarklet

I believe a steady revenue stream could change everything Jim: http://bit.ly/3Qer81 - Mark Essel

Mark: Not sure how it would change things for Paul and the guys - they just sold out to Facebook and have more money than they will ever need. (and they deserve every fricking penny BTW!!!) - Jim Connolly

Well they sold for 50million, of that the various investors probably got 60-70%, with founders and early employees splitting the remaining 15-20million. Probably no more than a few million each (yeah nothing to spit at), but if they cashed out taxes would cut that in half, I think they still have to keep working. I think they sold too cheap, with 1 million users some focused and tasteful ads would have gotten far more revenue. - Mark Essel

whew, got ya refollowed (went through and cleared out my following list on twitter now that I may have to use it again ;). staring from scratch) - Mark Essel

A sign of how quiet things are now on Friendfeed? I've had 5 (FIVE) click-throughs from friendfeed to my blog after posting this here. 3 months ago it would have been massively more. Really sad watching it die slowly like this. - Jim Connolly

Is that really a sign that it is dying or a sign that people are tired of reading the "death of friendfeed" posts? - Alan Simpson

+1 Alan - Eric Logan

Alan: Not sure - but when a post has twice as many 'likes' as clicks it means something. That same post's been read over 400 times so far - so there's some interest out there. - Jim Connolly

Mark: not true. Advertising for a million users wouldn't bring in that much on a forum-based site. Average CPM is about $3 per 1,000 page views. That wouldn't make anyone rich. The way Paul will become really rich is to help make Facebook a public company (they are well on their way). That means pouring all his skills into making Facebook a better service for its 300 million users (and growing). - Robert Scoble

Alan: And there's no longer a debate - the co-founder confirmed no new development. - Jim Connolly

Thats sad... - Roshan Ramachandran

It's also worth pointing out how much respect I now have for Paul, for being good enough to let us know the future plans - well, lack of future plans. That took balls and he deserves some credit. - Jim Connolly

bummer - Jeff (the メガマクダジ of FF)

Feedback please: Do I delete my account now the platform's no longer being developed? - Jim Connolly

Why would you delete it ? A lot of things have always just been fed through here without active participation. - Eric Logan

So Jim, this is why you were pestering him so much in the thread? So that you could get a catchy headline for your blog? He said - "Jim, there may be a few new things, but as I said, the team is mainly working on fb platform and openness, so it's unlikely that there will be any big new features of ff (except maybe one that I've been thinking about for a while...). I don't see that as a confirmation that there are no more features coming to FF. You obviously are looking for an excuse to leave here, so why don't you just go? And no, don't delete your account. Deleting accounts totally wrecks all of the content here for those who decide to stay. - Kenton

When platforms cease being invested in, as you know, they slowly grind to a halt. Is it better to invest the time I spend here on a platform that's growing - rather than shrinking? - Jim Connolly

Kenton: I don't need a catchy headline for a blog, thats only updated a couple of times a week and run as a pastime. The feedback you gave about deleting accounts screwing up comments makes sense. When the co-founder says that "it's unlikely that there will be any big new features of ff" I believe him. - Jim Connolly

I guess it depends on why you're investing your time. If it is in the community, then I don't see why you can't still contribute. If you're using it for increasing your personal brand, business, blog traffic, etc then you are probably right to invest your time on sites that see more traffic and growth. - Kenton

If engagement continues to go down everyone will eventually migrate. I am sure there are a few groups talking to each other and the bots on Friendster. I do not see any reason why you would not continue to pipe in your content. I haven't found or been introduced to anything better at present. I do see some potential for Wave with proper development despite its complexity. - Eric Logan

Kenton is right, you're title is wrong, fact. He did not say NO new features. - Keith Bennett

There's really nothing cool about all this cryptic communication Paul is giving us. All it's doing is riling us up and causing us to be unnecessarily speculative. We made this site be worth 50m, so we therefore don't deserve to be strung along like this. - Brad Williamson

Keith: Did you interpret "it's unlikely that there will be any big new features of ff" as meaning there WILL be more big new features? - Jim Connolly

"Thank you" - Seems the route is to keep the account alive, rather then mess up content for other users by deleting it. Appreciate the heads-up. - Jim Connolly

Six clicks now, fwiw. - MaryB, BrandingBroadOfFF

Gotta go. Just subscribed to everyone who's commented here - so you can DM me. Really appreciate the feedback. - Jim Connolly

Jim: No I didn't, but I also didn't post an article saying there will be NONE! Fact is, we don't know what they are up to, what they plan to do and that's what causes the speculation. You're adding fuel to the fire and I think you should change the title, that's all. Personally, I'm in the wait and see what happens camp. I'm happy with the service as is and I'm sure what emerges from the FB integration will be interesting, but until I know what that is, I'm happy to continue with what I have. - Keith Bennett

y'all are beating a dead horse here. of course it's gonna die. Of course people are jumping off the ship. look at any number of other tech acquisitions and what became of them. It's not really that complicated. - Bill Kinney

ICQ still exists...Winamp still exists...AOL still exists (but why?) - Alex Scoble

Robert: $3 per 1000 views is pretty bad. I think I can do better through use of learning about what folks like in their streams. Heck I can't believe search activated ads are that weak. Well in a few more years that may be profitable (bandwidth/servers/etc are all getting cheaper, while our attention is staying even in value). - Mark Essel

Another FriendFeed self prophecy post. Cast doubt about its future so users begin leaving, then it will HAVE to close because of lack of users! You should be doing the opposite and encouraging folks to join...its users that keep a service afloat.. - technogran