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J.J. Toothman › Likes
Trying to modernize what my grandmother always told me... "being the master of many trades, willing jackass of many more" :)
J.J. Toothman and Karen Jackie liked this
I have conflicting feelings about this "ghost twittering" trend. Share your thoughts here. (Update: my thoughts are here now http://www.readwriteweb.com/archive...)
Charlie Anzman, Парадокс Смейла, santiromero and 42 other people liked this
For background info, read the NYT article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009...
- Sarah Perez
According to Shaq: "It’s 140 characters. It’s so few characters. If you need a ghostwriter for that, I feel sorry for you.”
- Sarah Perez
Britney's team does this transparently though by signing tweets.
- Sarah Perez
Seems inevitable for those using it for business purposes. It explains how "he's" able post as much as he does. And why I stopped following him.
- You.
As long as someone is completely transparent about it, I'm fine with it. It does have the effect that the account turns into something like a "corporate" account instead of a personal account. You're following "Guy Kawasaki, Inc.". Not all singers who call themselves singer/songwriter write all their songs themselves either. But transparency is important if you diverge from what people expect (e.g. all tweets by you).
- Meryn Stol
BUt in this example, there is something different. Guy's team posts when he is in a flight or in a conference. He posts AND edits his tweets mostly. And if you have a comment from him, you can be sure that he is actually him. The other samples like some politicians and musicians (mostly fans) are really annoying for me. Its so commercial, Pity that they can not make it in a personel wise way.
- Olcayto Cengiz
US Presidents don't write their own speeches either.
- Meryn Stol
But at least the presidents deliver them. And some of them do at least part of the writing.
- Rebecca
True... I'm was just looking for metaphors. If you know anything better, please tell me. What about "thank you" letters celebrities write to their fans in response to a letter of theirs?
- Meryn Stol
At least it provides some job opportunities. I agree about the transparency.
- Rebecca
It's like calling Miss Cleo to know if your spouse is cheating on you, only to get one of her assistants.
- You.
LOL, Dave.
- Rebecca
Personally I don't like the whole celebrity culture, not on television, not on Twitter. So I don't subscribe to celebrities either. Except for Tim O'Reilly, but that guy is interesting aside from his celebrity.
- Meryn Stol
CALL ME NOW!!!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Now when I think of those ads, I can only conjure up Dave Chappelle. I miss that show.
- You.
I put my thoughts here. http://www.gilyehuda.com/2009... I understand that ghosting happens, but then it's broadcasting. And that's only part of the conversation. It's not the authentic conversation that we really want to have.
- Gil Yehuda
totally agree - twitter's growth would not have been possible if it weren't for the 'real-ness' of be it an individual or a brand.
- claire Chang
I am the only one that posts on my accounts.
- Robert Scoble
meh. part of the commercialization and mainstreaming. it makes me pout
- Erin @queenofspain
If you expect some deep, personal connection with somebody by listening to their Twitter account, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed. If you don't know someone well enough to know whether you're listening to them or a brand/persona, you should probably assume the later.
- Ken Sheppardson
I put the "ghosts" (the ones that aren't transparent) in the same category as the accounts that only post press releases. They're not "real" people, so I'm not really interested in following them.
- Jennifer Dittrich
the ghost is here my dear,he drinking all the beer,
- john ,
+1 Jennifer. There's room on twitter for newsfeeds and ghost writers, I just don't want to read them. That reminds me - I need to go turn off my twitterfeed.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
Ghost twittering is lame.
- Dawn
but if you notice, Guy's response is pretty open.. he tells us that two other peeps point to links. (link farming), but all the conversation still comes from his side !! I dont see anything wrong with that !!
- Peter Dawson
@Peter - no one's looking to throw Guy in jail over this, we're just unfollowing. He also uses twitterhawk or something to ad spam people who tweet keywords that Alltop covers. Good for business, bad for the personal connection we'd like to imagine twitter gives us.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
I think ghost writers should be transparent, its cool that MC Hammer and Shaq actually twitter themselves, but Obama would get someone else to do it, its normal, it would be good if they introduct a behalf of, maybe as a pro feature. @john behalf of @britney.. it would be alot more transparent
- Mark Ellul
@Daniel, I agree...no man can tell another what they can or can't do :)- Having said , that I am hardly on twitter anymore. Been there ..seen that, had 'nuff spam :)-
- Peter Dawson
Kinda depends on the execution. If the ghost writers are representing themselves as the personality, it's deceptive and massively lame. It was obvious to me Guy was a team tweeter a long time ago. At least he's open about it. I noticed this morning he's begun to append the initials of whoever wrote the tweet. You'll be seeing a lot more of this practice soon, since the feature is supported by things like Co-tweet and HootSuite.
- Chris Baskind
"@john behalf of @britney" is too large a % of 140 chars, however. Too bad the annotations to the tweet aren't represented outside the message body!
- Richard ¿digame? Walker
@Reechard, Thats why I was thinking it would be a pro feature, and the annotations would be represented outside of the message body.
- Mark Ellul
Of course you can use twitter for publishing news on real time, as you can use chardonnay for making burgundy. It's election year in Chile, and the main candidates are using twitter. One of them started (noticiasfrei) using twitter just recently and you can clearly tell it's a ghost writter (It even speaks in third person). The other candidate (sebastianpinera) has even debated with followers.
- Marcelo Sanchez Gonzalez
Ghost writing is a perfectly acceptable practice among the stupid, lazy & incompetent.
- Rob Michael (Atmos Trio)
I did stop following Guy some time ago. I figured it is better to go and check his twitter page now and then so to check if there is anything interesting. I could not manage the amount of tweets coming from his account.
- Davide D'Incau
It's about authenticity and honesty. I think social media is about to get turned on its head because people are going to figure out that it's a group of folks behind the curtain. It's not really 'personal' for those that crank out volume. Transparency is key - no one wants to feel like they had the wool pulled over their eyes. For the record, I and I alone do all my Tweeting and FriendFeeding ;)
- AJ Kohn
So who's the James Brown of social media... Scoble? Gray? Brogan? Edit: Brogan has an assistant too, so maybe he's DQed.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
AJ: I do all my own tweets and turn out a lot of volume. Agree that the ghosts are lame. Oh, well, Twitter deserves all the ghosts. :-)
- Robert Scoble
waste of time, as is hit and run tweeting and the demise of the twitter conversation.
- Richard A.
@Robert: You are a paragon! And I don't say that tongue-in-cheek either. You *are* doing it right. Quantity *and* quality.
- AJ Kohn
ah don't like it. not one bit. no, sir.
- MikeAmundsen
i think it's kinda wack if you're not adding your own personal touch to things
- Cee Bee
I don't like it. I follow Guy because I am a fan and I have no interest in following him anymore if it's not going to be him. I want hs thoughts, not anybody else's. I would prefer he tweet less per day rather than have others tweet on his behalf just to keep up the tweet count. Lame.
- Kamath (नमः)
Is it too early for me to post a rant against the overuse of the phrase "the conversation" in re: social media? I appreciate the sentiment, but it's getting watered down to the point where it's hard to have any real reaction upon seeing it yet again.
- Daniel J. Pritchett
@Daniel: Oh man, conversations. The problem is (particularly on Twitter) that many people view conversations as marketing. Branding. Corporate or personal. The ghost Tweeting is a sign of people seeing Twitter as a (purely?) marketing channel. So you get this cognitive dissonance between people who think they're really friends with Guy and Guy, who's just using it as a marketing channel. When the former figures it out ... ouch.
- AJ Kohn
That's why the RT is so popular, because visibility rather than dialogue is important to most of them. Devalues the time conversationalists spend on the site.
- Richard A.
I just use RT instead of a FF like.
- Roberto Bonini
Ghost Tweetering is lame, its only 140 Characters.
- Nicholas James
It also reinforces cynicism when people are found out instead of being up front about from the start. On another note, I wonder if eventually the social media culture will bring down the celebrity culture, at least in its current form. I've long suspected that people embraced celebrities to such an extent because doing so gave them a sense of connection and identity in a manageable tribe with whom they could feel familiar instead of feeling adrift.
- Rebecca
Maybe these ghost writers should have to follow all their tweets with I'm so and so and I approve this message. LOL
- Russ Jackson
I stopped following people here (on Twitter as well before I just stopped going there) who are obviously just in broadcast/ghost/user mode. Usually it is pretty obvious (Guy Kawasaki has been in social media user mode for a while - and it has been obvious - he is a user not a participant). Arrington is similar -- just a user. I dislike people in RL that are users/takers -- and here too.
- Brian Sullivan
Oh boy -- I'm all over this http://twitterghost.com says DON'T DO IT.
- John McElhenney 2.0
Shoot, someone can pay me to "write" their twitters! Muh ha ha!
- Kelly W.
It runs completely counter to what Twitter is to have someone ELSE doing it. Twitter is about honesty and openness and transparency. These fake Twitterers aren't going to last long. I, for one, will unfollow such when I find out about them.
- Michelle
Ah come on, it's a free world and anyone can do with their twitter-account what they like. That doesn't mean that you have to listen to them though.
- Vincent van Wylick
Has/How/Why tech blogging has failed you - http://scobleizer.com/2008...
Yaroslav Nikolaev, Adam, Dimitar Vesselinov and 174 other people liked this
Long rant, sorry, had to clear the air so I can start blogging again. :-)
- Robert Scoble
Wow...I'm very interested and excited to see/hear/read what is to come from Scobleizer land next.
- Justin Korn
I hope I make your list and if not, please let me know why so I can potentially improve.
- Allen Stern
Glad to see that you are starting to realize, despite Techmeme that the world doesn't revolve around just the bay area.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Gotta say you're bang on the mark there. Tech blogging should be about the tech, not the biz.
- Luke Robinson
Allen: I like your blog. It's just that I love hanging out with all of you and talking geeky stuff a lot more than talking about this deal and that deal and all that.
- Robert Scoble
Harold: I've always realized that. I feel I got unfairly tagged with believing the world only was about the Bay Area. I guess I deserved that to some extent, but this area is quite dominant in the world of tech (including the tool you're typing on right now) so some of my boosterism is to be expected. Funny that the top Israeli company has offices here too.
- Robert Scoble
Kudos to you Mr. Scoble, what a very bright post you delivered today! Thank you for bringing some fresh perspective, that's always refreshing and welcome. I'm also happy you cite Lifehacker as an example. They focus on the smartest digital experience possible and help us improve ourselves. That's the biggest deal of all. Techbloggers should never forget it.
- c0wb0yz
I love the tech first and foremost but the business is important too, especially in respect to the sustainability of said tech.
- Jamie
Jamie: I agree. But the business needs to serve the customers and the customers/participants/users or whatever you want to call you and me aren't coming first in this industry anymore and that's worrying.
- Robert Scoble
Wow funny enough thats the way i have been feeling for a while now I am looking forward to seeing what is next from the Scobelizer...
- John Spencer
from twhirl
I agree overall - CN has only a small percentage of biz - most is trends, analysis, and reviews. I had an interesting discussion about this with someone last week - if i had a computer that could handle video, i'd make a quick video to explain - there's an important part you are missing
- Allen Stern
Next is to get some sleep. Gotta be up at 7:30 to be at Fortune Conference at 8 a.m. for breakfast. It's an incredible conference, hope to see some of you at the Tweetup at 5:45 p.m.
- Robert Scoble
Allen: will be watching in the morning for what I was missing. I'm sure I'm missing a lot. I had to stop ranting at some point, it was getting too long! :-)
- Robert Scoble
This is often relevant from major blogs/ celeb bloggers. The smaller and more personal blogs are still focusing just on tech ;) Perhaps you need to update your feeds :-)
- Dennis Bjørn Petersen
from twhirl
Dennis: I know. It's why I spend a lot more time here lately than on blogging. The smaller stuff shows up here a lot more regularly and I see a lot less "Yahoo business news."
- Robert Scoble
Excellent post Robert. It's why I don't read Techmeme as much as I used to. The life and joy in exploring, playing with and dissecting tech, the geeky exuberance in 'new stuff' has been lessened across almost all tech sites in general, leaving a bland veneer that is just business talk. Things a geek like me doesn't care about, as I'm not an investor.
- Mo Kargas
Techmeme has suffered because most of the tech blogs they follow have become nothing more then PR outlets like you said.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
As I posted in your comments, that's a really good post. It's great to see the old Scoble back - the one who I started reading back when your "latest thing" was Tablet PC! Welcome back, mate.
- Ian Betteridge
Robert, blogging is becoming commercialized, as it becomes popular. I do not see it as a problem. It just might mean that you and a bunch of other likely minded people have to move on to a greener, more fascinating and less populated pastures. Like friendfeed, etc. Luckily, there are lots of them around and tons in the pipeline. Enjoy!
- Павел Романовский
I don't know, Robert. On the one hand I agree 100%. And can I say that as editor of WebWorkerDaily I am the one who gets those 15 press releases a day and I *constantly* have the "is this useful?" filter on. I hope that's clear in our postings. Anyway...Your post is kind of like the person who is used to picking their own corn complaining about the supermarket because it's not the same garden. It's not. The grocer has to pay its bills, as does the paid tech blogger.
- Judi Sohn
I know I am a newie to all this but I have been reading blogs for a while. I've bee thinking up a response and I'll post later. Long comments on the iPhone make for one queasy bus ride.
- Derick Valadao
Finally. Thank you. I follow 357 feeds. Everyday. Granted I have many pop-sites (lifehacker, engadget, etc) on the list. But not one is of these "new breed" of tech bloggers out there. Even though I am in the industry, they do not speak to me. They are just another form of CNN to me. Linking to each other and regurgitating the same gibberish, no matter how relevant or important, it does not speak to me. Anyway, welcome back! This is very refreshing news to me. I will be following it with much interest. TY!
- Carlos Ayala
We should all just organize a "Tech Blog Strike", unsubscribing to those blogs that only push press releases. Let's see how they sweat when they see their subscriber count falling...
- Jorge Escobar
Obviously my previous comment was "tldr". I just wanted to say how great it is that a person in your position is able to repurpose his content to better fit the goal you are trying to reach with your content. It's a great direction to take in a time where most blogs are just trying to echo up to the top.
- Derick Valadao
Excellent post on the state of the blogging nation.
- Sheila Thomson
My only real problem with tech bloggins is how easily ideas take hold and spread to get page hits. This is very easily seen in the Vista hatred - there was never any objective reasonf or it... but it was so useful for traffic generation and looking cool that it was rampant.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
It's probably less about the business/tech divide, and more about me-too echo blogging
- Dave Pelland
I think so... tech bloggers are jsut as easily victims of peer pressure and memes as anyone. Once an Idea ("love google") defines someone as "getting it" then few will look at it objectively.
- Soulhuntre
from twhirl
This is a welcome breath of fresh air. Fantastic.
- Pete Gilbert
Scoble. Great post. Agree completely.
- Tom Quinn
Super excellent post and, ironically, exactly what blogging is all about. One good thing about an economic downturn, it will weed a lot of fluff out of the infosphere -- with less incentive to act as promotional platforms for startups, blogs may get more informative about using established tech.
- Sprague D
Great article Robert. It is your authenticity even more than your tech blogging that has made you the great writer that you are. Anyone can report Apple's earnings yesterday. You have always had an honest voice though that makes your writing stand out.
- Thomas Hawk
The take away is 'sensational headlines'. Add to the "Rumor:" and we don't need this stuff unless it's coming from a tabloid format site
- Charlie Anzman
Blogging is about saying what I want to say, and sharing things that I like with anybody who cares to listen. I'm not interested in driving traffic (thank goodness) or repeating what others have said, but contributing to a discussion.
- Chris Nixon
Great post Robert. Very good read and right on the mark. I religiously read feeds in Reader, but only a few that help me. I love Lifehacker. Almost everyday I find something new and useful to my job.
- Gary Schmidt
The Techie audience thirsty for knowledge is much smaller then the Get-rich-quick audience, but the largest demographic are the Free-lunch boys. The blogs with the most revenue have tricked their advertisers into believing teenage boys are business decision makers.
- paul mooney
I love tech bloggers and the things they write about. The good ones will always come at a common topic from a different angle and I just LOVE that because it makes me think outside the box and start connecting dots all over the place. Robert you are definitely one of those bloggers that I love to read and I don't think any of the ones I read have failed me.
- Devlin Dunsmore
from twhirl
Awesome reading! THX a bunch!!
- Ronald
I have to agree about the comments system though. One thing that we started to see a while ago was data portability and being able to communicate accross services. I think Disqus does that quite well and it's a great first step to making sure that the comments system becomes a little more useful on blogs.
- Derick Valadao
Well said Robert, left a comment, said my piece, cheers!
- Steve Spalding
Wow, an impressive and honest assessment of some major issues in the techblogosphere.
- Richard Akerman
Robert - I'm not in the tech industry. But I love what lots of tech stuff has done for learning stuff in my life and for others. And I want to keep on learning. You've certainly helped me here - I wouldn't know a fraction as much about using Friendfeed productively, for example. Glad we're going to see more of this kind of stuff. Welcome back.
- Tom Landini
Knocked it out of the park. If we can just get back to being geeks again, a lot of this drama will calm itself...
- Jared Smith
Great read, but kind of depressing the way things have gone. I just like being a bit geeky and all things will work out in the end.
- Alan Ashley
from twhirl
Shripriay, you hit it on the head. It is a shame that all the tech bloggers just wants to be Engadet or Gizmodo these days.
- Harold Gilchrist
from twhirl
Nice writeup Robert. I enjoyed your detailed analysis & history of the situation. Perhaps you can lead us in a new direction?
- Mitchell Tsai
i read the tech bloggers then try to actually use the gadget. would like to hear more results from the usage angle.
- Lee Kent
Shripriya, I agree with you wholeheartedly. My original comment was much longer but got cut due to length. I wish more blogs were like Louis Gray and Lifehacker which take a step back and then hit us with posts that are useful/interesting almost 100% of the time. Zero Punctuation is a great example for the gaming crowd--one post a week, internet fame.
- Derick Valadao
Hmm... A Scoble article I like.... Is this the Seventh Seal? Seriously, you're right on in that the echo chamber of groupthink has made tech blogging boring and predictable. I think there's a few people out there fighting it, and FF makes it easier to find them. I think you're off on the business side, though... I think it SHOULD be about the technology, but the entrepreneurs coming out of the Valley have made it necessary for us to discuss the business side by not having solid business plans.
- Jason Carreira
Anyway, hope this is a sign of things to come from you.
- Jason Carreira
Thanks Robert. Great read, and perspectives. Love to see more on productivity, like Lifehacker. Just became a GTD convert BTW and loved the David Allen piece.
- Jericho
Thanks for that Robert -- perspective is key.
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I'm sorry but those that don't scale are toast, from a commericial and traffic standpoint. I know that is part of the point (varying aims and objectives of blogging etc.)
- Alex Hammer
Slap your self and get back on that horse Robert. You have NOT failed us. Human nature makes us want what we do not have. For some it's page views/revenue, for trolls it's attention, and others it's n-list status. The rest of us are looking to quench our thirst for knowledge. And please give our group a little credit. We have become ever-so-skillful at weeding out those sources that do not provide this knowledge. I repeat...You have NOT failed us.
- Andrew Smith
I appreciate what you are saying, and am glad that others share the same opinion as myself. What happened to being the guys who always had some tech trick that seemed like magic to the uninitiated? The joy of tech for me is showing that magic to others and getting them interested in what's out there too, and lately we have all become business whores a little bit. I look forward to the future content coming from you, and getting back to what made tech cool in the first place, the tech itself.
- Aaron Krug
One of the things I value most about Robert is his inner homing mechanism. He's very prone to get lost, but something always shakes him loose and he re-calibrates. Or is that re-boots? (Kind of like iPhone 2.0 now that I think about it.)
- Michael Markman
I agree w/ your article, Robert. The wonder that makes so many of us interested in tech does get lost at times- I never saw tech blogs as the place for that stuff, but appreciated it when I found it there.
- anna sauce
Alex: While scaling is necessary if you want more people to view your content, why should that come at the cost of the content itself? Too many startups are trying to replace a solid marketing plan with social media and end up trying to use big blogs as a means to advertise their product and ride the traffic tail to customers. From what I gather, this tends to make jaded bloggers who...
more...
- Derick Valadao
I kinda find this funny.. the comments are so distributed between FF channel and Scobles blog channel ? which one am I too follow ? I mean yesterday we had this big huge augments about cluster and fragmentation of conversations. So Robert, here's a suggestion. Turn off comments on your blog and let your readers comment on FF only. Else dont post your blog entry to FF and break your own...
more...
- Peter Dawson
I just approved a bunch of comments that were held in moderation. Now there's 88 comments over there. Whew.
- Robert Scoble
melmcbride: good point. It's easy to just stay on FriendFeed all day. It's hard to come up with something new to say that takes more than a short paragraph. Damn, I'm sounding so old school. The neat thing is when I do a longer blog is comes in here and improves everything.
- Robert Scoble
i think this is part of the echo chamber that is the silicon valley. people who live there use the "new" thing for so long they soon get sick of doing it. they are same people who think everyone elses use technology the same way they do and feels the same way they do.
- Jonathan Jesse
Scoble steps out of the bubble and takes a breath of fresh air... hopefully more follow or we're going nowhere fast.
- Harish V
I thought this was great! Robert, I think what I hear is your desire to just do whatever the hell you want to without regard to "The Man". Go for it. You of all people can do that!
- Elliott Ng
Robert the real issues is that everything really only needs to exist once. Conversations don't neeed to exist in many different places. Your blog comments and the conversation here are all the same conversation. I'd love to explain the solution as i see it but it'd take too long.
- Anton Mannering
Robert I am still lost- How can you profess to be be a convo aggregator , yet approve 88 comments on your blog ? @Anton, no Blog comments and these comments on FF, are two different sets of conversation happening on the same topic. Lets not confuse this fact !! There is a fork in the convosphere.
- Peter Dawson
@ Anton: I sort of agree with you, but i don't think comment fragmentation is all bad. Sometimes well-written comments appearing somewhere else can draw attention to good ideas. If I don't subscribe to a particular blog but see the feed posted here on FF, I'll pick it up and then maybe I'll go straight to the blog. There's value in fragmentation along with the frustration.
- phil baumann
I think a service like disqus should be used so that friendfeed comments on links to blog posts (with comments therein) will all show up no matter which medium you use to discuss them. Does this exist yet? I thought disqus would have this covered by now.
- Derick Valadao
Great points as always Robert. We're with you on this.
- Missionary Broadcasting
Peter: I approved about 40 that were being held in a moderation queue. I don't let newbies post a comment on my blog because then it'd be overrun with spam. FriendFeed has a much better system to protect against spam than my blog's comments. I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL, return it to my blog, and get it linked in, all really quickly.
- Robert Scoble
I haven't read the comments here, but feel I can comment. Robert, as someone who as known you for five years now - just before the mania began - I am pleased to hear this. What got me into your blog in the first place was your ENTHUSIASM for technology, particularly GTD. Never let that go. You be you. I will be me. And everyone else will be everyone else. In the end, you gotta follow what you love. It works for everyone from Steve Jobs to the Pope. Your friend online and off - SR
- Steve Rubel
@ phil bauman Ok 2 things. First of all I didn't say it shouldn't appear in many places. I'm saying that if you're in Roberts comments and I'm on Friendfeed then we should be able to see ALL the conversation from both. But it need not exist in a whole bunch of places only be visible from there. Second I think the argument that there is value in fragmentation is similar to saying there is value in using a ploughshare pulled by an ox. Ther is but not to most people.
- Anton Mannering
@ Robert Scoble: Interesting you should mention your blog comments being friendfeed. I know a startup or two working on those problems. In reality though the issues become way bigger when such a service is subject to really large numbers (non-tech crowd). Solving those problems is where the fun and games are and I only know one startup with a real solution for that.
- Anton Mannering
Ironic, isn't it--the influences (PR, marketing, big media) the original bloggers were trying to break away from are--surprise-- still here and the game hasn't changed as much as we thought. PR people still push their stories, tech and news blogs focus on a few big name co's and start looking like traditional media, etc. What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm and original thought that Scoble and others brought to the game earlier on--otherwise, we've only duplicated the old media on a new platform.
- mark ivey
I send you a tweet also but I believe that I must also write here how spot-on was your post... I can't wait to see more real Tech news coming from you and I hope that this will force other bloggers to remember how they started back then...
- Manos Matsakis
This is clearly your best post ever. Thank you for all of your hard work. I read your blog because it entertains me. I would love more posts "sharing geeky things." On the other hand, if you blog about news, technology, and a few pro-company biases, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Just because you (or any other blogger) do not provide a perfect balanced news experience does not mean that you have failed. People are responsible for finding their own news this day in age.
- Brian Wilson
Great post and I totally agree. "What's needed is more of the energy, enthusiasm..."
- Eric_T
Great stuff Robert. As blogging and social media continues to spread outside of tech and into other niche industries and verticals, those of us facilitating and evangelizing that spread should continue to look back at this post so history isn't repeated. See you at the Ritz tonight.
- J.J. Toothman
"I think that it'd very cool if I could replace my blog's comments with FriendFeed, but that'd require an API that would make a URL" - yeah I second that motion. If I had a widget that could do that but with bi- directional flow , that would really be a convo aggregator. This will certainly be an interesting challenge to some of the geeks out here !
- Peter Dawson
You can, if you're willing to give up the content. Glenn developed a great plugin that allows for bi-directional flow. It works for Wordpress and (I think) Blogger http://blog.slaven.net.au/wordpre...
- Steve Spalding
Great timing :) I got strange looks this weekend when I said that I don't review anything that has been 'pitched' to me - but rather things I discover that I think are cool. I discovered something this weekend at BlogHer that I will review. But no one sent me a press release. :) It's just a really neat gadget!
- Lucretia Pruitt
I think you should watch the movie 'Resurrecting the Champ' - its about a Writer. Drew the analogy to your post and the movie (that I just happened to see yesterday) http://mrinal.vox.com/library...
- Mrinal Desai
Enjoyed that rant, Robert. I'm not a tech geek, I don't read techmeme or techcrunch as the gist and trends can be followed here on FF, but I do read blogs like yours, Louis, Jeremiah and Hutch's, mainly to learn new things. Before FF I had never heard of Rescue Time, Jott, Evernote or TSheets for example, but hearing about new ideas and then experimenting with them myself, well that gets me interested and excited. The corporate enterprise stuff leaves me cold, it isn't nifty or flexible enough for users.
- Sally Church
Nice post. The PR influence bit reminded me of this article by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/submari.... Agree to the fact that Tech blogging has been less 'tech' than it was a couple of years ago.
- Nikhil Dandekar
I loved the rant earlier yesterday, and even more impressed by the ff reaction. My take on your blogging, having followed you since MS days. Stay on what you think, not what others think. Avoid the whole Gillmor Gang bs, and associated groupthink.
- Bankwatch
I think that every new medium matures as it becomes possible to make real money at it - this is inevitable. I don;t think it will be the death of blogging certainly but we are in a new phase. Older blogs will mature and still keep that flavor or they will stagnate and die. The personalities will decide that. One of the things I like about your work Robert is the enthusiasm. Sometimes it makes you a bit naive, others it makes you a little to fast to declare something game changing but it is always good input
- Soulhuntre
Robert, just read your wonderful post now, and I'm still fascinated by it. I'm commenting here because I know you'll read here first. You know, this competition that you were taking about, almost cause me to stop blogging, but then I realized that I'm writing because I like it, so as far as I'm concern, I'm not trying to compete anyone, this is why I'm taking things easy and on my own...
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- Orli Yakuel
Orli: you know me too well! :-) Yup, agreed. Just do it because it's fun. The problem is that posts that make us all smarter don't stick around very long because of the flow.
- Robert Scoble
Robert, maybe it's because 'blogs' are not so unique anymore. Lets take Friednfeed for example: everyone can get noticed here just because they favorite picture on Flickr or dugg story on digg (regardless if they writing a blog, or giving any other opinion in the subject) this and other massive content mixed up together on a daily basis is flowing so fast, it almost seem that if you'll...
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- Orli Yakuel
Not good sign. My wife just said that I am a fail whale. :-)
Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Lucretia Pruitt, Ruud van Wijngaarden and 65 other people liked this
LOL. Tell her that you're "down for maintenance" and you should "be back in about an hour" :)
- Bruno Pedro
the truth hurts ..wives and g/f say it as it sez..no fluff !! :)-
- Peter Dawson
what is worse, being a "fail" or a "whale"? :D
- Naor Mark
Perhaps you could tell her that the VCs have written a check and a crack engineering team is heading onsite as we speak...
- Mark Dykeman
ha..your wife's gotta sense of humour! :)
- Zee.
much better than what my wife calls me ;)
- mike "glemak" dunn
my wife just call me a whale. ;-)
- Alex Williams
my wife just called me a beast - maybe because I'm eating away my hang over.
- Don Martelli
from twhirl
hey I thought you said you were starting to work out! :-)
- Christine Cavalier
I love that comment by your wife - very webby techie! cool! Ok so what did you do to earn that illustrious title of "fail whale"?!! ha, ha!
- Susan Beebe
she saw me Twittering and was joking around.
- Robert Scoble
www.nikeplus.com ;)
- Alberto Otero García
Tell your wife if she calls you a name, she might cause Amazon's storage services to go down. Then, look at your iPhone and say "Honey, look what you did!"
- Candace
Which is worse - the fail or the whale?
- Steve Rubel
She didn't @reply??
- Mona Nomura
haha!
- Thomas Hawk
Harsh ! :D
- Mo Kargas
yowzers, thank goodness my wife has no clue about twitter, i would be in trouble :)
- Chris Jones
from twhirl
Me and my wife were happy during 25 years! and then... we met. (dixit Sacha Guitry)
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
"I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her!" (Rodney Dangerfield)
- Jim Bergman
Call me dumb, but what exactly is the definition of "fail whale"?
- Herschel
Ha! Did you lose a database?
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
Herschel: I guess you don't use Twitter, huh? I really wish you would do some homework by Googling a term you don't understand first. Nothing personal but I would rather teach a man to fish than give him a fish. Now that the mpral lesson is over the image that comes up when Twitter is down is a whale. The community now uses that as a metaphor for when anything is down.
- Robert Scoble
What is the opposite of a fail whale?
- Sean Oliver
Sean: FriendFeed :)
- Justin Korn
Robert: you are much cuter and cuddly than the Fail Whale
- Cathleen Rittereiser
+1 Justin... FF FTW!
- Susan Beebe
Well... I don't use Twitter, espcially since FF seems to be better and why would I invest any time on a service that now has a reputation in the industry as be a "fail whale"?
- Herschel
Getting a Tweetup together after BlogHer and AlwaysOn. Tuesday, the 22nd, 7 PM at HMB Brewco.
J.J. Toothman liked this
Posted some details on this on my blog: http://www.jjtoothman.net/2008...
- J.J. Toothman
Coastside Tweetup this Saturday Morning! - http://www.jjtoothman.net/2008...
J.J. Toothman and Robert Scoble liked this
wish I were there.
- Michael Markman
I'll be there!
- Robert Scoble
Awesome...we've got Scoble to be the rallying point at Cafe Classique. Just look for Scoble!
- J.J. Toothman
Sweet. I will bring my dogs. Robert, you haven't met them :-)
- Francine Hardaway
I'm in. I feel bad for missing JJ's summer solstice party. See y'all on Saturday.
- Ryan Kuder
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