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Love This Week in Tech podcast RT @leolaporte: TWiT 206: Mold Happens http://ff.im/-65AsP - http://twitter.com/kevinmc...

August 3 from @leolaporte - Twitter Search - Comment - Like - Share

Ken Jones liked this

Leo Laporte

Fire Eating, via sarah. word. - A website by Sarah Lane - Blog - Just another day at the TWiT cottage - http://leo.tumblr.com/post...

May 4 from Tumblr - Comment - Like - Share

Ken Jones, Craig Durling, Preston Taylor and 3 other people liked this

Leo just leveled up his cool attribute. - Mark Krynsky

whoa. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg

Robert Scoble

Oh, I totally get why friendfeed doesn't do profiles now. Google is doing those. Google is also doing app platforms with Open Social. So, add friendfeed's feed + Google Profile + Google Open Social. What do you have? FACEBOOK KILLER!

April 21 - Comment - Like - Share

Jack Wilson, K4SAC, Jeremy Couch, Julian Lukács and 130 other people liked this

There's a method to the madness. Googlers + Xooglers = Win. - LogEx

47 more comments

Well, HMMM. - Rochelle

Absolutely. That's encouraging. - Michelle McCormack

FriendFeed gets bought by Google this year? - Jesse Stay

Fewer profiles to maintain = Win - Julie Bovee Hill

I've hear that line of thought before usually with the resulting equation being "Windows Killer" or "Google Killer" or "Cisco Killer". - Adi

I suspect some kind of deal between Google and FriendFeed has already been done. I have a private account on FF. When I entered my FF URL on Google Profile, a full list of all my services feeding into my PRIVATE FF account showed up on Google Profile for me to add. Not sure I like that FF shared this info with Google, if that's what happened. - Dominic Jones

I haven't seen anything from the FriendFeed folks that makes me think they'd want to be acquired by Google. I'd sorta like to see things go the other way, with the other components of a "facebook killer" offered by other smaller firms/teams and standards for interoperability and communication between the parts. - Ken Sheppardson

Crazy! it seems to be getting to critical mass for the big players.. isn't this also something Microsoft are trying to do? i.e. their new stuff with profiles/links to other social sites.. but yes, I wonder if facebook has finished it's honeymoon? more open and flexible aspects with the stuff you mentioned.. i.e. google app platform etc.. but seems more open? good stuff though!! back into friendfeed... lost it for a while, but can see why it's so cool! - David Sheardown

That's weird I just said that same thing a few hours ago here http://beta.friendfeed.com/techcru... - Chip Ramsey

I like the fact that it just showed all my feeds coming into FF. Certainly makes it easier for me. - Carl Joseph

Friendfeed bought by Google = I cancel my FF account faster than you can say "don't be evil." - Shawn K. Quinn

@Carl For me it was kinda creepy. I'd like to know how Google knows what services I have coming into FF if my account is private and I haven't let Google follow me. - Dominic Jones

Dominic, I was spooked when I first saw that too, but if your services are public and you use a consistent username, many of those may be coming simply from Googles search index. - LogEx

FriendFeed doesn't have to get bought by Google. Both companies share the open web philosophy... interoperable technologies, portable data, etc. - LogEx

@logical extremes Nah, it was the exact list of services I have coming into FF. Including custom feeds with inconsistent account names. Either Google keeps a record of each FF user (I switched from public FF to a private FF account about three weeks ago) or FF shares this info with Google. - Dominic Jones

I would be shocked if FF shared private account details with the GOOG. Previously having your feed public could easily explain it. - LogEx

You don't think it's interesting that Google is storing a handy little file on each FF user and all the services they have coming into their accounts? I find that intriguing. - Dominic Jones

Dominic, just saw this... Matt Cutts says Google usses OpenSocial API to find services for the profile suggestion... http://friendfeed.com/e... - LogEx

Ah, so it makes no difference if you have private account on FF, it's not private http://socialgraph-resources.g... - Dominic Jones

YAY a Facebook killer !! Please say it is soooo!! YES!!!!! - Susan Beebe

Dominic, this is Google's Social Graph API, not a special deal with FF. As long as they have a cached version of your profile page, they will be able to find the services you were using. - Pat Hawks

@ Pat thanks. Learn something new every day. - Dominic Jones

For this to totally work; picasa (or one of the others) is going to have to become popular with the Google profiles, as well as getting tied into status updates from clients like ping.fm - Keith Barrett

I think it's a whatever-Google-wants-to-snuff killer. Social media "sites" will become anachronistic. It's just going to be a layer on top of everything we do online. - Chris Baskind

I have to admit, I got pretty gosh darn excited when I saw the vanity URL option last week for the Google Profile -- that's a really big step into the social space -- Google's stepping into the pool folks!! woo hoo!! - Susan Beebe

This ain't nothing until it's done. Then it is still nothing until we start using it in large numbers :) - DC Crowley

Dominic, you were indexed while that page was public; it hasn't been crawled since. The Social Graph API uses the same crawler as Google Search. - Kevin Marks

I'm afraid I dont want to hand out all that market to google - fear it would kill experimentation and innovation in the field. - Joelle Nebbe (iphigenie)

Interesting theory Robert, least you got your username I have had to settle for joe.dawsons from Gmail - Joe Dawson

Hmmmmm...would it be sufficiently different from Facebook to entice mass migration? - Heather

..but do you think we will follow the path - unless we are forced to? - Sampad Swain

facebok killer would be interesting. But if non-techies over at facebook can't manage their site, how would they ever manage friendfeeed? Plus, the numbers of 200 million to 1 million is about a snowballs chance in hell. - Peter Efland

An expanded FF profile would be nice (not on the feed page but something linked off it) but why Google's? I'm not arguing with you, Robert, just want to hear more of your thought on this please. #betakoltag-sg-profile - Kol Tregaskes

I found that not all of the suggested accounts were correct but not surprised by the relative accuracy since I've already seen the same type of service elsewhere. - Rick Bucich

Wonder when they'll get acquired then - late 2009? 2010? - Nicholas James

FriendFeed getting bought by Google would suck: how long would it take for them to port the entire thing to Google's infrastructure? That's how long nothing would happen with FriendFeed. Think Jaiku and Google Voice/Grandcentral. - Mark Trapp

Just exaggeration scoble...that won't kill facebook. That seems too nerdy for mainstream, as simple as friendfeed is it's still complicated for a shitload of people. I think you're too quick to dub new services 'facebook killers" - Gordon Swaby

so when will this mutant start to kill? timeframe? - Pico Seno

Maybe the word "killer" should be banned from any social networks/social media discussions. I'm tired of it. - Jorge Escobar

ah considering Scoble effect... could this thread preventing the killer thing from happening? :D - Pico Seno

All of these services are similar to the telephone system earlier in the last century. The more people on the service, the more valuable it becomes while at the same time the cheaper it is to provide to everyone. We're really just asking who will be the Ma Bell of the social networking world. Though I love twitter and friendfeed, many of the people I love are finally just using Facebook and are starting to use their status updates in a Twitter-like fashion. - Chris Aldrich

It would be pretty interesting to see some sort of Open Social integration of Google Profiles into FriendFeed. As Logic Extremes pointed out, Google doesn't need to buy FriendFeed. That also doesn't seem to be its preferred modus operandi. Google's approach to the social Web is distributed and open. Some sort of Open Social integration into FriendFeed would be fantastic. Perhaps some kind of Friend Connect magic? Kevin Marks? - Paul Jacobson

Open Social project is just awesome and gonna be very easy to implement. :) Lets how much it will turn up! - Mohammad Abdurraafay

Robert how about a gentleman's wager: Google buys FF within a year. Then you can take me out for dinner. if they don't, then I take you out for dinner. This way we can talk about all this in person :-) - Om Malik

Wow, that's an offer no one can refuse. - imabonehead

You're onto something here, Mr. Scoble. :-) - Nenad Nikolic

Robert I'm glad you get it - so many others don't' - Chris Saad

Again, I predicted the acquisition. I said Google, but I was right on the year. :-) - Jesse Stay

Leo Laporte

OK message received. A little less wine and a little more tech in future TWiTs. I blame @theRealDvorak. No matter what it's always his fault

April 20 - Comment - Like - Share

Beau Hebert, Marshall Bose, Kol Tregaskes and 77 other people liked this

That's a good idea. It's not really fun to listen to people drink. - PC Easy from twhirl

104 more comments

Yea, just make it a new show! A wine/drunk show. I enjoyed watching. - Ross Armer

New show: TWiB - This Week in Booze - Edward Coffey

If you DO want to keep the wine flowing then you must get @garyvee on. Then you could talk tech and about the wine you are drinking. - berchman

I wasn't that bad. Some of the conversation points you brought up with Lisa Bettany were interesting. - Verbal

We CAN'T have Gary V on. The wine tasting segment is sponsored by his competitor - the other New Jersey Gary, http://garyswine.com/twitlive. (They don't buy TWiT - they buy the live segment just before but the impact extends into TWiT, I'm afraid.) - Leo Laporte

While I do enjoy the Live show when I get the chance, the podcast version is where I get my TWiT mostly. - Adi

I wouldn't have been annoyed if you guys hadn't talked over each other so much. - Jeff Benner

I listened to the live feed via my iPhone. It was sureal, but yes, John C Dvorak.org/blog was to blame, he should have gone with the flow. Could not see that funky wine pourer though, better download the ODTV version - Darryl Adams

it really wasn't as bad as all that. seriously. - Thomas James

Start a new show: TWiG This Week in Grape. Or TWiJ This Week in Juice... - Michael Kaiser

It was fine Leo. Variety is good. Maybe ballance with Dave Winer too. Really! - Tom Hofstatter

maybe save the wine for "special" episodes? - TWiT has always been fun... some episodes are extra fun! - John Slanina

TWIG This week in Grog (is grog an Australian term only?) - Andy

No, I thought the show was great, Leo. Don't change a thing. - Gregory Harbin

I didn't have an issue with it. Variety never hurts... - Corey Marthaller from Nambu

Ah... That would explain why I don't hear Gary's Wine ads on TWiT. Perhaps the wine show's could be TWiI-This Week In Inebriation. All told I look forward to TWiT every week Leo. Many Thanks. - berchman

Thank you Leo. This week was too much. I do not like the direction the show is going. Glad to hear you will try to get back on track. And I don't mind the twitter stories. It is news after all. - glenn frasier

Maybe you could talk to Jason Calacanis and ask him to cut out the impressions. - PC Easy from twhirl

The only thing I'd blame @theRealDvorak for is a relentless pursuit of an interesting conversation. Leo + John alone makes for a great cast. Keep the wine and @theRealDvorak, pepper in some real tech and it will be just like old times. - Jeff Vilimek

Great show! Dvorak has a habit of closing some things down when it could flow a little more but would we have it any other way? You need to get the video out so people can see it in context. Perhaps your subconscious has already moved away from only audio - Glenn Williams

I think the wine tasting at the front end makes it hard to start TWiT with any momentum. Maybe you can do the tasting after TWiT? I liked listening to the wine critique, it was something different - but it doesn't really mix with tech news. - Melissa Good

I thought the show was fine- a little "lubrication" never hurts to keep the discussion flowing! - Barry Wiseman

It just seemed like an early episode of Diggnation, which is great in its own right, it's just not TWiT. I think, with your open schedule, there's no problem in having yet another tech show, but one intentionally light-hearted and off-topic. Maybe with a gadget focus, rather than business news. - ZacG

I thought it was fresh and edgy. Content was a little slow. Many weeks ago, I recall you throwing around ideas for viewers donations (like Steve Gibson's yabba dabba do). On the next TWiT I would get the tech stories done early and crack open the wine after you receive $1000 in donations from the viewers. Have a tally board showing the running donation totals :-) A bit of fun. - Nathan Davies

I'm glad you took notice. The show was okay and still interesting, but I think the quality of the discussion diminishes in proportion to the wine. Maybe you could do a separate wine tasting show in addition to TWiT (as if you don't do enough shows already!) - Phil Maxwell

I think the only problem was Dvorak and Shira. And the fact that one was trying to get the other drunk. - Chip Duford

I thought you did a great job with the edit. Listening to it live, and then listening again to the proper podcast, made me realize even more that you know what the hell you are doing. Trust yourself. - Dave VanderWall

I think it was less the wine and more the guests this time. I don't mind seeing you guys get a bit wacky, but if I'm going to be honest, Shira was just annoying. She talked over people, talked too fast, kept focusing on stuff that didn't matter or wasn't interesting, and just came across as self-important. Dvorak and Lisa were okay, but you just needed another tech-centric guest for the most part to keep things centered. Needs more Becky Worley, Molly Wood, Amber MacArthur, Veronica Belmont, etc. - Staticharge

I agree with most. The guests were fine. The topics were fine. It's just that the wine takes the signal-to-noise ratio to a whole different level. And I felt that with some of the other recent episodes, not just this one. - Steve Hampton

Do not know about CA about legal liability about serving alcohol and then letting people drive home intoxicated. - Greg

You know, it wouldn't hurt to actually have a This Week in Social * show. - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

kinda fun. a little wine loosens everyone up. of course Dvorak was responsible..he is, after all, the real enophile...will continue to listen and watch even more now!!--KW in Nevada City... - kent williams

I think tha't what net at nite is for? - americanm

That's true ... I think Shira definitely needed a ride to the airport. - Chip Duford

While the show ideas are being thrown around, might as well suggest "This Week In Twitter"?! - Jeff Vilimek

Jeff: They already have that. ;) - Chris, Taskerrific Guy

I've been thinking the same thing. Or like a 'This Week in Social Media' that way, the twitterstuff gets out of the system in a different forum... - David Buttrick

And while we're critiquing the show...why apologize for talking about Twitter if it happens to be one of the biggest tech stories of the week? I think you do great job balancing the discussion, it just so happens that twitter has been at the top of the tech news quite a bit in the past year. - Phil Maxwell

i dunno. i'd love a drunk show. axe TWiF and use the same cast for This week in Drunk. Sarah and Martin can watch old Hitchcock movies (or whatever) and drink drink drink. think MST3K plus wine. - Mark Hartwell

@mhartwell maybe TWiFUBAR? j/k - Phil Maxwell

I caught a replay and although not a "normal" TWiT show it was very enjoyable and as a discussion provided some very good insights into how people approach/deal with social media. You need to get some (silent) A/C thou. :) - Techdribble

Now YOU'RE pandering? - Brian Tristam Williams

I can totally get into drinking good wine and talking tech, so it was a hit with me. - jcunwired

I like the wine and love the guest. Don't change based on a vocal minority. - Shannon Carver

Damn You Steven Perez, er I mean Dvorak! - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

And I have thoroughly enjoyed the last couple episodes. Me likes. Listened to them all front to back. What's that Audible link again ;) Keep on doing it. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

I enjoyed the episode as well. If people want just news there's plenty of other 'casts out there, but I enjoy a little bit of personality and opinion in the show. And wine. - Nathan Loehlein

It was a change of pace TWIT. No worries. - Christian Anderson

I seriously don't think it was the wine, it was the combination of guests. Shira talks a mile a minute, plus you gave her alcohol. Dvorak kept refilling her glass, for the lulz I would say. When you had the wine tasting that included Brian Brushwood it was one of the best TWiTs in recent memory, and you ate fire. So either don't have Shira on, or don't let her drink. - Matthew

If you like This Week in Wine, you should check out CS Rumcast. No, seriously. - Eric @ CSTechcast.com

Maybe create a new show, This Week in New Media or something of the sort. You offer a lot when it comes to commentary/advice on new media and its business implications, but I can see how some might not want that info constantly mixed in with their tech news. Also, it'd give you a legitimate outlet for twitter news. Dvorak wouldn't be able to complain any more :-) - Doug Jones

Maybe if we do the wine tasting before TWiF instead of TWiT - Jamez

Thanks Leo. If I want people getting drunk and cursing I will watch diggnation. - Jim Williams

Let's get back to basics on TWiT, and cancel the wine tastings! - J. Gilbert - Joe Gilbert

yep, feel like the rest of you. actually un-subscribed from twit a few weeks ago, right after the last drinking episode. this was a big decision since having followed twit from the very start. should i reconsider, or is twit becoming the least interersting show of the wonderful leoville channel? - Peter Nõu

I listened live - they were all over the place - just listened to the edit - brilliant editing - they sounded almost coherent. Let's hope this is the very last wine tasting TWiT. - Michael Ohajuru

Yeah! Lately TWIT has been getting less interesting with each new episode. It's sounding like a bunch of high tech good ole boys just getting together to shoot the shit and enjoy each other's company rather than trying to be an entertaining and informative show for the listeners. Too much small talk and fluff, not enough meat. - Tokyo Dan

Don't know what the big deal was, I enjoyed this week's TWIT. I'd rather have a good lively discussion than listen to Calacanis yabber on about twitter for 20 mins. - Paul Grav

I have liked the Twits after the wine tasting. I think the girls mellowed John. Leo don't change a thing. - Ardith

It was interesting. Kinda like listening to Kup's Show in Chicago in the 70's. The tech part disappeared, but the interaction was great. Maybe a new netcast "This Week in Talk"... - Timothy Magnuson

I have listened to most of the Twit group for a long time. Show 191 This week in Tech was the most HORRIBLE unlistenable thing I have ever heard! It started horrible so not sure it was the wine. What ever else you did please stop it! Normally I love these shows and would not miss a single show. - Dirkbonesteel

90 minute long TWIT, 10 minutes of tech discussion. I don't mind the banter but these "in studio" episodes are just a party for Leo. Getting very close to replacing TWIT with audiobooks. Leo PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE no more "in studio" netcasts. Use Skype and try to keep it on topic for at least half the show. PLEASE - Al Degutis

Ummmmmm.... after 191 free shows over a number of years (not including the entire TWiT network) that keeps 95% of you wanna-bes ahead of the curve when it comes to new technology, services and social media and some of you here are ready to throw it under the bus for one less than great show? Take a look at yourselves guys... - Johnny Worthington

Personally, I liked the episode. I listen to TWIT to hear the banter and insight. Sometimes there is less insight then other times, but it is still entertaining. Leo, don't change because of what could be a vocal minority. - Larry

Exactly, you can't please everyone. - Chip Duford

A little chit-chat is good, but yeah, past a certain point it becomes less like listening to a podcast and more like eavesdropping. - Butch Curry

Good to hear. I was worried I was being a buzzkill but I couldn't get through the last episode. - Thom

As a recovering alcoholic, it's hard to listen/watch others drink it. I quit watching it about 2 weeks ago. I don't mind if you drink if you do it responsibly. What I've seen and heard in the last 2 weeks wasn't responsible. I know the signs. It wasn't pretty. - Anita Pesola

You can blame him, but you CANT SPAM him!!! ;) - Julien Bérubé

I love TWiT...this week not so much...but still love it! Only way to top it now is bring back Woz and Mitnick for next week. - andsmi

I listened to the edited version, like normal, and I enjoyed most of it quite a lot. One of the things I adore about TWiT is the variability; some episodes are super serious and tech heavy, and others are chatty, silly and party-like. For me, the secret is Leo as ringleader, serious or silly. - Bob M. Montgomery

there's a difference between wine tasting and wine drinking. You might want to focus more on the tasting and not opening so many bottles. - jccalhoun

Maybe you could ask Gary's Wine if you could move the wine tasting to after TWiT? - Crystal Tillman

Yeah, this isn't Diggnation. Lets have Dry TWiT. - Andrew Leahey

It's your show, Leo. Have fun and lots of it. Otherwise you burn out, get tired of it, or retire from doing TWiT and we ALL lose out. There's a happy balance on both sides of this equation, no worries! - Mike Lewis

I like the wine. Keep the wine. - schwegler

very glad you can't have GaryV on - can't stand him. - Brian Conn

I still enjoyed it. Just keep the bottle away from John and you'll be fine :-) - Keith Barrett

I got the feeling it wasn't a very heavy week in tech news anyway:-) - Francine Hardaway

All the news that week was twitter (Oprah, Kutcher, King, unfollow blocking, etc), so you couldn't win anyway - Keith Barrett

there was tech news but leo covered most of it on mbw, sn, ww (like pc sales, kindle drm, youtube premium content), and if he has that on twit, people will complain about overlap... - Jayesh

Noooo, don't listen to the complaints Leo. If I want hardcore tech news, I'll go read Slashdot or Wired or CNET... but I listen to TWiT for the entertainment. The best episodes happen when you get the right chemistry in the room (and via Skype) that hilarity as well as thought provoking discussion come naturally... thus I quite enjoyed 191. It was like Diggnation, but with wine and a hammered Dvorak (that's GOLD Jerry, GOLD!). Stick with the stories you want to discuss and go with the flow! - Kristian

Leo, you don't need to change the show. I think of TWiT as a dinner party with fellow members of the tech community. Some of the conversation will be about tech and some will be random conversation. It's all good. - archaictree

I liked it, too much tech is boring - Adrian

No don't worry about it, it always keeps it interesting. - Kelby

If you want to have a random collection of folks sitting around tasting wine and talking about and/or avoiding talking about semi-technical news/social media topics, go for it. Seems like the issue might just be some folks in the audience are tuning in expecting something else more technical/directed. - Ken Sheppardson

well when you assume, you know.... - Chris Heath

i've always thought (and leo said this on sunday) that twit was just friends getting together to relax and talk about the news of the week... and when there's not much news they can talk about twitter, or just ramble on about nothing... when people want to unsubscribe, well, that's their prerogative - Chris Heath

Painful just painful and Shira was killing me.. bring back Shwood - K3ViN

I listen to TWIT for the conversation and the "vibe." I hang with my friends for the same reasons, not for news content. Don't let Dvorak change the personality of the show. If all he wants is news let him listen to Cranky Geeks. - Hamilton Wallace

+1 @Hamilton Wallace - Dominique Lemieux

I thought it was great, nice to see some variety, looked like everyone had a great time - Gary Prechtel

Still a hell of a lot better than an hour and a half of recession talk. I dunno about other people but I like hearing people have fun. - Chris Lawrence

Still love the show, but agreed: a little less wine would be good. Also, what about getting Bwana back on the show? - Budak

The thing I like best about TWiT is every week it jumps the shark. I am always sad when the show is the same 2 weeks in a row. - Michael Hansel

Ignoring Twitter news when it's the story of the week is a big mistake despite Dvorak's protestations. - Gregg Scott

The only problem with the show as I saw it was wine that fine should have been accompanied by lamb chops marinated in rosemary, garlic and olive oil. But then, I was a sommelier once. - jcunwired

Leo, Do what you need to do. However, the most recent "wine fortified" episodes of your podcasts have been MOST entertaining... - Stan Augustyniewicz

this show and the last lost their focus real quick when the wine was being poured. People listen for Leo & his guests on tech news vs 99% twitter news. Ok.. Leo & Ev don't get along, point made. Lisa was 7/10 as a guest but can't contribute on tech news since mainly a photo blogger. Shira was a waste. High and mighty and she acted holier than thou with Dvorak and the others. She's a pretty face and a chic = ratings. Bring back the tech news and less eye candy + booze. - david amodt

Big fan of wine. Especially with @theRealDvorak. Hopefully a bit of the juice can make him say something incriminating. (ie: moreso than usual.) - Raj Singh

I've been a subscriber since #2 and I found this really fun. It's fun to listen to everyone loosen up a little. - Travis

Leo and John...I love ya, but it sounded like 2 old guys trying to get a couple hot girls drunk. It was like Baby Boomer Diggnation. Lisa cracked me up though. She was in fact crankier than JCD. Shira(sp?) annoyed me talking over everyone, going on and on about nothing and name dropping. - Jeff Lee

Even after all those booze and those ladies, Dvorak still couldn't say he likes Twitter. I've been a subscriber since the early days too and this was one of my favourites, but in the same breathe, my least favourite. I thought it was funny as hell, and I get some humour @Jeff Lee who thought you two sounded like you were trying to get a couple hot girls drunk. I THOUGHT THAT TOO!!! But, I know better. I also have to agree with Jeff when Shira kept talking over everyone - Kyle Burton

Continued... I also think Shira was trying to lead the conversation and in some parts direct where things were going. At at least one point, I took notice that she was directing and overpowering Dvorak and cooling him down. For me, that was a big turnoff and I actually switched to a Brittany Spears song (my iPod got ram sacked by my ex). But once i cooled down, I picked up where I left off. Sorry for the rant, but thats the only thing I didn't like, the rest was awesome as always. Nice work Leo. - Kyle Burton

I will take drinking Dvorak any day over Calacanus. - BigMatt

Robert Scoble

I think it is funny to read people who are whining about losing Twitter followers. It does NOT matter. Who you follow matters. Not who follows you.

July 23, 2008 - Comment - Like - Share

A Mitchell, Roy Montero, Mitchell Tsai and 36 other people liked this

I'm actually a lot more irked over the people I was following. I went down to 30 and I'm not too happy about that. Now I have to go and find them all over again and add them. Plus, I was following people I had never followed, including spammers. That was annoying. - Candace

46 more comments

True, but THAT number went straight to hell too! - Steve Isaacs

I agree to get the most out of twitter you have to follow the right people - Wayne Sutton

Isn't this a temporary issue? Temporary being a couple days maybe. - Rob Haas

That's all kinds of cool.. "Know a man by the company he keeps" for the digital age. - J. Abdul-Qahhar

...said all the people on friendfeed. /snorts ... i didn't realize my list went down, everyone was talking about it, but yeah, about half. I'm about 100 off now - Eric Rice

Yeah I lost both! So I guess I can whine now:) - MedicalQuack from twhirl

People love the attention. - Mathew™ one of a kind

I think that is true even in the general context Robert. Couldn't agree more. - Parth Awasthi

And if they're not whining about followers, they're bashing the FailWhale or complaining that it's down again. People, Twitter is FREE - Mona Nomura

Well, if you use your account as a promotion tool this is a problem. Loosing who you follow is in my opinion a smaller problem, since you'll probably remember if they were posting anything of importance. - Marcin Grodzicki

Boy I feel so much better now that I took the time to whine:) - MedicalQuack from twhirl

I think it's not only missing followers but also a matter of us having a new unexpected glitch in Twitter - and that after many of us spend quite a lot of time building our communities here and claiming we are not leaving because all the people we want to talk to are here. (Posted my thoughts at http://www.profy.com/2008... actually.) - Svetlana Gladkova from twhirl

Robert, I don't think you're right. Following is the bigger part of the game, but it's a lot easier to engage in the conversation when there are people listening, too. - Dan Kaplan

I had all mine saved in my Attensa RSS Feeds so all those folks will probably get another notice that I am following them again, a Twitter stalker:) - MedicalQuack from twhirl

I like what you were trying to say, and to be honest I don't care how it is on Twitter, but at least on FF we are all part of the conversation, regardless of subscriber or subscribee. That is what makes FF such a great idea. You yourself have carried on the conversation with other subscribers in the comments innumerable times, for which you should be commended. - Aaron Krug

Svetlana: You are so right - the issue of 'Twitter being first to the market' was probably just solved :) I bet competition is really happy. - Marcin Grodzicki

Twitter needs a back up system we can save a re-load, a simple OPML would be just grand if it could work and upload for when things like this happen. - MedicalQuack from twhirl

There's always the competition Identi.ca, but nobody's over there - MedicalQuack from twhirl

Yes, Robert, it's shouldn't be a popularity contest about followers. But the people that use twitter for some actual networking, would be annoyed by losing track of some of the contacts they've made in the last few weeks because of this event. Both following and followers that were added in recent weeks are missing. - Louie

Dan: if you follow the right people you will get smarter and will have interesting things to say yourself and THAT WILL bring followers. Plus, smart people look at their responses tab so if you are conversational you will always have someone listening. - Robert Scoble

Checkpoints, rollbacks, audit trails, transaction logs, backups, restores - Database 101 for the Twitter guys. I'm glad the FriendFeed team has Google experience. :-) - Mitchell Tsai

Bingo! - Jonathon

Rob, that's true, except it's a GLITCH in Twitter that's making people lose followers and people that they follow. That's what the whining's from. - Dave Moyer

Robert - People new to blogging etc. want (need?) to be followed on any platform they can. You can learn from the people you follow. You (if it's what you want) promote and engage by the people following you .... but heck, Mona's right (again??). It is free :) - Charlie Anzman

If it's 'actual' networking, shouldn't contact information be exchanged? And Twitter is FREE. Everyone knows it's still unstable at times. (read: FailWhale hoopla) Why rely solely on Twitter? BAFFLING - Mona Nomura

That is the main problem, Robert, is that Twitter has now put a cap on number of people many of us can follow. When I got to about 2554 that I was following, I abruptly got a message saying I cannot follow any more people, including following back anyone who has added me since a few days ago. Therefore, I am no longer able to follow people I just met or send direct messages to them. I care more about that than how many people are following me. - Cathryn Hrudicka

Cathryn: oh, I didn't know about that. Interesting. That sucks. I hate caps on numbers of friends. - Robert Scoble

Robert it depends on whether you are using twitter as an informational or social tool, no? If the latter, losing followers is much more significant. - jeremy ettinghausen

jeremy: you mean conversational or marketing tool. I wonder if any real followers went away anyway? - Robert Scoble

Yes, actually, I got a "sorry, you've reached your quota of followers" a few days before Twitter cut any of the people following me. Both happened without any prior warning. If they were cutting only spammers, that would be one thing, but they abruptly cut about 1000 followers that included friends and colleagues. I'm intermittently still getting the "quota" message when I try to follow anyone new or re-follow someone they cut without my permission. Hope they get this sorted out and get rid of quotas ASAP. - Cathryn Hrudicka

Mona, if you went out to events, you would see that exchanging twitter IDs is the de facto method of exchanging "contact information" for many people in the SV. Business cards get lost and it's an instant confirmation when both parties follow each other on twitter, on the spot. If people's gmail accounts suddenly lost a month's worth of activity, would it be okay just because it's free as well? - Louie

do we know if they'll restore the friends and followers to a more recent db/backup copy? - Christian Anderson

I like Louie's point about " Business cards get lost", but I routinely photograph 'em with my phone and then sync to Evernote. Gives me a local and Web-based copy. And the paper version goes into my Moleskine. - Dean Barnett

Louie: that is the EXACT reason why I do not participate in Tweet-ups or whatever they're called. My communication method is solely not dependent on Twitter and I personally do not want my Tweets to be a on parade of location blasting and broadcasting to the world, I HAVE A LIFE - Mona Nomura

Umm, you're missing the point. If I've lost followers, it's safe to say that I've lost some of the people I follow. So now I have to go back and find out which ones. - Ian Betteridge

its not the people that follow me it was people that i follow that was bothering me but ok now..at least for me - Uway

Ian: I was addressing Louie's comment to me.... but to address the point I'm missing, it's no secret the Failwhale ate followers and followees. There's a great blog post about how to auto-follow people who subscribe to you. http://bit.ly/38hPFS I mean what's done is done and complaining is not really going to solve anything. just saying - Mona Nomura

Hm, interesting perspective, Robert. But aren''t your followers part of your outreach? The people you influence? The peeps who *want* to hear from you? - Mari Smith

that sounds counter-intuitive; Robert, please explain - Mindaugas Dagys

You NEED people to follow you otherwise if you post stuff no one will respond - Cecil Sandus

In the case of friendfeed, if someone follows you, then other people that are subscribed directly to that someone will see your posts. Makes it more valuable. I wasn't following you Scoble, until i started reading your posts through Leo Laporte (I was subscribe to him, not you, yet i was able to see your posts because he was subscribed to you). Does that make sense? - Justin

Mindaugus: yes. I'm trying to give you an insight. Let's say followers ARE important (if you read between the lines of my writing I do find them important for many of the reasons listed here above). Well, how do you get great followers? Well, I've learned that if I listen to jerks, I become a jerk myself. If I listen to brilliant people, I become more brilliant. If I listen to romantics, I'll become more romantic. If I listen to artists, I'll become more artistic. Since I want to have conversations with... - Robert Scoble

...smart people, isn't it more important for me to worry about subscribing to smart people than worrying about who follows me? After all, if I respond to a smart person, they'll see that response in their responses tab in Twitter (or under their clusters here in FriendFeed). If they find me interesting enough they'll also follow me. So, by worrying only about who I'm following, I'll probably gain the kinds of followers I want (add in a few blocks here and there to get jerks out of my life). - Robert Scoble

The problem with all of this is Twitter is really screwed up. I thought it was just messing up the counts. A few months back it screwed up the counts for people who had 10s of thousands of following and followed. It sounds like this time they rolled back the database and actually lost data. And people wonder why I've moved most of my life over to FriendFeed. - Robert Scoble

Yes your totally right... - JegerPhil - Phil from twhirl

twitter's continual mis-management of their product which is now resulting in corrupt data of my Following / Follower "count" is extremely troubling. twitter has shot itself in the proverbial foot! They've destroyed credibility and trust in their product and their making themselves appear like total dim-whits! I care about both stats because I use it as a 2 way conversational tool with my network, which has been compromised. - Susan Beebe

but my e-penis is smaller now :( - Chris Harris

Robert Scoble

@Karoli says FF is a storage facility. Explain how this message got to Twitter from FriendFeed then (I didn't use Twitter to answer this ...

May 22, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Sarah Perez, Ken Jones, petitesphrases and 3 other people liked this

FF is the storage facility for the social me - Justin Yost

I totally disagree, FF is as active if not more than Twitter for me. - Eric Florenzano

FF breaks if I reply from Twitter. Big fail. It breaks If I reply from my blog, which I did. another big fail. So you sent me a tweet from FF, which some people will reply to on Twitter and others will reply to here. The Twitter replies will confuse people not on FF and the FF replies will be missed by others, fracturing the conversation and forcing divided attention. - Karoli

Robert Scoble

@micah I like FriendFeed Rooms so far. They need a way to automatically reshare things into the rooms, though. If they do that, then it' ...

May 22, 2008 from Twitter - Comment - Like - Share

Mitchell Tsai, Sarah Perez, Edward Hill and 7 other people liked this

yeah why not if it is about a blog, pull in the rss feed of the blog or a topic an rss feed of the google search - Justin Yost

5 more comments

Is it just just me, or is there no way to search out already-existing rooms? How do we look for rooms that match our areas of interest? - Lisa, sfo

huh, had an identity crisis for a sec there - thought @Scobleizer was at-replying me on the Twitter; Note to Self: i'm @micahwittman . sorry nothing to see here. - Micah Wittman

The "reshare to room" feature is there in FriendFeed! - Lawrence Liu from twhirl

The beauty of FF is how easy it us to share something quickly and with little mental resistence (hence the noise). I wonder if rooms distracts from this simplicity? Do you really want to have to think about which rooms to share to once we have separate rooms for specific topics that often overlap each other? - Alan Cheslow

I predict that this thing will blow up with WWDC. The concept was first seen in Jaiku (channels) but never fully utilised. - Jamie

imo, Room Admins should be able to add feeds to rooms. - Chris Hollander

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