espresso and a sigaret, and im ready to kick off the day;) - Marcel van der Laan
nah, espresso will make you more stressed for sure... this was two hours ago though... so did it help?? a good joint helps me so much more :p - Josue Salazar
Yeah cause' caffeine is a depressant! Throw in some sugar and Skittles and you've got it made! lol! Seriously have a GREAT afternoon! :) - Jeff Garlick
“One feature Friendfeed is missing that would REALLY help people to like FF more, is customized home page settings, kinda like Twitter, so people can give a little personal flare to their FF accounts. If we could upload a photo background, or change the colors, etc. it would make it a lot more homey.”
If using firefox, you should check out the available greasemonkey scrips. Will update with a link when I'm not on iPhone - Justin Korn
i was just thinking this. i'm making biz cards for the new media expo and thought it would be best to just put a friendfeed link on it and let people go from there. then i thought about what friendfeed looked like and wished for a customizable home page. - Anika Malone
men - not as useful as friend scraping addin and imaginary friending , or de-duplicating, or flowing likes back to the service in question - Phill Price
@phil, you are right not as important. But you might be surprised at how much it will do to make people want to come back to a place they feel comfortable. I still think the user interface here is awesome but the site design is clunky and doesn't feel good. - Andrew Baron
I would like to have some sticky tabs open every time I visit FF. - Benedikt Koehler
Oh no, please not! FriendFeed is so clean and tidy and I want it to stay like that. It's really focussing on the news and the conversation about it. why do we need different background colours or pictures for that? - Matthias Schwenk
@matthias I was ganna say, for the nay sayers, you could have an override button so you could see FF rendered in the <default> style. To answer your question, there is no one answer to design. In a social network, people have different aesthetic opinions and thats okay. - Andrew Baron
Please no! The great thing about FF is that it doesn't look as terrible as MySpace. It's clean and simple. - Ernie Oporto
Oh god, please no. All of that is just a slippery slope to Myspace hell. - Alfredo Padilla
I like this idea, make it nice and simple..no MySpace spammy crap. I think we really do need a landing / profile page for each user. - Susan Beebe
I like this, would welcome it, and much more, but I seriously doubt they'd do it. They aren't trying to be Twitter. - Dave Winer
@Andrew I agree with you, you should be able choose either the <default> or your customized page. Myself I like the clean and tidy interface but social networkers on FF should have a choice. - Jack Wilson, K4SAC
the other thing I would like to see on friend feed is the ability to list all you networks on it and still use ping - Richard Kannegieser
via twhirl
I seldom go to individual's feeds anyways. Just let it flow - Nicholas Molnar
Nicholas: Same here, but if I do *want* to see what that person is about, then it would be nice to have a profile to view. - Susan Beebe
I am against the home page customization, but for the profile info. - Tim Hoeck
Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! - Rick Powell
Well, thankfully it's not the government's job to prevent its citizens from being disgusted, it's merely its job to ensure equal protection under the law. In which case, you need to think about your use of the word "legitimate." - Rick Powell
It's because you subscribed to me and haven't figured out the "Hide" feature of FriendFeed yet. You'll only see people I've "Liked" or "Friended" though, so if you are following me, why wouldn't you want to also see the people I like? - Robert Scoble
well, now i figured it out! Sorry, didn't mean to offend. Still trying to figure out FF. - Chris Cavs
+1 to Chris Cavs. I don't want to see Scoble's friends messages. FF is too noisy, especially Scoble! (no offense) - wrecks
That is what I love about FF. I see people I wouldn't have normally seen. I think it is a neat feature. - Michelle Martinez
We're all still trying to figure it out! :-) - Robert Scoble
You know what? I'm not following Scoble (even it it's actually the case) He's just too noisy for me but through him I follow his followers and discover new things, he's just a pipeline for me ;-) - directeur
People who don't use the content discovery portion of Friendfeed are really missing out. There is so much interesting stuff being shared and so many interesting people conversing if you expand your horizons a bit. But let's make a deal: you can hide everyone but Robert Scoble, but you can't complain about how all the content on Friendfeed is about Friendfeed and Twitter, okay? - Mark Trapp
I'm really trying to find good tech stuff that isn't about Twitter or FriendFeed. Right now it's really hard. - Robert Scoble
ok, so the question becomes, how do I turn the feature back on? I hid all friends of friends, but maybe I want to pick whose friends I see. hmmm. - Chris Cavs
All the hidden stuff is at the bottom of the home page. I think you can "unhide" from there. - Robert Scoble
Chris, at the bottom of every page, there's a "Show n hidden entries" link. Click on it, and unhide the entries of friends of friends. It'll undo what you did. - Mark Trapp
ah ha! see, you learn something new every day. - Chris Cavs
Robert; I've been using the Democratic primary as a good analogue in my head for the Twitter/Friendfeed news overflow in tech: every week, I hope against all hope that this will be the last week and Twitter will figure out what's wrong with itself and we can have service unity, but every week it starts anew. If Obama and Clinton can end their feud, there can be peace in our time for Twitter and Friendfeed. - Mark Trapp
To that, I think the tech news circle will become much more interesting once the clusterdrama of Twitter's fall from grace is finally resolved. - Mark Trapp
But isn't everyone a friend of Scoble? - Heidi Cool
Chris and Heidi: I seriously doubt that's true. Heck, I wasn't following Heidi until just now. But, seriously, 12,200+ follow me, but I'm only following 2,800. Not to mention I only "Like" or "Comment" on a small percentage off the noise I see flowing through my browser. I try to make those things high-value bits cause I'm very aware that everytime I like something 12,000 people potentially see it and I don't want to waste their time. - Robert Scoble
I mean, not that I don't like you Scoble! - Chris Cavs
This is a great discussion. I finally figured out how to Hide all the stuff from the "Barack Obama" FriendFeed. Whew, I can keep my subscription to Scoble now. =} - Craig Eddy
Thanks Robert (re awareness). I think you've found the right balance -- at least for me, as I've never hidden anything you've "liked" or "commented." Does raise the need for a potential "third option," however: perhaps "recommend"? That would buy you (and a lot of us) the ability to freely like and/or comment on things. - Joanmarie
Robert, but I am/or have been on your lists on Pownce and Twitter! I don't know how you keep up, your list may be small (relatively speaking) on FF, but between all the services your bound to be beating LaPorte! - Heidi Cool
“Why did Pownce and Jaiku not take off like Twitter? Because everyone was on Twitter. If everyone decides to leave Twitter, that puts Pownce and Jaiku back in the game.”
The file sharing aspects of Pownce (esp for Pro users) is enticing, but I agree, the community is definitely still on Twitter for the most part. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I wish I could have made that "If" in big bold letters. :) - Bwana
The community plays a big part, yes, but there's more to it than that. Twitter had a complete feature set (for what it is); at launch, Pownce was limited by a lack of API, and is still hindered by the customization options. Jaiku is now inherently limited by Google's invite-only approach, and last I checked still lacks SMS and a full API. - Evan Sims
i see more and more posts from jaiku every day. - edythe
I disagree that Twitter had a complete feature set at launch. One of its most powerful features to date, track, didn't come along until much later in the game. Also @reply features were not built in in the beginning. For the record, Jaiku now supposedly has a US shortcode: http://www.jaiku.com/blog/2008... - Bwana
Agree Evan - what really spawned the growth of twitter was their api. look at how many Twitter-related sites there are. all the more reason that twitter better be careful not to alienate the developer community. Edythe - am also seeing a lot more activity from Jaiku, but not Pownce here on FF. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I didn't say Twitter had a complete feature set at launch, Bwana, I said Pownce lacked an API at launch. And that's great about the US shortcode on Jaiku, but I think it's too little too late. Besides, Jaiku has way too much noise IMHO; I used Jaiku exclusively for three months trying to move away from Twitter, and it worked well enough I suppose- but the noise added by people's feeds to the stream is extremely annoying. - Evan Sims
Yeah, Brian. The API is where it's at. The developers are the ones who make all these cool tools that get people to use the service in the first place. - Evan Sims
I am not sure a large number of "Twitter related sites" is all the much of a positive. I think most are hard to find and use in context, are often flakey (maybe this is the service though). - Brian Sullivan
That said, I do hope the fail whale gets a horrible, painful death. :P - Evan Sims
I agree the API is very important. This is why this article really troubled me: http://staynalive.com/articles... Twitter disabled some API features at a moment's notice. (It affected an app that I use, Hahlo). That's one way to really tick off your developers and their users. - Bwana
I agree that feeds in Jaiku stream is too much. I have friendfeed for that. - rambn
via Alert Thingy
I hear you, Bwana. I've been developing apps using the Twitter API for well over a year now, and am in fact developing one for a client right now. I was shocked and more then a little concerned to hear they crippled the API over this. It doesn't appear to have really helped all that much, either. *stares at the fail whale* - Evan Sims
100% correct. It was never about tech, it was ALWAYS about community. However everyone isn't going to leave Twitter no matter how much Twitter deserves it. - Duncan Riley
Summize and Twhirl are pretty impt tools I rely on for my Twitter workflow. I also like Twittervision, Twittermaps, and Quotably as complimentary sites that provide different ways to view the Twitterverse. - Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Twitter is *simple*: RTS = Real Twitter Syndication. It's a *human* feed of information *and* only allowed 140 characters. Less is more. People *love* that aspect: keeps online activity to its greatest minimum :) - Barbara K. Baker
It was about tech, too. I keep trying Pownce and Jaiku out and just don't like their layouts and feature set as much. But at this point? It absolutely is about the community. That's the ultimate lockin. - Robert Scoble
Exactly, rambn. Do one thing and do it right- it's the motto of web 2.0. Jaiku tries to be too many things, and just ends up being so/so at all of them. - Evan Sims
That doesn't put them back in the game! There's plenty besides a community that Jaiku and Pownce are missing such as a shitload of apps that caters to Twitter. - Corvida
According to Twitter, the fail whale is going to be around for "months". (via Scoble's interview) I know Twitter has a really really loyal fan base. I don't know if they'll put up with 2-3 months of sporadic uptime and no IM functionality. Ouch. - Bwana
If everyone leaves Twitter, what good are those Twitter apps? The qualifier for Jaiku and Pownce is if and I do mean IF everyone leaves Twitter. - Bwana
I could probably deal with the downtime, but I know about half the people I really use Twitter to stay in touch with (that is, my very close friends) are already looking at alternatives out of frustration. - Evan Sims
Jaiku and Pownce do have open APIs that killer apps can be written on, but it's always about the community. - Kris Gainsforth
via twhirl
If the Twitter population drops I think we'll see a lot of products adapt to use other services. It could, potentially, be a good thing. Thwirl's support for FriendFeed, for example. - Evan Sims
They do now, Kris, but they didn't at launch. Pownce didn't get one for almost a year. First impressions are a lot more important than you might think. Perhaps even more so for the developers that use those APIs. - Evan Sims
I think Pownce makes it harder to connect with people using the Friend model. Twitter, like Flickr, made the right choice to just Follow people. If they decide to Follow you, then great. If not, it's not like you have to bug them with a Friend Request. - William Beem
I've been using plurk for a few days, and it just reminds me how painful it is to use twit without apps like twhirl - ellaconic
via twhirl
don't know seems interesting but without the current support that twitter has I'm hard pressed to switch over. Twitter currently does more for me with bots and community than other features. I do think it's a good idea though. Nice find Leo. - Bryan
Plurk navigation is a little odd. Using the keyboard arrows shows you the old plurks but there are no navigation clues on their site. - Keith Green
Plurk is pretty cool, like the UI and implementation, unfortunately they're having server issues as well :) - MG Siegler
Plurk? Hmmm. Leo keeps trying to get people off of Twit and it didn't work the first time. Of course now that Twitter is limping - Robert Scoble
Scoble: It's a possibility with how Twitter is having so much trouble but then again Leo is one of the heavy weights so who knows!!! - Paul
Plurk has a funky UI, but if they can keep the service up better than Twitter, they could prevail in that space. - Jack Carlson
the timeline is kinda cool, karma concept is lame, headless dog icon is just plain strange. - Benton
Jack: the problem is that Leo reported that Plurk was down this morning. Fail. - Robert Scoble
I can't read their TOS now... it redirects me to to an error page - directeur
Robert: Some downtime for a beta service is acceptable to me. If Plurk continues to mirror Twitter's downtime, I'll gladly add to that fail assessment. I agree with others here, Friendfeed, Tumblr and Pownce more than make up for the loss of Twitter, and Plurk (gawd I hate that name) if it comes to that. - Jack Carlson
I think that Plurk has more chance to 'catch on' with 'general' internet users, think glorified Facebook statuses. - Timothy Neilen
All this actually makes me wonder if we're not reinventing notions like forums and IRC channels... - directeur
I foresee a new career for Scoble...joining and attempting to break beta social sites. :D - Jack Carlson
The headless dog is actually customizable, there's lots of choices you can replace it with. You can unlock new ones by gaining karma too, which is a nice little bonus. - Evan Sims
