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Lance Schone › Likes
FeedDemon 3.0 Beta Syncs to Google Reader [Downloads] - http://lifehacker.com/5234049...
FFTornado, Lance Schone, Chris Nixon and 2 other people liked this
Going to give this a try for sure. Used to be a dedicated FD user....but moved to GR a couple years back.
- Sean Brady
how does this compare with digsby?
- Jason Shultz
Roll Your Own Blog Leaderboard With Google Reader Trends - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
1001 noisy cameras, Alexander Ebel, accesine and 19 other people liked this
There are a lot of FriendFeeders on here, and I'm sure that's no accident.
- Louis Gray
Thanks for sharing your list. There are about 10 blogs I'm not familiar with yet.
- Mitchell Tsai
How did you compile this? Was there a tool you used?
- Jesse Stay
Jesse, that's from the Trends link in Google Reader. Select Shared and display the top 40 from the last 30 days. Then, it's boring Excel for charts.
- Louis Gray
Oh cool - I never noticed that! Heh - you're #5 on my list. It goes first, TechCurnch, second, Inside Facebook, Third, Mashable, Fourth, VentureBeat, and then you (last 30 days)
- Jesse Stay
from twhirl
Google Reader Trends link: http://www.google.com/reader... (on a side note, Kevin Fox put it there)
- Louis Gray
This is some serious stuff Louis. Thanks for sharing your analytics. I'm curious to see the effects that are spawned from it.
- Mike Fruchter
Great idea! I'll definitely keep checking in.
- Brandon Titus
thanks Louis, I'm putting together my top 40. I'm going to stay on top of this. It would be cool if I could extract this leaderboard with Yahoo pipes and display it on my blog. Here's my top 10 http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Bwana ☠
38 ??? :)
- Charlie Anzman
RSSmeme crossed 7000 visits yesterday - http://www.rssmeme.com/#
Lance Schone, AJ Batac and (jeff)isageek liked this
I've been quiet on the RSSmeme front lately but just checked Google Analytics to discover traffic (visits and absolute unique visitors) are up.
- Benjamin Golub
from Bookmarklet
congrats on the milestone
- (jeff)isageek
Y Combinator: Startup Ideas We'd Like to Fund - http://ycombinator.com/ideas...
Daddddd, Simplicio Gamboa III, Scotty Allen and 99 other people liked this
"So we're trying something new: we're going to list some of the ideas we've been waiting to see, but only describe them in general terms. It may be that recipes for ideas are the most useful form anyway, because imaginative people will take them in directions we didn't anticipate."
- Paul Buchheit
from Bookmarklet
Good ideas, mostly. Of course, as always, the devil is in the details (and to some extent, I think that's the point).
- Paul Buchheit
interesting list, surprised to see photo/video sharing sites on there.
- Adam Kazwell
From pg's comment "Most people who read that one [search engine that concentrates on design] will think "huh?" But if someone reads it and thinks "Damn, how did he hear about what we're working on?" that's someone we'd really love to hear from."
- seman
"More open alternatives to Wikipedia." Wonder whatever happened to Google Knol...
- Philipp Lenssen
They should start FF rooms for each of these. I'd contribute to a few.
- Amir Gharaat
I think most of these are *great* ideas. This post isn't food for thought, it's a banquet :-)
- Karim
Seems a little like bait? Some of the ideas are excellent reading and should be interesting to a few thinking about 'what they can do better'. Some of the other mentions (and wording in particular) leads me to wonder why go public with the list.
- Charlie Anzman
Related problem: Using your inbox as a to-do list. The solution is probably to acknowledge this rather than prevent it. --- :-)
- Kishore Balakrishnan
Jesus, this single page has more original content and ideas than the last 1000 ff and blog posts I read. Inspiring.
- John Murray
AWESOME idea, thanks for sharing Paul... this is going to be fun to watch!
- Susan Beebe
Haha i posted thast too. Although Paul is most more visible on FF, of course.
- Akshay Dodeja
Very interesting, especially #4
- Scott Schnaars
did any of the y combinator startup go big ? perhaps an ignorant question... a couple of them i know of are scribd.com, and a search engine for mechanical parts.. forgot the name.
- Krishna Gade
We're working on #3.
- Ryan Kuder
search engine for mechanical parts: http://octopart.com ?
- Peter Stuifzand
Interesting: "Advertising could be made much better if it tried to please its audience, instead of treating them like victims who deserve x amount of abuse in return for whatever free site they're getting. ... What we have now is basically print and TV advertising translated to the web. " How does TV advertising treat its audience better than web advertising?
- Constantinos Michael
TV advertising is generally more entertaining than web advertising.
- Ajay Kapal
@ Peter yeah... I was talking about octopart thanks for the link.
- Krishna Gade
@ Ryan, what is it ? do you have something outside to try ?
- Krishna Gade
would have liked to see this idea for an iPhone App Builder make Paul's list....seems much for YC-esque: http://joelaz.com/post...
- Adam Kazwell
@ Ryan Kuder, I've been looking into #3 for a while, I'd love to chat if your in the bay area
- Kris
I definitely vote for better email, or better say, better communication tool.
- Jan Horna
What I'm interested in are #5, 6, and 7. :)
- imabonehead
Sorry to say... The "Y Combinator" team is a little ...ahem... short on business expertise.
- Mitchell Tsai
re 13, I wonder if the ESP-game trick can be spun out into an entire educational system.
- j1m
Skitch.com > duncanriley > Who's in your FriendVenn? - http://skitch.com/duncanr...
Daniel Robitaille, Jon Price, Mitchell Tsai and 23 other people liked this
time to fix a few things. Brilliant service, check it out http://ff.deasil.com/friendv...
- Duncan Riley
from Bookmarklet
unfollowed 159 people, added 110. Blocked 3, didn't follow 3 as I couldn't understand the feed.
- Duncan Riley
thanks Duncan and I was one of the 'new' added ...
- Lee Whittaker
Lee, apologies I'd missed you before
- Duncan Riley
Hmmm. Must try and balance things out. Useful tool. Why doesn't FF do this?
- John Samuelson
I really liked it. Before how I say that I utilized it although it should be obvious. ;) How are you using it?
- Mathew A. Koeneker
Matthew, to remove all the people who aren't following me and to add those that are
- Duncan Riley
Thanks for posting this. Been needing just such a tool to track down who I've inadvertently snubbed.
- Todd McKinney
My who i follow who doesn't follow me list looks like the who's who of the internets.
- Morgan
@Morgan, same here. I only took on the "follow those I'm not following" half of the task. If I unfollowed people for not following me, it would get pretty quiet in here.
- Todd McKinney
I mentioned in a post recently that I was considering your advice of unfollowing people who didn't follow me back; I got overwhelming negative reactions, http://pastoid.com/0n+. Either I didn't express why well enough, or people were just reading the title, not the post.
- Michael C. Harris
@Todd I agree - crickets!
- Morgan
I think if I unfollowed everyone that isn't following back, I would still see the important stuff. The who's who stuff will get reshared/liked by the people who actually listen to me. If not...did I really care?
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
What a resource, thank you Duncan for linking to this. I need to do some return adding. I've been trying to figure out a formula for this, follow upon follow for at least a week, then un-subscribe if the stream is too noisy or not relevant to my interests (which is not a slight, just what I find interesting)
- michael sean wright
@Duncan Riley. How did you choose, who to follow and who to unfollow? There in lies an algorithm, that should be a part of every social network. I have an equation worked out, and a tool in works (for my needs), and just wanted to see if it matches up. (you can take this offline if you prefer it shvelmur {at} gmail )
- Shivanand Velmurugan
Excellent share, Duncan. Thanks.
- Ontario Emperor
I was with the app until the part where it said it relies on screenscraping and requires your FF login. I'm leery about giving any third party app my login info, aren't you?
- TDavid
Nope.
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Ran this tool last week and balanced out my follows. I've since re-added some of the drops, but this is a great tool to spring clean your FF.
- Chris Baskind
Rare early 1980s product display photographs - http://www.idiottoys.com/2008...
David Muir, imabonehead, Mike Fruchter and 41 other people liked this
...btw please excuse all my old Tweets spamming your feeds. I blocked that "You" person so hopefully all my older crap won't magically appear. ugh
- Mona Nomura
from Bookmarklet
That model 100 (the one the guy has on the plane) seemed really cool 25 years ago -- kinda like a computing version of Flock of Seagulls.
- Dave Pelland
Oh nostalgia....
- Nicholas Kreidberg
Is that Vanna White on the very left?
- Mona Nomura
you ever watch the old TV commercials? :)
- l0ckergn0me
Look at that dual 8" floppy drives and compact dot-matrix printer hotness. Oh yeah!
- Louie
I think that's Sarah Purcell.
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
that's definitely sarah purcell. lol
- Cee Bee
I love the family huddled around the Apple II on the bed...classic.
- Live4Emma (L4S)
More retro love @ http://www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk/retro...
- Jules
I love the pic where the guy has 20lbs of hardware on his bed. Very ergonomic.
- Jonathon
for the guy on the bed: "yeah kids! see? you can touch a key, and it shows up on this screen! Neat!" because... that's all it could do
- anna sauce
*sigh* These pictures take me back to when I was a little kid, messing around on my dad's Commodore VIC-20. Typing takes forever when you're just a little kid and learned the alphabet not too long ago. Haha
- Louie
I love how pictures trigger nostalgia and how everyone shares their stories :) BTW I'm investing in the IBM clicker keyboard :)
- Mona Nomura
love how the guy using the DEC is typing away, staring at the printer...
- Jericho
Uuuuuuuugh the 80's I feel so lucky I was too young to remember them.
- Geoff Schultz
VIC-20! Oh wow, I'd completely forgotten that thing. With the whopping 5 KBytes of memory.
- DGentry
Don't hate on the 8bit and floppys Geoff!
- Mona Nomura
When floppies actually flopped (sorta)
- Michael W. May
...and we had to be veeeeeery careful to avoid touching the middle hahaha
- Mona Nomura
Now, I feel old ... luckily it will only last an hour or so
- Charlie Anzman
Wow, these pics are strangely old now... crap! I am geeky geezer!! ha, ha!!
- Susan Beebe
We had a Vic-20. I once spent many hours typing in one of those programs in the back of the book, only to run out of memory with just a few lines to go. I was so mad!
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
from NoiseRiver
Those are great! Brings back memories of what I wished for when I was 12 years old.
- Mike Reynolds
What should I learn today?
Nicholas Kreidberg, Mitchell Tsai, Evan Brown and 16 other people liked this
I remember learning to use Adobe Illustrator back in 1989. It is one of those apps that totally changed how I looked at computer graphics. But is there any app today that requires such a steep learning curve? Anyway, in my attempt to make my blog more useful, I'm going to try to learn something new every day. What should we learn together?
- Robert Scoble
What's going to happen tomorrow.
- Iain Baker
How to build an IPhone app!
- John Duff
Persian Language :D
- Mil∂d
Learn the exact color of the sky at sundown. Not just "orange" or "pink" but go through all the colors and find the best matches. Then, we would have an even better description of what colors it is when the sun goes down near our homes. Yes, completely non tech and nothing at all to do with the web but..you asked what we should learn and, everyone can do that.
- Candace
Bob- how about XNA Game Studio Express, let's make games?
- Ryan
Iain: tomorrow we're going on a photowalk at about noon at San Francisco's Ferry Building with Thomas Hawk. We're also having Buzz Bruggeman on WorkFast.TV at 10 a.m. I hear he'll teach me some new stuff.
- Robert Scoble
I'd like to learn Episodic, but it's beta is still invite only.
- Brian Ries
Candace: in Half Moon Bay? Easy: gray.
- Robert Scoble
Booo! Now look at all the shades of the color and find the names of those shades..I'm sure there's some blues and other colors in there. @Tim; 42
- Candace
Mandrian Chinese
- Dan Harbison
from Alert Thingy
How to build a flame thrower http://bit.ly/1ca374
- gregory
To exercise your long overdue obligation to mention SEO and Tech Daily :)
- Charlie Anzman
why you should add Folksonomy to your blog: http://tinyurl.com/5ugljf
- Aziz Poonawalla
If you're going on a photowalk tomorrow, why not catch up on photo blogs. Great post here http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Andrew Smith
Learn how to add Disqus to your blog so that you can start responding to comments via e-mail when you're remote?
- Robert Seidman
Good call, Dan Harbison. I started Mandarin about 5 weeks ago. Everyday is another challenge and I'm lovin' every minute of it.
- Christopher Harley
Robert: I'm scared of Disqus and other centralized commenting systems. I'll discuss that on my blog soon.
- Robert Scoble
I think one of the best things to learn these days is how to give back to the community. I find it too often where companies are only interested in themselves and not their employees or customers. Cause marketing should be a key initiative for every company. Not just a monetary donation but get your employees and customers involved. It changes the whole culture in a long-term positive effect. Which cause do you support?
- Randy Ksar
what is Google up to with Knol? Also learn all about the new Open-source initiatives, like Bill Katz’s *Bloog* app based on Google App Engine...this is a new GAE based blogging platform http://bloog.billkatz.com/?
- Susan Beebe
Scoble: I hate to intrude, but any chance I could meet up with you and Thomas tomorrow for the photowalk? I work a few blocks away from the Ferry Building. I've been dying to meet both of you and I can't imagine a better place/way. If not, totally cool, but I thought I would ask :)
- Justin Korn
Cuneiform. Then teach me!
- Urban Thought Collective
I believe there is a plugin for WP that allows you to respond to comments via email. If there isn't...there should be :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Justin: of course! It'll be open to everyone.
- Robert Scoble
how to write Greasemonkey scripts! lol, seriously!
- Marshall Kirkpatrick
@Randy couldn't agree more. A friend and I had a discussion recently about things he's doing to try to give back more as well as inspire others to do the same and he's also written about it (http://snurl.com/34bd8). Doesn't always have to be the next great wizbang tech gadget to feel good and inspired.
- Ron Emrick
how to narrow your focus for a while
- Dave Coustan
How to cook something different than what you would usually eat. It's fun, useful and you can blog about it.
- Steven Perez
@Robert I think I'm going to print "What should I learn today?" in 72pt type on some nice paper and hang it in my home office.
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
Disqus is one of the few programs that scares me, not just figuring out where/how to add the code but also what the consequences might be if I did. Yesterday I finally figured out how to successfully add G Analytics code to Blogger and Typepad for the 1st time, that was tough enough to start.
- Sally Church
Sweet! Just realized I didn't contribute to the thread... Learn: I feel we are kind of lingering in web 2.0. What is the next step? What should/is 3.0 going to look like? (edit: Just realized this is probably another thread and not a learn topic...doh!)
- Justin Korn
Learn about the semantic web and linked data. That way if you can explain it and deem it worthy, people may listen.
- Rob Diana
I'm going to learn about this software later.. .it just came out today. heh http://www.silverbackapp.com
- Daynah
all about yahoo searchmonkey
- john conroy
learn about something out of your element
- Anna Haro
google analytics and how accurate it actually is in determining trafficking trends and weather or not the data can be corrupted or manipulated by hackers and software.
- Chris Conway
Learn something non-technical but useful, like how to fix a running toilet or how to change your oil in the car.
- Andrew Leyden
Robert -- you should take a well-deserved vacation from learning for a day or two. :) You have one of the most ferociously inquisitive and acquisitive minds for new knowledge I've encountered on or off the net. You're making me feel lazy and sluggish.
- Sean McBride
You could learn how to design a satellite using MIT's Open Course Ware courses... http://beta.flowgram.com/f...
- Tony Lopez
How to get like, 50 comments in one hour. Oh wait. You figured that one out.
- Josh Haley
Learn how to edit video. Learn about cinematic composition. Learn about how the best interviewers get the best interviews. Then practice it all with your video capturing passion!
- Gib
Slightly different twist on Tony's suggestion, MIT just posted their Toy Product Design course. Explore that with your son (if he would find it interesting) - http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb...
- Casey
Learn to juggle!
- Niclas Johansson
That's a great question to ask yourself every day. Sometimes we discover an answer we had never dreamed possible before. Hooray!
- Cathryn Hrudicka
Scoble, what did you learn today? I learned about upgrade scripts in the product I'm working on.
- Jordan Hofker
I think I've temporarily become obsessed with the word fail. Everything negative now is XYZ fail. Even my posts are reflecting it
Scott Lockhart, Parth Awasthi, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and 17 other people liked this
It's a Grammar FAIL.
- Chris Baskind
Ted Dziuba WIN ;)
- Paul Montgomery
Gregory, I just picked up my son from school, every crap driver I saw I mentally noted as having a driving fail....it's getting out of control! :-)
- Duncan Riley
Duncan: It's affecting all of us...FAIL!
- Justin Korn
Origionality FAIL!
- Robert Scoble
It's like a disease. I need help.
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
Admitting Fail obsession = FAIL!
- Mona Nomura
Remember: when you use fail word too much, you program your mind negatively. Maybe you should make yourself use something more positive?
- Svetlana Gladkova
from twhirl
I agree—I have never liked the words "fail" or "failure" and don't usually use them. It is more positive to think of things that don't turn out as learning experiences or risks you took that didn't pan out right away.
- Cathryn Hrudicka
Svetlana, you're right. What's the acceptable opposite though. WIN?
- Duncan Riley
FTW (for the win) or simply WIN. But it's all in the intonation! FAIL is verbalized positively and in a playful way. That's why it has more of a fun connotation than a negative one :)
- Mona Nomura
I think Success. Winning is someone elses definition, Success is your definition. Not always the same thing
- Roger Kondrat
Roger, success isn't catchy like FAIL is. Mona, v. good point.
- Duncan Riley
Agree with Mona...when I write FAIL (or when I say it) I say it in my head very sarcastically. It's not exactly positive, but it's all in good fun. Positivity FAIL!
- Justin Korn
yeah pretty bad when you are even calling yourself epic fail like i did the other night when i forget to put the food in but turned on the oven and then wondered why it wasn't done an hour later...
- Cecil Sandus
Same here, Duncan. However it's a product of where I work really, and our attitudes to not watching everything we speak. Has pro's and cons :D
- Mo Kargas
great Gregory, but your suggestion then? :-)
- Duncan Riley
It would be more original to say... FALE! Or FAYL or FAYLE!
- Louis Gray
Funny. The word crept into my dictionary after I saw the fail blog. FAIL!
- Steve 'Chippy' Paine
But such a great word!
- michael sean wright
+1 for gregory.
- Yolanda
Gregory++
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Pale ale fail!
- Bwana ☠
Techmeme and TechCrunch's Detractors Prove It's Hard to be On Top - http://www.louisgray.com/live...
Nikhil Dandekar, Duncan Riley, Rex Hammock and 9 other people liked this
Kiss up ;)
- Jason Carreira
Jason, are you trying to (for once) agree with your wife? Kiss up ;)
- Louis Gray
Nope, I didn't get to her comment until after I posted mine...
- Jason Carreira
Gabe can take it, can't you Gabe?
- Rex Hammock
BAHAHAHAHA! I hadn't even talked to him all day. Hilarious.
- Cyndy
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
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
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
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...
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- 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...
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- 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
Why is blog advertising still difficult in 2008? - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
Lance Schone, Mike Fruchter, Stephen Jones and 3 other people liked this
Yeah, really.
- Jim Kukral
I still contend that advertising, outside of search result ads, is a doomed revenue stream. I don't see them, thanks to adblock, and those that aren't blocked aren't particularly relevant to me. I've clicked on a few ads recently, but none on any page but a google search.
- Jason Carreira
THE WORLD IS OUT OF IPHONES!!!!! - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Arda Çetin, Bob Blunk, sean808080 and 29 other people liked this
"Steve is a big butthead" LOL
- Paul Short
She's a funny one. heh
- Daynah
I debated putting the butthead comment in there. I didn't want anyone to get fired lol
- justine
I think someone needs to cheer you upto.
- Akshay Dodeja
Use Shazam
- Akshay Dodeja
saw that one... this morning on youtube. ur a naughty girl
- Noah David Simon
whoa. is that the elusive dodo bird? a FF comment from justine? :P jk.
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
That was Talkng Heads on the hold music. Great video.
- David Jacobs
Great video. I'm glad you are participating here too. ;)
- Alejandro
“Size Comparison: Twins vs. Electronic Gadgets” - http://friendfeed.com/e...
tuku, EricaRightNow, Mitchell Tsai and 82 other people liked this
"Yes, it's me, abusing my baby pictures quotient on FriendFeed again. But in case you wanted to get a visual on Sarah's size, here's one item for comparison - the iPod Touch. Also included, Matthew, sleeping next to the iPod Touch, TiVo remote and Blackberry. It's better than using a ruler!"
- Louis Gray
LOL LOUIS!!!!
- Mona Nomura
This will replace the pencil markings on the wall as a measurement of growth.
- Hutch Carpenter
Way too cute!
- michael sean wright
will there be an unboxing at some point
- Allen Stern
The TiVo remote has hardly changed at all in 10 years.
- Robert Seidman
WOW, they are SMALL! cool pics!! I love the one with the baby on the couch with 3 devices
- Susan Beebe
Okay that's just really damn cute :)
- justine
one day these kids are going to say, 'dad used us as props for his gadgets!'...and then there will be blood! lol
- .LAG liked that
@.LAG, then I'll remind them how when we parked in what I thought was acceptable shade outside Babies R Us today, they both went nuts, and I had to extract them from their car seats and walk into the store (using the exit), with the pair held tight to my chest, to commiserate with their mother. I'm sure I was quite the sight. "Hey! Look at that guy! He's in over his head!" (fingers pointing)
- Louis Gray
Hey! Someone should say you - this is really unhealthy!! : (
- Erhan
@Louis - You definitely look in over your head. However, I was that way with only one. Now my children are 21 and 18 and I still remain in over my head. ; )
- Rex Hammock
This made Maryam crack up and say "that's cute!"
- Robert Scoble
in terms of Product Design i still think GOD(Evolution) did a better job than jobs ...:-)
- Hakim
@Rex, I look in over my head? Definitely? Where's the proof on that? I disagree. :-)
- Louis Gray
Maybe good idea to get the RF away from the newborns? Just sayin'. Amazing scale comparison pics though Louis. Thanks for sharing. Now get those radio wave emitting devices away from the generation that will hopefully save us all :)
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
I don't believe you all - Robert, Louis, Maryam, all likes, comments - i urgently need a judge for this photos! : ) Your tech love is get out of control!!
- Erhan
now let's see the Touch duke it out with the Blackberry
- Paulo Elias
from twhirl
I'm so going to do this one day when I have one. haha
- Daynah
@Erhan and Brian, 1) They're not sleeping with the gadgets in their cribs (yet) and 2) I am not worried about that nonsense. I might as well unplug the microwave and TV while I'm at it, no?
- Louis Gray
We always left a computer keyboard in our kids cribs as a toy -- they loved it.
- Oldengrey (Jay)
The important thing to remember is that if Louis were forced to choose between his children and his gadgets,,,well, I'm sure the kids would find a good home. (JUST KIDDING!)
- Ontario Emperor
Yeah, I know I know Louis. I'm just waiting for the time I go to the Dr. to get the "news" after having gone through life carrying 3+ mobiles around in my pocket. It's safe to carry 3+ phones + EVDO + Cradlepoint wifi in my pockets right?
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
lmao I'm so reporting you for this. Too hilarious
- Corvida
Hey guys you have to see this related post... Scoble is competing with Louis' over coolest kid toys! http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Susan Beebe
Again with the cute overload! They're so tiny which makes them even more cute!
- Candace
OMG! that's priceless! I <3 it! Put the device on vibrate and see what happens! I bet it would sooth any crankiness. Can you say iTunes visualizer? Better than Baby Einstein. Makes us AND them drool into relaxation. My son has gumdrop iMac in his bedroom specifically for that reason (glorified nightlight). Hey! We have to do what we have to do, right? Why not have some fun with it? Hellz ya!
- TheMacMommy
from twhirl
You know Louis, most parents use a wall and a pencil to show height and growth, you choose electronic equipment, what comes next? comparisons to the wii and ps3? then a macbook, then macbook pro, then dell blade server, where will it end?!!?!?
- Allen Stern
Oh what beautiful little souls! I'm sure they are very precious to you :-).
- Heather Colman
umm... it's not too heavy on him?!
- Orli Yakuel
those photos are really embarassingly sad. Please leave the kids alone.
- Claudio Cicali ♋
A coochii coo! They are too cute! Twins are born small but they'll catch up in no time! Congrats!
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
LOL.. awesome pics
- Aviv
apparently Amazon S3 is down
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
Total weirdness - the cuteness overload causes the pics to show for me even when S3 is down! It might be just my cache, ofcourse, but I like the first theory better :)
- Yuvi
I'll take the electronics when the kids are all grown up. It won't matter to me that the stuff is decades old.
- Rishabh Mishra (p248)
oh this is ROFL!
- susan mernit
Ok, from one tech geek to another, that has to be the most cute thing I've ever seen. =)
- David Cook - 2010!!!
It's February 21, 2009. I'm in the middle of a music search on FriendFeed and found these pictures from July 19, 2008. How time flies...
- Ontario Emperor
AT&T rollover minutes commercials are funny.
Lance Schone, Scott Wamsley and Danny Bo'itanni liked this
70 fresh blogs for your Feed Reader c/- FriendFeed - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
Scott Lockhart, Nick Cowie, Rob Diana and 23 other people liked this
original FF thread here http://friendfeed.com/e... post includes an OPML file of nearly every contribution on the thread
- Duncan Riley
Thanks Duncan. By the way, I've been following you since you launched Inquisitr. At first I was just curious to see the evolution of a new blog, but now I come back for your quality content and honest opinions. Good work.
- Lance Schone
By the way, you've launched a number of clever features/utilities in such a short time. Was this all part of your master plan or has it been more of an ad hoc genesis?
- Lance Schone
Thx Lance. No master plan, just things that have come along. I've got a lot more time now to experiment which is why you see things like AIR apps and Greasemonkey scripts. + enjoy learning how to do them
- Duncan Riley
Cheers for the mention Duncan, I have imported this into my Google Reader and have 236 feeds to fulfill my need for news now!!
- Joe Dawson
Thanks for including me, Duncan, and for the always-great content and apps.
- Anthony Citrano
Thanks Duncan... we'll be taking a look at each of these for inclusion into regator
- Scott Lockhart
Don't have an iPhone yet? That's because the entire world is out of them!!!! http://tastyblogsnack.com/2008... kinda ;)
Lance Schone liked this
Welcome Twitterers! Here, let us show you around FriendFeed's cool features...
Geoff Brown, Brian Roy, Tyson Key and 70 other people liked this
Check out the search engine. It's like Summize, except it searches ALL data types, not just Twitter messages.
- Robert Scoble
Click on the "me" tab. That shows YOU what YOU posted. But then click on the "comments" and "like" links over on the right. That shows you what you commented on, or liked. Well, unless you're looking at the me tab on MY account!
- Robert Scoble
what are the best apps? just installed MySocial 24x7 the FF3 sidebar, also playing aroung with Feedalizr and Alert Thingy
- Tomas Nihlen
Don't miss the "Show best of." These will show you the most popular FF items of the day, week, or month. Great way to get up to speed on what gets discussed here (and to find some new people to subscribe to).
- Robert Scoble
only thing is: (and like to emphasize that: I simply miss Twitter!) Come to think of it; can we, as long as Twitter's down, do a Miss Twitter Election?
- Adri Munier
One day you like Twitter, the other day you hate it huh? ;-)
- Rutger Blom
Comment often. Like often. These are signals to other people that you found an item engaging and important. Soon you'll find that we're also engaging on YOUR items.
- Robert Scoble
Make sure you add all your feeds. Flickr photos. Upcoming events. Twitter (so we'll know when it's back up and be able to discuss your best tweets). Your Digg and Del.icio.us accounts. And lots more. The more you put into FriendFeed the more people will engage with you.
- Robert Scoble
Is this planned maintenance or more of the same? I am trying to come up with reasons why FF should continue to take second place and I still can't work it out. What am I missing? Twitter's simplicity? I just don't see Twitter as an effective conversation tool. It seems more appropriate as a one way communication tool.
- Paul Jacobson
from twhirl
Don't miss the "more" menu under each cluster. It does a lot. It also lets you delete comments if you start a cluster, link to a cluster, and, well, more.
- Robert Scoble
Click the icons off to the left. Click a Flickr one, for instance, and you'll see all the Flickr photos from everyone you're following. Hint: if you want to see ALL Flickr photos from EVERYONE, click on the "everyone" tab first, then click the icons.
- Robert Scoble
I've been resistant to this. I like the simplicity of twitter. However, I also like being on a network that actually works, so maybe it's time to go ff full time.
- Adam Christie
This is a good, short intro for FF newbies. Wish someone had posted a similar note when I first joined. FF is a bit murkier than Twitter for new users. I also found http://frienderati.alltop.com/ to be very helpful.
- sage brennan
When you get tired of seeing a particular FriendFeed item, just click "hide." Don't worry, that just hides it from your view. You can see hidden items at the bottom of the page.
- Robert Scoble
The squeaky friends get the grease ;-)
- Paul Short
Click on "Friend Settings." There's some cool stuff in there. This is where you can see who is subscribed to you, who you are subscribed to, some cool stats (useful after you like and comment on a bunch of stuff to learn who you like the best) and some ways to find new friends to subscribe to. Just don't subscribe to that Scoble guy, he's very noisy!
- Robert Scoble
Can we all just leave Twitter?
- Anthony Onumonu
Once in a while you'll see a jerk in here. Here's how to deal with them: visit their page, then at the top you'll see a link titled "Block." Don't be afraid to block jerks. That helps keep the community clean of drama for everyone. Heck, don't be afraid to block me if you don't want to see me anymore. You define yourself by who you follow and who you allow into your life. One thing: you can still see people you blocked in the "Everyone" tab. They will still show up in searches you do there.
- Robert Scoble
Feel free to use the hide button as you read items, even if it is a topic your interested in. Don't worry, if more conversation occurs on the topic, it will pop back up in your feed again. I like to use this to "clear" the screen, so it isn't so cluttered and I am not re-reading something I have already seen.
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
I like Twitter and will go back as soon as it's up. I used to look at it as FriendFeed vs. Twitter. It's not. They both work great together. FriendFeed is much nicer place to have a conversation.
- Robert Scoble
The best thing I ever did was to add a few greasemonkey plugins like the one that removes viewed links and filter by service. It's OK now.
- Calley Nye
FriendFeed's worst attribute is that it rewards people who visit often. Click "F5" to refresh your browser's page. This is especially important if you're following lots of people, or are watching the "Everyone" page (it changes every few seconds).
- Robert Scoble
Is someone posting too much information? You can "filter" content by service for a user, or by a service for all users. Click the hide button, then click 'See options for hiding other items like this'
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
Do a search under the Everyone tab for your city name to find FFs and topics from your local area. This ain't just a San Fran Soical party!
- Johnny Worthington
I agree with Robert - FriendFeed has almost become the "home" page in my browser. Invariably it's sat in my browser most of the day... sure, it could be improved (grouping of contacts into channels), but it's very, very good...
- Jonathan Beckett
If you have one of those newfangled iPhones, check out http://www.friendfeed.com/iphone
- Robert Scoble
Oh one more thing....what's the deal with rooms? Do you have to make your own or can you find existing ones?
- Calley Nye
@scoble but doesnt FF refresh automatically? whats the interval on the auto refresh?
- Sebastian Keil
Even if you don't have an iPhone (I have a KU990), try fftogo.com. It works on most java enabled phone browsers and is a great way to fill in time when in lines
- Johnny Worthington
Friendfeed defaults to showing not only the content of those who you are subscribed to, but items that were found interesting by your friends by other people. This is called 'Friend of a Friend' - If you would rather not see these entries, click 'Hide' on one of them, then use 'See more options for hiding items like this' - there will be an option to hide items from Friends of your Friend.
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
Sebastian: FF does refresh automatically, but not fast enough for me. So I manually refresh it every few seconds.
- Robert Scoble
Calley: I'm subscribed to a bunch of rooms (mostly cause people invite me in). They haven't become very useful to me yet, although I'm noticing a few are getting more active lately. You can see the ones I'm subscribed to by visiting my FF at http://friendfeed.com/scoblei... and clicking over on the right side.
- Robert Scoble
FF is more than a aggrigator site, it's the true social. Just don't find links and publish photos, discuss them and share in the collective power of community.
- Johnny Worthington
@Calley Nye (siliconcalley): You can make your own rooms if you want, or you can join others. Currently, its not immediately apparent where to find existing rooms, but there is a number of sites that have friendfeed room listings. You can also search google with something like: twitter site:friendfeed.com/rooms - I also recommend joining this room: http://friendfeed.com/rooms...
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
if Twitter was micro-blogging, would FF be classed as macro-blogging?
- Johnny Worthington
@scobleizer Terrific overview/ welcome message regarding FriendFeed, is it possible to move this into it's own room? You are imparting some great information here, don't want to see it turn to vapor.
- michael sean wright
I call FF "The Consolidator" ..
- LPH™ and his dog P™
So basically you have to know the cool people to get invited to the dance. I like it...
- Calley Nye
Welcome everyone! Robert pretty much summed it up beautifully. I bring a little Gizmodo-ness into a more Engadget-esque Friend Feed ;) I'm Mona, nice to meet you all! This link will take you to the bookmarklet, which enables sharing links, images, and videos. It goes right on your browser toolbar. Extremely useful :) : http://friendfeed.com/share...
- Mona Nomura
Confused? Ask questions. Very few of us bite. Welcome.
- Chris Baskind
This script allows to tweak FF refresh rate. The minimum is every 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/35Eyvs
- Nir Ben Yona
Here's a place to discuss Best Practice and Ethics as it relates to FriendFeed- http://friendfeed.com/rooms...
- michael sean wright
Use the recommend and subscribe to as many people as you want. The more people you subscribe then the greater the diversity of conversations.
- LPH™ and his dog P™
OMG, i didn't know there's a Scoble script allowing FF users to add Scobleizer in a tab on FriendFeed. http://bit.ly/dRo2L
- Nir Ben Yona
There's a script for everything...
- Calley Nye
A big +1 for Mona's link to the bookmarklet, that's a really sticky way of getting involved with FF - share stuff, then share again, then share some more!
- Iain Baker
The reason I'm actually using FriendFeed right now (besides because Twitter is down) is that I was researching for a post. A really cool tool called Moopz - just posted http://www.techcrunch.com/2008...
- Calley Nye
Whoa please don't tell me this conversation ended because Twitter went back up. LOL
- Calley Nye
...I think it was because you said you're only using FF since Twitter is down ;) -but on a serious note, after a certain number of comments the post no longer gets 'bumped' so I don't think people are aware there are new comments added on the thread
- Mona Nomura
Robert, have you tried this? http://flickr.com/photos... Better features for Twitter. (not by Twitter)
- Orli Yakuel
Excellent tutorial!
- Mitchell Tsai
It's not Twitter or FF. Things like Twitter Bar feed into FF so it's all good :0)
- Glenna
If I were a new FriendFeed user, and I were automatically signed up to the noisiest people, w/all their sites, I'd be dead. There should be a "FriendFeed Lite" for first-timers that shows only blogs, Flickr and the basics, and then you try "Medium" and "Firehose". Don't scare away the newbies.
Muge Cerman, Brandon Klevence, Mitchell Tsai and 63 other people liked this
Rawr!
- Bwana ☠
Trial by fire, I say!
- Bradley McSpinn
Yeah it can be pretty over whelming at first... but most tools like this are... I guess.
- Adrian Nadeau
Maybe someone should put together some themed rooms for newbs and newb graduates
- Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins
i say jump on in the water's warm!
- Morgan
They should join the same way my dad says he was taught to swim. Just jump in, if you make it, YAY; if you don't... ;)
- ha3rvey (wants confit)
I've been here for a few weeks and would have freaked out if I signed up to the intense users. I feel like I'm slowly getting the hang of it, adding people a little at a time, and participating more and more...
- Corie
Don't scare the newbies! scare the devs! MORE API! repeat after me: MORE API ! :)
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
A newbie coming to FF will have their lists populated by their friends, first and foremost. That kind of goes to the point of the name, I think. There's no reason they WOULD sign up for the noisiest people.
- Alexander Williams
from NoiseRiver
I'm only here for the Twitter.
- Cyndy
That's not true at all. I came here because of one person who told me about it. Other than that, I knew no one and couldn't get any friends to join.
- Corie
I'll be franck: I'm building in my small and humble sorcerer's lab a smarter "recommended page" that when optimized will be the cure for noise! Hear me Scobleizer? :)
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
agree with Louis, I guess for many there must be too much noise, so that they can't even think of a thing to say themselves
- Peter Efland
I signed up for a lot of noisemakers because i didn't have any friends who would join. I still hide a lot, a LOT. But I do think that the recommended page should be geared towards a variety of interests other than 'how to write a blog' and 'twitter wahhh' and 'iphone blahblah.' Rooms need exposure and love.
- sergiooo
They also need an automatically scrolling version to make it look like something REALLY important is happening in real time.
- Mike Seidle
@Peter Efland (phefland): I dunno, there seems to be quite a lot of folks saying quite a lot all the time. They just have their own insular environments / friend nets which yours (and mine, likely) don't necessarily intersect. Beyond that, as I've said elsewhere, if you own a theatre why does everyone have to be an actor all the time? An audience is not just good, it's necessary.
- Alexander Williams
from NoiseRiver
@sergiooo: I like the " 'how to write a blog' and 'twitter wahhh' and 'iphone blahblah.' " :-) More of that coming soon.
- Louis Gray
Deep dive or nothing
- Dave Martin
Good suggestion. I am on firehose setting for now... but I am here INSTEAD of Twitter. :-)
- David Muir
@alexander williams: True - good comment
- Peter Efland
@Alexander Williams (squidlord): Totally agree! very wise!
- directeur
from NoiseRiver
Why not give newbies the opportunity to view a short intro-to-FF clip, perhaps narrated by LG, showing them the basics. Things like how to follow/stop following people, the hide feature, etc. Having a basic understanding of how to use the service and being signed up with one or two noisier, not the noisiest, people seems reasonable.
- Dan Boggs
Louis, shock therapy worked wonrders for me. If I hadstarted with the light version, I would not be so psyched about it.
- Rodrigo Leme
from twhirl
@Luis Gray :) I'm not saying those feeders shouldn't be recommended, just that there is a whole world outside of the few topics that are so well represented, and if the goal is some sort of mainstream acceptance a bit of diversity deserves the same opportunity.
- sergiooo
LOL...good one. I started using FF a few weeks ago and find myself spending alot more time reading, commenting and looking around than on Twitter. Much more interactive and engaging.
- Geoff Peterson
I had mentioned in another post that it would be great if you could individually select the portions of one's feeds to have piped in. That way you could open up the fire hose and skip what you have not interest in (i.e. last.fm posts, etc).
- JA Castillo
I thought FF was a cult =(
- Mona Nomura
I need FF Lite some days, too. LOL
- Sarah Perez
Got outa control myself and made a mess ... Finally back. This is Louis right ?? :)
- Charlie Anzman
Sink or swim
- Tad
FF lite: Putting friends on a diet. LOL
- LPH™ and his dog P™
I quickly put together that Scoble and Laporte = Noise, so I discovered the Hide feature. Then I closed off the Friend of a Friend bit. Bam! It was readable again. Now I just follow too many interesting people to keep track of everything. I get about 11 pages worth a day.
- xero
yes, it would be easy to say 'What are you interested in' on sign up. From there filter specific services and... oh yah, KEYWORDS!
- Tim Hoeck
from NoiseRiver
FF lite: subscribe to just the a-listers. :O
- Hao Chen
Interesting idea on FriendFeed Lite, they would have to subscribe to a lot of people to be overwhelmed though right?
- Joe Dawson
I'm a newbie and I'm already overwhelmed! All it takes is adding two crazy FF'ers and joining two active groups.
- Judy L. Lin
Along those lines I'd like to control which users I promote from my profile too. See this http://friendfeed.com/e...
- Mark Krynsky
Perhaps FF should have an equivalent of Twitter Packs (http://twitterpacks.pbwiki.com/) that could be offered to newbies.
- Andy Murdoch
An easy and non-obtrusive way to implement would be a simple checkbox on reg path that says "Start out with just blogs, flickr, etc... You can add more services to your FF anytime!" And new users must opt-in for that "light" service
- Eric Berlin
lmao - that's actually a great idea
- Marco(aureliusmaximus)
Nah...throw them in the deep end and see how well they swim
- Live4Emma (L4S)
But that's the whole point of FF isn't it? To swim and survive in the sea of "noise"..
- Winston Teo
took me about a week or so to fine tune my likes with others after adding to my feed without interaction. at first it can be a bit overwhelming, especially with the nonsense about "a-listers" and this and that, but you find your niche no matter what
- Cee Bee
Maybe make one of the best of the day/week/month thingies the default for newbies?
- Rudolf Olah
LEWL.
- Brandon Klevence
Gmail Now A Major Spam Hub - http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r...
Franklin Pettit, Lance Schone, Rob Schonberger and 5 other people liked this
AideRSS ranks and sorts your RSS feeds - http://news.cnet.com/8301-17...
Mark Logan and Lance Schone liked this
Good post and interesting service. But, I'd like more insight into how PostRank is calculated. I realize it may be the "secret sauce" of AideRSS, but a little transparency would be nice.
- Lance Schone
Does anyone see value in a generic ranking formula that each user can customize. For example, I could weight Digg votes more then Mixx while another user could do the opposite. Let each person create their own custom PostRank by adding weights to the formula variables. Thoughts?
- Lance Schone
Lance, "transparency" is good, sure... but you can't start expecting services to just out their algorithms.... hehehe. I would say using the "transparency" buzzword against ranking services is quite the stretch. ;)
- Matt Shaulis
RSS? Like back in the olden days before friendfeed?
- Thomas Hawk
Matt. Good point. Maybe it is a stretch. The thought just crossed my mind as I've seen so much back and forth on the Techmeme rating logic. I guess I'm thinking there's business value in building a ranking framework that uses multiple attributes but allows users to customize based on what THEY value.
- Lance Schone
Oh Thomas, not everyone has ditched RSS. You need people like me to go through and find the right feed items for you so they do hit FriendFeed. :-)
- Louis Gray
@Louis, maybe. I think my FF experience though would be just as strong even if it didn't include Google Reader in it. Quality content as ranked by your contacts is a far superior way to consume content than RSS in my opinion. Since content consumption is a zero sum game, I'll pass on RSS and spend my time in FF, Flickr, Zooomr, outside with my 5D or inside with Photoshop, wife, kids, all that other good life stuff.
- Thomas Hawk
Make sure you check out the Google Reader extension. It's pretty sweet.
- Wendy
I'm still skeptical of the accuracy of AidRSS' analysis
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
My problem with AideRSS was the time it took to compute the rankings, granted I tried it out many a month's ago so maybe they've improved in that regard so I should try again....
- Snay Trivedi
5 Twitter Tactics for Building a Stellar Brand - http://mashable.com/2008...
Tom, Gordon Dymowski, Lance Schone and 6 other people liked this
Very nice and useful information about twitter
- David
Good post. I really like the point about monitoring your Twitter reputation. Sounds like an opportunity for a service. Kind of a Google Alerts meets Summize search. Email me daily with a list of tweets that include my name/company/brand.
- Lance Schone
6 Cool GreaseMonkey Scripts To Rock Your Friendfeed | MakeUseOf.com - http://www.makeuseof.com/tag...
LouCypher, tomit, elyse and 12 other people liked this
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