0.75 (926/1226) - still relatively new here
- mikepk
I only see my stats for the last week (17/14 = 1.21) Please tell me your 670 number is for more than just a week!
- Brian Johns
1.44 (566/391) for brianjohns (after week tally you should see a comma then 'all time' count - I can see it on your page)
- Micah Wittman
OK, sorry. I'm a total dumbass. I stopped reading after the weekly totals...
- Brian Johns
3.74, which seems way off of everybody else's. I wonder what that says. I comment a lot more than I like.
- Cyrus Lendvay
FFers use FF with their own strategy or simply default tendencies. The ratio is an interesting snapshot of behaviour. Thanks for joining in everyone, hope more keep flowing in.
- Micah Wittman
from twhirl
0.66 - I tend to 'like' things without needing to comment further, I guess, and I notice I usually like the things upon which I comment. Well, frequently.
- ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ
.39 (2457/6242) I guess I don't comment much. I do 'like' a lot of things, it would seem.
- Bren -- Not Grinchy
0.62 then again i have over 11,000 comments
- Cee Bee
1.23 (5287/4229) - I am put to shame by Cee Bee's participation, good grief!
- Fa La La La Lindsay
So far: Average: 1.27 | Median: 0.81 ... (if you average 1 comment per like, you'd be 1.0 ... if you're 0.xx you might herd content more than discuss ... if you're whole numbers above 1 you may not 'like' much or discuss plenty or both)
- Micah Wittman
InPerpetualMotion(Gina k), I really liked this 'Like' of yours (in a series of pics, so I flickr fav'd it): http://friendfeed.com/e... and commented. Thanks!
- Micah Wittman
.68 6986/10194 Someone wrote a great article on the comment-like ratio a few months ago. Search on FriendFeed is crashing on me... I'll try to get the link.
- Mitchell Tsai
Thanks Mitchell (btw, search crashing on me too - lots)
- Micah Wittman
1316 comments/20221 likes (0.06), according to Windows Calculator, although I probably screwed up.
- Tyson Key
A recent change in FF: now the comment count shows total number of comments (previously multiple comments in one thread only counted as one) http://friendfeed.com/e... so all the numbers above are from the old methodology....
- David HC Soul
My new ratio: 0.76 all time (old methodology .52).... this week 1.39
- David HC Soul
Looks like my ratio as flipped again (comments back to dominating again). Seems to match my own awareness I've lately been commenting without Liking (commenting is my inherent recognition of value to me and the additional Like is when it merits an extra bump to help discovery by others).
- Micah Wittman
Darn - 0.52. I guess I need to say why I like something a little more often :-) Liking this thread because I was wondering the same thing recently. Has anybody worked out the average from the numbers here? </islazy>
- Andy Bold
Andy, scroll upward and you'll see a couple calculations from before (January: Average: 1.27 | Median: 0.81)
- Micah Wittman
Rick, you mean that face with glasses I photoshopped tint into with an apparently disembodied arm which is actually very much attached to my eldest son? It's mostly just me :)
- Micah Wittman
Thanks, Michael. Yes, you have a rising tide of comment percentage (oh, wow, you were one of the originals from January - cool!)
- Micah Wittman
Yeah, that's a decent upward rise in comments, Nicholas.
- Micah Wittman
.6 (6,000/10,000) 3rd update - Now it's time to flip this on its head. My goal is to have (16,000/16,000) next time I post here. Regardless of what happens, I'm just looking forward to the next 10,000 comments, likes, posts, and new relationships I make here. It's all good!
- Michael Fidler
1.76 (7539/4290) My commenting habits haven't chanced much, but it felt like I clicked Like a lot less, and this ratio confirms that for me.
- Micah Wittman
.82 as of right now. edit: on January 8th it was 0.39 -- when I saw that, I decided to make more of an effort to comment. When I hit 10k "likes" I decided I wouldn't "like" anything else until I also had 10k comments.
- Bren -- Not Grinchy
Jimminy, I'm copyrighting every single number. It's kind of a honeypot ;) Actually, it was curiosity mostly, but I also hope to build a sampling (small and self-selecting as it may be) for anyone who might want to analyze it.
- Micah Wittman
Wow I didn't realize I was so out of whack!! 12.23 that's got to be a record (and I don't even import my feeds with the summary as a comment)!!
- Chris Myles
Thanks JA, Chris (wow, 12+ is unusual :), Serkan and Nine!
- Micah Wittman
0.89 (17818/19913) (Somebody better make a cool ass graph of all this data!)
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Micah.. I told you I take my likes seriously; ). You *might* want to ask (in a separate post) what percentage of likes were used to "bookmark" a post or save it for later VS actually "liking it". I NEVER used like for that.. but I did use a private group that if filled with my own topics (and comments)..
- Chris Myles
OK, so statistically, what ratio results in better interaction on FF?
- Jason Huebel
I don't think I could argue that any particular kind of ratio is "best", because if Lurkers like to Lurk and cultivate (via Likes) and the Chatty-ites love to chat, to pump out much many more comments than Likes, each can be happy and make for a great social experience.
- Micah Wittman
So I'm fairly balanced, it appears. I would imagine it's because I try to comment on every post I like. That's not always true, obviously. But mostly it is.
- Jason Huebel
Just clicking "Like" seems too easy. I feel like I should say something, too.
- Jason Huebel
wow, what a difference time makes, when i 1st posted on this thread, 6.43%, now = 1.25%, for a 5.18% difference, :o (and this is the earliest post to date i've recovered of my activity on ff)
- chaz2b
chaz, I think there's been a big fluctuation for most people (maybe not that much). This is the oldest post on which you commented that you've recovered?
- Micah Wittman
that was my third post... It's interesting to see how the number has changed. of course, I manipulated the number to a degree, because I stopped "liking" things for a while...
- Bren -- Not Grinchy
Bren, the other thing that can seriously throw off someone's stats is a feed that upon each item it imports adds a comment automatically.
- Micah Wittman
true. that can seriously inflate comment stats, of course. Then you have someone like RAPatton, who posts a gazillion comments, in part because of his playlist posts where he will list each song in a separate comment. I found, after this post in fact, that I tended to "like" things much more frequently than comment on them, that I was lurking instead of participating. I have changed the way I use ff rather considerably, and I think for the better.
- Bren -- Not Grinchy
Thanks Paola, Michael, Artemko, J. and Daniel!
- Micah Wittman
1.09 (9990/9105) From and including: Saturday, April 26, 2008 To and including: Thursday, November 12, 2009 It is 566 days from the start date to the end date, end date included Or 1 year, 6 months, 18 days including the end date to reach 10,000 comments.
- Christopher Harley
It's in a drainage tunnel that runs under a road in Big Tujunga Canyon just north of Los Angeles. It's about half a mile or a mile up the canyon from Vogel Flats campground. http://californiamaps.org/place...
- Thomas Hawk
Awesome shot Thomas! Incredible place too. Thank you for sharing!
- Rachel Lea Fox
Ballmer is not the humble type I guess. Microsoft is still innovative, but they are also stuck in their past. Ballmer should revisit this words of wisdom: "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" ~ Albert Einstein
- Dag Blakstad
I had to take a screenshot... the advert above the article was just too perfect.
- Jay Cuthrell
All of this means that the supply/demand balance will continue to shift in favor of the person seeking work - particularly if that individual is skilled, educated and/or experienced. The most significant implication of this shift is that individuals will be able to bargain for whatever unique work arrangements they prefer - companies will need to offer greater choice. Work arrangements will become more varied, reflecting the needs and preferences of people in different generations and stages of life.
- Jim Meredith
The Flickr desktop uploader sits on your desktop for heftier uploading needs or offline photo management. Drag and drop single photos or videos, or select a whole folder. Even reorder how photos will be displayed in your photostream. - https://login.yahoo.com/config...
Flickr released a new desktop bulk uploader yesterday. For people having recent problems with photos not uploading in order, double uploading, etc. You might want to try this latest version.
- Thomas Hawk
from Bookmarklet
Thanks. I've been having so many problems with the old uploader.
- Nick Humphries
I have no idea if this fixes much by the way. I just saw that they updated the bulk uploader yesterday and posted it here because I'm hopeful that it addresses some of the problems that the old uploader seemed to be having.
- Thomas Hawk
Are there any solutions that allow me to download my entire photostream so I can back it up? An anti-bulk uploader if you will.
- Davis Freeberg
Guess this will kill the 3rd party shareware utilities.
- dthree
Nah, David, I don't think that this will kill the 3rd party apps. I don't know actually that this upgrade really is any big deal except that it may improve some of the specific sorting and double posting problems that the uploader's been having in more recent versions.
- Thomas Hawk
nice. i was hoping the desktop uploader would get updated. the flickr upload in iPhoto needs some work (hello, PROGRESS BARS, anyone?!)
- Glenn Batuyong
I use the Lightroom plugin for exporting to Flickr. It eliminates an extra step in my workflow.
- Sean Davis
I use the lightroom plugin as well. Seems to work quite well though some of the automation (ie. marking certain tags as private) doesn't seem to work.
- CJPhoto
Which is the essence of the difference between MS and Apple. Apple thinks about a real user problem and then finds the technology to solve it elegantly. MS thinks of a technology and then tries to figure out how to make it profitable.
- Kevin Pedraja
There's nothing wrong with creating software to make a profit. Dave, your premise is wrong. If nobody wanted Microsoft's software then nobody would buy it. People are still buying... so obviously somebody wants it. This is like Gilmor's argument that RSS is dead. You can't make broad generalizations like that.
- Joshua Hayworth
There are hundreds (if not thousands?) of companies with vested interests in seeing Microsoft products succeed (.NET, Biztalk, Exchange, SQL Server, etc.)
- Joshua Hayworth
I would argue that Kevin, Apple has often though about form over function.
- Eric @ CSTechcast.com
And they tell their users that they didn't have time to put in the features we've been asking for, like the ability to close--not minimize--apps in WinMo. And I really need to read up on 6.5 to see what changes they've made there.
- MiniMage TKDteacher of FF
You STILL can't close apps in WinMo (without going to the task manager)? I remember that being an issue more than 5 years ago!
- invariant - farewell FF
Joshua, I'd bet anything you didn't read the article I linked to.
- Dave Winer
Anyway, here's the problem. If Microsoft created software everyone wanted or even a lot of people wanted, they wouldn't have to force netbook makers to cripple their machines so they could sell an OS that they created 10 years ago. Since XP was finished they've spent many billions creating two new OSes. And sadly, XP is everything anyone wants from them. I use XP and find it wanting in no way. That's what I'm saying (limited to 140 chars, thanks to Twitter!)...
- Dave Winer
BTW, I have a hunch this isn't Microsoft's fault -- exactly. It could well be that PC operating systems were finished in 1999 or thereabouts. Apple hasn't shipped anything anyone wants recently either. Imho. YMMV. MMLM (my mother loves me). IANAL.
- Dave Winer
And as far as Steve Gillmor is concerned -- I give up. He can be an dummy if he wants to be. No law against that. :-) He's come up with some good concepts over the years, like attention and gestures. But this time he's dead wrong (not dead, just dead wrong). Dead dead dead dead dead. See I can say it too. :-) Dead. One more time. Dead. Dead. I lied I said it twice. Dead dead dead. Oh man.
- Dave Winer
Remember when it worked the other way around? Thirty years ago, if you wanted to use VisiCalc, you had to buy an Apple II. These days, if you want to use a netbook, you have to get XP.
- Pat Rice
come on now, the 140 characters is on SMS's shoulders, not Twitter's. Twitter is just playing by SMS's rules. Twitter is the netbook and SMS is Microsoft, i guess :-) and, yes the full limit is 160 for SMS
- Derek Chilcoat
Pat, I like XP. I've learned how to sysadmin it. How about that!
- Dave Winer
aren't netbooks kind of crippled by design to begin with? all the ones i've looked at are more like net toys. not intended for the audience who likes to tweak everything out the nth degree.
- Derek Chilcoat
Eric, you are absolutely right. But if you think about the two companies from the perspective of user experience, Apple tends to make that the centerpiece of their innovation strategy. That's not to say they don't fall in love with certain things and lose sight of their key differentiator.
- Kevin Pedraja
Guilty as charged. I had not read the story at the time I responded to your post. Maybe that's the problem that you (you specifically, or software developers in general) should work on!
- Joshua Hayworth
Derek, you are right-'netbooks' ARE inherently limited by design. Weak processors and little memory, cramped keyboards, many have no optical drive, small screens and did I say weak processors? C'mon...They are barely better than the computers that we got XP on to begin with. Why is it that, here in 2009, people fret over technology that is barely better than what we had almost ten years...
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- George Gray
And yet, people have problems with MS putting those guidelines in place when other companies get a free pass. I am not going to mention that fruity company by name. They won't let the operating system go on any hardware other than theirs.
- George Gray
I like XP, too. I'm just amused that this time the hardware determines the software, not the other way around. (And it's pointless to compare netbooks against machines that are larger & more expensive. A Honda can't go as fast as a Lamborghini, but that doesn't mean the Honda is underpowered & useless.)
- Pat Rice
GUILTY AS CHARGED! "I realized that at best social media is entertainment disguised as `useful' information or crowdsourced `knowledge', and at worst is distraction disguised as entertainment. The later being most of my experience with social networking sites, specially Twitter. "
- V Mary Abraham
I tried to explain it too some IT friends of mine .. they looked at me as if I had three noses
- johnpiercy
from twhirl
Some people don't "get it" until they find (are shown) a use which is personally relevant to them. A friend of mine signed up at my suggestion, but didn't get into it or even use it until his daughter (who moved out of state) started using it.
- Joanmarie
Did you do it in 2y where people can subscribe to each others updates. Most p5 words or less? Can you share the highlights? I explained it to a non-Twitterer as an instant messaging community where people can subscribe to each others messages and build a following. Most people know about IM and texting.
- Larry Kless
from twhirl
Sorry last message got jumbled in Twhril.. I asked, Did you explain it in 25 words or less? can you share the highlights?
- Larry Kless
from twhirl
The Amazon link is a bait/switch, it's for an N90 (35mm camera) not the D90. ;-)
- cmiper
grrrr.. is that right cmiper? it said they had one left. I'll have to try to search for it someplace else.
- Thomas Hawk
Regardless of your brand... this means all sorts of win for the consumer :)
- Johnny Worthington
@Thomas - They do have a listing for D90, it's atleast 100$ less then the cost quoted in your blog post (for version with Kit) and less than 1000$ for non-kit body only version.
- Yuvi
ok, looks like the price is actually $999.95 on Amazon, but that it is out of stock. I fixed that link. I'll go check over to see if there are any available at B&H.
- Thomas Hawk
hmm. B&H isn't showing a listing for the D90 yet. I guess it will probably be a few days before these start showing up for sale.
- Thomas Hawk
John, you are absolutely right. This is a huge win for the consumer, video and geotagging now raises a new bar. I will be very interested in what Canon brings to the table with the new 5D likely to be announced at photokina next month.
- Thomas Hawk
Also, I'm wondering how GPS will work when you want to use another flash in the hotshoe (the GPS addon plugs in to the hotshoe)
- Yuvi
Hmm...didn't realize it had GPS. That certainly makes it more intriguing.
- Matt
GPS is *awesome* it would save me a lot of time having to manually geotag my photos. This is some of the best camera tech news I've seen in a while.
- Thomas Hawk
Wow, great intro vid. I wonder if it's worth switching to Nikon...
- Michael
phenomenal! The video was so cool and the Blakes rock. Now to convince the girlfriend to buy the camera!
- Randy Ksar
@Micheal - GPS on the unit apparently uses EXIF, so Flickr and co should be able to pull those up without much trouble.
- Yuvi
Ha, like I can even afford the 5D now... I did just get some new Canon Lenses though.
- Michael
As a long time Canon user (i had an A2 SLR) I've been pretty jealous of the Nikons since last year. It seems Nikon has really stepped up to the plate, and Canon isn't answering. I'm not going to go switching my gear or anything, as I have the lenses, but still...I guess this tit-for-tat is pretty typical and in a year Canon will have some of these killer features.
- Todd
GPS with auto geotagging is something that willbe needed before I upgrade from my 20D. Lots I good features already but nothing had come out yet to make it worth my money to upgrade yet.
- Dean Clark
@yuvi... the GPS unit is not required to mount on the hot shoe. That is purely for convenience. I would prefer to have it attached to my strap, which could easily be done with a rubber band, or even a bicycle inner tube.
- Neil Bernhart
This is screaming to stream video live to the web....maybe bluetooth connection to a smartphone?
- Jamie Ginsberg
@Jamie Just wait for a revision (if it needs one) of the EyeFi SD-Card :)
- Holger Eilhard
Thx for the heads up ... I placed an order, hope that this'll be a backup body for a d3x (or at least the d700) someday not-all-that-far-away ;-) Actually that sounds like a great combination for a lot of stuff - a solid full-frame with the right glass for the situation, and the d90 with that really handy nikon 18-200 to catch everything else.
- Bob Lozano
Video is cool, but don't know how much I'd really use it. I'm hoping the new 5D will have built in GPS / Geo tagging also.
- Jeff P. Henderson
FYI - D90 GPS is NOT included. The D90 is simply compatible with the GPS that Nikon will begin selling in November. This GPS is also compatible with the D200, D300, D700 and D3. Still looks like a cool camera.
- gfurry
Included GPS would be awesome. Really hoping that Canon comes up with something good.
- Jauder Ho
@jauderho I hope so too. Canon had an early lead in the prosumer DSLR market and just doesn't seem to be innovating as much lately. The 50D is just not compelling me to upgrade my 30D.
- Andy Denmark
The 5D coming out next month at photokina had better be damn good is all I can say. I'm planning on buying one so I'm hoping it will at least have geotagging capability.
- Thomas Hawk
Andy, well the 50D does have some nice improvements. But then again for me, I went from a 20D to a 5D because of the viewfinder and full frame. I still have the 20D and will probably get it converted to infrared at some point.
- Jauder Ho
In case anyone is looking for a deal and does not mind an older but still plenty good model. From Ken Rockwell's site, Ritz Camera is selling brand-new Canon 30D cameras on closeout for $699. http://twurl.nl/bryoys
- Jauder Ho
No. I think Friendfeed has a lot to offer for non-geeks. Just not in it's current early stages (swamped with tech).
- Mo Kargas
You mean that normal people have no clue how to process information or work efficiently and be happy with offerings of the like of facebook while geeks do not enjoy as much normal everyday stuff normal people enjoy? Absolutly.
- Nicole Simon
Facebook is online presence for [mostly] non-online people. FriendFeed is for those who are able to appreciate the steady flow of information online, mostly geeks. Grasping the concept takes too much time for a non-geek ;-) I agree.
- Lech
What if you have both? Am I a geekier version of everyone else?
- Shannon
agree until i can only see the people i've added to my friend list and not friends of friends information then i doubt anyone else will care.
- Jonathan Jesse
What if you use the FF application from within Facebook?
- Mike Boudreaux
from fftogo
Isn't Facebook trying to *be* Friendfeed these days with the new look? I agree here, though, my non-web-wired friends and family are on FB, but not FF :(
- Michael Pick
from twhirl
in the same way as computers _used to be_ for geeks, agree
- Dani Radu
Facebook is for women. Most men will just keep in touch with friends on an ad-hoc basis -- and we're happy enough with that. And what's with all this Relationship Barometer crap, or whatever its called? That's just kooky imo. Like I'm going to advertise the fact that 'Its Complicated'. Rubbish.
- john conroy
I check Facebook regularly and last I checked I wasn't a woman!
- Joe Dawson
Somewhat agree. Facebook has indeed become mainstream, while FriendFeed is currently populated by early-adopters (which many read as "geeks").
- Nick Mutton
FriendFeed is an aggregator and conversation spot for the open Web (which is under attack). Google can get to everything here. It can't get to everything in Facebook. Another way to recast it? FriendFeed is for everyone who wants to be public. Facebook is for everyone who wants to support a walled garden. There's more than geeks here, by the way. Do you want proof? Do some searches. Here's one for quilting: http://beta.friendfeed.com/search...
- Robert Scoble
I'll pay that one Robert, there's more geeks here for now. Do you think it will ever expand out to non-geeks?
- Mo Kargas
for now yes. Was facebook for geeks when they only had 100k users?
- Ouriel Ohayon
At least I can share a link from FriendFeed with everyone. Can you do that with Facebook?
- Orli Yakuel
WOW, I never knew I was a Geek....good to know.
- Scot Duke
Agree-I find more sophisticated users here, myspace seems so highschoolish for me always has.
- orionstarr
as for the being public issue: people in FB really share everything, and indeed this happens mostly because they're 'non-online' 'low-tech' or whatever you may call them. people in FF still think are in a protected fence since it's geekier and not mainstream yet. the question is: how much do we care about google when we feel we are in a group of friends (or birds of the same feather anyway)?
- Elvira
facebook is for college students, myspace is for entertainment, linkedIn is for business, friendfeed is an experiment
- paisley
from twhirl
Myspace is a dive bar - more fun if you're there for the music or have tattoos and are kind of slutty. Facebook is the posh bar everyone wants to get into - it used to be invite only but now they killed the cover and are letting everyone in. Friendfeed is the LAN party in someone's basement........
- George Smith
I'm really a non-geek. I'm more comfortable with the user interface on Facebook. But, of course, I just used the term "user interface" on FriendFeed -- so maybe I need to rethink my possible geeky-tude.
- Cheryl Rice
I was hoping FF rooms would provide a good way to have conversations focused on non-tech topics, but so far they don't seem to be taking off much.
- Costa Walcott
I'm using Friendfeed in Facebbok so I'm everyone else's geek!
- Mike Lewis
There is so little parallel functionality, I wonder why there is the pervasive insistence to group these two together. So, disagree.
- jcunwired
I disagree, cause of the fact that there's no FunWalls, SuperWalls doesn't mean it can't go mainstream in the near future.
- Tibor Holoda
I use facebook, twitter and friendfeed and linkedin too - what does that make me? A friend to be followed, requested, added to your network maybe...
- Julie Watt
disagree: if "geek" stands for complicated and difficult to use, facebook wins over ff
- FedericaB.
FriendFeed is for paople I don't know. Facebook is for my immediate real friends. I put my geeky stuff on FriendFeed/Twitter, etc...and for personal stuff with my more generic friend audience, I put appropriate content on Facebook.
- Todd
I don't consider myself a geek, but I love FF.
- ::Kristen::
geeks->multiple and extensive online presence and usages->need to aggregate->FF
- Hayk H.
youth and simple folk-> some usage of the Internet-> need to communicate-> some platform where everyone is-> Facebook
- Hayk H.
Disagree. Friendfeed is for everyone. We geeks have a strong presence here, but there are non-geek communities as well. I suppose if you don't know any non-geeks on friendfeed, you won't see many at all. The problem lies in the fact that many non-geeks THINK that friendfeed is for geeks. If more non-geeks came over, those communities would grow. Now, do I win a prize for saying "geeks" the most times in a comment?
- Slappy Line
Disagree. Friendfeed is for real-time topical conversation and more. Facebook is to connect, introduce, sneaky e-mail .... (and not play Scrabble)
- Charlie Anzman
i would categorize friendfeed as thought and opinion exchange, while facebook is for networking purposes..
- Stefan Lafloer
Nope, this geek still isn't into Friendfeed. Facebook gets used (finally) with connecting with my RL friends, as well as social media ones, and reconnecting with folks from high school, college and previous places I've worked. Facebook = social exchanges and Friendfeed = idea exchanges and media sharing. But I still rarely use Friendfeed as I find the interface too cumbersome. Back to Twitter.....
- Rob Usdin
What Guy's article says is basically, if you turn off every neat feature in the new iPhone, you get the battery life of a regular phone. I honestly don't see the point.
- Rubin Sfadj
BTW, how long does it take to charge an iPhone up? A separate battery + battery charger usually saves my [portable] day. Alas, here it wouldn't work.
- Lech
Good article. I understand where you are coming from. In the earlier days online, before this hyper-social media explosion, I was more comfortable NOT having my name out there. Now it is OK, at least I think it is, and I have been able to reconnect with old friends because my name is out there. As far as being shoehorned or categorized, I think all of us do that to everyone else no...
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- Josh Haley
I use both methods online: I'm the 'real me' on Facebook (and one other site that is business oriented) because on those sites I'm interacting with people who know who I am in a literal sense. However on FF or other social sites, I'm not a Scoble or Brogan (or Mona, for that matter!), so the interactions aren't about who I literally am, it's about what I bring to the conversation. I find it rather freeing.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Lindsey that's also a really good point: in the ever widening internet circle, the odds that your 'personal brand' will conflict with someone else's get greater and greater. Then neither one of you reap the rewards.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
I'm avoiding a "Personal Brand" too. I want to keep who I am online and who I am offline separated. I don't want to be categorized. I also want the freedom to say what I think/feel/believe without having to worry about my employer (or potential employers). Especially since I write cheesy, gay, supernatural romance.
- Nine
I was never a fan of using my real (full) name online. I'm not really paranoid, but I like to maintain some measure of control of what comes up when you plug in my real name into Google, which some future prospective employer might be prone to do (or my parents, for that matter). Segregated identities let me be free to speak my mind on politics, sex, religion, etc. without worrying too much about social consequences.
- Eric P
Names, superficially, are just rigid designators like anything else, so why not use whatever you want? Names have a real purpose: they designate humans. It's a constant reminder that what the designator represents is a warm-blooded person who has hopes, dreams, aspirations, idiosyncrasies, and ideas. I may not agree with anything a person says, but knowing that I'm talking to a person...
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- Mark Trapp
To everyone saying that they're able to hide stuff about who they are from potential employers: you're only postponing them finding out. Who you are is unchangeable. You may fool or deceive someone in an interview, but when you start working for them, anything about you comes out really quickly. Your privacy is an illusion. If you're doing things that you don't want people to find out about, you might want to reconsider what you're doing in the first place.
- Mark Trapp
@Mark, depends on the person. I've been with the same company over 10 years and very few people know much about what I believe and what I do outside of work (there are people who don't know what I do for the company, either). There's only 30 people here, too, so it's not like I can just blend in with the masses.
- Nine
As I'm one to play devil's advocate I have to ask, Mark: who's to say that the name that was given to me represents who I am better than a name I choose for myself? Bear in mind I'm not necessarily talking about my particular name on FF, but the concept of given names versus handles in general.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
I don't care what you call yourself, but it sure makes it a lot nicer if you use the same name everywhere so when I meet you at a conference I know what to call you and can have a conversation with you about what you write online.
- Robert Scoble
To play the devil's advocate here, aren't you still developing a personal brand anyway?
- Shey, Jamaican of FF
I have to say that I haven't experienced very many bad consequences of being myself online. For some reason, even though I sometimes swear, am often outspoken, make outrageous jokes, I still seem to have a real-life social circle who enjoy me. And I still have regular freelance employment. I can't see the NEED for segregated identities. I'm with Scoble on this one... I prefer knowing who I'm speaking to. And I prefer them knowing me.
- Roy Blumenthal
from twhirl
I'm myself online. I'm not necessarily myself at work.
- Nine
I think most people brand themselves just by existing and participating online. Someone knowing who you are doesn't necessarily put you into a specific category. I also agree that it's preferable for someone to use the same ID everywhere so I can keep their identity straight.
- Trish R
I'm on both sides here.. While I use the name "Haggis" pretty much everywhere online, you can easily find my real name as well. My RL friends even occasionally call me "Haggis", even my boss! In fact during the interview process he asked me about the name, and I wasn't the slightest bit embarrassed. I am Haggis, Haggis is me.
- Haggis (Sean Loyless)
Robert: that's a perfectly valid point, but does the same name necessarily have to equate to real name? I don't do blogger conferences and it's likely I won't have a need to, but if I were somehow invited to do so for my current blog I would likely use the moniker people recognize on my name tag.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Just as a side note, not using your real name does not protect your anonymity.
- Trish R
Shey, I appreciate that you think I developing a brand cause I really wouldn't have thought so. But is developing *a* brand different than developing *my* brand? I don't know...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
No one at work knows I'm an atheist. I don't have a problem divulging that online - or getting into religious debates - but it'd cause needless friction if my co-workers knew. So I'd rather not have that information pop up if they put my real name into Google.
- Eric P
I understand why someone would choose to mask their identity online - I've lived through the aftermath of being too open, but that's another story. Why though, as a woman, would you choose the name stupid blogger? Whether or not it's a joke, you are automatically associating yourself with negative attributes. I think it's sad, because many of the smart things you say online will be ignored just because of your "stupid" handle.
- Jennifer Van Grove
Man, I wish I could reply to specific comments. GAH! Part of me choosing a moniker is a safety issue: when working in a call center we (obviously) had to use real names and I received a death threat from someone after they already new my name/location. I have an uncommon name for my area so the odds of someone actually finding me & my house are high. And Jennifer, I picked this particular moniker on a whim based on the fact that I like to blog about things that strike me as stupid/amusing, what have you ...
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
... and 'Stupidity Blogger' (which more accurately describes what I tend to blather about), didn't work well in my head. I've debated off 'n' on about changing up the name, but have yet to receive any good suggestions or ideas. Perhaps a separate thread?
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Yep, I felt like 'SB' when I first started blogging. I didn't want anyone I knew knowing I blogged for a variety of reasons. 7 months later and I'm starting to look at it in a different way. Blogging has opened up a whole world to me that I never imagined when I started and the personal conflict (I don't think that's too strong a word) I had about keeping the 'real me' hidden and only blogging as 'worldofhiglet' has receded. But I enjoy my WoH persona and that will remain even when I work under my real name
- WorldofHiglet
WoH: I think that's definitely part of it. The chance to try on a new skin for a while, to see how it compares to the one you wear every day. The longer you wear it, the more the persona and the person intermingle (at least, that's been my experience). And for those that are curious, I've officially been outed =)
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
So do you have a Private Brand instead?
- Todd Hoff
Evangeline, I don't want to talk about myself either. Which is why I find it odd that, hands down, my most popular posts are the ones about me. Makes no sense... And now, I'm going to imagine someone calling you WeeSombrero in real life because I'm pretty sure it'll give me a chuckle =)
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
I don't recall if I ever listed my favorite services in one post. The reason that I'm doing it now is because I feel something has changed from last year. The main change is my use of recommendation services such as: Digg, Stumbleupon and Reddit - services that I was so addicted to and somehow now are no longer my main interest.
- Orli Yakuel
from Bookmarklet
I think moving all the apps off of users pages was a great idea, too many apps = clutter and wasted time. do you really want to see 3/4 of a fold worth of someone's favorite beer and hottest friend?
- mjc
Michael, we're talking about Facebook right? so, the answer is no. and yes, I do remember how the profile pages looks like, but this solution is not good either. (and I'm sure the usage in Facebook apps drooped down because of that)
- Orli Yakuel