I've noticed that I'm getting tired of it too. We really need a much better way to talk to the database on FriendFeed. I'd love to see all items in a real reverse-chronilogical view (no bubbling up of attention-getting items), along with only displaying items that get two likes or more and one or more comments. Imagine if you could do that? Now imagine if you could filter out things. Like, remove anything with Obama or McCain in them. That would let me build a much better news river than I can get anywhere else. - Robert Scoble
I think that the bubble effect works well if you have subscribed to just a few people but I would think that if you have thousands of "friends" then it would be almost impossiable to keep up. I did like the idea that somebody suggest of being able to tag some of you friends as real and then either giving them higher priority or creating another tab with just their feeds in. - John Cooper
Good point, Robert, I would filter out "iPhone". - Ryo
When TiVoing the Olympics and not wanting to read spoilers, I'd filter out Olympics, Phelps, etc. - JD Lasica
the true leading edge simply doesn't need to be here, or facebook, etc. - i would like to see discussion around an idea all in one place, not here, then over at louisgray, plus what i missed at dave winer ... - gregory lent
I agree a keyword filter would be great, and it should be reasonable to implement a feature like that. As for the bubbling, I'd like to keep that for me. - Thomas Frütel
the true leading edge doesn't have a community, as there are very few who are there - clarke thomas
if they only displayed items that inky had 2 or more likes, or at least one comment, then no one would see anything, since in order for it to appear, it needs to be liked. In order to be liked, it needs to appear. - Andru Edwards
I think Robert (and the rest o'yaz) are right that better filtering is needed. I know noiseriver and some others are working on this (and of course the FF team.) Would be great to "weight" people, services, and keywords... - Anthony Citrano
Some of you apparently need a "Web Service of the Month Club" membership. ;) - abacab
Filtering and chronological sorting, setting like tolerances is all possible with the current API. Adding data to people (like weights) would requires a database. I think it would be cool to have a 2 column layout, the left column in true chronological order and the right with standard "bubbled up" content. - Paul Reynolds
Bubbling is essential to maintain a conversation. Without it, everything becomes even more ephemeral. Just hide what you're done with. - Logical Extremes
Robert - I found this item through Google Reader (I subscribe to Friendfeed - Best of Day, which I flow to my A feeds folder). Because of the noise and information overload issue, I've pretty much given up trying to use Friendfeed by browsing from http://friendfeed.com/ - Sean McBride
@Scoble - sounds like mioNews might do what you want if I could just get the relevance ranking engine turned back on. It is designed to auto-filter out the stuff you've "hated" in the past and bring up to the top the stuff you've liked in the past. - Patrick Lightbody via mioNews
Allowing you an *option* to rate your contacts on a 1-10 scale and then allowing a best of hour, day, week, month incorporating these ratings into the algorithm would at a minimum produce an alternative "best of." And probably more relevant than relying only on social metadata (likes, comments) alone. This tool could also be used for custom filtering certain subsets of contacts as well. Eg. Show me content from all contacts rated 6 or higher, etc. - Thomas Hawk
I love it more than ever. Last week though, I did do some artful pruning of my subscriptions, and that has toned up my experience. Agree strongly with the request for friend grouping and friend weighting. Vital. In my opinion this functionality is FriendFeed's "fire alarm" and it's what they need to implement soon to balance things out. - Steve Isaacs
friendfeed is just passing notes in class, and about as fulfilling, you can find out who you want to meet out in the parking lot later. - gregory lent
If enough users begin to filter out items based on the number of comments and/or the number of likes, how would anyone see anything at all? Everything would be filtered out and nothing would get through. What am I missing here? I understand filtering certain types of content (e.g., Twitter, etc.) but I don't understand filtering based on the number of comments or likes. - Gregory Pittman via twhirl
You just can't treat FriendFeed like Twitter, subscribe to a massive number of people, and expect a good experience. Although I like the ideas that Robert suggested, and would like to see them implemented, I also think that the best way to control the noise, at least for now, is through thoughtful subscriptions. FriendFeed currently remains for me now what Yahoo! was for me in 1996: the center of the web. - Akiva Moskovitz
Gregory: there would still be those of us who like seeing all the noise and "liking" the best of it. - Robert Scoble
Robert, that's a good point. I guess I would be one wanting to see the noise for fear of missing something no one else thought was valuable. For now any way. - Gregory Pittman via twhirl
And use rooms effectively. They can be a great asset if the right people join and participate - Deepak
While the FF UI is far from perfect at this point, it's pretty annoying to hear a certain class of people who incessantly whine about how they suffer from information overload when they subscribe to thousands of people. Allow me to humbly suggest that the problem *isn't* some deficiency in the UI, but rather the problem is that *you subscribe to thousands of people*. The unmanageable noise level is your own fault. - Eric
The biggest feature for me would be to auto-detect and merge the multiple posts about the same article... Make the new submission a like or comment on the original, but keep it all in one place. - Jason Carreira
Eric, I wouldn't go so far as to say that 'you're doing it wrong'. Those use cases are valid ones. You can't design a customer-facing product and then demand that they only use it within a strict set of guidelines. FriendFeed needs to mature to handle the Scobles of the world as well as the Moskovitzes. Although I think that subscription maintenance is part of the process, at least for now, I don't think that wanting the product to fit your personal use case is call to accuse anyone of 'whining'. - Akiva Moskovitz
Eric -- at the moment I am subscribed to 78 people (not thousands) (and have 117 people subscribed to me). The problem is fine-tuning the stream to push the best *combinations* of people, topics, links and comments to the top of my queue. So far I am relying on Google Reader to try do the job. When Robert Scoble remarks, "I've noticed that I'm getting tired of it too," perhaps one should listen and understand. - Sean McBride
I have a problem with only wanting to see items that are liked. Then you only see top 10ers. If I have something to contribute, you may never see it. Kind of turns it into Digg. I like the fact that it's easy to see smaller conversations easily. Filters for keywords would be nice, though. - Eric @ CS Techcast
Sure Friendfeed could continue to evolve and improve its service. However, I would posit a theory that perhaps the "shiny newness" of it all is wearing off. It is the problem with the echo chamber, it is too hard to stick to the new services when it takes so much time to play with new things coming out in a torrid pace. Sure some will disagree with me but I think this contributes to it to a great extent. - Lou Paglia
I was using it a lot less lately myself and wondering the same thing. I've unsubscribed from a lot of the social net noise and found that this has freshened up the experience a lot. - Nick Munson
What Nick said. I think it's a much more interesting place if you avoid those who are FFing about FF and so on. - Anthony Citrano
I think it's Shiny Object syndrome, too (not referring directly to Robert here). FF has been slow on releasing new features. Some overhaul of the interface and taking up the many suggestions forwarded by its most active users would be a well-timed move. - Chris Baskind
Too much noise on Friendfeed, and by the time I get around to replying to it, the conversations are over. - Francine Hardaway
Francine: how can the conversation be over if you have something to say? - Brian Sullivan
I still really like FriendFeed, but when you are busy doing many things, it is harder to keep up with the key discussion items and people you need to follow the most. I think FF will find ways of making this easier in time. I find I need breaks from all socnets periodically to keep my life and focus in balance. The breaks help prevent "Shiny Object Syndrome" and fatigue.;-) - Cathryn Hrudicka
@francine: two things cut down on the FF noise for me: 1) i 'like' all of the threads i find interesting, and then go to the 'ME' tab to keep up with them or comment on them later; 2) i 'hide' everything that's not of interest. - .LAGizmoto
Firstly, no one should need to apologize that they are using a website or not. Really! Anyway, I've always likened FF to chat, and I'm not a big fan of chat rooms. Something about FF seems to emphasize the immediate. I think this is what Francine refers too. There are some vauable nuggest of info, but I'm really not seeing the same richness of 'conversation' I find in blogs and blog comments. I think the non-linear exchanges between blogs (and occasionally in blog comments) tends to generate more thoughtful (and more valuable) exchanges. That sums up why I've been neglecting FF. - bernie
My FriendFeed experience is still good. Agree with those who recommend "thoughtful subscription". Remember too - it's searchable. I think the archival aspect is just as important as the real-time aspect. - Neil Saunders
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - FriendFeed needs the ability to collect friends into groups - and be able to view the feed of a single group. - Jonathan Beckett
I lived in Neah Bay, WA when I was a kid many decades ago. Shi Shi beach was forbidden to humans because the Makah people thought it was the home of Bigfoot. I have a picture of myself as a kid standing under a giant cedar tree carving with a what is supposed to be a life sized carving of BF. It was probably 10 feet tall. This was many years before tourism hit the area. Now I think there is a paved road to Shi Shi beach. - oregon_tony
"Jeff: Looking forward to it as well.
You encapsulate Defrag perfectly, it does really build a sense of "community". That is what I find so special about the conference." - Lou Paglia
"I see the attraction of the secondary market, good point, but I question this much more from a standpoint of business fundamentals. And it simply may be that I don't understand enough about it at this point. First, I think it is great that founders can benefit from a liquidity event, it is a reward for the risk. However, this strikes me close to creating massive "insider" risk.
Can only certain employees sell on the private market? Only ex-employees? What stops an "insider" who knows something about what the company strategic about the firm or something that will certainly erode/de-grade the upside of the firm, so they sell their stock privately at the "height" of perceived valuation. And does the fact that these insiders are selling harm the market valuation for other shareholders similar to the way free markets question when a senior executive is unloading their holdings?" - Lou Paglia
seems the iPhone is a defacto business device for many folks - Michael Gartenberg
personal and work, fully supported by Adobe IT - Arnaud Fischer
I use it for both, but my work demands & requirements are far lower than when I worked in an I.T. shop. Even without Exchange support, I was using it with my Exchange provider via IMAP. Native Exch. support is huge though. - Kevin C. Tofel
using it for both; supported by IT as we are currently running tests to ensure it doesn't present non-blackberry challenges for users and IT - Lou Paglia
Using it for both, and I run the IT Department so support isn't an issue ;-) - Vincent Ferrari
I use most of the features for work but our mail server is not exposed to the Internet and is not Exchange so there is limited use in connecting while I am in the office. - Van Van Noy
mainly personal use and not supported by IT/company - Frank Sons
I use it for both and I am IT, so I support it ;) - Sergio Cruz
Both but not supported by IT. Syncing to Exchange was easy since I had a Windows Mobile handset before - John Sun
Both. My support from IT was a single 5-minute conversation when I first configured my Outlook. I've required no other support since then. - Mike Doeff
I use my iphone for both work and personal, but up until now I've been freelance so not a big deal. - Tony
I use it for both, but am not technically supported by IT - Dustin Johnson
"Jason is really making some good points regarding this 'meme'. Ironic for me personally since I was just twittering this morning that I wish people would stop referring to the next "thing" as the "Google Killer". It is becoming a redundant (and unrealistic) term for all things "next up and coming", very similar to "Web 3.0" which is defined completely based on who is using the term.
On another point, altogether, it is unfortunate that Jason has shifted his thoughts to email newsletter. I'm sure more people like myself would love to get his thoughts on things but I am not going to add another method to follow things, especially one like newsletters which is untethered to the community. Hopefully, this will not be long-lived." - Lou Paglia
"Jason is really making some good points regarding this 'meme'. Ironic for me personally since I was just twittering this morning that I wish people would stop referring to the next "thing" as the "Google Killer". It is becoming a redundant (and unrealistic) term for all things "next up and coming", very similar to "Web 3.0" which is defined completely based on who is using the term.
On another point, altogether, it is unfortunate that Jason has shifted his thoughts to email newsletter. I'm sure more people like myself would love to get his thoughts on things but I am not going to add another method to follow things, especially one like newsletters which is untethered to the community. Hopefully, this will not be long-lived." - Lou Paglia
"Fred: Great post, I think there are a number of methods of tracking like Techmeme and comment management like you mentioned, Disqus. But there is still nothing, even FriendFeed, that closes the loop because the systems are still silo'd and users are not on all systems as of yet. That has to change.
For me, nothing drives your point home more than this simple fact. I read Scoble's post and found it quite provocative (and was not at the event so at some degree you have to trust the writer). If it was not for your post today, I would not have seen David Hornik's response which was a valuable rebuttal.
I think this will solve itself eventually. In the meantime, it is incumbent on the reader to track down information to ensure they have all relevant information." - Lou Paglia
"Fred: Great post, I think there are a number of methods of tracking like Techmeme and comment management like you mentioned, Disqus. But there is still nothing, even FriendFeed, that closes the loop because the systems are still silo'd and users are not on all systems as of yet. That has to change.
For me, nothing drives your point home more than this simple fact. I read Scoble's post and found it quite provocative (and was not at the event so at some degree you have to trust the writer). If it was not for your post today, I would not have seen David Hornik's response which was a valuable rebuttal.
I think this will solve itself eventually. In the meantime, it is incumbent on the reader to track down information to ensure they have all relevant information." - Lou Paglia
can't miss when my two favorite topics come together: wine (or in this case scotch which I'm not a fan) and technology. Gary V and Matt W come together on an episode. - Lou Paglia
wow, that article certainly puts exit strategy in the short-term and the importance of positive cash flow and cash flow management in perspective. Perhaps the curtain is going to come down on the start-ups that are built on eyeballs and have no revenue in sight. - Lou Paglia
actually that is strange francine, you don't have a lot of comments yet you post often and participate as well, again strange - i agree w/ mark though i know i've commented on your posts before - some people hide twitter so that might contribute to it... - mike "glemak" dunn
but another thing if you notice, is that Francine has only linked to FF vis Twitter, she is not participating on ff. so shes pretty much an outsider :(- <EDIT> maybe she thinks that every one also needs to flag reply twitter when commenting too ? I dont !! - Peter Dawson
Hi! I'm nobody! And you are........ :) - Bwana McCall
Hah! I rarely get comments on my own posts...oh...wait...that's a lie... - Rahsheen(isSoAwesome)
I find that liking and commenting seems to happen in bursts. Suddenly, everybody starts thinking how interesting I am. Later, they realize that they were sorely mistaken in thinking that I had any valuable content. But then they find something shiny and forget about it, allowing the cycle to repeat. - AwesomePossum248
This was such a boring post I almost didn't comment on it. - Cathleen Rittereiser
Looks like many people enjoyed your post ... must not be too boring. - LPH
Francine is far more clever than I. It seems clear that my strategy of quietly pouting is not going to get results. - MiniMage via fftogo
Awww - we all love you too MiniMage! Besides you're a fellow Mississippian, so you're already 3 steps ahead of most in my book. - (Tad => Tad.Nerdity++)
very interesting dilemma when you are searching the world's information and also searching your own; which is more important, I believe we all know the answer. Every content company or portal that has gone through this knows. - Lou Paglia
Lou: I've been keeping a daily log of my social networking stuff since I started exploring 1 year ago. In a world with more time, I'd be able to look at everyone who follows me to read their blogs/Facebook/LinkedIn/Google etc... In reality, I've got a huge backlog of people to follow back... - Mitchell Tsai
Mitchell: My twitter "Following" count is back to normal! But the "Followers" count is still off by 100+ Getting there! Almost restored...?! - Susan Beebe
Susan: Twitter Status reports "Followers and Followings Restored" (Thu 5:28 pm PDT) http://friendfeed.com/e/f589b0... We have restored 99.6% of the following/followers that temporarily disappeared as a result of a database error. The remaining 0.4% are on their way back. - Mitchell Tsai
However this Twitter episode has pointed out that I should have 24 additional followers (according to my "X is now following you on Twitter" e-mails). It's possible that the additional 24 were removed by Twitter's anti-SPAM program. I'll look into it tonight after I finish another project for my Dad. - Mitchell Tsai
I am moving most of my conversation away from Twitter. They have completely lost my trust, especially if they can't respect my followers. I will give them no more publicity, no more sharing, as few posts as I can help on the service - Jesse Stay via twhirl
I am back to where I was before. I do check daily, not for ego massaging, but to make sure I block the spammers. It's not easy to block them enmasse, so I get them as they follow. - Justin Whitaker
I joined identi.ca yesterday because of this Twitter issue. Bye, bye Twitter! - Mitchell Tsai
We just need a "Also send this comment as an @reply identi.ca" box in FriendFeed. :-) - Mitchell Tsai
I am moving most of my conversation away from Twitter. They have completely lost my trust, especially if they can't respect my followers. I will give them no more publicity, no more sharing, aMitchell, be sure to announce your hiatus from Twitter, then, completely ignore it. I'm going to try and do that tonight. - Jesse Stay via twhirl
Jesse, unfortunately I send 90% of my Twitters as responses via FF. And not all of my Twitter friends are on FriendFeed or identi.ca yet. :-( - Mitchell Tsai
I never kept tabs on my numbers for Twitter. Didn't think I would have to. I could be missing thousands and not even know :) - Rahsheen(isSoAwesome)
I don't know about moving from twitter. the value of networks is critical mass, and twitter seems to have it. Identi.ca looks great, but I wonder if there are enough of the people I find interesting to make the switch worthwhile. - Justin Whitaker
Hutch & Justin: My problem's easier than you guys, since I'm still new (221 Twitter followers - probably 30% SPAM. I'd be more screwed trying to reconnect with 685 FriendFeed people) I vaguely recall someone piping identi.ca messages into Twitter tweets. Would that be a way to run both at the same time? - Mitchell Tsai
We need to build identi.ca slowly so we are not at the will and tyranny of Twitter developers! - Igor The Troll
@igor i'm already there. i'm just waiting for the exodus. - Matt Musgrave
You don't have a freakin' lightsaber. You have a phone that makes lightsaber noises when you wave it around. - Cyndy
My personal ethics prevent me from cutting you in twain to prove a point - Jason Carreira
With. your. phone. Obviously, need someone to send him help. - Cyndy
I had a friend at my house when iPhone 2.0 came out and the first thing he wanted was the Saber. I was like: "Why the hell do you want this for your phone?" and he just said, "because it's cool". Apparently light saber sounds and slinging your iPhone around is cool. I don't get it though. - Brandon Titus
Me, either, Brandon. The kids like it, though. And the big kid over there. - Cyndy
LOL I have 4 out of the 5 on my iPod Touch. - Daynah
That light saber app would be SOOOO useful if the speaker volume on the phone could really crank up. You could wake up the parents who are letting their kids run around the coffee shop for 20 minutes as if they were at home fast! "Kids, sit down, the guy with the iPhone is freaking crazy!" - Robert Seidman
the iPhone is sounding more and more like Facebook with all of its useless apps. - ::Kristen::
My son has only two of these. He says two look lame and the third he can't get cause he's not old enough. So not every cool kid is downloading these things. -
![flowers in water drops (1024×683) [Fishki.net]](http://de.fishki.net/picsw/072007/25/bonus/drops/612910893_7e924fd48b_b.jpg "flowers in water drops (1024×683) [Fishki.net]")
![origami in water drops (1024×683) [Fishki.net]](http://de.fishki.net/picsw/072007/25/bonus/drops/617461755_7b3b1247ac_b.jpg "origami in water drops (1024×683) [Fishki.net]")
