Y'all should definitely check it out. It's going to be consuming all the cycles in this section of the twitosphere for the next few days if not more. It's very good, unique, wish I had thought of it. - Dave Winer
@Josh: Sort of. If you go to http://whoisi.com/logininfo it gives you a link to save that is basically like logging in (recreates the cookie, etc). That's just for knowing who you're following, though. Since it's wiki-ish, the profiles don't really belong to anyone. Or at least, that's how I understand it. - Donato via twhirl
DeWitt, I don't know that may be all it is. I just started playing with it an hour or so ago. - Dave Winer
Something is going terribly wrong though. I'm trying to add profiles for other people and it keeps saying "that url is already associated with...". I think it may have to do with adding FriendFeed feeds. Not sure why though. - Brandon Titus
This is starting to REALLLLLY bug me. There is a flippin API (http://code.google.com/apis/so...) that will go out and discover all my sites. Stop telling people/me to add them manually and instead give them/me the option to add the sites that have already been discovered. More click, less type. :-L - Erica Baker
Erica, I never heard of that API. Is there an executive summary of it. Do website owners have to do something to support it? Also whoisi is just one guy doing it as a labor of love. Let's cut him some slack, eh? He doesn't have $5 million like the FF guys do. - Dave Winer
You don't need $5 million dollars to make use of a free API. Executive summary: "The Social Graph API makes information about the public connections between people on the Web easily available and useful for developers. Developers can query this public information to offer their users dramatically streamlined "add friends" functionality and other useful features." - Erica Baker
The social graph API also uses the Social Graph Node Mapper open source project to generate canonical urls for sites (e.g. what's the user profile page, where are the feeds, etc): http://code.google.com/p/googl... Patches welcome - Adewale Oshineye
Thanks for all the information about Google's API. Seems to have killed the discussion on whoisi.com, which is still quite interesting. I was wonder if it has an API -- kind of like the one in FriendFeed. How frequently does whoisi poll its RSS feeds? - Dave Winer
I try and early adopt as much as the next guy but Whoisi couldn't be more unintuitive. It's as if they're trying to make it cumbersome to use....and they provide as few clues to it's functionality as possible. You think it will succeed why? - Michael J. Pratt
@Dave: It does have an API. There isn't any documentation yet, but he does have example python scripts linked here: http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/webl... - Donato
I saw the note in your writeup, but Python example scripts aren't going to do it for me. How often do you poll? If it's often enough I won't have to use your API. Also -- you might want to consider implementing the server site of the weblogs.com ping API. That way I can ping you when my feed changes, you can read it, and we can accomplish virtually instant updating. That would probably be the most sensible approach. Also consider implementing the Twitter API, that way you don't have to write docs. :-) - Dave Winer
Also if you implement the Twitter API you'll get instant compatibility with lots of software, and the blessings of lots of developers. If you want to discuss offline, send me an email at dave dot winer at gmail dot com. - Dave Winer
It's certainly something that I've been working on in my spare time and isn't as polished as FriendFeed. I did most of the original design and thinking on it including the look and feel before I even saw FriendFeed. The fact that they ended up looking about the same is chance. - Christopher Blizzard
On the API front, there's a lot left to do and I never finished writing docs for it. Sorry if there are similar things that I could be taking advantage of, but I was more interested in the human side of the equation. This is at least 50% experiment for me to find out if people can do for feeds + following what Wikipedia has done for general information. That's why it's human-intensive. I want people who care, not just robots. - Christopher Blizzard
I wonder if Feedly is using the Google Social Graph? It authenticates via Google and it sure knew a lot about me very quickly. I would use whoisi to get a certain kind of info about someone. A social graph search, I guess. The wiki element will make it interesting (or fail very fast). - Leo Laporte
Had someone notify me about my page at http://whoisi.com/p/836 pretty cool to have gotten a 3 digit id. I'm just randomly checking new id's by changing them in the URL. Got one where it showed a new site loading. They're almost up to 1200. Wondering if my 3 digit id will be as coveted as my 7 digit ICQ#. - Mark Krynsky
@Mark: 7 digit ICQ, nice. I have a 6 digit now. I HAD a 5 digit way back when, but I lost the info for the account and couldn't get it back. - Donato via twhirl
Chris, have you setup a place where we can report bugs? Perhaps a whoisi FF room? Also, my current biggest concern is that there are no controls for rampant vandalism. It appears I can easily add a site or remove sites from anybody's page. - Mark Krynsky
I have no reason to acctually enter all of my stuff into Whoisi.com, purely because I can just as easily add my friendfeed rss feed, and a few other feeds that I want perticular interest to, and be done with it - Chacha via twhirl
@Mark: You can leave a comment in my blog if you want if you're having issues. Would love to know sites that do or don't work. I have a post about whoisi up there and how it all works. - Christopher Blizzard
I hate the constant captcha though. For God's sake don't ever build any new websites without openid support. - Shivanand Velmurugan
The constant captchas keep the abuse at least _somewhat_ limited. :) I also need to figure out what openid really means for the site. I've poked at it a tiny tiny bit. - Christopher Blizzard
cool site, no login; interesting. Will have to play more tomorrow. - Stuart Forsyth
I just turned off refreshing because twitter is in a fit. Again. And when it is everything else gets slow. I even have an SQL query that I run from time to time to clean out the bad data that twitter generates. I wonder how many of these sites include code just to handle twitter crapping itself a few times a day? - Christopher Blizzard
I've been checking it out, the core idea is certainly is very interesting. question is how quick can it add features? - Samuel Bostock
I wish that there were a way that FriendFeed could include more than just the last 25 or so things I faved on Flickr. Sometimes I'll spend hours faving and add several hundred new faves. In total I've got over 35,000 favorites in Flickr now: http://www.flickr.com/photos/t... - Thomas Hawk
Thomas: I love the work you do bringing the community's best work to all of us. Thank you! - Robert Scoble
I just spent some time looking into the new window problem. It turns out to be an iPhone/Safari bug. I think I figured out a work-around, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to release it (because I should be asleep, not pushing lightly tested code). - Paul Buchheit
Are there plans for a fuller UI on mobiles? I miss not being able to like or comment from my phone (Windows Mobile) - Colin Walker
what is iphone URL of FriendFeed? I'd like to try it on my S60v3 Nokia phone ;) - silpol
I pretty much agree with this statement, with respect to the work that was put into Alert Thingy. - Vince DeGeorge
"The browser" is not a push technology, Louis. The browser requires you to interrupt what you're doing, load friendfeed, READ IT, see if there are any items you like or want to comment on, and THEN post. With AlertThingy you get an update when someone does something, and you can instantly make the decision about whether you want to bother with it right now. (via Alert Thingy) - Adam Posey
I disagree. The browser is limiting. The point is to expand and improve the experience. Example: Twhirl (via Alert Thingy) - Bwana McCall
cos its annoying to have web applications hidden away in browser tabs? - Samuel Bostock
Adam yeah right, as if I would need even more interruption. The browser does not interrupt me but is at my deposition when I request it to reload. Additionally, with the web browser, I have an easier time deciding if I want to follow up on discussions or not, have hiding available (including items with comments) and more. So when you ask this general question, you get this general answer. Every person is different, but for me, Alerthingy is just an annoyance. - Nicole Simon
When any kind of technology is designed to PUSH information to us, we typically use applications to bring it to us in an easy way. Twhirl, RSS readers, SMS updates, email notifications, etc. The end goal is to get information to us more easily and AlertThingy does that very well. (via Alert Thingy) - Adam Posey
friendfeed/twitter are applications as in I interact with them. I want to use the browser, to browse! (via Alert Thingy) - Adnan
Adam, point taken, which is why I did install it, but online use it as a popup notifier, nothing more. Bwana, Alert Thingy actually limits my experience. Because it limits it only to my "friends" tab. I check "everyone" quite often. It's not a "bad" app, but far from necessary. - Vince DeGeorge
I'd agree if you were talking about Twitter (fairly light-weight), but I find FF's different. It's nice to 'break' things like this out of the browser (like how some people prefer Word/Writer to Google Docs or Thunderbird to Gmail). Until now, what I've been doing is Prism-ing FF out into a separate instance of Firefox so I can isolate it. Edit: Basically, what Adnan said. - Cyvros/fyc
Yes. And there is a limit for evey person of what they want to be pushed to them - be it designed for that or not. You prefer such an app, I prefer the browser. Or let me rephrase that: I do not mind an app as long as it is configurable to what I consider to be a good way of pushing information to me. - Nicole Simon
Vince, Alert Thingy's shortcomings are irrelevant. They can be fixed. It doesn't take away from the fact that a desktop client can greatly enhance the experience. You shouldn't expect version 1.0 to do everything you want. (via Alert Thingy) - Bwana McCall
Uh, except it's a client app, and stuff pops into your awareness instead of having to go find it. (via Alert Thingy) - Stowe Boyd
In a way, it's also similar to why some people (like me) prefer IM for Twittering. Also, if you're using Firefox 2, less tabs make all the difference to the memory munching. :P - Cyvros/fyc
I'm trying to see what's wrong with having a choice. If the entire FriendFeed world was supposed to be in the browser, why even bother with an API? (via Alert Thingy) - Bwana McCall
Absolutely nothing wrong with having choice and I don't think anyone thinks that Alert Thingy is a bad thing, but some of us just don't get the "why." I just find the web access sufficient for how I use FF. - Vince DeGeorge
i'm not interested in taking up more of my screen just for FriendFeed -- i'll use the browser when I want to check in (via Alert Thingy) - Shey
Is this not the same thing as saying "What's the point of RSS feeds since you can just go to the website"? Being able to interact with FriendFeed without visiting the site cuts down on time and creates a more immersive experience. (via Alert Thingy) - Brandon Titus
I think one of the primary problems here is the baiting way in which Louis' twitter post was written. "Alert thingy isn't for me because:" would have been a much more benign way of phrasing it. (via Alert Thingy) - Adam Posey
Exactly Adam. If you ask me, the phrasing came across as very Duncan Riley'ish. "Why is this product X getting so much attention, when I can already do this with product Y" I have a feeling Louis is not as closed minded as Duncan can be, but this post doesn't support that claim. - Bwana McCall
Whether baiting or not, this is getting the answers we were looking for, right? - Louis Gray
I prefer FriendFeed via the browser, but AlertThingy may appeal to people who like desktop apps. I don't like 'em. - Mike Reynolds
Come to think of it, any posted links I click on in AlertThingy will pull up a browser anyway and ultimately waste time. - Cyvros/fyc
Louis just asked a question, and you answered it. ;) I agree with Mike, it''s a matter of taste; I also prefer the browser. - Alejandro S.
So the end justifies the means? Bad form sir. (via Alert Thingy) - Bwana McCall
I currently have 14 tabs open and I can only look at one of them at a time. I'm a multi-tasker and I like to have things in front of me instead of switching between tabs all the time. Now if only I could get a sidebar for OS X so all this stuff would be nice and neat in one place (and no I don't mean hidden away in the dashboard). - Erica Baker
Although AlertThingy is full of shortcoming, but I think it will get better soon. (via Alert Thingy) - terababy
Louis, you're getting an argument with the occasional post from someone who can fence-sit and appear to be objective. I understand that it's boring to just say what you think in a way that doesn't make people angry enough to comment, but it certainly would have been possible to skip straight to the constructive comments and leave out the harsh-tone. - Adam Posey
"This is just stupid. Why do we need a FF desktop app if we have the browser?" THAT would have been harsh, IMO. - Alejandro S.
I think it's a good first step, but not ready for primetime yet. I'm sticking to the web for now. - Sarah Perez
Because I don't like keeping open a Friendfeed tab in Firefox. Firefox is slow enough if you're not using the beta and this is a more streamlined way of getting Friendfeed updates. (via Alert Thingy) - Corvida
So while I won't comment specifically re: Alert Thingy... a push client is necessary. Using "autoRefresher.start(300 * 1000);" in Javascript or hitting F5 in a browser for updates is barbaric :) - Mark Krynsky
I've decided to keep AlertThingy installed b/c it it gives me an alerty-thingy alert when something new happens. - Mike Reynolds
Corvida is spot on, Firefox performs better with fewer tabs open, plus alerts a nice to have for flow apps like Twitter and FF (via Alert Thingy) - Jake Kuramoto
Can I just say that what has me hating Alert Thingy without even having installed it is that annoying "via Alert Thingy" after every comment? Get rid of the advertising spam, and we'll talk. - Shannon Jiménez
oh come on, shannon. they're not allowed to self promote? every twitter post has a via snitter, via twhirl, via web, via text. what's the diff? (via Alert Thingy) - Sarah Vela
I don't use twitter, but, yes, I would find that annoying too. Who cares where the comment comes from? - Shannon Jiménez
look, it's a free app. i think they deserve to get some self promotion in there somewhere. it's not like a huge, glaring print ad. *shrug* - doesn't bother me. (via Alert Thingy) - Sarah Vela
@Shannon Jimenez I'm with Sarah Velo on this one. It's not spammy in the least if you ask me, because it's not in your face nor is it linking back to the original website. It's promotion and there's nothing wrong with that. - Corvida
Guess we'll have to agree to disagree on this one :) After reading "via Alert Thingy" approximately 8000 times today I've developed quite a bit of animosity toward the product. I think they should attract users through merit, not through meaningless comment attachments (not to mention the fact that, in my case at least, reading the phrase has had the opposite of the intended reaction). - Shannon Jiménez
I like how Twitter handles service attribution, though it adds clutter. One option that might be nice is if '(via Alert Thingy)' were automatically inserted into the comment field as the user composes their comment, so if they choose they could edit it out, or if it was a pref. This is analogous to the iPhone's default 'Sent from my iPhone' email sig. It's there by default, but doesn't force itself as a condition of using the product. - Kevin Fox
Kevin's idea is good. I still like the idea of a Twitter-style tag. It wouldn't bug me so much if it were <small>ed. Mock-up || Comment text. - Voyagerfan5761 - via Alert Thingy || with the latter three words small and grayed so as to be more unobtrusive. - Voyagerfan5761
FriendFeed shares, if they're interesting, require a browser to fulfill, no? So I don't see the utility of a desktop app over the browser. That's not even to mention the UI disasters of Alert Thingy itself. Conversely, tweets can be, and often are, self-contained in a formal sense. - Rick Powell
There's so many things the website does that the API doesn't support yet. Use the website. Use firefox. Grab some scripts to add functionality: http://ffapps.com - engtech
but twitter does it with the clients in a way your brain knows "stop reading, advertisement here" which is not what it does here (because it suggests normal text which you should pay attention to). For me the fact that you cannot turn it off is an annoyance in any kind of application. @kevin in the regard from sending from a mobile, there is a value in knowing it came from mobile. As for api - you can do more than just a reading client with it ... - Nicole Simon
having been really enjoying twhirl for twitter I for one welcome alert thingy to the game - not that they are the same service - but having twhirl open on my second screen is sure nicer then having twitter buried in a tab - the same goes for friendfeed. (via Alert Thingy) - ben rogers
I like Alert Thingy for a number of reasons. Firstly, I tend to open a number of tabs while I browse. I dislike having friendfeed (or twitter for that matter) buried deep within my firefox tabs. Secondly, I think popup notifications of new items is quite useful. Finally, I think the desktop app looks sexy :-) (via Alert Thingy) - David Adam
I didn't get it either - thought I was the only one. I can do more on the web too - so what is the point of this app other than it looks cool in screen shots and bloggers wrote about it? - Wayne Schulz
Louis, I guess it's nice to have because it's one less tab to have open in my browser - there are too many open there as it is. Guess it's really just a personal preference thing. You are right, there really isn't anything new here, other than another demonstration of what Adobe AIR can be used for. Still I'm finding it useful to run side-by-side with Twhirl. (via Alert Thingy) - Rick Mahn
Restart your copies of AlertThingy v1.1 is here! ...via AlertThingy - Jeremy Baines
All the people who are desktop app vs web browser. Check out http://ffapps.com . There are tons of more features available via Firefox scripts that you won't get in a desktop app. - engtech
so 1.1 allows you to have an opaque window... anything else? ...via AlertThingy - Samuel Bostock
Man - that was awesome. It took me a few seconds before I recognized that shortcut sequence too (which is unbelievable given the amount of time I spent as a kid playing stuff from Konami) - Sriram Krishnan
Still doesn't allow you to hide all twitters without comments for everyone. - Chris White
Chris, it should. Just click on "more hide options" and the last one is what you want. - Paul Buchheit
very nice!!! Being able to hide all twitter posts make a huge difference. - Edwin Khodabakchian
Great really great joke : ) I want something really, Paul. A dislike smiley?! It will be interesting, i think. - Erhan Erdogan
Paul, okay, the verbage confuses me. It says "Hide ALL FriendFeed entries, which sounds scary. Also, I don't know if it applies to all of a particular person's posts, or to a particular type of posts. Also, it's bad when you hide the thing you're trying to comment on. :D - Chris White
"Advanced super hide" then - great work! - Todd McKinney
Smart move. That's proven to be a popular feature in Plaxo Pulse. :) - John McCrea
Hmmm. And also. I want to make a comment, to comments directly. This new comments may be under directly comments. In a different color or a little line space. ?! - Erhan Erdogan
Great functionality, but in general I'm pretty happy reading whatever my friends post. - Mike Reynolds
I was thinking the same thing as Chris was. Maybe "internal entries" would work better? - Michael Ryan
Very nice. Very nice indeed. I'm sure we all thank you for this one. Now can we have it on the "everyone" tab, which I do scan thru from time to time? :-) - Slippy Lane
Nice work. Aside: I have inadvertently hidden a stream from an acquaintance. How do I check it this is indeed the case (maybe she's just sulking) and unhide, if necessary ? - Andy C
Andy, go to the bottom of the page and click on 'show hidden entries' to see what would have been on the page but isn't due to hiding. From there you can 'unhide'. - Kevin Fox
You're right Chris, it's kind of confusing when the service is Friendfeed. Fortunately, nobody would ever want to hide those :) - Paul Buchheit
@Andy: That means that no items on that page were hidden. It's not a guarantee that you don't have any 'hide' settings, but that none came in to play on that page. Try paging back a few pages and see if any of them have something hidden, or search for your friend and see if that friend's posted anything in the last few days. - Kevin Fox
So with Super-Hide here, when is the port of Super Poke? - Louis Gray
OK so I can hide 'Janet's Blog entries' but Janet has 3 blogs and I am interested in 2 but not her retro musical tastes. What to do ? - Andy C
Tell Janet to stop posting about retro musical. It's in all of our best interests. :) - Chris White
@Chris White: You're right. Plus it always ends up with some talentless 80's British crooner singing 'Never gonna give you up'. I know she's pledging her undying love for me but, frankly, I'm sick of it. - Andy C
And there was much rejoicing. Thanks, Paul. :) - engtech
Hey I noticed if you go into hide and then cancel the hide option is no longer availabe on that post. I guess it doesn't matter since you can do whatever you need from another entry, just thought it was strange. - Devin Anderson
Confirming Devin's report, though I found it disorienting to have the option disappear. It happened on this entry, and I thought that someone on the back-end had disabled hiding of the super-hide announcement. :D ¶ Lacking the ability to put in a line break to separate points, I think we need a control panel that summarizes all of our hidden content and allows deleting those settings without finding a page that has one of those items on it. Adding from such a page would be nice as well. ¶ - Voyagerfan5761
Why does there have to be a "more hide options", why can't you just offer us all 3 options in the first place? - j1m
Jim: because the operations beneath the "More hide options" link are extremely dramatic (you could select that option, a new friend signs up, and you would never see their entries because of your previous hide operation). Since the options aren't likely necessary for most situations, so we didn't want to make it too tempting. - Bret Taylor
The hide option shouldn't be disappearing. What browser are you using Devin and Voyagerfan? - Paul Buchheit
@Paul: FF 2.0.0.13. Just tried it again, though, and it stuck around. Devin, still having the problem? - Voyagerfan5761
How to post a message with a pic like this one? - Lizunlong
This'll work, thanks for satisfying one of the top requested features (in my community fragment anyway ;) ). PS: Not to be an interface astronaut, but "More -> Unsubscribe from Paul Buchheit" seems to be somewhat related to the Hide function, and perhaps could be integrated into what's currently called the Hide dialog. It's a very similar user intent; some fragment here is creating too much noise and the user wants to take action. But perhaps unverbose the dialog if it's ever gonna be expanded. - Philipp Lenssen
Good idea Philipp. I'll add that to my list. - Paul Buchheit
It's like you read my mind, thank you. An improvement for me would be "Hide [specific type] entries from friends of friends". I thought I also ran into the hide-option disappearing issue, but then realized that it only shows up in the main feed, and not when looking at a specific person's feed. Confusing? - emilie
nice ^__^. it wolud be great to have something like "reblog this" (republish this entry in my feed) option also... - minus-one
Just had an thought as i went through and hid Scoble's twitters. I chose hide his twitter unless there is a like or a comment. i figure I'll let the community decide if his ramblings are interesting. Then I thought - what would happen if everyone did that... - Alex Gawley
@minus-one: that happens if you 'like' something... - Alex Gawley
@paul - should liked or commented entries show up in the 'me' tab? i'd like them to. - Alex Gawley
I think the Hide All option is extremely broad. I would probably use it only when (if?) some people grouping feature is introduced (ie. white list) - Aviv
@Paul I'm using Firefox 2 but after logging back in this morning the hide option is back for this post. - Devin Anderson
Can you include "hide" links on user pages as well? I'd like to click on someone's page, see that their tweets are all uninteresting, and then hide them from there. - engtech
I am sorry ...but I amunable to locate the feature on friendfeed .... - viki saigal
Can you put the Hide link on user pages? like if I go to http://friendfeed.com/engtech -- I should see hide links under the entries. Quite often I'll look at friends pages to cull the services they use that I'm not interested in. - engtech
And other weird stuff I'd like. Instead of just having a &service parameter, I'd like to be able to do an array of services, and be able to do "notservice". Sometimes I want to view everything BUT twitter, other times not. - engtech
For some reason superhide doesn't work for me — tried to hide Disqus stuff from certain user but no luck — it still appears in the feed, instead of being hid above the paging links. :( - 59mm
i am happy that it also fixed the positioning problem as in when you where too low on that page; now it pops in the middle. - Nicole Simon
amen. although a lot of people just can't upgrade to ie7, because it requires sp2 and their systems aren't compatible with sp2. but as a gmail developer, i can attest to the fact that this is a huge pain in the ass. - darren
Google needs to make a firefox rendering plugin for ie, then we can all just target firefox :) - Sanjeev Singh
I'm waiting for the WebKit rendering extension for Firefox. - Jim Norris
i'm waiting for the FF2 rendering and javascript engines to be put in every other browser, cause they're just so fast and memory-efficient. yeah.... - darren
Does anyone else get freaked out when comments on FF become blog posts? It's starting to feel just a little creepy. It's rather like having some stalker sifting through all your conversations in the search for interesting gossip and then justifying it because you had the conversation in a public place - Adewale Oshineye
we REALLY need a 'Like' for comments :) - Steven Hodson
Adewale, just to clarify, any thread Paul Buchheit posts on Friendfeed will be immediately broadcast to his many hundreds of subscribers as he has set up a public feed. As the source is public -- not only technically but de facto -- my responsibility is to check whether or not posting on it in another place (remember, it was already posted) is newsworthy in regards to Google, or if it is merely a "socially private" matter. In this case, I believe a distorted view of the 20% rule is not a mere "socially private" matter or "gossip" as you put it, as Google heavily and openly promotes this rule. There are many other nuances which I ponder when posting, e.g. whether or not to name Joseph's full name etc., and I can't claim to always get everything right -- and I carefully read through all feedback, yours too of course -- but I don't see the issue here you seem to be seeing. - Philipp Lenssen
Adewale, agreed (especially when the original info comes from an pseudonymonous and misleading loudmouth on a gossip site). One of the reasons I like FF is because it inherently feels like a community. Having stuff repurposed elsewhere certainly isn't "illegal" but it does make me uncomfortable and sad. - Adam Lasnik
"Adewale, agreed (especially when the original info comes from an pseudonymonous and misleading loudmouth on a gossip site)." Adam, if you refer to Hans Cardinal's sentences which I posted, I added big disclaimers in my post before and after quoting that source in regards to its uncertain validity -- it is not the "original info" I based my post on. I based my post on *Paul Buchheit's* quote as I consider Paul a real source (and still decided to end the title in a question mark, as I can't be 100% sure). - Philipp Lenssen
I agree that you have every right to post it. It just feels creepy. I do disagree with Paul on the 20% rule. Whilst I have 0 knowledge about what happened with GMail I do know lots of people (including me) who have 20% projects. That doesn't mean I spend 1 day a week working on it but it does mean that my management understand that there's at least 1 thing I'm working on that isn't strictly aligned with their goals. - Adewale Oshineye
Adewale, I would like to invite you to post your views on the 20% rule as above as a comment to the Blogoscoped post. The more diverse the publicly posted opinions on this, the closer we get to reality, I think. - Philipp Lenssen
Philipp, I understand your points and appreciate both your clarifications here and your disclaimers re. Hans Cardinal's sentences in your post. I think the discomfort I alluded to above has a lot to do with my worries that I might find *my* comments on FriendFeed plastered on a popular blog somewhere. - Adam Lasnik
Adewale, I didn't intend for anything that I said to apply to the 20% rule as a whole, only with respect to Gmail (in that Gmail was not a 20% project). I actually think the 20% time idea is very valuable. - Paul Buchheit
@adewale, did you know that friendfeed discussions on public user profiles are indexed by google? i find that even creepier. i think i would post/comment more if ff was private somehow (but i may be in the minority) - ƃuɐʞ
I agree it feels creepy to see comments here winding up on Phillipp's site. At the same time, this isn't a private community. Perhaps this is the first example of FF's growing pains. Also, I wish the piece had a little more substance, it feels like there could be more. Oh, while we're on the topic, I had a specific 20% project up until about a year ago, and now I spend my 20% time on a variety of things, including running the local patterns / software engineering reading group, among others. - Robert Konigsberg
I think anything you write or post online (even if it's supposedly private like a Facebook photo) is fair game to be used elsewhere online. The most useful thing I got out of Google media training was the advice "Don't say anything unless you'd be ok with it appearing on the front page of the New York Times." - Jess Lee
Jess, that's technically correct and also generally sound advice. It's also depressing. It leads to more secrecy, less transparency, and less openness, which doesn't friendly-relations make. I am not, hopefully quite obviously, advocating that folks disclose confidential information, violate NDAs, or communicate disrespectfully. But simply shutting up... well, it's bad for everyone. - Adam Lasnik
to Chris - irc has channels and people can join several of them at once, in FriendFeed individual people feeds resemble channels and can be "joined". In both irc and FriendFeed people can talk/reply "on" the channel. Other similarities are public and private channels, and the ddj article which talked about relation of channels and blogs. - Amund Tveit
(this discussion starts to remind me of usenet :) - Amund Tveit
Will we now see a blog post about comments about a blog post about our comments? From the short nature of the comments, they're easily pulled out of context - making it even more complicated to post here if you're even marginally known or work for a company that is. The logical consequence is to shut up in places like this and to keep any interesting opinions within doubly firewalled private networks. :-( - John Mueller
I wonder if we would be have the same discussion if it was valleywag that had pulled the quote - or is it because it was respected blogger who wrote the post that has folks a little unnerved? - Steven Hodson
I'm actually tempted to work this discussion up into a post. This is the same topic we discussed in my panel on privac at IDPI Politics Online conference . Allen Stern and some think tankers and I were all discussing exactly how the world works, and all the private info you thin
