"Starting today, people who visit your profile will see it in the theme you've chosen... We've [also] added an option that lets you create a custom theme by uploading a background image and choosing a few colors."
- Bret Taylor
from Bookmarklet
Haha, cool. Thanks for the answer Bret :) BTW Congrats on the acquisition earlier this week. Fantastic news for a great team and great product :)
- Sam Houston
Duck hunt is awesome! Tell Kevin to go sit in the corner for a while. :-)
- Robert Scoble
But what if I don't want to see other people's themes? There's a reason I avoid doing that on Twitter. Can we make our theme the default at all times?
- Captain Bubbles
ah, I figured as much there would be a setting, thanks Kevin! :P
- Tim Hoeck
Thank you, LE. It wouldn't have killed me to check that first, but I'm super tired.
- Captain Bubbles
Robert: If you change your theme's background color to black (even though it won't display because of hte tiling) the links will turn white.
- Kevin Fox
Robert, that's too much green monster for me. ;-)
- Kol Tregaskes
to your guys' credit you make it pretty hard to make this as hideous as you can make Gmail
- MG Siegler
@ Chris ..well, how about to make this personal themes showing through an option? /quick button, no need to go to settings - that'd be too far :] .. option for viewer, not for author
- Petr Buben
Ok so I'm shooting ducks here. is that part of the custom pages open to all?
- BairdWilliamson
I'm sorry, but this is the lamest thing FF has done (besides sell to Facebook, perhaps). This should not be default, especially when there's a theme that sends a duck flying across pages distracting you from reading them (it's like 1997 all over again). The only upside is that you can turn it off. It's a neat gimmick the first time, but after that it's just lame and becomes a...
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- Tanath
I'm sorry, Tanath, but I 100.000% disagree with you. Don't like it? Turn it off. Me? I love it.
- Stephen Mack
Already have - but it shouldn't be default behaviour.
- Tanath
Why not? I bet more people love it than hate it.
- Stephen Mack
Look, I'm excited that FF is still being worked on too, but this is arguably a step in the wrong direction. There's reasons why MySpace is going down the toilet, and different themes on every page is one of them. I'm inclined to take that bet, just not at this early point because it's mostly die-hard FF addicts that even know of the feature's existence.
- Tanath
As long you guys don't f*** with it, I can't see a problem. Why should FF staff avoid a feature only fearing its possible misuse? I'd rather see an option inside FF to explicitly hide user themes, if they get disturbing.
- David Schmidt
On or off, I can't see any themes on friendfeed except what I have in my browser's usercontent.css file. It would have been nice to include an "advanced user" feature that could have allowed us to enter in our own custom CSS for designing our own theme, sort of like how LiveJournal allows. That would have not only allowed customizing on friendfeed, it would also fix the problem with...
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- April Russo (app103)
David: you can hide other people's themes in your settings (top right of the page)
- Bret Taylor
Comparisons to MySpace seem off, since custom themes involve only four possibilities (background image, background color, bar color and box color) -- no widgets, no custom HTML, etc. And first and foremost, they can be switched off. How many times do you visit someone else's page on FF anyway? Most of the time is in your home feed or different lists. I just don't get the negativity, when it's a fun and optional feature that you can opt out from ever seeing again in about two seconds.
- Stephen Mack
I don't know if I consider customizing a few basic settings is really a "Theme".
- Steve de Mena
The correct analogy is to twitter.com user pages, right?
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, that was our thinking internally, though we also give a bit more control with the checkboxes.
- Kevin Fox
Forcing themes on others is bad. This needs an opt out. Glad I use custom CSS.
- Michael W. May
Michael: It DOES have an opt out. If you don't like it please opt out! Click Settings in upper right, you'll see two prominent check boxes regarding theme display.
- Stephen Mack
Kevin: Thanks! You're right, you did twitter one better by letting people opt out of seeing customized themes entirely.
- Stephen Mack
Michael, just uncheck the "See other people's themes" checkbox under settings and you won't see anyone else's theme.
- Dan Hsiao
Stephen's right. Read Bret's comment further up: "[Y]ou can do that by clicking "Settings" and then un-check the "See other people's themes" checkbox" - Bret Taylor
- Micah Wittman
i really like this.really really :-)
- dwightboozer
If this is any indication of what is to come, congrats :) Absolutely gorgeous!
- mySingapore
Thanks to the FF staff, this has been a long awaited request =) Ya'll rock!
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
What's the next? I guess "FF background creator tools" will come out nowadays. :)
- Oğuz Serdar
To begin with, is "Themes" really a necessary feature? Still, great to see the new features coming. =)
- Winston Teo
Winston: yes. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It lets me put some personality onto my home page and that is, believe it or not, important. Very important for brands, too, if this is going to become a business.
- Robert Scoble
@All for design: Nice theme. Only the blue of the logo sticks out like a sore thumb.
- Peter
Can you guys stop adding awesome new features, please? Otherwise, no-one else will have a chance to catch up and it'll be an even greater disappointment when it goes. ;)
- James Myatt
Hurrah! I just themed my page along the lines of Twitter and my web page [ http://www.achean.com - shameless plug, but I need the hits! ]
- achean
I changed my background, but how do I let others see? when I click Bret's page, I still see my own background...I assume this is similar to twitter's custom theme where every user has a different background when their link is clicked. (I'm on friendfeed.com/bret, but still seeing my own background). -edit-Nvm...I guess I have to log out to see it...
- brainno722 (Peter)
@Kevin, thanks for removing the borders <3. @Peter he probably doesn't have a theme set for his own profile...
- Zulema ◕ ◡ ◕
issue uploading background. hangs on firefox & safari. tile image checkbox is greyed out.
- sɹǝɥʇɐǝɟʞɔɐןq
how can i change the font color of "my name"?
- Bahriye
"The Millennial Project is a comprehensive plan for space development, beginning with the terrestrial cultivation of an environmentally sustainable civilization and Post-Industrial culture and culminating, far in the future, in the colonization of our immediate stellar neighborhood. The TMP2 project is specifically a project of the Living Universe Foundation community to continually update and revise the content of the original plan as described by Marshal T. Savage in his book The Millennial Project."
- Mushin Schilling
from Bookmarklet
Am I the only one baffled as to why they called it "Creepy"?
- Mona Nomura
Cuz clouds ain't 'sposed to do that...LOL. Combine these with those funky trees from earlier and we can make real life super mario bros
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
3.5/5 stars. It was just good and entertaining, but not great.
- Winston Teo
It was too long and much of it was boring. Cut out all scenes the Joker wasn't in and i'd give it a 3.5. With all the other scenes, a 2. Never got a hint of suspension of disbelief. Bad bad bad.
- Dave Winer
✭✭✭✭✩ and I prefer Adam West to Christian Bale. Really.
- LouCypher
Stick to being a fake journalist, Dave.
- Shawn Farner
✭✭ it was long, boring and tedious, fell asleep halfway through. Only highlight was Heath Ledger's performance but the rest was dreary and disappointing.
- Sally Church
✭✭ or maybe 1.5. Sally nailed it. Shabby plot, shabby action, decent Nicolsonian Ledger.
- tom matrullo
Louis, thank you for this one. It made me go check out Disqus and integrating it with my Wordpress blog was almost too simple. Now I just need to write things interesting enough to generate comments! Thanks again. Great stuff.
- Michael Pardee
@ChangeForge, what makes you think it isn't? If Twitter can be micro-blogging, Tumblr well Tumblr and WP a blogging platform why not FF some derivative or advanced version of social conversation.
- Roger Kondrat
Ah! Ok. I thought I was having some crazy deja vu or something :)
- Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah
Ruth: I can't help (still looking at installing disqus myself), but I suggest posting a new thread to avoid taking this thread off topic.
- Justin Korn
That's a mighty personal question, Chris. Do you ever wake up needing to brush your teeth?
- Edward Vielmetti
nah. when I wake up the last thing I want is to connect with people.
- Nicholi
Chris, yes, I am human and need to sleep. If I open a convo at 9/10PM in the evening with folks on .AU / .JP zones and then next AM, I am anxious to see what responses are there on thread. Secondly, there are classic face2face when u meet your online friends, is like "its just like old friends meeting for the 1st time" !! anxiety's surfaces and then quickly disappears. However, there is a flip side to this too..online freinds too
- Peter Dawson
Great to run across you Chris. Yes. I'm typically introverted but soc netting has really encouraged me to spread my wings, meet folks online and more in person. Been to several meetups now - tweeters, bloggers, and social media. Always excited about that now.
- Todd Jordan
Edward - I brush my teeth reasonably quickly after waking up. Shortly after I use the toilet and wash my hands.
- Chris Brogan
I hate to admit it, but get on computer before I grab coffee.
- Michelle Martinez
what michelle said - wait coffees ready be right back ;)
- mike "glemak" dunn
I just woke up, picked up my iPhone, fired up FF to see what's what & saw this...post complete...connected. Good Morning.
- Carlos Ayala
I usually wake up cranky, in a totally disconnected mode, after a few smokes things change a little...
- jk5027a
Anxious isn't the word I'd use, perhaps eager. Every morning it's coffee, a smoke, and a perusal of the morning rush to beat the next guy to publication.
- FFing Enigma (aka Tina)
Give me an hour or so. Then we'll talk.
- Paul Whitaker
Yes, I love morning coffee meetings.
- David Finch
I'm a morning person. don't talk to me past 3 in the afternoon.
- Noah David Simon
Sometimes I rush the getting ready process so I can sit down and see what everyone is up to you :)
- Jennifer Van Grove
from twhirl
No. Unless you mean filled with anxiety over having to meet with people ;)
- Clint Ecker
No, not really. I get anxious on catching up on whatever I've missed, a holdover habit from my youth. Usually, whatever "happened" is not that important but I still want to get "in the know" whether it is political news or just pop culture. Once I get the basic facts about a situation, I can relax and just talk to people, read stories in depth, etc. That's not anxious, that's normally pure pleasure.
- Liz
Always. Laptop is by my bed, jump on to Twitter.
- Francine Hardaway
more than connecting with people.. it it to know wht these people are upto!!!
- Moksh Juneja
from twhirl
I wake up (this includes washing face, etc in bathroom), look at the list of new emails, have coffee, read twitter and THEN say good morning. I tend to need coffee before interacting.
- chelpixie
I sleep with my laptop, to stay close to my connections :P
- Phillip Jeffrey
i so wanted to buy these laptops, the config didnt match with my requirement... just laved the postability
- Moksh Juneja
from twhirl
Moksh, you made the right choice then. Way too many folks take a backwards approach by making a tech purchase and then defining their requirements. It should always be the other way around and it's not the fault of the device (or device manufacturer) if it didn't meet needs that you didn't first evaluate. For my needs, the Eee line is stellar but it's a personal choice. People keep overlooking the "P" in "PC". ;) Good on you for not!
- Kevin C. Tofel
If you send the same message starting with @TwitterUser to more than one user Twitter will Ban you! Time to move to identi.ca How many of you have identi.ca account?
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
what the heck? So how are you supposed to thank more than one person using a single tweet?
- Glenn Batuyong
I think there's more going on here than that specific process resulting in spamming, Igor. I'd say you're probably flagged.
- Greg Lexiphanic
Oh really? I guess that means Twitter is no longer allowing retweets to a particular follower. Funny, I haven't read anything about that on Twitter's blog. You sure they don't mean sending the same message individually to more than one follower using the @ sign can be considered spam?
- Sharon McPherson
I did this a couple of days ago - haven't been banned yet! As Greg says, there's more going on. I'll move to identi.ca if / when my network moves there. However, I'd expect them to have to take anti-spam measures too if they became popular.
- David Sim
Where did you find this out? Have you got a source? Doesn't make sense to me how will this stop spam?
- Gez
but sometimes we do want to send the saem message to more than one preson..... voila, then we have the twitter account banned.. how aweful!!
- Moksh Juneja
from twhirl
The only mention I can find on Twitter's blog about spammers is related to the jerks who follow thousands of peeps in the hope that some will follow them back, so they can blast them with links to their site. http://blog.twitter.com/ Quite honestly Igor, your pattern of 'I've been banned for no good reason' rants have become more than a litle annoying.
- Sharon McPherson
"As noted originally, you have more than once used the @ reply functionality to spam the same content to multiple users." I was told this in an email by Jason Goldman Twitter representative.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
Sharon Bray-McPherson I have not be Banned from Twitter yet! LOL But I know a few people who have!
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
I use Weight Watchers Online and then shoot for three points below what they recommend. My weight tends to swing over the years. I hope to get it to stay here now. I don't exercise so I overcompensate by not eating!
- Steve Rubel
Steve how did you lose 15 pounds??? You were thin to begin with!
- Michael Wiley
I lost it via WW online. I want to lose a chin or two!
- Steve Rubel
I am jealous. Need to do much the same
- Deepak Singh
twenty pounds in two months by cutting the size of meals and having a veggie/fruit shake for lunch. Benefits: cloth fit, cholesterol down to lowest level in three years.
- Joe Buhler
Congrats Steve...I lost several pounds just by eliminating evening snacks--bare minimum after 7:30..
- mark ivey
Congrats Steve. I've lost 13 pounds since early May by refraining from overeating. Wanted to lose weight to help with the Walt Disney World Marathon I'll run in January.
- Mike Reynolds
Congrats! I'm down 6 lbs in 3 weeks--no more alcohol, or chips (Hi My name's Matt, I'm a chip-a-holic. "Hi Matt" <applause>) plus I'm working with a trainer. Ugh!
- MattKelly
Awesome! I lost about 8 pounds of my "New CEO 15"
- Mitchell Tsai
Thinking about putting together a regular, maybe daily, summary of social media and social media marketing news on a podcast. Would anyone here listen or do you get enough information through the likes of FF?
good idea. Just point me the way to the podcast
- Baard @ Pixum
Depends on if people want news or commentary Weekly for commentary, daily for news. I'm actually subscribing to a lot of blogs via email now. Backwards I know but works for me.
- Dave Evans
I'd like to see a podcast that features commentary/analysis about these type of news stories. I already am getting enough information from existing blogs
- Jason Peck
Any more information than from FF, I would need a lobotomy. But maybe useful for newbies.
- Igor The Troll יִצְחָק
it isn't a matter of content, but how you spin it... I could do a show about the lint in my asshole and sell it to a bunch of school teachers.
- Noah David Simon
I appreciated the post, and used the thought in a post on engagement being much tougher to handle with all these new tools http://twurl.nl/expho0
- Daltonsbriefs
I'm almost there, but still nothing showing up. Will it be for "going forward" posts?
- Chris Brogan
Chris, the Blogger versions grabs your last 90 entries. I assume WordPress is very much the same. Just wait a little for it to populate.
- Louis Gray
When I set up something like this in Drupal there was about an hour lag between the comment in FriendFeed and showing up on my site. Prorogation delay for RSS feeds, or something like that.
- Aldon Hynes