i'm surprised they didn't call it "first life"...or would that not have been "googley"? - Brian Ries
Second life appeals to 30-40 year-olds. Look at the pictures you just posted - it's a kiddy world (cute nonetheless) :-) And others are far better integrated than the lame "Facebook integration" Lively offers. But still - it's Google... - Gaby Benkwitz
Does this mean that I yell "This is Spartaaaa!" while coding? j/k When coding I try to make my code more minimal. - Alan Le
Nice thing, in many cases it will help performance by keeping scopes limited and specific. Maintainability may be debatable, in some cases it will be good, but a high-spartan-level program may be rather unreadable at first. Spartan coding assumes code reuse and eschews Not Invented Here (cause why write it again if someone else has... thats less LOC for me!). Good term for a practice we should strive for. - Justin
"Is this madness? THIS IS DOT-NETTTTTTTTTTT!" - Scott Koon
Generally agree, although one character variable names and inlining to eliminate variables can lead to unreadable code pretty quickly. - Jon Galloway
Scoble either uses a Greasemonkey script to 'auto like' or he's omnipresent. You decide. - Eric Schlissel via twhirl
Matt: sleep? Does Google sleep? For those who don't know, Matt Cutts is my favorite Google employee and blogger. - Robert Scoble
Spinn: That almost sounds like Chuck Norris joke. :) - Morton Fox
Now this is the type of stuff I like to read at 1:30 in the morning :) - Devlin Dunsmore via twhirl
Google's documentation claims that Protocol Buffers are 3 to 10 times smaller than comparable XML files and can be parsed 20 to 100 times faster. - Jigar Mehta
They both have similar effects, but comments are worth more than likes. So are the selective likers who also comment wasting their likes? - Hao Chen
I like things I want other people to see and I comment on things when I have something to say. Which is why I commented on and liked this item. - Robert Scoble
Good question. Personally I don't think they're mutually exclusive, but if you like something and comment to the same effect it's a tad redundant. - Jonathon
I use them exactly like Robert. I use a like when it's something worthy of sharing and keeping. I know my friends will see it and I can come back to it later. I comment when I think I have something witty or valuable to say. Though, I don't think that this comment necessarily fits that criteria... - Eiwe Lingefors
sometimes I "like" something and as the conversation develops, I find something valid to "comment." - Aura Mae
I like Robert's guidelines. What about other people? - Hao Chen
it is not guidelines, it is common sense. ;) but for example, I rather comment on this item than I would like it as I want to take part in the conversation. Compare it:do you rather social bookmark a blog entry or comment on it? - Nicole Simon
That's how I tend to use them as well. - Andrew Kraut
I use the "like" like an internal bookmark. Kind of like how Twitter has the star favorite thing. Usually for neet links or free apps. - Outsanity
I assume that at one point they'll diverge the two more, so if I like it then I Like it, if I have a comment, then I Comment. They're not mutually exclusive to me. - xero
xero: they totally are exclusive. You gotta click on the "me" tab and then click on the links over on the left. I can see your comments separately from your likes, or I can see them both mixed together. - Robert Scoble
I follow the Scobleism, on this one. I comment on many more than I "like", but I don't always comment on everything that I like. - Spinn
So many people put SO much thought into this.. who cares! - Mona N
I've been known to like a piece of media, see it rise to the top of my stream several times and then comment as the conversation grows - Julian Baldwin
depends how much you want to say, i guess - Pete Delucchi
I think that Likes are for times that you really don't have anything to add to the conversation, like a comment, but you do find the article interesting and you want to share it with people. Some times you really just don't have a comment to put up that isn't spam like "Interesting...." - Chacha
Robert: The system.... lol Why am I picturing a flowgram right now with you as the center and everyone's branching off of you haha - Mona N
Mona: you were close. Actually Louis Gray is in the center. I'm just a big branch off of him. - Robert Scoble
Robert, I think it's about time I googled you. I know you're like THE MAN on FF but I still don't understand why haha. I'll make sure to Google this Louis person too.... - Mona N
Good luck, Mona. If you don't like what you find, Robert and I will have a word with those Google people. - Louis Gray
i do what robert said...but if it is really important, i comment first, then a couple hours later i will like to bring it back up into the FF consciousness. - Pokai
I do one or the other or both. It just depends. I might like something, but not comment. Or I might comment, but not like it. And then there are the times when I like something and want to comment on it. It all just depends. - Jason Shultz via twhirl
I guess people use the 'like' when they agreee but dont necessarily have much to add to the post - Jassim
Mona no, there is no thought put into it at all. That is just how you start adapting in these systems to find something you work best - and some things happen do be done similar by a lot of people. It was more work to write it down. Like grammar. You learned that once and while it is problematic to explain, you just use it naturally. - Nicole Simon
I don't think you will run out of Likes, so it's not a wasting really. Also, if I comment on something it's not neccessarily true that I like it. I used to comment on politicians but I don't like them :) - Roland Hesz
edythe just ran out of likes the other night. Then she had to add a comment saying, [Like]. Not sure what the limit is, but there is one. Just sayin'. - Lisa L. Seifert
Sometimes your FF comment inside "Show...more comments":) :( - Igor Poltavskiy
Yep! Comment when you want to participate in the conversation. Like if you want to have other folks read it (or bookmark it). - Susan Beebe
I use the "like" to feed them into google reader and share them there as well. - tomit
@Scoble, I think you misread, I was saying I do the same as you. I will both like and comment, because the two are not "mutually exclusive", that is it doesn't have to be one or the other. :) - xero
I think that both leaving a comment and liking a share is redundant. One or the other. - Czar Derek Peterman
Well ... what if I want to let the person (or friends) know why I like sth.? - Michael Klier
Heck, I'd ask for more followers (I would probably be about 500th or lower), but then Scoble would block me ;) - Vince DeGeorge
I am reported as having 662 but FF tells me I have 952. Seems like a higher than normal margin. If I understand it, those folks are either private or lurkers? - Sacca
Nuts that I made this list ... good stuff :) - Nick O'Neill
a nice list of enemies that must be destroyed. :) just kidding "I'm not here to make friends!" - Marshall Kirkpatrick
@Sacca, the author's said that they can only crawl active accounts that have published activity. There are likely _a ton_ of accounts that were created, following you for example, that weren't picked up due to inactivity. Mine was off by 25-30% as well. And if you think about it... even the most popular activities here just graze 100 likes or comments, not 2000, so there are a lot of people who don't participate. - Louis Gray
I'm with Chris, I'm being underreported, private ones? - MG Siegler
I have 63. I thought I would have made the list. - Rob Williams
This should be fun to explore new users. - Mark Krynsky
Darn, just missed. 5 minutes late, that should be my motto. - J. Phil
it's pretty interesting to me, actually, that for being as tiny, tech focused and A-list driven as people say FF is - nobody's got more than 20% of users following them and only 7 people have more than 7% of users following them. That makes me think things are more diverse around here than I thought. No? - Marshall Kirkpatrick
@Marshall The truth is, small blogs have a bigger voice here than any other social service. - Shey
@kriskrug then I must be a Sucka Playboy! Dont get how I could've make this list, but its a nice bday surpise anyway. - Schlomo Rabinowitz
Looking at a graph of the top 50 users, the Default Nine effect isn't all that pronounced. The distribution of users looks pretty much like the sort of thing you get when you do any graph of this sort (i.e. a classic long tail) http://kshep.posterous.com/gra... - Ken Sheppardson
i'm yearning for the day that the top 5 are non-techies...that will be a great day for Friendfeed! - Pokai
I especiallylike Pokai's comment—I'll be happiest when the top users are diverse people, not just "techies." - Cathryn Hrudicka
Pokai....I don't think that is even possible. - Rahsheen Porter
The list reports my followers at 255, FF shows me closer to 355, but still cool to be on the list at 209 even if I feel I'm not as active on FF as many, many others, guess I'm still relatively active... - Shannon Clark
If my stats were reported correctly, I would appear in the top 100 - woo hoo!! - Susan Beebe
If they published a list of the top 75,000, I'd totally make it. ;) - Wes Justice
Alas, I've not hit the top 250... ;-) - Mark Dykeman
this list isn't as useful as a list of top n most interesting people (the people with the most "likes" or top n users with the most comments.) - Alan Le
I like Alan's idea. That would be fun to know. - Yolanda
That could be useful. Why don't they take the next step of letting you choose which session to sign out instead of just signing out all other sessions? - Morton Fox
it also means that people are brands. Before you needed to be M.Jordan. Now everyone. - jonathan
Even if one doesn't want to be like this Mike, your idea of participation premium bringing more people/perspective into your life can be an enriching learning experience for anyone. Just started Friendfeed and it does make that participation easier for this ordinary Jane. It's almost time to share it with all my friends and family but the selling point for them is ease of participation not wanting to be followed by scads of peeps so much. - Boo
boo, whatever grows the ideas (connectivity) is where the light is going to shine the next years - gregory lent
"The Participation Premium" - I like that. I told a co-worker the other day that FriendFeed is like discovering a place where the cool AND smart AND talented people hang out. - Harvey Simmons
Scoble you do talk about FriendFeed a whole lot more than Arrington does which might be a reason why you have more followers. Also is there not a FriendFeed plugin for WordPress yet? I saw Allen Stern has FriendFeed comments showing up right after his blog posts. I would expect you of all people to have this functionality on Scobleizer. We need to get someone to build a plugin for WordPress now! - Ben Kessler
Great post. Arrington tends to use FF as a broadcast medium where you use it as a two-way conversation medium. Engaging in a conversation is more appealing than just reading what someone is doing online. - Kevin Bondelli
I'm trying to say this without sounding like a complete groupie, but here goes: Robert, you (yes, "you") actually communicate with people on FriendFeed. It's not just, "Here's my cool new camera." or "Here I am at Davos." etc. It's actual, honest-to-goodness two-way communication. I think that makes the difference. - Harvey Simmons
I have another take on it. I think it is because you are more of an evangelist for FriendFeed. You influence more people to come into the service because you state its case so well (and frequently). And, FriendFeed has little value when you are the "first" of your circle to get in. So, the natural thing to do is make sure subscribe and closely follow Scoble.I don't mean to discount the participation part, but I think the fact that you introduce FriendFeed to people makes you a natural first choice for one of the first friends added. - John Trainor
This is sooooo true. When people realize it, they'll enjoy and learn from twitter (and Friendfeed) ten times more over time - Charlie Anzman
Robert: Thank you for this post - you nailed it! Let's talk about not only participation but also evangelism of FriendFeed service ;-) Some of the "A-Listers" barely even use FF let alone participate in it. You've gone way beyond that standard by actively engaging your growing audience... impressive! I followed you on Twitter as a mere follower / acquaintance along with the masses, but it wasn't until FF that we became conversant / friends. Thanks! - Susan Beebe
Great post, Robert. As with anything else, you get what you put into it. - David Risley
Love this post & I agree - whichever field you aspire to be seen as an expert in - you need to engage and participate there. This holds true on and offline. I definitely participate more on ff than in the blogosphere. What I do appreciate about the conversations here is that they're just that - conversations. When I participate in the form of blog commenting - it could be a while before I hear various input from the author - if ever. - Sonciary Honnoll
Sonciary Honnoll nailed it in what she wrote.Friend Feed allows people to engage in conversation with like minds. Information flies through FF faster than most other communities I am a part of. Everyone wants things to be faster..almost instant. FF almost allows that with the subscriptions and comment system they have up. You can post a news story or opinion and, in seconds others are talking about it with you. - Candace Holly
We are busy at fragmenting our identities, thoughts, relationships all over the net. FF makes meaning of this fragmentation - Peter Efland
Boo here above said it so well -- in my case this is very much a learning experience. I haven't been on FF for all that long but my online life has been enriched thanks to it. - Rebkin
Link is down now, but I saw it a couple hours ago. Basically it's about increasing one's own 'brand' or 'value' within a community by participating in conversations. Robert knows his audience and knows how to effectively engage with them. edit: link was posted in an earlier comment in FF - Franklin Naval
Yeah, I think that's my new policy. Anytime I link to a profy.com story, it's automatically going to say, "Louis Gray posted some interesting..." - Hutch Carpenter
Cyndy's been getting way too much attention lately what with the DJ stuff and all. How 'bout, 'You should really check out Friendfeed on Saturday night. It's Saturday Night Live - Live Worldwide' - Charlie Anzman
I'm counting down the days until a Chuck Norris-styled Louis Gray website pops up. Here I'll start you off: Louis Gray didn't invent the internet - he invented Al Gore. - Marco
Marco: just registered LouisGrayFacts.com :-P - Mark Trapp
LOVE IT - now we need a Louis Gray Facts room so we can centralize the facts lol. 50 years from now Louis Gray will be talked about by the Gen Y's children's children as a mythical digital being - Marco
Once you create the room, let us know...I got a couple brewing in my head region :) - Bwana McCall
Louis Gray doesn't type. His keys duck out of fear. - Shawn Farner
Chuck Norris would think twice before slamming Louis Gray ;-) - Slippy Lane
Slippy: don't be silly. Chuck Norris doesn't need to think. Ideas beg his brain for a place :) - directeur via NoiseRiver
Hey, you guys! I'm typing in an EPIC THREAD! - Hao Chen
Who is this chuck norris guy I keep hearing about? I am too lazy to google him, so friendfeed should do the job for me :P - Yuvi
Too lazy to Google something? You're in trouble, Yuvi. - Shawn Farner
@Shawn: Notice the (:P). I just figured that Chuck Norris is some kinda celebrity that I needn't need to bother knowing about till it's thrust into my face. :) - Yuvi
Poor, Yuvi :( You were a deprived child! - Hao Chen
@Hao: Guess I was just born into the wrong part of the world :P - Yuvi
Ah but can you manage it without Twitter/FriendFeed posts too? - Lawrence via twhirl
"The Knight Rider GPS (www.knightridergps.com) takes both its sound and style from the 1980s television show about a computerized talking 1982 Pontiac Firebird named KITT. William Daniels, the actor who was the voice of the sleek black car, narrates the unit’s driving directions. The device, which sports a black exterior and flashing red lights, can be personalized to use one of 300 common names in the greetings and random phrases it utters." - edythe via Bookmarklet
Product A does not kill Product B. Product B kills itself by not innovating/keeping up. We'll see if "Product T" can overcome its current issues quickly enough. If they can't, there will be many other products entering the market. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
Saw your Kwippy headline on Duncan Riley's new service, by the way. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo
People wrap bacon around other foods to make them taste better, yet breakfast is the only time it's socially acceptable to eat bacon by itself. - William Beem
it's really for losers, I dislike breakfast - Justin Yost
I'm such a winner that sometimes when my wife and kids are off doing stuff together, I go to Cafe Brazil and get me some pecan pancakes. There are few things more satisfying than pancakes that I didn't have to cook. :) - Harvey Simmons
The quality of the post from the people... BINGO! - Rom Feria
Good vid / reasoning Robert, but one question. You put a high value on the "real time" nature of Twitter (for good reason), but are you really highlighting the real time nature of Twitter via Google Talk? i.e.: is the "client" adding some of that value? If so, could FF in GT be of equal value? - Kevin C. Tofel
Won't TWEET just become a protocol and google create a clearing house or collection place fro tweets? Is Twitter the Right answer? - JMac of Earth
Funny that the IM feature you value is unavailable and down so often... - Jeff Davis, KE9V
my guess is that you already have a lot of followers on twitter and will stay there to the bitter end because it is the path of least resistance. Eventually the features that make twitter so great will be available on other platforms, plurk for example, and while it's easy to stop a spammer on Plurk (as soon as the first person exposes the spammer/bot no one will follow them unlike twitter where scrape bots have the same juice as anyone else. - Darren Daz Cox
